Continued:

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luke 10: 30-31

Apparently quite a few priests were living in Jericho, and they made this trek in order to fulfill their assignments at the temple in Jerusalem. Now, as we all know, this poor priest is perfectly justified. One can clearly see his reasons.

First, since many priests were well off, he was probably riding a horse. The poor walked. For the priest to break though well establish social norms would be just that—unheard of. Besides, there’s also the practical matter of needing to get down from the horse mid journey.

Finally, any sort of interaction with a gentile was to be avoided at all costs, especially if the man was already dead. Even touching the man (or getting near a dead person) would cost the priest his ability to serve in the house of God. Not only that, but the cleansing process would take up all sorts of precious time. Time that could be spent doing good.

Maybe someone else will help out. Sure. Someone else will come along and help him.

And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:32

Levites assisted priests in the temple, so the horrible inconveniences of helping this poor man are the same for the Levite.

I mean, if the priest didn’t maybe he shouldn’t either.

Even worse, what if someone comes along and thinks he did it?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Ethics, Politics, Doctrine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.