I am thankful for my grandfather, who was a minister, and who married anyone who asked him. He thought it was a privilege to join people together in marriage, regardless of their faith journey.

The first minister may have got his dates mixed up and went to protest the ridiculously gay moon the balloon deal because Gospel By The Bay was the same weekend or, more than likely, he is simply off mission. His mission should be to see the most people possible come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He is likely a faithful servant who loves Jesus, who has simply been distracted off mission.

The second minister seems to be faithful to the Word of God and obviously knows that these two dudes are living in sin and are engaged in a lifestyle that will destroy them both. Doesnt take a trained minister to figure the reasons for that to happen, just a sketched out diagram. This ministers problem is that he is just not nice. He seems to have skipped those verses that say to love the sinner and decided to treat them as if they were professing Christians. Nobody likes to get yelled at, especially with verses, when they have an unregenerate heart. These things are foolishness to them in their state and give the Church a bad name.

Now the third minister is the one that scares the Christian. She just seems to be easily deceived, much like her first mother Eve in the garden. Im guessing her husband may have been on those steps too, hanging out and just passively watching it all go down. She seems to be very nice to these fellas, which is good. They havent called themselves Christian and so she isnt condemning them. She knows that we are all sinners by nature and choice and that until Jesus changes your heart you will always prefer sin to God. So she is kind and humble, as was Jesus. The problem with this minister is that she doesnt know Truth or hold it as final authority. She loves people more than the God of the Bible. Shes an idolater. The scary thing about her is that she is very nice, and that always makes heretics very effective. They are on Satans VIP list. The only thing scarier, would be if she blogged to boot.

Anyways, thats my stab at it Nathan. You gave me some enjoyment here. One word of constructive criticism though. If you are going to mention Jesus parables and then decide to make one up, you really need to show what Jesus himself would have done. I dont want to judge anyone though; maybe you have a fourth minister out there that will truly represent what Jesus would do.

Take care, mark.

Best line “They are on Satan’s VIP list.” I’m taking that one all the way to the bank.

A few things…

1. I never said the couple was two dudes (or a gay couple at all), you read that into the story.
2. You never did answer the question at the end of the parable?
3. I would say the second ministers problem has more to do with his focus on the law instead of grace.
4. The parable wasn’t to show what Jesus would do, but maybe more highlight a parable that Jesus would tell.

I really tried hard to make the third minister despicable to Christians, because as you may know, the Samaritan was hated by the Jews, so much so that they thought there was a special place in hell reserved for them. I took a little bit off of it there, but there is still this underlying frustration with the third minister’s type, this seemingly wishy washy relativistic Christian that seems to discard the beliefs of the church for likability. While I think it goes a lot deeper than that in the story, i think you have nailed the frustration part.

In the Good Samaritan, the first two people that walked by the beaten up guy, were actually following the law. They didn’t want to become unclean, and they were seriously weighing out the ramifications of helping such a man along with what their law told them to do. The third guy, disregarded the laws that said don’t become unclean, and the nuisance of becoming clean again to be a neighbour to the suffering man. He chose to show mercy to someone else even at the expense of breaking the law and putting himself out. I think this parable is very similar, just a modern day twist on the circumstances.

Thanks for the comment though, be curious to see what you thought now about it.

I do believe it was you proclaiming a VIP list for “certain” people.

Seriously though, that was a awesome line, I cant wait to use it in my vocab.

1. (I never said the couple was two dudes (or a gay couple at all), you read that into the story.)
This is true. You did choose your first minister as protesting gay marriage at city hall. Had you said he slipped home to kiss his wife and tell her he loves her, I likely would have thought differently. I assumed your second minister was quoting Leviticus 18:22 (You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.) when he was speaking to the couple in love. And, finally, I noticed that the last six of nine blogs by you, have been on homosexuality. So, I dont want to seem assuming, but .

2. (You never did answer the question at the end of the parable?)
Which of these three churches do you think was a neighbor to the couple?
I would say none of them.
The first church would have been the closest to being a neighbor to the couple. We dont know how that minister would have handled their meeting since they missed each other and the couple didnt give the church a second chance.
The second church had a minister, like all, that isnt perfect and really blew it on that occasion. He wasnt a good neighbor and made his church look bad. And finally, as for the third church, they just seem like a bunch of sheep, wandering where the grass is green. No sheppard to warn them of the cliff ahead. So that church may seem like a good neighbor initially but not ultimately. They are the worst.

3. (I would say the second ministers problem has more to do with his focus on the law instead of grace.)
Yeah, I would agree. I would say this minister has forgotten, at least for the moment, that it was only by grace that he himself began to see himself condemned in relation to the law. Hopefully he has in place, a godly ban of elders in his church that he submits to, who will be quick to lovingly remind him of that.

4. (The parable wasn’t to show what Jesus would do, but maybe more highlight a parable that Jesus would tell.)
Im not sure that makes sense Nathan.

I think we may see the law differently from one another. The impression Im getting from you is its ok to break Gods laws in order to be nice to people.
John14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Nathan, I think it is all an issue of the heart.
As a Daddy of, soon to be, four kids, I dont give them rules to make them stiff-necked and to stop them from being kind to other people in need, as we see in the Good Samaritan. I dont want little Pharisees running around.
I love them in such a way that, for their joy and mine, they GET to obey me as an important way to love me back. And that love Ive shown them spills over into the people around them, like the Good Samaritan. So bottom line, if your heart has been changed and you love Jesus, you will obey Him and naturally want to love other people. Its a big mistake to not do the first, like some denominations have done, for the sake of the latter. Am I still way off base from where youre going here?

Part of having the minister not there was playing off on the fact that there are three churches on one block (I can see four from my front porch), and when people are actually in need, they weren’t there. Also, it was poking a little fun at where they were at, a protest for gay marriages.

Maybe I need to explain the Samaritan parable a bit more. The priest and the levite would have put themselves at odds with the law by helping the Samaritan (because of the ceremonial laws in the Torah). Just like the first two ministers would have broke the ‘law’ by helping the “couple.” The third person in both circumstances chose to, for whatever reason, put grace and mercy before the law and put themselves at risk at the sake of becoming unclean.

I think the third minister was the neighbour, she offered love and acceptance and chose to bless love where she saw it. The second one was to concerned with his ideas of a holy life that he forgot to love the people right in front of him, and the first minister believed that he was going to create change in people by yelling at them, or standing up for what he believed to be right. Both sides to me are nothing like Jesus. So I would go with the third one, she was the neighbour, she offered mercy and love.