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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, 07/14/2019
Sermon on Luke 10:25-37, by Brad Everett
Today’s gospel is most commonly referred to as the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”. But honestly, the main character here (besides Jesus, because he is always the focus of the Gospel) is the lawyer, not the character of the Samaritan in Jesus’ story.
The lawyer is an expert in the law of God. A student and teacher, not only of the Scriptures but of the study and interpretation of those Scriptures given to guide the life of God’s people. Properly understood and exercised, this man’s vocation was to help other Jews live the lives God had called them to as His chosen people. It wasn’t intended as an academic or intellectual exercise, but to be of practical value for everyone, regardless of their level of education and learning—so all might know and live in the love of God.
In that vein, let’s give the lawyer the benefit of the doubt concerning his question. It says he stood up to test Jesus—perhaps he was unfamiliar with our Lord and was simply trying to discern if Jesus was a reputable and reliable teacher—so he asks a very basic question about what must one do to inherit eternal life. Note carefully his words. He doesn’t ask “what must I believe to inherit eternal life?” but “what must I do?’—because for the Jews (and later Christians) faith was something that was lived out, not just thought about.
In good rabbinic fashion, Jesus answers the question with a question—in this way testing the lawyer on his knowledge of God’s law.
As one might expect, the lawyer answers by quoting Scripture, in particular, Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18.
Jesus commends the lawyer on his correct answer and tells him to do this and live.
But then the lawyer asks another question, and this time his motives were less than pure. It says he wanted to justify himself—which at its most basic level means, he was now more concerned with himself—his ideas, agendas and interpretations than in learning from Jesus. So, he asks “who is my neighbor?”, which suggests that he already had his own opinion of who exactly qualified for that category, but he wanted to see if Jesus agreed with him.
This time Jesus doesn’t answer with a question but a parable—a story intentionally designed to teach a truth in a pointed and memorable way.
A man (presumably a Jew, since Jesus never says he is of another nationality) going from Jerusalem to Jericho, is attacked by robbers, stripped, beaten and left half dead.
The next person down the road is a priest, and later a Levite. Both of these characters would have worked and served in the Temple of God in Jerusalem. Like the lawyer, they too would have known the Scriptures and teachings of the faith, most certainly something as basic as love God and love our neighbor as yourself. Their reaction upon seeing this fellow Jew half-dead, was to pass by. They don’t check on him or call to him, they pass by, and not only that they cross over to the other side of road to avoid him as completely as possible.
The last character to come by is a Samaritan. The Samaritans were a group whose background was one of intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles—which violated God’s law. They lived a territory to the north of Jerusalem and while they claimed to worship the same God as the Jews, but didn’t see the need for the worship to be focused in Jerusalem. Long story short the Jews hated the Samaritans as heretics who were unfaithful to God, and the Samaritans returned the hatred right back.
So as the lawyer and the rest of the crowd listen to Jesus’ story, they would have had pretty low expectations of what the Samaritan would do when he happened along the half-dead man.
But this reaction is radically different from the previous two. As the Samaritan, travelling and far from home approaches, he doesn’t cross over but instead comes near and when he sees the beaten man and is moved with pity to care for this man with whom he had little if anything in common.
The Samaritan makes sure the man is safe then provides care at the side of the road, bandaging the beaten man’s wounds, pouring wine and oil on them, puts him on his animal and brings him to an inn to further care for him there. The next day the Samaritan has things to attend to and so out of his own pocket pays the innkeeper to care for the man, promising to cover any extra costs that may be incurred.
The story finished, Jesus asks the lawyer, which of the three was a neighbor to the beaten man?
The lawyer doesn’t specifically name a character but simply responds, “The one who showed him mercy”. Not the one who knew and could recite the law. Not the one who agreed with the law. But the one who put the law into practice and showed mercy.
The passage concludes with Jesus telling the lawyer to “go and do likewise”, go do what God’s word says.
No doubt there are going to be lots of sermons preached today focusing on how, as followers of Jesus, we are called to treat our neighbor. But there is something even more basic in this text, which is to go put into practice what Scripture teaches—or at the very least try to put into practice what Scripture teaches.
Yes, it is important to know the faith and to understand the commandments of God. It’s great if we recognize and agree that this divinely given direction is a good thing.
But all of that means very little if it isn’t put into practice and lived out in the lives of those who follow Christ. As the author Bob Goff notes “It’s easy to agree with what Jesus said. What’s hard is actually doing what Jesus did.”
All too often we can find ourselves in the same position as the lawyer in today’s text, asking questions, not to come to the truth, but to try and avoid doing, avoid living the lives Christ has called us to through his word and in our baptism.
And let’s be clear, this isn’t always easy. People can come up with any number of reasons, explanations, justifications or just plain excuses for not doing what Jesus asks, even if they agree with Him it is a good thing they are being asked to do. And to be fair, the hesitation and reluctance may be completely understandable—but that doesn’t mean the avoidance is permissible. We were never promised easy—we were promised Jesus.
Jesus says to the lawyer, and to us today “Go and do likewise”. 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 neighbour as yourself.
Sure we may run into circumstances that are more convoluted than usual, where it may not be clear what “loving our neighbour” looks like—but over the course of any given day, let alone week or year, such situations are few and far between. It is less a question of “what to do” than doing what is immediately in front of us—doing the next act of loving God and our neighbour—putting the love we first received from God in Christ into action.