Luke’s View of Foreigners and Minorities, By Tyler Knight

In our culture we label everything.  Everything in our world has an association.  Scientists never cease to name every known living organism on the planet.  Business is all about branding and brand recognition.  Names are everywhere.  We put our names on school papers, sign them on checks, they are on the back of sports jerseys and on government issued identification cards. 

We like our labels, and with labels come connotations.  Connotations in our world, however, do not have to be based on fact nor experience.  Yet, if we come across anything for which we do not have a label, we immediately assign one.  We categorize the unfamiliar into a category that is more familiar to us, because once categorized, we can appropriately address that which was unknown based on a lifetime of social/personal development and programmed responses.

This is how we treat people.  When an unknown person is similar to us, then we categorize the person in a positive manner.  But, when we come across someone who is not like us, “a foreigner” to our world, then we tend to put that person in a negative light. 

These reactions are similar to the people’s reactions that Luke writes about.  In the first part of Acts 11, the Apostles and other Brothers (circumcised men) in Judea were appalled that Peter had eaten in the house of Gentiles (uncircumcised men).  They were basing their opinion off of the unknown.

Perhaps even Jesus formed opinions that were not exactly positive about those who he was not as much familiar with.  When Jesus healed the lepers in Luke 17, only the Samaritan returned to give Him praise.  Jesus then highlights the cultural and racial difference between Him and the Samaritan by calling him a “foreigner”.  Jesus was after all human, so maybe it is human nature to label people based on racial or cultural differences.  If Jesus is our leader, maybe it is not entirely wrong to acknowledge these discrepancies.  Our politically correct part of society today however suggests that we not acknowledge any difference between any of us. 

By ignoring our differences, we take away the power of God’s word and salvation.  It is our differences that God uses, and Luke writes about, to break down worldly obstacles and join man in God’s name.  Through God, human’s can overcome their nature to label others, and worship him in a common Christian culture.  Again in Acts 11, once the circumcised believers heard how Peter was bonded through the Spirit in God’s word by the story of Jesus’ resurrection to the uncircumcised Gentiles, the believers response…’they praised God saying, ”…God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life”.