"But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion" (180).

I've known about this story for a long time, but I think that a crucial part of it is left out whenever it is told: the fact that Samaritans and Jews (the implied religion of the victim in this parable) do not exactly see eye to eye. This story is so powerful in that not only is compassion exhibited, but compassion for an enemy. I believe that this is the foundation of Western ethics: to love everyone and everything, even beings who don't necessarily love you back.

This diagram shows the hierarchy of Jewish society; obviously, Samaritans aren't held in very high regard.

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it" (181).

I've always liked the analogy of Jesus/God being a shepherd, and I think that this parable is short and sweet in its message: be happy when people who are "lost" become "found," don't shun them and treat them as outcasts.

I like this depiction of the Parable of the Lost Sheep because it shows just how far God will go to find someone who is lost.

"Interestingly, there is no record of Jesus actually eating lamb in the Last Supper, and Christians gave up that aspect of the ritual not only as a way of distinguishing themselves from the Jews but also because early Christians seemed to understand that eating meat as not an appropriate way of remembering the vivid and brutal death of Jesus" (188).

I thought that this was a very keen insight into the Last Supper. I've never really been one to scrutinize the words of the Bible, but I'm interested to see if reading between the lines in other parts of the book yields other surprising theories.

"In sum, when Christians partake of the body of god in the eucharist, it surely is not as a commemoration of an animal slaughter but as an admission to our own guilt in slaughtering and destroying others, our own identification with Jesus in all of his animal cries and pain, and our own affirmation of the struggle to work to overcome such pain" (190).

Wow, I've never really thought of what the eucharist is actually supposed to represent, but this one sentence totally explains it to me.

It makes sense that the eucharist is a vegetarian ordeal to me now.