There Is No Hierarchy In The Kingdom Of Heaven

There is no hierarchy in the kingdom of Heaven

Luke 10:29 – 37

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael Harvey Koplitz

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he

was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went

away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road,

and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when

he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan,

as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on

him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then

he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look

after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense

you may have.' 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man

who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37 The expert in the law replied, "The one

who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

In chapter 10 of Luke’s gospel, starting on the 29th verse and going to the 37th verse,

we have that famous story about the good Samaritan. The narrative is actually a

parable that was offered by Jesus as a response to the question of “who is my

neighbor.” I am sure that everyone listening or reading this message knows something

about the parable. Even as a non-Christian, I knew about the story of the good

Samaritan. Therefore, I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about what the

Samaritan did for the man that he found on the side of the road. You have heard that

probably hundreds of times. But did you also know there’s another idea of Jesus

hiding in the parable that is missed by not only pastors but Christian biblical scholars?

One of the resources that I used in Biblical research is a commentary titled “Aramaic

Light.” This commentary series is based on the idea that the New Testament was

originally written in Aramaic. The authors, who are Rocco Errico and George Lamsa,

not only spoke about the Aramaic version of the New Testament and the meaning of

those words but also included the culture of the day.

So, I want to share with you an observation that is made by them that no one ever

talked about. That subject is that there is no hierarchy inside the kingdom of heaven

like we have in the world.

All organizations of humans maintain a hierarchical system of the people, with

invisible social and mental boundaries. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, the order was:

priest, Levite, Israelite, proselyte, and freed slave. The parable has the first three main

characters, but not in the correct order. Yeshua speaks of the Israelite, the priest, and

then the Levite. That would immediately catch the ear of the listener. Furthermore,

Yeshua introduces a Gentile into the parable. By doing this, Yeshua is trying to break

down the hierarchical system of importance to tell the listeners that in the Kingdom

of God, there is no hierarchy.

If you didn’t know about the culture of Judea at the time, you would easily miss this.

I will confess that I did not catch it until I saw it brought out by these Aramaic

scholars. Even my seminary New Testament professor did not catch this. It is not in

the Christian commentaries, so it’s understandable why it was missed. However, it is

an incredibly amazing point that Jesus put into this parable.

One of the things you need to look for in parables is the twist in the culture that

should make you think twice about what’s going on. Once you realize that the order

was reversed or slightly adjusted in this case, you will look deeper into the meaning of

the parable. Parables have multiple meanings, and that is the beauty of Jesus parables.

Very few rabbis could create parables that were so beautifully done with multiple

meanings.

There is no hierarchy in heaven. That means, nobody is of a higher rank than anyone

else. That made me wonder if Jesus would be upset that the church that created in his

name definitely has a hierarchy. Not only hierarchy in the clergy but hierarchy in the

congregation and the members of the church. It is also interesting to me that when