The Good Samaritan and Abortion

I was considering the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ this morning and I think it has something to say about the issue of Abortion. I don’t believe its too much of a stretch either, in suggesting this.

The Parable is about Ritual Purity
I’ve recently been reading Matthew Thiessen’s book ‘Jesus and the Forces of Death’, a book that talks about Jesus’ interactions with the ritual purity system in the Gospels. In one of the chapters, he addresses this parable and makes the argument that Jesus, in this parable, is speaking about the hierarchy of good and relates that back to the ritual purity system. The question asked of Jesus, in the presence of the Scribes and Pharisees is “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Jesus proceeds with telling a parable we are all familiar with — a man is beaten and robbed and left for dead (left ‘half-dead’, or between death and life, in the literal translation). A Priest and Levite pass by him and leave him, while a Samaritan stops, helps the man onto his own donkey, brings the man to a place of safety and pays for his expenses. Thiessen argues that the reason the Priest and Levite pass by the wounded man is because of the purity laws about touching a corpse. Presumably the wounded man was unconscious. We would not say that someone who has a bad cut or who simply has a bruise on his head is “between life and death”. The Priest and Levite, not wanting to risk ‘corpse impurity’ — a condition requiring 7 days away from the Temple and a couple of other ritual cleansing responsibilities — pass by the man.

If you want Thiessen’s whole argument, read his book, but he goes on to say that Jesus here is addressing a situation in which one good surpasses the importance of another. In other words, there is nothing wrong with observance of the Law (in this case, from Numbers 19), except in cases where observing one Law means the neglect of a greater Law. As it relates directly to the parable, Jesus is saying that if one is presented with preserving Life or avoiding corpse impurity, preserving Life is the more important Law to keep. In addressing it this way, he is ultimately addressing the question of ‘who is my neighbor’ by saying, in a nutshell, anyone who is in need, regardless of the circumstances (Love your neighbor as yourself).

The Preservation of Life is Ultimate
I will take this one layer deeper. In saying that the preservation of Life is of higher importance than keeping purity laws (and corpse impurity, within the purity system, was the highest level of impurity) Jesus is saying that the preservation of Life is at the top of the hierarchy when it comes to Torah observance. If someone is in a situation where Life itself is on the line, there is no other Law that would supersede the importance of acting to preserve Life. Scripture says that humankind is God’s ‘handiwork’ or ‘workmanship’ (Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 139). Other verses speak of humanity’s surpassing value to God, such as in Luke 12:7 and Matthew 6:26.

If we believe that God is the author of life, then that means that no life is created outside of God’s oversight, regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, if God created a life then it is important to Him. There really isn’t any more commentary to provide here; God is a God of Life and in His economy, life itself is the highest good; the application of that ought to be fairly straight-forward for the Believer.