Sylvanus of Gischala

So many times during Jesus’ life he dealt with travelers along the highways of Israel. Men and women seemed to drift in and out of his life, perhaps by accident, perhaps not. One of these was Sylvanus, a lawyer of Gischala.

In our day we assume lawyers to be wealthy, and not necessarily trustworthy. Whether these are true today is debatable.

It was the same in Jesus’ time. Neither was necessarily true. Certainly for Salvanus, there was no truth in the charges. He was not a really wealthy man.

Sylvanus was a lawyer, all right. Sylvanus sat at the city gate, along with the other elders of the city. On certain days the group would discuss legal issues of the day. Sometimes the issues were items brought by the community. Property. Inheritance.

Other times the issues were theoretical in nature. What does it mean to adopt? What is the meaning of faith? What is true religious practice?

Sylvanus was sometimes paid by some person to represent them before the council at the city gate. The questions presented might be matters of faith, or religion, or military action, or government. Whatever the question, when the call came to serve, Sylvanus tried desperately to find the truth among the issues. It was a personal thing with him. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. Sometimes the little group at the gate of Gischala could only reach some compromise.

His home town, Gischala, was northwest of Capernaum, about fifteen miles. It was really just a settlement of a couple hundred souls. Sheepherders, traders, craftsmen, farmers. Several families were quite poor.

Sylvanus was a farmer, grapes and figs and olives, mostly. Just a few acres. His real interest was the law, and how it could be used and adjusted to benefit those who called on him for help.
Pyramid of the law

The law of the day was complex. It rested on a sort of triangle or pyramid of statutes. The three sides of the triangle were the government, the temple organization as it reached out from Jerusalem, and the military. The Military was recognized as being outside the government because it raised its own funds by conscription and attachment, and usually chose its own battles.

Each of these had its own set of laws, established by its powerful people. The role played by people like Sylvanus was simple. Stay out of the way of the laws established by the government, the temple and the military. There was no democracy left from the ideals of the Greeks.

Democracy would not be seen again until the time of Jefferson and Franklin and Washington.
The assumption was made that every person accepted the points that held the civilization together: A relationship with the Lord, a need for corporate defense, and a need for community action such as roads, walls, and wells.

Not in the pyramid, though, were two other pieces that you and I expect to be at the center of law: Business to business matters, and individual rights. Fend for yourself was the essential law in both instances.

I don’t mean to say that businesses and individuals had no protections in the law. Not at all. It was just that neither businesses nor individuals had any real possibility of claiming victory against the government, the military, or the temple.

But between business and business, or individual and individual, there were strong laws. This is how the lawyers of the day spent their time at the city gate. There were property matters, and damages. There were criminal actions, and minor problems. There were health issues such as leprosy and blindness. All of these required straight thinking by the most respected minds of the community. Any of these could be brought by any person to the council of elders.

Training for a legal career was personally motivated. A man had four primary methods of learning. Observation, reading, reciting or discussing the law, and trial and error. Sylvanus had carefully followed all these throughout his career.

By watching carefully the community around himself, Sylvanus could see the impact of the law on people. He learned to read at the synagogue by reading from the Torah and the scrolls of the prophets. Sylvanus made presentations of legal issues and comments to his friends and family, and eventually to the council. Then he began to work through the trial and error procedures brought to the council. He questioned and contemplated. He composed solutions, and re-wrote them. He tried to find the truth.

It is here that Sylvanus’ life becomes really interesting to us in the current century. Sylvanus’ life did not become so famous in his day as that of Jesus, or Nero, or Paul, or so many others. Sylvanus really has been almost forgotten.

It is really by reaching back another thousand years, past Jesus, that we find the real reason for Sylvanus’ impact on American and world life today.

Very few people know anything about Amos. He is one of my all-time favorites from the Bible.
Amos lived most of his life in the hills north of the Sea of Galilee, north of Gischala and Capernaum. His work was as a shepherd and farm laborer. He says he was not a prophet, but he is certainly remembered as one.

Some three or four hundred years before Amos, in about 1100 B.C., Moses and Aaron brought the Hebrew people through the wilderness toward Jericho.

But there came a time when things went badly. Starvation was setting in, and the people were becoming discouraged.

Moses and Aaron took the position that things were going badly because some of the people were doubting the team of Moses and Aaron. It was the sort of stand we have seen in Richard Nixon and Joseph Stalin and other leaders of the world. We have even seen it in churches and Christian denominations.

The man Korah and some others then challenged Moses and Aaron on their words. Korah could not accept that the Lord had appointed them commanders and priests of the entire nation. They appeared at the tents of Moses and Aaron one day with a group of supporters.
The man Korah and some others challenged Moses and Aaron on their words that the Lord had appointed them commanders and priests of the entire nation. What happened?

We are not really certain, but it appears that Moses and Aaron had Korah and his people killed and buried in the desert.

Over the next centuries, a group of rural thinkers, mostly from the north, established a group movement of prophets. These people found constant ways to challenge whatever government was in power at the time. They usually called the government and the people to return to a life of justice and righteousness. Amos became one of these in about 750 B.C.

Sylvanus also became one of the Sons of Korah at the time of Jesus. Northern Palestine was then, as now, filled with men and women who were willing to risk their lives for justice and righteousness. How did this change our lives?

Sylvanus often made business and religious trips to Capernaum. In those days, the custom was that visitors to a town who sat among the elders of their own communities at their own city gate could sit with the elders of the destination community.

So Sylvanus became a well known and accepted member of the elders’ group at the Capernaum gate.

The problems Sylvanus and the other elders tried to deal with were many-sided and deep. The most troubling of these were the spiritual matters. These were not matters of temple power or strategies. They were matters of the relationship between individuals and the Holy One. Then as now, the most pressing of these questions was the matter of eternal life.

They could ask and answer questions. They could make comments. They could share in any refreshments that were passed around. Figs. Grapes. Raisins. Bread. Tea. Wine.

When he sat with the elders at Capernaum this day, Sylvanus was responding to legal needs for answers. When Jesus came to the city, Sylvanus thought this might be an opportunity to get fresh insight.

Sylvanus did not know much about Jesus. He had only heard rumors about the man. But these rumors were intriguing enough that Sylvanus took them seriously. Because he happened to be in the area of the Sea of Galilee for a few days, he found the opportunity to question Jesus irresistible. Sylvanus could now consider the rumors for himself in the light of the law.

The rumors that Sylvanus wanted to clarify with Jesus were really rather threatening to Galilean society. Indeed, all of the culture of Israel was up for grabs, according to the rumors.
One rumor had it that Jesus intended to change the Ten Commandments. Sylvanus also heard that Jesus had edited the commandments. But Jesus’ editing seemed to be simply quoting old statements of the law. "You shall love Yahweh, your god with all your heart, and mind, and soul and strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

This was confusing to Sylvanus. How could this be seen as wrong?

Jesus performed work on the Sabbath. But when the work is healing, or performing the ordinary functions of life, like eating, where in the law is that shown to be wrong?

And politically, it was rumored that Jesus would lead a revolt against king or against Rome itself. But Sylvanus looked around at the few men who seemed to walk and talk with Jesus. He could see no evidence of military action, or weapons, or even covert action. There was certainly nothing to cast fear into the heart of the Roman government, the mightiest government and military of the world.

The rumors said Jesus would turn families against each other. Well, maybe. Sylvanus could see how families could disagree with one another about what Jesus was saying. And Jesus did, apparently, ask people to go with him, to walk with him. They might have to leave their families to go with Jesus. He supposed this could be a problem.

The most serious rumor and challenge to Jesus was in the charge that Jesus suggested that they ignore the Temple mandates. That thinking outside the box about salvation would certainly raise questions. If the temple could not define and describe salvation for the people, what would be the center of Israeli life and culture. Even the government and the military and business of the day would face terrible challenges.

Sylvanus could think of only one question he could ask that really brought all these issues and rumors together. If Jesus answered it, Sylvanus would know just what it was that Jesus was about. Sylvanus would know whether Jesus was trying to challenge the law, or the government, or the temple. Perhaps there was no reason to fear the revolt Jesus might have planned.

So Sylvanus worked his way close to Jesus in the crowd. At a quiet moment, Jesus looked straight at Sylvanus. He apparently expected a question or a statement from the learned man. There was something about the eye contact that said that Sylvanus would find some way to walk with Jesus, and Jesus expected.

Sylvanus did not hesitate. He asked Jesus perhaps the basic spiritual question of that day and today. "What must I do to have eternal life?"

Jesus answered with words Sylvanus did not expect. "You have read the law. What does it say in the law?"

The lawyer answered quickly. "You shall love Yahweh, your god, with all your heart, and mind, and soul and strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus spoke quietly now. "You are correct. Go and do this. You shall have life."

But Sylvanus was ready. "But, sir, who is my neighbor?"

Again, Jesus apparently had prepared well. He smiled at the question.

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers. They stripped him and beat him, and fled the scene. They left the man for dead. Now luckily a priest was going down that road. When he saw the man he walked on the other side of the road. Soon a Levite, when he saw the man, walked by on the other side of the road. But a Samaritan, walking home from Jerusalem through Jericho, came to the man. When the Samaritan saw the man, he had compassion on the victim. The Samaritan bound up the wounds. He poured expensive oil and wine on the wounds. Then he sat the man on his own donkey and brought him to the inn in Jericho, the best inn to take care of him. The next day he gave two denarii to the innkeeper.

"Take care of him. If it costs more, I will be back in a few days to pay the bill."

Now Jesus looked Sylvanus in the eye again. "Which of these three, do you suppose, was neighbor to the man who was beaten?"

Sylvanus now was in awe at the thinking of Jesus, and the depth of his commitment to the life of Israel. "The one who showed mercy on the fallen man."

Jesus said to him, simply: "You go and live the same sort of life."

And though Sylvanus returned to Gischala, he walked with Jesus, in spirit, all the remaining days of his life.

Sylvanus accepted the burden of sharing with the trinity the creative genius of the Creator, the redemption of the Christ, and the presence of the Spirit. His act of faith has changed our lives. His question gave Jesus the opportunity to be much more specific with his instructions to us.
"Go, and live the life of the Good Samaritan."

Amen.