Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Mathew 18; Luke 10 Part 2 • Dr. Krystal Pierce • Apr. 17 - Apr. 23

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Dr. Krystal Pierce reflects upon the parable of the Good Samaritan and its many meanings and applications.00:00 Part II– Dr. Krystal Pierce00:08 Luke 10 and Church leadership/Seventy04:59 President Nelson and the Gathering of Israel07:05 Symbolism of Jesus as a lamb08:05 Jesus gives instructions for going forth to teach13:40 Cities that reject the message and messengers17:35 God’s authority and trust21:53 Engraven in the census of the Kingdom of Heaven23:22 These Seventy are considered babes in the world25:42 Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s “Terror, Triumph, and the Wedding Feast”28:15 Jesus answers “Who is our neighbor” and the Parable of the Good Samaritan36:52 Samaritans42:01 Two questions that Jesus answers45:41 The Aaronic Priesthood Theme46:14 President Monson’s “Your Jericho Road”49:32 Jack Welch’s interpretation of the parable (like Martin Luther, etc)53:32 Mary and Martha (and Lazarus)59:18 The power of listening01:00:17 President Oaks’s  “Good, Better, Best”1:02:12 Lonnie Severenson’s poem about Mary and Martha1:03:15 Sister Carol F. McConkie discusses holiness1:07:28 End of Part II–Dr. Krystal PierceShow Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Part 2, Dr. Crystal Pierce, Matthew 18 and Luke 10. Crystal, let's move to the second chapter in this week's lesson, which is also a packed chapter, Luke chapter 10. Where do you want to go? So it's sort of a perfect segue from Matthew 18. Again, Jesus is trying to set up the kingdom in the church and how it's going to be run and make sure that the leadership is adequate because he's not going to be around much longer. And he's already dispatched the 12 in Luke 9 and given them instructions in what they're supposed to do. And now we find out in Luke 10 that he calls 70 more leaders of the church. And of course, this number 70, we talked about this in the first part.

And it's great because using the 12 and the 70 is a reflection of what was done in the Old Testament under the law of Moses and Moses. So the 12 sort of represent the 12 tribes of Israel, Moses called 12 princes. So now calling these 12 apostles, they're the ones who cover the house of Israel. They're going to go out and teach the 12 tribes. But this number 70 is really interesting because Moses also called 70 elders to help govern a house of Israel in the community. But in Genesis, we see that the number 70 represents the Gentile nations of the earth.

So the 70 are meant to go out to the rest of the earth, the Gentiles. We have the Apostles covering the house of Israel, and now we have the 70 going out and covering everyone else. So the gospel is meant for everybody, not just the house of Israel, everyone. And so this is a reflection of in the future when it would go forth to the Gentiles. This is already sort of hinting. This is a shadow of that happening. That makes sense because Luke wants to emphasize the Savior as not just the Savior of the Jews, but the Savior of the entire world. Exactly. Exactly. And this is the way it's covered.

I never knew that. So the number 70 represents the Gentile nations of the earth. That's Yeah, and that's in Genesis 10. I love it. He's like, we're covering everyone. This is great because this has been restored today. We have the 12 apostles still representing Jesus's 12 apostles still representing Moses's 12 princes and we have a 70 today. And if you read about the mission of the 70 and what they're meant to do, this is in Doctrine and Covenants 107, 25, they're called to preach the gospel and be a special witnesses to the Gentiles and the world. Once again, we have this idea of the 70. And of course, this is a symbolic number. We have a lot more than 70. It refers to completeness again, wholeness, recovering the whole world, everybody should be able to be gathered.

Perfect. I have a quote from Joseph Smith here. Joseph Smith said, if the first 70 are all employed and there's a call for more laborers, it will be the duty of the seven presidents of the first 70 to call and ordain other 70 and send them forth to labor in the vineyard until if needs be they set apart 70 times 70. And even until there are 144,000 thus set apart for the ministry. The 12 and the 70 have particularly to depend upon their ministry for their support and that of their families and they have the right by virtue of their offices to call upon the churches to assist them. This was from the very beginning.

And it's great because in verse 2 he says, he likens it to a harvest and laborers and the harvest. And they would have known exactly what that meant when there's a farmer and he has a lot of fields and everything's ripe all at the same time or things are becoming ripe. He needs help. If he doesn't harvest, the fields can go bad or freeze or be eaten by animals or something like that. He needs help. And this is what he's saying. And you don't have to be an apostle or part of the 70 to be part of the harvest, to be one of these laborers. He sort of extends this. We need as many as we can get and it's urgent. We need to do it now. I'm looking at Genesis 10. It lists a bunch of nations. If I count them up,

do I get 70? Is that? Yeah. Oh, it doesn't specifically have the word 70 in it that I can see, but that is so cool. I love stuff like that. Out of the manual, it says, Jesus Christ appointed other 70. In addition to His 12 apostles to witness of him, preach his gospel and assist him in his work. This pattern continues in the restored church. 70s are called to assist the 12 in their mission as special witnesses of Jesus Christ to all the world. And we have a lot of work to do because the field and the harvest is not just here and now, but on the other side of the Vale as well. So for the restoration, the field is even bigger. The harvest is even bigger. And President Nelson talks about the gathering of Israel. This is what it's about.

And gathering on both sides, the fields on this side and the fields on the other side too. So we have a lot of work. Isn't it amazing that we have 300 temples either announced operating or planned and it's tough to get an appointment. It is hard. So my daughter Victoria, who's 11 and that means she's went into young women's this year and she got her limited use recommend and we wanted to take her, George and I first, very much as family and make it special and talk about things and we couldn't get an appointment for months. We finally just were able to go last week with her for the first time and it was just,

it was incredible. It was an amazing experience and we talked to her about the gathering of Israel quite a bit. How this is what she was doing and she had family names. She researched them. She knew their stories. It was so good. It was amazing. To have them actually do names that are part of their family, that just makes the experience in the temple so good for the youth. I love that.

And she went to all the temple workers and said the youth. I love that. And she went to all the temple workers and said, this is my ancestor, Jeanette. She was born in Scotland in 1800 something because she loves family history. She loves it. So good. Okay, so the next few verses here are about what the 70 or even we can say disciples who are going out and sharing the word kind of what they should expect or how they should act. And in verse 3 he says, go your ways. I like he just says go and do it now. And then, but he says, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. And this sounds pretty scary.

This may not be the first thing you want to tell people to go out that you're going to be like a defenseless lamb among wolves. And of course there, I think there is supposed to be some symbolism here with Jesus Christ as a lamb and being sacrificed among the wolves and things like that. But in the Old Testament many times Israel, the symbol is sheep and the Gentiles are the wolves. There is some aspect of danger, but I think here he's saying, you are going out among the Gentiles, and the lambs and the wolves are going to be together, which was Isaiah's prophecy during the time of the Messiah.

He says the lambs and the wolves will live together in peace. A lot of times we take this to refer to the millennium when the Messiah comes back and there will be peace. But here he's saying, we're gonna have peace now. We're gonna have it so that the lambs and the wolves believe together and are gathered together and can be together without problems, without danger, things like that.

Wow, that's a really cool insight. Then he goes on and verse four is really interesting because he says, carry, you know, don't take a purse, a script, a shoes, and salute no man by the way, and sort of just kind of taken out of context, this kind of sounds strange. But so we can go through just a few of these words quickly and talk about what they actually mean. The word for person Greek is just something used to carry money, which is a purse today. It represents money. He's telling them, do not carry money with you. A script is something is a bag or something used to carry food, especially when people were traveling. So this represents food. Don't carry food. Then

he goes on to say, shoes. Now Now the word here actually means a sole bound under the foot, so probably more like sandals, but these sandals and shoes and covering your feet represented material wealth or material things. So he's basically telling them, you need to go out, don't worry about money, don't worry about food, don't worry about material things, you will be taken care of. Don't get distracted by these sort of temporal things because you're on a mission and God will make sure that you have everything you need to complete your mission. Okay, I remember in Matthew 10, he said, for the laborer is worthy of his meat, meaning you can expect that I and the church will take care of you.

Yeah, and he does say that later. This concept of not saluting, it kind of makes it sound like don't say hi to anybody. Just keep going, but this word for salute, it's from the root to enfold in the arms to hug. And basically it's talking about this long drawn out procedure of when you actually greeted someone. It included embracing and sometimes kissing and spending time with them and visiting and asking sincere questions about their family and their health. And he's saying, don't take time to do that. Do what you need to do.

But be careful. And what's interesting about this too is if we go back to Elisha, which is what I was on last year. Elisha says the same thing to his servant. Once he finds out that the widow's child has died, he says, don't salute anyone go straight there. So this not saluting, it's symbolic of this is a life or death situation. You've got to hurry. You've got to go. You don't want to be delayed. Yes. In formalities, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Exactly. So I also give some instructions about that they would be staying in houses, not in ins or hotels, where they would have to pay to stay. And they say, if people accept you in, then you go in, you tell them peace, you give them the message of peace, and you stay there. Verse 7, eating and drinking, what they give you, and that's where we get this, the laborer is worthy of his hire. If you're a field worker and a harvester, and you should get paid for your work, in the same way they're saying, don't regard this as just charity, you're getting paid for the work that you're doing. When people take care of you,

it's because they respect the message and what you're trying to do. And so look at it that way. Don't go from house to house begging, except that. It's also not just about sharing the message, but what I like to say, showing the message when we get to verse nine, they are also supposed to be healing the sick and telling them that the kingdom of God is there. And the king is coming soon, because a lot of what these 70 are told to do is tell them they were sent before Jesus was going to be there.

The kingdom is here, the king is coming soon, be ready, because he's gonna come and share the message, which is the same message we have today when we are missionaries. We tell him, the kingdom's here now, the king is gonna come back soon. So let's get ready. Let's gather the harvest and Get the kingdom ready for the king to return

We want the king to come back. There has to be a kingdom to come too. Yeah All right, he says that sometimes cities will it says receive you not this is in verse 10 and I love the the sort of advice he gives. He says, you share your message, then you go out into the streets and say, even the very dust of your city with cleavoth on us, we do wipe off against you. Notwithstanding, the Kingdom of God has come nigh unto you. So it's sort of this idea, as long as you adequately shared the message, even if they reject you, you still shared the message. The Kingdom of God is still at hand.

It's still near. I like this idea of brushing the dust off. It's sort of like we might say, brush your shoulders off and move on. You did your work, you did your job, and now it's time to move on. I like that. And maybe the fact that they have dust on their feet still is because no one let them into their home and wash their feet. So it's like not a single person treated as kindly. So the dust on our feet is kind of a witness of that. Exactly. This actually happens with Paul and Barnabas later in Acts and Antioch.

The people did not listen to them and it talks about them shaking the dust off and moving on. So it was sort of symbolic of you, you did your work, you shared the message, you shake the dust off, that's the witness, and then you move on. You tried. And then in verse 12, he brings up the city of Sodom. And he says, these cities that reject you, they're

worse than Sodom and Sodom, of course, in the Old Testament and the New Testament is representative of complete wickedness, full wickedness. And that's why Abraham, when he's talking to God in Genesis about Sodom, and he says, well, what if there's 10 righteous people or one and God's like there aren't any. If you can find one, I'll save it. So to be compared to that, it's that would be a lot, right, to say it's worse than Sodom. And then he gives an example. He says, for example, these are some of the cities that have rejected me and my message. And these are in verses 13 and 15. He mentions Khorazine, Baysayeda, he mentions Kaparnum, and he says all of these cities. And when we talk about these cities, these are all around the Sea of Galilee. In Corazine, we don't know what sort of presence he had there.

We don't have that recorded, but we do know Corazine was considered a good, pure, righteous, Jewish community. They had a synagogue, and so we know this through archaeology, Amicva, which is a ritual bath, a seat of Moses, where people read the Torah, they should be the symbol of the city that's going to be saved, the city that's going to be exalted, same with Bates Iida. This is home of Peter and Andrew and Philip. So many miracles feeding the 5,000. This should be a city that's saved. And then Capernum. Capurna was his adopted home, where he did everything, the home of Matthew, he taught in the synagogues,

so many healings. And now he's saying, Tyre and Sidon have done a better job than you. And Tyre and Sidon, of course, are these cities on Phoenician coast, what would be modern day, Lebanon. And they represented pagan cities non-covenant cities, non-house of Israel cities and now he's saying if they had seen the things that you saw

they would have repented and We actually have examples of this in both the Old Testament and New Testament where people from Tyre and Sidon did receive a message and accepted the message. We know Jesus taught there. We know they came to the sermon on the plane. And so he's making this statement that if you have seen amazing things,

healings, the message, you have responsibility. More responsibility than those who didn't receive the message or see these healings. I guess that's the idea that those in Sodom didn't see what you saw. You saw this and rejected it. So there's a higher level of accountability. Is that what we're saying here? Yeah. And he's saying tire and sighted and Sodom, they received some of the message, but they didn't have the Messiah walking through their cities, you know, in the Old Testament. And he says, I'm here now. The king is here. The Messiah is here. I've showed you that's who I am, and you've rejected me. So they didn't even have that opportunity. So it's worse now. And I think,

I mean, honestly, to sort of try to apply this to today, I think sometimes we think we're safe because we live in Capurna, or we live in Utah, or we're born in the covenant, or we were sort of born into a testimony or something like that. And he's saying, no, you have to work for those things. If you have seen these things, you have had these blessings and opportunities, then you need to take advantage of them and realize what you have. Perfect. All right, let's keep going.

Okay. So, we do find out the 70 come back in verse 17 and it says they returned with joy. And so they were successful. And this word for joy, it's the cognate with joy. And so they were successful. And this word for joy, it's the cognate with grace. And so there's sort of this play on words with like they returned with grace, they returned with joy and this connection between the two. They talk about that the devils are subject unto them through his name. And of course, this is a reference to casting out evil spirits, which they believed

caused some mental and physical illnesses. So this was a part of healing. They believed this casting out. And they said they do it in his name. And we do a lot of things in his name. And the word name in Greek isn't just what you called someone. It was their manifestation, their presence, their spirit, their soul. So when we do things in his name, it's in his manifestation. It's his power, his authority. He says to them, you should be happy about this, but be more happy about that. God trusts you to have this sort of authority and power. That comes up a little bit later. I remember President Dallin H. Oakes talking about this once, and I loved it.

He said that when we take upon us his name, like we do in the sacrament, we're taking upon us his work. We're going to do the work of salvation that he does, which I thought was it. More than just saying, I'm a Christian, I love Jesus. You're going to do his work now, I like that. Yeah, follow in his footsteps. And this is what he's trying to set up. He says, I'm not going to be here much longer. So you need to be able to do my work. We got to continue the work. And it's interesting because it became well known that the apostles and disciples

could heal using his name and to the point that when we get in acts we get these sort of outside healers trying to use his name to heal people and cast out spirits because people knew how powerful it was but of course it's about having the right authority, not just about saying a name, but what's behind the name? So this is part of what he's telling them. So they've been successful, they return with joy, and he says to them in verse 18, I be held Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He's saying, Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He's saying, your success, your joy, your work is almost as if Satan has fallen again and

again and again and again. He's likening it to that. And of course, we know Satan did have a position of authority in the pre-mortal Council of heaven, but because of his rebellion, he fell. He likened it to falling like lightning, and the word here is just light, so falling from a position of light and sort of goodness. And he lost his authority and position on this Council. And every time we share the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's as if he falls again. The work of the Seventy was, they say, that devils are subject unto us and he's saying,

I saw it, you were doing great work. It's as if Satan was falling again from heaven. That's great, Crystal. I would agree. Way to understand that. And he continues this in verse 19 and says, you not only have the power to handle evil spirits and things like this, but also serpents and scorpions, which of course is symbolic of the

followers of the adversary. And the word for scorpion here is literally scorpios. This is where we get the word, but they were symbolic of obstacles in your path that were hard to get around. So he's saying you'll have power, take on those obstacles. And of course, the serpent is many times representative of the adversary, like in the Garden of Eden, of course. And he says, you have the power. And the word for power here is actually authority. He says, you have the authority, Satan and the serpents and the Scorpions don't have power or authority,

like you do. And then he says, and you don't even have to rejoice over this. Yeah. And this is good and all, but you should be more happy that your names are written in heaven, that the works they're doing are written in heaven. So they're happy about having power over evil spirits. And he's saying, no, be more happy that this work is being recorded. This is sometimes referred to as the book of life, and basically it's a census of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just like we take a census now, who lives in our city? If your name's written in the book, you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

That's the census and kind of how it's looked at. So he says, focus on that. And the word written here is actually in grapho, which means engraving, permanently engraving and stone for all eternity. These things are written down. And it seems that Jesus is really happy about the work they're doing because he says in verse 21, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and thanked his father. And this is the only place in the gospels where it mentions he rejoices, where it specifically mentions that.

So this is huge. And it says in spirit, which in English, we think, oh, so not really in person sort of in spirit, but the words here, it actually says, holy spirit. This is the holy ghost. He rejoices in with the holy ghost and the Father's mentioned. So we have the entire Godhead in this verse 21. That's who is happy when we're doing the work. Wow. And once again, he mentions, you know, these 70, these disciples, they're not the wise and the prudent, they're not the educated, the wealthy, the high status, they're considered babes to the world, yet they have the greatest message to share. And it's very similar to our missionaries

today, right? These are young, not super experienced missionaries, but they are doing the Lord's work on the earth. And I'm sure Jesus still rejoices in the missionary force today. Yeah, I love that verse because it talks about almost the entire Godhead is so happy with what's happening with the work that we're doing. And whether you think you're doing a ton of work or a small amount of work, they are happy and they're rejoicing. And the word for rejoice, I was going to mention too, it actually is related to the word to leap. So it's like jumping for joy. That's huge. Because we always think, what makes God happy? What makes him happy? This is what makes him happy when we're sharing the message.

It reminds me to of the Luke 15 chapter of there's more joy in heaven, the last sheep, the last coin that we can cause joy in heaven by our actions here, which is fun to think about. So he also tells his disciples that their eyes are blessed because of what they've seen and that there are many prophets and kings who wanted to see what they saw. And of course, this is a reference to prophets and kings of the Old Testament who prophesied about the Messiah and longed to see the Messiah. You think of Isaiah or King David. When it says they desired, it actually means they were ready. They were prepared. So he's saying, you have the Messiah right now in front of you. You get a listen to him, you get to see him,

you're getting the source here. This word blessed, it's like the Beatis, it's happy. This is a good time to live. And today is a good time to live too. Are we thankful for what we get to experience through the restoration? That we have temples and a living profit and so many testaments,

and how many people before us wished they had those things. How you think even of our ancestors or the pioneers? And do we appreciate what we have right now? This is kind of his point of view. Do they appreciate that the Messiah is there? This is a thought from Elder Jeffrey Arhaland back in a talk called Terror, Triumph, and the Wedding Feast, 2004. I have a theory about those earlier dispensations and the leaders, families, and people who

live then. I have thought often about them in their destructive circumstances. They confronted the terrible difficult times, and many of them did not succeed in their dispensations. Apostasy and darkness eventually came to every earlier age in human history. The whole point of the restoration of the gospel in these lighter days is that it had not been able to survive in earlier times. Think of the prophets of the Book of Mormon living in a dispensation ending with painful communication between Mormon and Moroni.

He says, my theory is that those great men and women, the leaders of those ages past, were able to keep going, to keep testifying, to keep trying to do their best, not because they knew that they would succeed, but because they knew that you would. I believe they took courage and hope not so much from their own circumstances as from yours. Young adults like you around the world and a determined effort to see the gospel prevail and triumph. One way or another, I think virtually all of the prophets and early apostles had their visionary moments of our time, a view that gave them courage in their less successful eras. Moses, Nephi, the brother of Jared saw the latter days in tremendous detailed vision.

Some of what they saw wasn't pleasing, but surely all those earlier generations took heart from knowing there would finally be one dispensation that would not fail. Hours, not theirs, was the day that gave them heavenly and joyful anticipations and caused them to sing in prophesied victory. ours is the day collectively speaking toward which the prophets have been looking from the beginning of time. And those earlier brethren and sisters are over there still cheering us on. In a very real way, their chance to consider themselves fully successful depends on our faithfulness and our victory. I love the idea of going into the battle of the last days representing Alma and Abinadi,

Peter and Paul and the sacrifices they made. If you can't get excited about that kind of assignment in the drama of history, you can't get excited. Awesome. Yeah, great thought. That's amazing. So Jesus said people were looking forward to the time of the Messiah, you get to be here.

You're part of it, it's the 70. Yeah, and I think of how much work was done at the beginning of the restoration and what they wanted to see. I mean, we have temples everywhere and you, so many people go that it's hard to get an appointment. That's great news.

We're appreciating what we have. All right, so here comes maybe the most famous of all of Jesus' parables. And I love how a lot of these start with the question. He's answering a question here. It says, a lawyer stands up and it says, tempted him, saying, master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Of course, a lawyer, this could be somebody who works in the courts, but more often it referred to somebody who knew the law, the law of Moses and the rabbinical interpretation of the law. When it says, tempted, the word is more like tested. He's going to test him with, do you of the law. When it says tempted, the word is more like tested. So he's going to test him with, do you know the law? Do you know what's in the law? And this was a common question that was debated. How do you inherit eternal life?

So Jesus answers and he says, well, what's written in the law? How do you read it? You're the expert. Answer is a question with a question. Yeah. He gives an expert answer. So he references the law of Moses, Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And he says, well, you love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength and mind and thy neighbor as they self. That's a good answer.

Jesus says, that's a good answer. So go out and do it. And then you'll live. I knew you knew it. Yeah. There's really interesting things here because this word love here, of course in Greek, there are like 10 different words for love. Brotherly love, family love, romantic love. This love, though, this is a gaupe here. This is divine godly love. love romantic love this love though. This is a gope here This is divine godly love. This is the love that's sacrificial love That's the love that's charity the covenant love. It's interesting. He's saying we have to love God in the same way He loves us. That's where eternal life is

but there's also something interesting going on here because when he asks, how do we inherit eternal life? For us now today, we have eternal life. We know our souls and our spirits are eternal because of Heavenly Father. We know that our bodies and our spirits come back together because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what does that mean? To have eternal life because we have it. So this is actually more of a commentary on the quality of eternal life.

How do you live meaning live happy? Live forever in a state of happiness and feeling blessed and he he says, this is how you do it. You love God and you love others and you love yourself with a divine love. This is what will make you happy for eternity. This is eternal life. I love that.

What shall I do in an eternal life? And he's like, do you read? Yes, I read. Here's the answer to my question. Jesus is like, good job. That's exactly right. If you do that you'll have the happiness you're seeking and then it's like next question. Yeah What does it mean here, Crystal? But he willing to justify himself said to Jesus. Who is my neighbor? Seeking to justify himself. Is he thinking he's acted badly?

So justify the word here means more like show how righteous he is, how smart he is. If you have to ask the question, maybe you don't know the answer. So now he's going to justify himself. And it's like, what I really meant was, so of course I know this law about love. What I really meant is I understand love and God, but if I have to love my neighbor, I need to know exactly who that is. I need to know who my neighbor is so I can focus love on who that is. So this is sort of how he's trying to justify that he had actually asked the question when he knew the answer. So there's a little bit more.

At this point, this is where Jesus introduces the parable of the Good Samaritan, and he answers his question with this story. And he starts out with saying, certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among the thieves, which took his clothing, wounded him, leaving him half dead. And it literally says half dead is as dead halfway in the text. So they hurt him badly, even to the point where I think some of those who saw him weren't sure if he actually was alive or not. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho,

which people still walk on pilgrimage today. Jericho is about 20 miles east of Jerusalem. You can walk it in about seven hours. There's a huge elevation change. That's why it says you go down. It's like thousands of feet of difference. It's the highest city in the Holy Land to the lowest city in the Holy Land. Yeah, it really represented this going down and it was dangerous.

Nobody would walk that alone or try to go with any sort of wealth. Even clothing was wealth then. Anything you had with you walking this would have been dangerous. And he does get attacked and wounded and they take his things. I always try and put myself in the perspective of hearing the parable. The disciples listening, the people listening and they're thinking, okay, this makes sense to me. He was there alone and he got attacked and things were taken. And then they hear the good guys come.

Here come the good guys. A priest comes walking by and of course this is a religious leader and he took care of the temple and some of the ordinances and objects, things like that in the temple. He comes by and he sees him, he passes on the other side. And you can imagine the people going, no, no, that's not good. Yeah, no, no. You know, no, this is a good guy. And then a Levite comes by. And you know, sometimes maybe we're thinking

priests had to deal with impurity and corpses or blood, things like that were considered impure. And so maybe they're excusing this by saying, oh, well, the priest, maybe he had to work in the temple later, although he's going to Jericho, not to Jerusalem. They're thinking, okay, so the priest may be because of impurity, but the Levite weren't under the same sort of restrictions as the priest.

Kind of put it this way, all priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests, if this makes sense. So the Levite will help. He doesn't have to worry about impurity. He came and looked at him and he passed by on the other side. So at this point, they're thinking, the good guys, the ones who are supposed to show compassion and mercy and represent God and the covenant and the law, didn't help this man. And they probably think, ah, this is a commentary on religious leadership. The next person will be a normal Jewish person who comes and helps. This might be what they're expecting.

But I kind of just take a minute and think, I don't think he means for us to pass judgment specifically on the Levi or the priest. I think we're supposed to put ourselves in their shoes. When we see someone who needs help, do we pass by on the other side? Do we have excuses like, it's too dangerous for me to pull over? I'm really busy. Someone else will come along and help them. I don't for me to pull over. I'm really busy.

Someone else will come along and help them. I don't know how to help them. I don't have the means to help them. All of the excuses we can come up for this Levi and Priest, we've probably said ourselves. Some justification for not helping somebody. Wow, I imagine they looked and thought, well, what if the thieves are still around?

Right? I got to get out of here. Yeah. I think a lot of times too, we think he brought it on himself. He was walking alone on this dangerous road with some good, some wealth. Always, I always think of King Benjamin, who says, sometimes that's our reason for not helping someone. They brought this sin on themselves. They did it to themselves. And he says, Nope, we're all beggars. We all need help. We're all trying to seek forgiveness and redemption. I think that's part of the point of the priest and the Levite here. There is a JST edition that says they did not want it known that they had seen him. Oh, really? They're like looking at the other way. Oh, look at that date tree over there,

isn't that nice as they're walking by. Yeah. How often do we do that? Just look the other way. Yeah, and I think they see themselves in the story. And so they think, oh, okay, so this is a commentary on leadership, religious leadership, falling short, having shortcomings, okay.

Here's going to come the ordinary Jew who's going to save the day, but he shocks them. He shocks them to do. He says, a certain Samaritan, and I can imagine the shock that they would feel at that. And it's almost like, oh no, bad guys come. Now what's going to happen? He's the worst. Samaritans are the worst now. So we know Jews and Samaritans did not get along and this goes all the way back to the old testament where this started. Of course, Samaria is this land between Judea and the South and

Galilee and the North. And they sort of believe that the Samaritans were descendants of two groups of people that intermixed. One group, the Israelites or Jews who stayed behind during the exile of Syrian and Babylon, and the other group are the Syrian or Babylonian soldiers or citizens who were moved into that area during the exile. And these people intermarried, and the Samaritans were seen as Jews who broke the covenant, who married outside of the covenant, who were of a mixed religion and faith. And they were very much looked down upon

to the point where when the people came back from exile and they said, we're going to rebuild this temple. So we can worship Jehovah. The Samaritan said, we want to help you. We worship Jehovah too. And they were told, no, you cannot help. And then that caused animosity between these two groups and this continues. That's why you know when Jesus is speaking with the Samaritan woman, when she's like, the Jews have

no dealings with the Samaritans. Why are you even talking to me? That's how bad this animosity is between the two. So this was a bad guy who showed up. And they're thinking, Oh, no, this is going to, it's going to be worse. It's even going to get worse. And then when it says, I mean, he says he saw him and he had compassion on him. And this, again, this word compassion is like his insights were churning sort of compassion. His whole body was moved to help him. He not only goes to him when they passed on the other side. They didn't even go check to see if he was alive or not. He treats him as if he's a doctor.

He bounds up his wounds. He pours in oil. This is olive oil that would have, you know, soothed the wound. He uses wine, which would have been like an antiseptic, you know, disinfecting the wound. He picks him up, carries him, puts him on his beast, and takes him to an inn, and takes care of him. Yeah, it stays with him. He stays with him overnight.

Above and beyond this guy. Yeah. And then he pays the inkeeper. He pays him for care. And we think this care would have lasted this two pants probably two or three weeks. And then he says, just take care of him basically for infinity. And I will come back and pay you back whatever the amount is. I mean. Here's my credit card, spend what you need. Yeah, exactly. Here's the number. It's infinite. And I think at this point, listening to this, some of them would have understood that

the Samaritan was Jesus. Jesus is the Samaritan. He's sort of despised, not accepted by the Jewish people. He does unexpected things. He is going to save everyone, no matter the cost, no matter if it's past, present, or future cost. He covers it all. And some of them would have understood this, I think, that there was this analogy. In John chapter 8, Jewish leaders call them a Samaritan. You're a Samaritan.

You have a devil. That's right. It's an unexpected way of thinking about things. And next he goes back to the man, to the lawyer, and he says, well, now I have a question for you. He says, which of these three do you think was the neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? which of these three do you think was the neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And what's great is he doesn't ask the same question. He doesn't say,

okay now who's your neighbor? What did you learn from this? He says, now who are you a neighbor to? That's the important question. Who do you treat like their your neighbor? He sort of rephrases the question, this is what's actually important and what's the answer? He says, the one that showed mercy. The answer is everyone's our neighbor. It's almost, it sounds like to me, like he doesn't want to say the Samaritan.

So he does the guy who showed mercy. He doesn't even want to say the word. Yeah, the Samaritan's the good guy. Yeah. And Jesus says go and do it. I love it when he's like, now you know, go and do it. Everyone's your neighbor, even if they're different from you and outsider, you think they're your enemy. Traditionally, in the Old Testament, neighbor was of the house of Israel, of the covenant.

And everybody else was a stranger. You have neighbor and you have stranger. And now Jesus is turning things on its head and saying, nope, everybody's a neighbor. No one's a stranger. That's fantastic. This is what I think is so brilliant about this is because

First of all, there's two questions. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And then who is my neighbor? And as you said, that was this dichotomy they had We are neighbors. Everyone else is strangers in fact I have this commentary that Eldom of Conkey used to use from Domo Lowe J.R. Domo-lo, and he said that the rabbis taught, and Israelite killing a stranger inhabitant, that's not die for it by the Sanhedrin, because it is said if anyone lifts up himself against his neighbor. We are not to contrive the death of the Gentiles, but if they are in any danger of death, we are not bound to deliver them.

If any of them fall into the sea, you need not take him out for such a one is not thy neighbor. So you can imagine the absurdity. I see you're drowning down there. Where are you from? Oh really? Okay, well good luck. Good luck to you. And this, I think Jesus answered both questions because who is my neighbor? So what's brilliant? Jesus says a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. We don't know who he is. Strange your or neighbor in their false dichotomy. He fell among three, stripped him of his raiment.

You don't know if he's house of Israel by his clothes. Left him half dead. You don't know if he's house of Israel by his clothes, left him half dead, you don't know if he's a neighbor because he's unconscious. Can I ask him where he's from? Hey, pal! You don't know. So then the three come by, and the Samaritan comes by, and I'm still thinking by the end, it could be, okay, who's the victim?

But Jesus never even goes there. The question is which of the three was a neighbor? And at first it sounded like it was a cultural or political neighbor. Who's my neighbor? That question which they evidently had. And at the end, Jesus gives more of a qualitative answer. Which one of the three was neighbor and brilliant? Force them to admit a Samaritan was a neighbor.

Yeah. The bad guy was the good guy. Crystal, this really is the parable of the good enemy. We hear good Samaritan and we think, oh, good Samaritan. A good Samaritan is a good thing. But to them, they're hearing, this is the good bad guy. Again, Jesus is turning their cultural thinking on its head. He's turning it around.

The person you think is going to be the bad guy ends up being the good guy in the story. Yeah, and I love how it's tied with this love of God. It wasn't just love your neighbor. It was love God and your neighbor. And this comes up later in first John where he says, you can't love God and hate your brother at the same time. These things are not compatible because your brother's

right in front of you. You haven't seen God. You haven't necessarily experienced him in the same way. So these two things, this is what gives you happiness in eternal life. Love. It's about this divine love. These other two guys who are supposed to be the good guys have a lot of excuses for why they can't help a lot of reason

They can't help this is such a profound story in that first question. Who is my neighbor? There are people struggling around us even our very neighbors that the people living on our same street who are neighbors, the people living on our same street who are struggling and there's so many reasons to not do anything. And I've gone through them in my head like, oh, he's probably really struggling. My neighbor who recently lost his wife, what am I doing? Am I doing anything? Because how I'm busy, I've got all these kids, am I doing anything to help out? In the new, ironic, priesthood theme that the boys say they say I will use my

priesthood to serve others beginning in my own home and I just remember as a kid hearing love your neighbor was always somebody across the street or the woman with the groceries that is trying to get an inner trunk or something like that and the idea of neighbors beginning in my own home was a is a wonderful thought in that new theme. That's not where we end. That's where we start in our own home to serve our families and then it stretches out to everyone.

Yeah, that's beautiful. You don't have to look any further than President Monson to hear stories of blessing a neighbor. There's an old talk from 1977 called Your Jericho Road by Thomas S. Monson, and he talks about the parable of the Good Samaritan. He says, each one of us in our journey through mortality will travel the Jericho Road. What will be your experience? What will be mine? Will I fail to notice him who has fallen among thieves and requires my help? Will you? Will I be one who sees the injured and hears his plea yet crosses to the other side? Will you? Or will I be one who sees who hears, who pauses and who helps? Will you? Jesus provided our watchword go and do thou likewise.

When we obey that declaration, there opens to our eternal view of this stat of joy, seldom equaled and never surpassed. And then he goes on to tell a couple of stories. One of them is about Lewis Jacobson, the son of a poor Danish widow. He was small, not comely in appearance, and he was easily the object of his classmates' thoughtless jokes. In Sunday school, once out with morning, the children made light of his patched trousers and his worn shirt.

Too proud to cry, tiny Lewis fled from the chapel, stopping out of breath to sit on the curb, which ran along Second West in Salt Lake City. Clear water flowed along the gutter next to the curb where Lewis sat. From his pocket, he took a piece of paper which contained the outline Sunday school lesson and shaped it into a paper boat. From his hurt, boyish heart came the determined words, I'll never go back.

Suddenly through his tears, Lewis saw, reflected in the water, the image of a large well-dressed man. He turned and face upward and recognized George Burbage, the Sunday school superintendent. May I sit down with you? Ask the kind leader. There on the gutter's curb sat a good Samaritan, minneter string to the one who surely was in need. Several boats were formed and launched while the conversation continued. At last the leader stood and with the boy's hand tightly clutching his,

they returned to Sunday school. Later, Lewis himself presided over the Sunday school program. Throughout his long life of service, he never failed to acknowledge the traveler who rescued him along his Jericho Road. Isn't that a great story? Yeah, I like the idea. We all are going to find ourselves on a Jericho road. It's going to be kind of a test. See if we're neighborly. How neighborly are we? The church, I was pretty excited to hear this. Recently gave some numbers on the 2022 monetary donations. The report shows that this work included more than one billion in expenditures, 6.3 million hours volunteered, 3692 humanitarian projects in 190 countries and territories. And then they go through and list all the places where these funds went and these hours went. And it may be very happy to see that I think we're part of a good Samaritan organization.

Anything else on that, you guys? Well, there are some other ideas about the interpretation of this parable as well. So Jack Welch in the 2007 end sign talked about how this man, this certain man, can be paralleled with Adam and his journey, who he went from heaven to earth, you know, represented by this journey from Jerusalem to Jericho, and that he experienced a fall. And of course, this man fell among the thieves. He goes on from there to explain more similarities between these two things and it's actually really interesting. So this man represents, you could say Adam and Eve going from Jerusalem where the temple is down to Jericho which is I think

it's the lowest place on earth isn't it John? I know the dead sea is so I think you're right and the Jordan that's the sending below all things, which is a cool symbol topographically. And that means the thieves would be Satan and leave him half dead. That's a Doctoral point from the Book of Mormon. There's two deaths. Second Nephi 9, spiritual death and physical death and Sins, the sins would be the wounds pouring in oil that could be the Holy Ghost applying the blood of Christ that could be the wounds. Poring in oil that could be the holy ghost, applying the blood of Christ, that could be the wine, the atonement, taking him to the inn, that could be perhaps the church. On the moral, I'll come back.

They'll be a new day, be born again, the innkeeper, the church leaders watch over until he comes again, the second coming, when he will cover all costs and reward well. So it's pretty impressive that somebody can basically come up with a gacha question, yeah, because we debate this. I watch this. Well, it's the great commandment in the law. And then, okay, well, then who's my neighbor? And that Jesus can answer both of those in one parable is pretty impressive. both of those in one parable is pretty impressive. Pretty impressive. In the second way of looking at it,

the priest in the Levite can represent the things we think will save us. The law of Moses or the priesthood or prophets, but the only person that can really save Adam from the fall is the Samaritan, Jesus. He came where he was, came to earth. I love that John, that Jesus brings people to the church and says, take care of them. That's what we're supposed to do, not look the other way, not think, oh, what are they doing here?

But we are supposed to take care of each other in this church. And when the Savior comes again, he says, I will repay thee. It goes perfectly with Matthew 18 and taking care of new converts, bringing back the lost, helping with reconciliation. It's all sort of encompassed in this parable. That's a really great parallel. So, Christa, where can I find that article from Dr. Welch about the Good Samaritan? It is in the 2007 February issue of the enzyme, and it's called Forgotten Symbols. Oh, okay.

We could probably link that in our show notes, follow him.co. What a fantastic parable. Isn't it amazing that Jesus can tell a story and this happens multiple times, but this particular story, 2000 years ago, and we can spend hours going through it. And we can identify with every person in the parable. Sometimes we've been the victim, sometimes we've looked the other way. Sometimes we might be in a position to help somebody. It's really universal that way.

I think it's probably the most well known, like you said, don't you think? I mean, there's hospitals named Good Samaritan, and we hear on the news, yeah, Good Samaritan stopped to help, you know, Samaritan's get good press in the Bible. Yeah, and the term has changed. Isn't that ironic that the term has changed? From when we think of a Samaritan, we think, oh, what a good person, when in Jesus' day, Samaritan, as Christel us, it was the enemy. The leper who returns to give thanks the one of ten says, and he was a Samaritan. I've noticed Christal that right at the end of this chapter, after this awesome parable,

comes this little five-verse story that we could skip, but we probably shouldn't. Yeah, this story, it's really interesting. Of course, this is about the siblings Mary and Martha and Lazarus. So when it says he entered into a certain village, this is probably where they lived. This is probably Bethany, which is near the Mount of Olives about two miles away from Jerusalem.

And of course, we know some of the stories that are going to happen with the raising of Lazarus. And so this is really an interesting kind of introduction to Mary and Martha. And I love that we have this story of Jesus with these two women. And it is such a personal story. And I think a lot of people can find themselves in this story. A little bit of Mary, a little bit of Martha. Jesus answers something very important for both Mary and Martha here.

So let's sort of do the setting. There's a dinner party. We do read that Martha is sort of the host of this party. So she received him into her house. And when we get inside, usually dinner parties, everybody's either sitting or reclining and eating and, you know, speaking to each other. But we find out in verse 39 that Mary is sitting on the floor at the feet of Jesus. Now, when we hear that, we think, okay, so she's listening, but this was actually the position of a disciple listening to a teacher. This was not traditionally thought to be the role of women at this time. They were not teachers, they were not considered to be disciples.

For her to be in this position was definitely a very non-traditional, unorthodox place to be. And then we find out that Martha, it says, was cumbert about much serving. So Martha, we can kind of picture as it is with, I think, any of us who've had a guest of honor at our house or a dinner party, and Jesus usually didn't travel alone, he brought a lot of people with him. She is rushing about preparing food, probably pouring water, cleaning, tidying, getting everything ready, as I think any of us would do. If we had an important guest over and a lot of people, she's doing service. She's doing what we call service.

She's trying to make sure everyone's comfortable, has every need met. What's interesting is this word, comberd in Greek, it means distracted or drawn away. So this is sort of an introduction to what Martha is feeling at this moment. Martha sees her sister sitting there listening, not really helping her. So she says to Jesus, do you not care that my sister has sort of abandoned me to serve alone? Will you ask her to come help me? And I think anyone in this situation would do this or has done this, where if you saw someone sitting who was also lived at the house and they was part of hosting this party, that you would say, can you get up and come help me?

I'm working so hard to take care of everyone. I need help. Jesus' response is just, it's beautiful. First, he says her name. He acknowledges her. He says Martha, Martha. He says, thou art careful and troubled about many things. And you read this and you think, thou art careful and troubled about many things. And you read this and you

think, what is careful and troubled? What is he actually saying? So if we go to the Greek, we can get some really good information here. So careful in Greek means, pulled in opposite directions. So you're being pulled by all of these different things that you think you should do. And troubled, it means basically what it says, you're confused. You have so many choices, so many activities, so many things you think you should be doing. You don't know which one is the most important. You don't know which one to focus on. He says, Martha, I see that you don't know what you

should be doing right now. Should you be serving the people, fixing the food, cleaning. And I like to think that Martha wanted to sit at the feet of the Savior. That was one of the choices. She was being pulled between service and she wanted to be Mary sitting at the feet, but she felt like she couldn't, because she had all of these other things to do. And what does he say to her? He says, one thing is needful. There's one choice to be made, and Mary made the good choice.

She chose the good part. So now we kind of hear that Mary was also pulled between serving and maybe cleaning and sitting at the feet of the Savior and in the end she chose to sit at the feet of the Savior. And he's basically saying to Martha, that's okay, you can do that. He's giving her permission. Don't worry about all of these other things that you're being pulled and distracted in all different directions. You can come and sit here too. And things will be taken care of. That's one of the reasons why I love this story because he's giving her

permission to come to him and focus on him. What a fantastic little five verse story. And like Crystal said, you can feel that. There's probably times when you've been trying to help and somebody else is in a gospel discussion. You're like, hello, it's so real. It's so real. It's just so real. Yeah, I know if I saw my sister sitting there and I, like this year, I'm hosting Easter at my house. And I know that if I saw my sister and I I love you Tamara I'll just say. Sitting there I would also be like because I feel Martha I feel that that obligation to serve others and I love that he's saying that sometimes service is just sitting and listening.

It's not necessarily bringing over cookies. Sometimes it is or helping clean a house or something like that. Sometimes it's just sitting with the person and just listening to them and helping them spiritually or emotionally or mentally rather than physically. But you can imagine President Nelson was over and your siblings were over listening to him and you'd be so pulled. I want to be over there. So bad, but who's going to set the table? Who's going to? Yeah, totally. Exactly. President Oaks used this story as the beginning of a very famous talk he gave called Good Better Best. He talks about, it is praiseworthy for Martha to be careful and troubled about many things,

but learning the gospel from the master teacher was more needful. And then he goes on to talk about how we have to make decisions in life between good and better and best. He said, consider how we use our time and choices we make in viewing television, playing video games or on the internet. Of course, it is good to view wholesome entertainment and to obtain interesting information, but not everything of that sort is worth the portion of our life we give to obtain it. And then I remember this one. He said, many breadwinners worry that their occupations leave too little time for their families.

There's no easy formula for the contest of priorities. However, I have never known a man who looked back on his working life and said, I just didn't spend enough time with my job. Good, better, best. Really some powerful principles in this story. Yeah, it's fascinating because the Savior knows we have so many different roles and identities. This is sort of a commentary on Martha's identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ at that moment was the most important identity. Not the host, not the sister, not the cook, not all of these

different things, and it's the same thing for us. We get pulled between so many of our different identities. We want to be good at our calling. We want to be good at our work. We want to be a good parent or a good friend. And he's sort of saying, your most important identity and role is as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And I would add as a child of Heavenly Father. That's what you should focus on. And that's he's giving Martha permission to do that

and we should feel the same way that sometimes we just focus on that. I don't know if you guys remember in the 90s sister, Chieko Ocasaki, was in the release of society general presidency and she wrote a book and quoted a friend of hers and equates to her's named Lonnie Severinson who wrote this little poem about Mary and Martha,

which is really nice. My hands are those of Martha with serving comfort about. Home duties continue to keep me so busy, my time just runs out. Oh no, I don't be little of these tasks, that's very true. For motherhood's important as is each thing I must do. Still I long to know the master to study the words he spake, but I might grow in wisdom

and better decisions make, but consumed by physical troubles as pressures abound and build, my spirit self becomes empty, though my every moment is filled, at these times I desire as Mary to choose that good part, though my hands are the hands of Martha, I am Mary in my heart. Is that nice? Well, in the manual, there's a quote from Sister Carol F. Maconkey, if we would be holy, we must learn to sit at the feet of the Holy One of Israel and give time to holiness.

Do we set aside the phone? Never ending to do list and the cares of worldliness? Prayer, study, and heating the Word of God invite His cleansing and healing love into our souls. Take time to be holy. We may be filled with His sacred and sanctifying spirit. The manual says, you may want to examine how you spend your time. That's a good idea.

Thanks for the suggestion. But I love what Crystal said. These aren't one thing is good, one thing is bad. It's all of these things are good and necessary. And so sometimes the puzzle is what is the best thing I can do right now. Welcome to that challenge for all of us. Yeah, it would be great if we were choosing between robbing a bank and going to church, right? But we're choosing between a hundred good things we could do.

Dr. Pierce, this has been a fantastic day studying these two chapters. Before we let you go, let me ask, what do you hope our listeners walk away from this thinking or feeling or doing? I think for their context, it was very much about Jesus is sharing, this is what the kingdom of heaven on earth should look like. This is the way we treat each other. This is the way we take care of people in the church. This is the way we bring back lost people. This is the way we seek forgiveness and reconciliation, all of these different things. This is the way we share the message. And it's all

about because he was there then, but wouldn't be soon. It's the same for us today. He's here because his message is here, because we're here, because we're building the kingdom of heaven right now. He will come back again. We can take all of these things that they're working on and do it for us here now, including when we think about Mary and Martha and choosing priorities and where we're going to put our energy and effort into it's all preparing for him to come back and gathering the harvest and the sheep on both sides of the veil so that we're ready when he returns and his kingdom is ready for him to be the king. Thank you so much. I've been touched by how often we've read about compassion today. I've been touched by how often we've read about compassion today. I have compassion. I kind of want to be a better person now that we've had this lesson. What about you, John? Hank that hundred pence you owe me. Never mind. We're

good. All right. All right. That was my whole goal. Well, we want to thank Dr. Crystal Pierce for being with us today. What a treat and what two amazing chapters we've been able to study with her. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sonson, our sponsors, David and Verla Sonson, and we always remember our founder, the late Steve Sonson. We want you all to join us next week. We have another episode coming up of Follow Him. Today's transcripts, show notes, and additional references are available on our website, followhim.co, followhim.co, and you can watch the podcast on YouTube with additional videos

on Facebook and Instagram. All of this is absolutely free, so be sure to share with your family and friends. To reach those who are searching for help with their Come Follow Me study, please subscribe, family and friends. and EL Kuwadra. Thank you to our amazing production team.