Luke 10:25-37
Well, this sermon post is coming much later in the week than I had planned. In fact, if it had not been for a friend's innocent challenge/inquiry this morning I probably would have let my earlier decision to forget it this week be the outcome. You see, last week didn't go as planned. I had intended to rework the four sermons I had crafted in past years into one on this well-known and important text. Due to a technological mistake - that being I sent them to my iPad in an incorrect format and thus could not open them -
and needing to be helped to my feet four times by paramedics last week (I'll post a separate blog about that!) my intention evaporated.
But, my friend David's email this morning calling my attention to this week's Gospel text and querying whether I had ever given any thought to the Good Samaritan story stirred my will power a bit. The result being what follows. Oh, I first sent all four sermons to Dave in their original format hoping that would satisfy him. I haven't heard back so I figure he's still reading!
The Good Samaritan story is one Jesus told in response to a question a lawyer asked him. It's another one of those times an attorney doesn't come off looking very good. It happens a lot to attorneys. Usually I begin my sermons on this familiar scripture passage with a few lawyer jokes. A few years ago I needed some new ones so I sent an email to all the attorneys in the church asking for their favorites. Almost every one of them sent me one or two. Some of them were even clean enough to use in church! A few months ago one of those lawyers gave me a book he found the only content of which was attorney jokes! In honor of all my attorney friends I'm going to forego the jokes in this post. Just tell yourself the best one you've ever heard, laugh, and read on.
The first thing we note in this exchange between Jesus and the lawyer is that the lawyer's intent appears to be to test Jesus - to see if Jesus really knew his stuff or how what Jesus believed measured up to the way he understood things. So he posed this question: "Teacher, what about this eternal life idea? What do I have to do to inherit it?"
Jesus chose not to take the bait and answer the question with the obvious answer - that nothing has to be done to receive an inheritance. Jesus chose not to embarrass the learned man in front of the others. Instead, he gave the man the opportunity to show off a bit - to share his legalese knowledge. "Well, sir, let's start with what the law itself has to say about the matter. As you understand it, what does the law say?"
The lawyer didn't disappoint as he went for the gold - for the praise, the recognition - by walking center stage and waxing eloquently: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself."
By this time in history Jewish scholarship and tradition had distilled the 613 points of the Mosaic law into these two commandments from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The lawyer showed that he had paid attention in his The Law of Moses 101 class. He'd remembered the dean of the law school talking about "...loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind" being sort of a shorthand way of arguing that all that makes up our humanity must be involved in loving God. Likewise, he'd been paying attention when his brilliant instructor argued that out of this integrated, all-consuming love of God, which was the ultimate commandment, grew this second and inseparable one which stated that this included "loving our neighbor as yourself." "Loving God includes loving yourself and your neighbor." "Loving God includes being concerned about one's community."
And so, Jesus gave the man a perfect score, an A+ on his report card: "Excellent answer - You have answered correctly," thus providing the lawyer the public recognition he probably hoped and expected to receive. But, Jesus didn't stop with his words of affirmation. Instead, he said something that waved a red flag in the lawyer's mind. When Jesus said to the lawyer, "Do this, and you will live," all of a sudden the lawyer realized how impossible it was going to be for him to gain eternal life on his own. He wasn't dumb - he knew that he was incapable and unwilling to do all the law said was necessary.
And so, trying to create a loophole for himself - trying to save face - trying to still earn his way - trying to create a little wiggle room - the lawyer phrased a new question for Jesus: "Who's my neighbor, sir?" "Uh, Jesus, we both know that it's impossible to live up to the whole of the law, so how about if we discuss how we might narrow the scope of this neighbor bit?" "Jesus, could we put some parameters on this neighbor thing? If we could, perhaps I might have a chance at eternal life."
When we're honest with ourselves, I suppose we have to admit the lawyer's question is one we all wonder about on occasion. I mean, when we think of the demands others make on our limited resources of time, energy, and money, wouldn't having a clearer understanding of who our neighbors are help us set some limits? When we think about the hundreds of thousands, the millions that are starving or living impaired lives because of malnutrition or disease or poverty, wouldn't it help if we could narrow who was considered our neighbors? Are there not times when we wonder if there are some people who deserve our compassion and some who don't? Don't we wonder at times if there's a difference between babies with AIDS and adults who practice risky sexual behavior? Are some deserving of our compassion and others our condemnation? Are there not times when we turn to Jesus for justification just like the lawyer did and ask: "Who really is our neighbor, Jesus?" We don't want to feel guilty about all these situations so we embark on a little legalistic sojourn. We draw some lines in the sand so we can set some persons outside those who need us to have a neighborly concern. The lawyer's question isn't really all that far from our reality, now is it?
Jesus was up to the lawyer's request and told him, those listening in, and thus us, this story about a man who foolishly traveled alone one day on the dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho. He told him that the man got roughed up pretty good by a couple of robbers - actually a gang of them. He told him about how a couple of religious types - a priest and a Levite - failed to help the injured man. And then he shocked them all by claiming that a hated Samaritan stopped and helped the guy not only get up, but get back on his feet for good by guaranteeing even to pay for his time of rehabilitation in an inn.
The persons listening to the parable probably had no real problem with the "religious" and the "righteous" and the "establishment" being used as the "bad guys" in Jesus' story. But you can be sure, they winced when Jesus introduced a Samaritan as the hero. Why, just a little time before this encounter James and John had asked permission to call fire down upon a whole Samaritan village because they had been rejected.
Let me see if I can help us feel a little more intensely the way those who first heard this story felt. “If Jesus went to a Ku Klux Klan rally and they asked who is my neighbor, Jesus then might tell the parable having the Grand Master of the Klan crash into a ditch only to be passed over by a white sheriff and a white minister. Finally, along would come a black sharecropper playing the part of the Good Samaritan. Those attending the Ku Klux Klan meeting would have about as much trouble using the words “good” and “black” man in the same sentence as those listening to Jesus in his day would have had trouble using the words "Good Samaritan" together. (1)
Or, imagine some American Christian soldier being injured by a terrorist on a road outside of Baghdad and a Campus Crusade leader and a United Methodist Committee on Relief volunteer passing by on their way to attend a conference on how they can carry out their ministry in Iraq. And then, imagine a Shiite Muslim coming along and performing the caring ministry of the Good Samaritan. (2)
Or, imagine an OSU football player being attacked by a gang on some ghetto street in Detroit and several of his own teammates driving by in a car on their way to see a Detroit Lions football game and thus not being willing to stop and help. But then, a member of the University of Michigan football team happens by and stops, loads him in his car and takes him to the nearest hospital with instructions to send any uncovered insurance charges to him. (3)
Get the picture? That’s how unbelievable the scene was that Jesus painted for the lawyer that day. And then Jesus asked the lawyer, “Who was the neighbor in this story?” And the learned lawyer wisely responded, “The one who showed mercy.” And Jesus said to the lawyer, “Go and do likewise.”
Several years ago this story was the lectionary Gospel reading the week after I was in a car accident. I was driving a mini-van and was hit broadside and the van landed upside down with me dangling in mid-air held in place by my seatbelt. Later in the week when I finally felt good enough to work on the sermon, as I read the text it was as if a neon-light flashed the sermon title across the page - "Thank you, neighbors!" For the first time in my life as I read this text, I was the victim who received the aid of the neighbors - the Samaritans if you will. Oh, I wasn't beaten or robbed - persons who came to my aid weren't enemies - but I was injured - weak - in need of others - in need of neighbors - and both those I knew and many I did not, responded.
Who were my neighbors that week? They were the people who jumped off their front porches and out of their cars and took over the scene - did what they could. She was the woman who dashed back into her house for something to stop the bleeding with - he was the man who wrapped my arm, while applying pressure and holding it in the air until the paramedics arrived - it was the young staff woman from the Y who recognized me and rushed to the church to catch my associate to share with him the information about my condition and returned to the Y to share with my daughter, Megan, who was teaching a gymnastic course for her. It was my associate and his wife going to be with my wife, Dorothy, who had just had surgery, before she saw it on the evening news. They were the young couple driving the car that broadsided me as they jumped from their car to see what they could do to help all the while expressing their regret. It was those who ordered and delivered the fried chicken to our house since the crock-pot meal prepared by another church member now covered the ceiling of our van. It was my son, Jeremy, holding my hand in the ER and offering reassuring words of love. They were the persons who dropped off food the rest of the week - the people who called to ask how we were doing - those who sent cards - the ER doctors and nurses - the paramedics - the guys from "Big Daddy's Towing" who greeted me the next morning when I went to retrieve the important papers strewn all over the van.
Yes, I gained a new understanding of who our neighbors are - and I'm thankful for those in that day and those who claim that title in my current health journey.
"Who is a neighbor?" "Those who show mercy!"
Now let us hear Jesus say to us: "Go, and do likewise."
Peace and God's blessings on you all!
Steven E. Burt, Fingerprints on the Chalice, (C.S.S. Publishing, 1990).
Homiletics, p. 28.
Emphasis, p. 18.
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