CONTRASTING MINISTRIES By Walt Henrichsen

A lawyer came to Jesus with an important question: How does one get to Heaven? It is the test of orthodoxy for all religions, and the lawyer wanted to test Jesus. He didn’t want the correct answer; he wanted to see how Jesus would answer. Jesus referred him to the Law, and the lawyer correctly responded with the summary of the Law. When Jesus agreed with him, he asked, ‘who is my neighbor?” That question promoted the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The Levite and Priest are vocational religious workers. They were professional ministers and they didn’t love their neighbor. The Samaritan, a layman not in the ministry, loved his neighbor. He who was in the ministry wasn’t ministering, and he who wasn’t in the ministry was ministering. The vocational religious workers saw ministry in terms of programs, the layman in terms of people. The Levite and Priest said, “My meeting is more important than that man’s needs, and if he wants my help, let him come to where I minister and I will meet him on my terms.”

The Samaritan met the stranger on the stranger’s terms. In all probability: 1) The Samaritan had a schedule he was willing to interrupt for the sake of this need; 2) He probably never saw the stranger before or since; 3) Getting involved was messy resulting in blood all over his clothes; and 4) The stranger was never able to repay the favor.

How do you view ministry? Are you a Levite or a Samaritan? (Lk 10:27)