Amy-Jill Levine’s latest book is among her finest. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi explores nine of Jesus’ best known parables. Levine not only effectively places each in its context, but also helps establish parameters for the range of possible meaning today. In keeping with her contention that Jesus’ parables are more provocative than they are often presented today in lectures or sermons, her contemporary re-telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is likely to promote a renewed interest in this parable that greatly exceeds the interest generated by other updated versions advanced in recent years. Her “Parable of the Good Hamas Member” follows:
Samaria today has various names: the West Bank, Occupied Palestine, Greater Israel. To hear the parable today, we only need to update the figures. I am an Israeli Jew on my way from Jerusalem to Jericho, and I am attacked by thieves, beaten, stripped, robbed, and left half dead in a ditch. Two people who should have stopped to help pass me by: the first, a Jewish medic from the Israel Defense Forces; the second, a member of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A But the person who takes compassion on me and shows me mercy is a Palestinian Muslim whose sympathies lie with Hamas, a political party whose charter not only anticipates Israel’s destruction, but also depicts Jews as subhuman demons responsible for all the world’s problems (Location 1915).
So What?
While I encourage you to purchase and read Levine’s book to gain a greater appreciation of how she arrives at this version of the parable, I also recognize that readers with any prior knowledge of the parable of the Good Samaritan will find that understanding enriched simply by reading and reacting to this new parable.
- What was your initial reaction to the parable of the Good Hamas Member?
- How is the parable of the Good Hamas Member helping you see the parable of the Good Samaritan in new or different ways?
- When read together, what is the big idea you take away from both parables?