Luke 10:23-37; Galatians 3:15-22; 2 Chronicles 28:8-15
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Three weeks ago, a young woman was murdered on a commuter train in Charlotte, NC. The attacker stabbed her three times in the neck and exited the train. There were witnesses, no fewer than five, right there on the train sitting next to her. Each of them saw what happened. Each of them saw the attacker flee. Each of them saw the poor young woman in distress, dying, and they did nothing. They did absolutely nothing. One by one they exited the train and left the young woman to die alone on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her name was Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was simply going home from work. She didn’t speak to anyone; she didn’t make eye contact with anyone; she didn’t confront anyone in any way, and yet she was senselessly and violently murdered for reasons, or for no reason, God only knows. I don’t know much about her other than that, but that’s enough. I don’t know what her religion was, if she even had one. I don’t know if she was conservative or liberal, and I don’t care, it doesn’t matter. And notice, I haven’t said anything about the murderer or those witnesses who did absolutely nothing. I’ve said nothing about their race, their nationality, their political affiliation, their religious beliefs, or anything else, because I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t matter. But I can’t help seeing the similarity between the murder of Iryna Zarutska and the man in our Gospel lesson today, “who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” There were two men who walked by who could have helped him, but they didn’t. And there was another man who walked by who did help. Why did they not help? Why did the other help? Let’s talk about that.
First, why did Jesus tell this story? Well, a law student, that is a student of the Mosaic law, asked Jesus a question seeking to entrap him: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question exposes the fallacy in Jewish thinking concerning the law in the first century: You can’t do anything to inherit, and particularly, eternal life cannot be gained by works but it must be received as a gift of God’s grace through faith. But, since the lawyer asked a law question, Jesus directed him to the law: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” “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.” That was the correct answer. After all, he was a lawyer, and the Mosaic law doesn’t get more fundamental than that. “Do this, and you will live,” Jesus answered. And now the lawyer had a problem, for he didn’t keep the law perfectly, and he knew it, and that made him feel uncomfortable. So, he thought to himself, if I can make the law more do-able, then I’ll be able to justify myself. He was more concerned with justifying himself than with loving his neighbor. “And who is my neighbor?” he asked Jesus. He wrongly thought that if he could somehow pare down the number of people he had to love then he’d do pretty good. In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, forcing the lawyer to answer his own question, “Who is my neighbor?” Everyone placed before you to extend God’s love to.
The priest came to where the man was. He saw the man, and he passed on by. He was more concerned with his obedience to the letter of the law (as opposed to the spirit of the law), ability to perform his duties at the temple, and his reputation than he was about the dying man who was before him. “After all, he might be a Samaritan. There might be blood. He might be dead. Then I would be unclean. I can’t take the risk.” These reasons are rooted in race, religion, self-interest, and general apathy, likely some of the reasons the other passengers and witnesses on the train failed to act when Iryana Zarutska was murdered. Similarly, the Levite came to where the man was and passed on by, undoubtedly for the very same reasons.
But then a third man approached, and Jesus tells us that he was a Samaritan. Jews viewed the Samaritans as racially and religiously impure "half-breeds" because of their historic intermarriage with Assyrian colonists during the Assyrian conquest in the 8th century BC. Though both groups believed in God and revered the Torah, they worshipped in different places and were deeply suspicious and prejudiced toward each other. In the context of Jesus’ parable, the Samaritan did not feel the coercion of the Mosaic law quite the way the priest and the Levite likely did. He was already an outcast and unclean in the eyes of the Jews, and he had not duty to perform in the Jerusalem temple. In a very real sense, he was free from the law’s coercion to do it freely and without fear of punishment or loss. So he went directly to the man, poured his own wine upon his wounds, bandaged him up, put him on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and paid for his keep, promising to return and pay any additional expense for the man’s care and shelter.
I hope that you can see that Jesus’ parable isn’t about the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. The spirit of the law is love. The priest and the Levite were so concerned about the letter of the law that they completely neglected the spirit of the law, and they did not, they could not show love to their neighbor. Ironically, they didn’t really love the letter of the law either, but they considered it hard and coercive, and they obeyed it reluctantly and with fear. The Samaritan had no fear in helping the dying man. So what if he was a Jew, a Samaritan, or even a Roman? So what if he worshipped in Jerusalem, in Samaria, or even if he worshipped Zeus? Your neighbor is literally everyone, but most especially the one who is before you with a need you have been particularly gifted to give. In other words, you don’t have to go out and find your neighbor, and your neighbor is not chiefly someone in another state or another country, but your neighbor is in your family, your church, your neighborhood, your place of employment, and maybe even on the bench in front of you on a train or a bus.
The priest and the Levite permitted the Mosaic law to keep them from helping, from showing God’s love. We all have laws that we make up for ourselves that keep us from helping those whom the Lord has put before us. And I’m not talking so much about homeless people on the street, some of whom are quite likely shysters, but I’m talking your about elderly parents, your non-religious sibling, a rebellious son our daughter who’s made some bad choices, the Republican or Democrat who lives next door to you that you can’t stand, the homosexual couple across the street, etc. It doesn’t matter. That’s the point. It simply doesn’t matter if you like them or not, if you approve of their behavior or not, if you think them foolish or not, what they believe, the color of their skin, what language they speak: It just doesn’t matter. If they are before you, and you can help, they are your neighbor; help them. You’re not endorsing their bad behavior. You’re not blessing their lifestyle or choices. You’re not voting for their candidate or worshipping their god. You are extending the love, charity, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to them that you yourself have received from your loving, charitable, gracious, merciful, and forgiving God through Jesus Christ. Don’t worry, you won’t run out. God won’t let you.
A wise pastor and professor, John Kleinig, teaches, “No man is your enemy. We all share one and the same enemy.” Our enemy, of course, is Satan. Satan seeks to divide us and for us to view each other as “other,” as enemy, to dehumanize them so that we do not see them as fellow human creatures made by God in his image, people for whom Jesus suffered and died to forgive that they may live with him in his kingdom forever. Don’t hear me wrong; I’m not saying that we are to condone and bless their sinful behavior, whatever it may be. Quite the contrary; if you love them, then your desire for them is to repent and receive forgiveness, so help them with that. But, even if they don’t, still you must love them. And if you can help them, you should. Why? Because the law has been fulfilled by our Good Samaritan Jesus. Jesus suffered and died for the Jew, the Gentile, and for all human beings, regardless of race, religion, political persuasion, sexual identity, or anything else. You have been set free from the law’s coercion and threat. You have been set free from the law by Jesus to truly do it out of love for God and for neighbor without fear, resentment, loss, or any such thing. Do not let race or religion, politics, identity, or anything else keep you from loving your neighbor whom Jesus loved enough to die for along with you, especially those who are near to you, in your family, your church, your neighborhood, or on the seat next to you on the train or bus.
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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