The Good Samaritan: Big Picture Sermon: July 14, 2019

Luke 10: 25-37                         Neighbors: Key to Loving God                                         July 14, 2019

                                                                                                                                     Rev. Peter Hofstra

            The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the big ones we learn in Sunday School.  You know the story Jesus tells, man gets mugged, two holy people and a Samaritan, an “unclean”, come along the road and it is the “unclean” person who helps him out.  Some time back, talking about the woman at the well, we spent some time on the ugly relationship between Samaritans and Jews living in Judea. 

            But how often do we focus on the lead-in question to this parable?  A lawyer asks, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  This is nothing less than addressing our participation in salvation with Jesus as Christians.  Jesus has done his part.  He died for us, rose for us, brought us salvation and forgiveness by God’s grace, and the final gift, the gift of life eternal. 

            Life eternal is that final gift, the lawyer is asking what WE must do to receive it.

            Jesus goes back to basics, what is the law?    

He answered, "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 your neighbor as yourself."

This is Jesus’ answer, this is how you obtain eternal life.  The lawyer is unsatisfied, so he presses, trying to find a weak point.  It is hard to argue about loving God, but what about humanity?  So Jesus, whose my neighbor?  What are the qualifications?  What is the legal definition of the word?  By extention, who can be excluded?  

The parable of the Good Samaritan is to answer this.  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of these robbers?” 

            The response is obvious, “The one who showed him mercy.”

            So that answers that.  Those who need help, you are their neighbor.  But in his response, Jesus is not sticking to the narrow focus of the lawyer’s inquiry.  He doesn’t stay with the ‘neighbor’ part of the law, but returns to the part about loving God.  

            Because who were the first two men to come past the one beaten by robbers?  The first was a priest, one who led the people of God in worship.  The second was a Levite, same tribe as the priests, but one who worked in support of the priests and their worship leadership.  Remember, they did not just go to church like we do, there was an entire sacrificial system in place, an entire religious industry if you will run by the Levites.

            These two men are those who obey the first part, loving God with heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Yet they fail in loving neighbor.  Only the Samaritan, who doesn’t “qualify” as an orthodox lover of God, loved neighbor.  Consider the implication.  If you are not showing mercy to your neighbor, you are not demonstrating your love for God.  Your eternal life is in jeopardy. 

Anyone can say they love God.  It is proved not by the words but by the actions of loving neighbor.  This lawyer was from the leadership caste of the priests and Levites.  This story spoke directly as an indictment to him as it did abstractly about love of neighbor.   

            But there is the religious identity of another character in this story that we need to consider, not just the two servants of God and the Samaritan.  All were God-fearing men even if they did not agree on where God ought to be worshipped.  It is not the identity of the innkeeper.  I am talking about the religious identity of the man beaten by robbers.  He is the one person in the story that Jesus does NOT identify racially or religiously.  He is a man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho.  He might have been a Jew, he might have been a Samaritan, he might have been a priest, he might have been a Levite, he might have been none of the above, maybe a Gentile traveler.  Jerusalem was the capital, Jericho was a border city heading out of the Promised Land, heading out even from lands claimed by the Roman Empire. 

            He is an ‘everyman’, a generic neighbor.  Doesn’t matter who he was or what he believed.  He needed mercy and only one person showed him mercy.  I have heard it argued, in defense of the priest and Levite, that they did not help because the beaten man was ceremonially unclean and they needed to be ceremonially clean to perform their duties for God.  If that was part of the argument, I think Jesus makes it pretty clear that ceremonial cleanliness was not enough of a reason to ignore loving your neighbor.

            For me, I think it is more important for us to recognize that Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbor, to show mercy, to whomever is in need.  We don’t need to identify them as being from an approved group, white or heterosexual or American or well off, before we call them neighbor, and act accordingly.  I think that was exactly what the lawyer was looking for Jesus to say.  Here is an “approved” list of neighbors.  Forget the rest. 

            In one way, this simplifies our work as a church.  How do I give my heart eagerly and sincerely to the Lord?  Love your neighbor.  Who is that?  Anyone…everyone who needs mercy. 

            In another way, this complicates our life as a church.  It could cause some real soul searching in our current political climate.  What is our view of the displaced people along our border?  Their lives are in danger and the US response is to build walls, bureaucratically if not of steel and concrete.  There is not a lot of wiggle room in living out love of neighbor through the mercy we offer.    

            It also challenges our economic system.  We have so much, how much do we expend for people who need mercy?  How much do we keep for ourselves?  What does it really mean to love our neighbors as ourselves?  The Good Samaritan paid the man’s medical bills out of pocket…  Do we dare to give all and trust God will provide?  

            There is an inherent danger in this discussion.  We are not perfect.  Loving neighbor is NEVER meant to be some kind of divine currency to earn eternal life.  That is already ours.  Jesus did the heavy lifting, dying and rising for us.  Remember, whenever we fall down in the Christian life, we can get back on our feet, confident in the forgiveness of God, won for us by Jesus.

When we love someone, we operate out of our love, not obligation.  And here is a warning, when service, when love, feels like obligation, it is time to get on our knees and reconnect with Jesus.  We serve because we want to, not because we ‘have to’.  I think that is what Jesus was trying to get the lawyer to understand.  God sent us God’s only Son because God loves us.  Jesus gave his life for us because he loves us.  We show mercy because we love our neighbor.  It is not about earning eternal life.  That is already given.  When we give our hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely, we show mercy in love.  We show mercy because, in the name of love that is what neighbors do.  Amen.