First Reading Leviticus 18:1-5–19:9-18
1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. 3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. 4You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. 5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
9“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. 11You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 13You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. 14You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. 15You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Psalm Psalm 41
1Happy are they who consider the poor and needy! the Lord will deliver them in the time of trouble. 2The Lord preserves them and keeps them alive, so that they may be happy in the land; he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies. 3The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and ministers to them in their illness. 4I said, “Lord, be merciful to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.” 5My enemies are saying wicked things about me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” 6Even if they come to see me, they speak empty words; their heart collects false rumors; they go outside and spread them. 7All my enemies whisper together about me* and devise evil against me. 8“A deadly thing,” they say, “has fastened on him; he has taken to his bed and will never get up again.” 9Even my best friend, whom I trusted, who broke bread with me, has lifted up his heel and turned against me. 10But you, O Lord, be merciful to me and raise me up, and I shall repay them. 11By this I know you are pleased with me, that my enemy does not triumph over me. 12In my integrity you hold me fast, and shall set me before your face forever. 13Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from age to age. Amen. Amen.
Second Reading Colossians 1:1-14
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing — as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Gospel Luke 10:25-37
25Behold, a lawyer stood up to put {Jesus} to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27And 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.” 28And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Lying by the Side of the Road
Back in October 2015, Reader’s Digest carried an article that featured 24 stories about what the editor called “the touching kindness of strangers.” One story, contributed by Leslie Wagner, was titled “The Man at the Market.” Ms. Wagner told of being in a supermarket checkout one time. When the clerk tallied up her groceries, Ms. Wagner discovered she was $12 over what she had in her purse. Embarrassed she began to remove items from the bags in her cart. Quite to her surprise, another shopper saw her predicament and handed her a $20 bill. Feeling self-conscious, Wagner said to the person making this generous offer, “Please don’t put yourself out.” “Let me tell you a story,” said this kind person.
“My mother is in the hospital with cancer. I visit her every day and bring her flowers. I went this morning, and she got mad at me for spending my money on more flowers. She demanded that I do something else with that money. So, here, please accept this. It is my mother’s flowers.” With that, she gratefully accepted the gift. It’s a touching story of kindness.
We love to hear stories of kindness extended to people in need. It not only gives the giver and the recipient a good feeling, it also reaffirms in us the basic goodness of humanity. This is why the parable in our gospel lesson is one we like to hear. Not only do we get to feel good about the Samaritan and his generosity, we also get to wag an accusing finger at the priest, Levite and the expert of the law. Well by the end of this sermon, I hope the traditional way of viewing this story will change for some you. Not that I want to change the traditional way this story is viewed, this is still valid, I want us to dig a bit deeper and see this story from a different, actually, two different perspectives.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible. It’s so familiar, and universal, that a law to protect those rendering aid is named after the protagonist of this story. It’s a story Jesus told to answer a legal expert’s question, and on the surface, it seems innocent and straight forward. In response to the lawyer’s question Jesus says, a man was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho when he fell among thieves who robbed him, stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead.
Most Bible scholars throughout history have made note of the fact that this was a frequent occurrence in Jesus’ day. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notoriously dangerous for travelers. Jerusalem is set on a hill some 2,300 feet above sea level. The Dead Sea, which is located near Jericho, is 1,300 feet below sea level; in other words, during the 20-mile trip, a traveler must descended some 3,600 feet in elevation from beginning to destination. Interestingly, this location also makes Jericho about the lowest city on earth. Because of the change of elevation, the road makes a lot of sharp turns with many narrow passageways, which provided several excellent lurking places for thieves and bandits. Fortunately, the road was also well traveled, so it wasn’t long before a priest happened by.
Unfortunately, the priest took one look at the broken and bleeding body lying there by the side of the road and hurried by on the other side. Charitably speaking, let’s assume he thought the man was dead. Priests were forbidden by the liturgical law from touching a dead body. Dead bodies, by Mosaic law, were ceremonially unclean. Likewise, a Levite, when he saw the man, passed by on the other side. Levites were under the same prohibition concerning dead bodies as were priests. For clarification, you can think of the priest in the literal sense, the and Levite as the assisting ministers. Both worked in the Temple and had duties around the Holy of Holies. They had direct contact with the people and the sacrifices that the people brought. So, by legal standards, it was important for the priest and Levite to remain undefiled.
Thankfully, there was a “certain Samaritan” who, coming upon the man, had compassion on him. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he placed the beaten man on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day when he needed to be moving on, this Samaritan went to the innkeeper, took money out of his own pocket and gave it to the innkeeper saying, “Take care of this man, and if this isn’t enough I will give you more when I return.” As I said before, we like this story; we like it because it makes us feel good and compels us to do works of charity for strangers. And this is all well and good.
It’s well and good because we’re commanded to show God’s love to strangers and help people in need. However, as I mentioned a moment ago, I’d like for us to consider this story from two additional perspectives. First, we need to look at this story from the perspective of the Lawyer who came to test Jesus.
From the viewpoint of the legal expert, Jesus’ story was challenging. As far as he was concerned, both the priest and the Levite were fully justified in their actions. Both had legal, occupational and obligations of heritage to keep themselves ritually clean so that they could perform their religious duties at any time. If either of them would have stopped to help the man, and he was dead, they would have had to wait 7 days before they could return to their temple duties. On top of that, the ritual purification process for both their bodies and their clothing was time consuming, not to mention the fact that they would have had to stay away from other priests and Levites so as not to make them unclean. That was the letter of the law; he knew this, and Jesus knew this too. Next, this story was troubling because of the fact that the good guy in the story was a Samaritan.
From the viewpoint of the Lawyer, the guy left for dead must have been a Jew. He was coming from Jerusalem which was a Jewish city. The Samaritan was an outcast, a half-breed, a half Jew/half Babylonian. During the exile, many of the Jewish men took foreign wives and had children. Upon their return from exile, they were commanded to put away their foreign wives and these children, in order to keep the Hebrew people pure. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but this is the facts. You can read about this in Ezra (10) and Nehemiah (13). These foreign wives and children are the Samaritans. Knowing this, you can understand the animosity and tension between these two groups.
This is why the story is so difficult when you look at it from this perspective. The despised stops to help his enemy. For the Lawyer this is seen as a ridiculous scenario. No self-respecting Jew would willingly accept the help of a Samaritan and no Samaritan would willingly help a Jew. And even if a Samaritan did stop to render aid, he’d never go to such great lengths to ensure the injured man’s well-being. This is why the story is so challenging. When considered this way, this story is no longer about us feeling good about helping some kind stranger in need. This is a story about reaching out in kindness to those whom we despise, those we see as inferior, those we see as undeserving, those we view as our oppressors and enemies. Jesus’ story challenges us to look beyond our own prejudices, past our own excuses, beyond our own perceived obligations and meet the needs of our neighbor anyway. It means taking of our own resources, our time, our possessions and our money to reach out regardless of who they are. And in today’s highly polarized country, this can be very difficult.
By the way, I think this is a good time to call your attention to a verse in our Old Testament reading. As exampled by the standard way of reading the Good Samaritan story, we like to help those in need, it makes us feel good. As a matter of fact, acts such as these help to feed our ego; those of means helping the less fortunate. Isn’t this what society teaches and puts forward: those of means are under a social obligation to help the down trodden? It even goes beyond this to an almost Robin Hood approach, take from the rich and give to the poor because the poor somehow deserve it? However, take a look again at what God commanded through Moses in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 15: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or to defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.”
In other words, it doesn’t matter who the other person is, rich, poor, enemy, friend; none of this matters in how we’re to treat our neighbor. As the Lawyer so rightly answered Jesus, “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, we’re to love our neighbor as our selves. This isn’t about helping our neighbor because it makes us feel good, or, about how we feel about the other; this parable is about loving and doing what’s best for our neighbor regardless. Suddenly I find this story very difficult! Love and act kindly and generously regardless! This brings us to the second perspective I’d like for us to consider.
I was doing some reading the other day and came across a summary of what church fathers Ambrose and Augustine had to say about this parable and it really helped bring a new perspective for me. In essence, we’re encouraged to see this parable from a first-person viewpoint. Start with the man who was beaten and robbed. When viewed in the first person, this is humankind in the hands of the evil one. Sin has left us beaten, abused and laying on the road waiting to die if a savior doesn’t come along. Without a Savior, we’re powerless to help ourselves and even if we do try to claw and crawl our way to safety, we’re unable. Because the penalty of sin is death, we need the God’s grace to save us because we cannot save ourselves. Next, we can also place ourselves in the story as the priest and the Levite.
In our self-focused condition, we look at the state of others and make all kinds of excuses for why we cannot stop and render aid. We try to justify ourselves by reasoning that the person is my enemy and deserves what they got. I’m late and I don’t have the time right now. The person is of a different race or social status and I cannot help them because it’s beneath my social station. I donate to various charities out of my excess and one of them can come to the injured person’s aid. We cross the road because we don’t want to get involved; that person might have a dangerous disease, or I have on my good clothes because I’m on my way to church and I don’t want to ruin my good suit. There are hundreds of excuses, all justifiable by social standards for us crossing the road.
Next we need to see Jesus in this story. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. Jesus set aside His divinity to come to live among us. He was despised, shunned and mocked, yet He came to help all in need, and that’s all of humankind. He took of His own resources, without having been asked, and pouring out His own blood, He cleansed our sin induced wounds, carried those sins on His own cross and provides the healing and salvation we need. Isaiah foretold our healing in Christ when he said, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (53:5). Jesus then concluded this parable by commanding that we are to go and do as the Good Samaritan; we’re to love our neighbor not only as we love ourselves, but we’re to love our neighbor as Jesus loves them. Is that a tough command, yes!
The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most famous stories in all of literature. Jesus told this story in response to a lawyer’s question, “And who is my neighbor?” And this is a question that still haunts us today, isn’t it? Are illegal immigrants our neighbor? Are people who are starving in remote sections of our earth our neighbors? Is the person we shun, despise, or who is our enemy our neighbor? According to this parable, the answer is yes, to all the above. According to God’s command, given through Moses, we’re not to regard one person over the other whether their poor, wealthy, enemy or friend, all are our neighbors, and this is why this story hits so close to home. Jesus doesn’t look at people through various lenses, His command to us is to do what He did and does.
Now it does need to be addressed that we need to use good judgment when helping others. Just because someone says they’re homeless, just because someone is holding a sign up that says they’re hungry doesn’t mean we need to pull out our wallet and give them money. We recognize that there are people in the situation they’re in because of drug addiction and mental health issues. If all we do is give them cash, we may be contributing to the problem. We need to accept that there are people that are beyond our ability to help. We are not drug addiction counselors. We are not mental health specialists. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be involved. We can do things to help without feeding the problem. Some will cost us time and resources, some will just cost us time.
This congregation (I’m sure) does a good job of supporting the agencies that are in a position to help folks that are beyond our abilities. But simply bringing in food or clothing or household goods or writing a check to the local assistance agency isn’t enough. We need to be ready and willing to assist those we can help that God places in our lives. We need to be ready to give of our time, give of our resources and give our money when it’s the proper thing to do. Another thing we can do is pray.
We can pray for the agencies that are in a position to help folks that are beyond our capability to assist. We need to pray for those who need assistance whether hidden from sight or on the side of the road. We can even pray for those we’ve tried to help, but who refuse to help themselves. Helping our neighbor requires us to act and that takes time. In closing let me share an experience I had this week with a person I’ve been trying to help basically since I started in ministry. It’s an experience that proves God answers prayers, sometimes even before we’ve prayed.
For the past 9+ years I’ve been trying to help a young man who has done nothing but live from day to day. Yes, he struggles with his past, yes, he struggles with decisions he’s made and yes, he struggles from a system that would rather give a handout than a hand up. I received a phone call from another person I know, one who is elderly and legally blind, asking if I would pass along a message to the young man I’ve been trying to help. I took the message and went to the young man’s home. When I arrived, I found the young man on the porch and it was obvious something was wrong. In the conversation I found out that he was being evicted from the place he is staying.
This young man has never had a job. He’s lived off the charity of his family and others all his life, and from time to time he will do odd jobs for some quick cash. I’ve tried over and over again to help him, I’ve even offered to help him in school if he’d go back and get his GED. All he ever gave me was one excuses after another for why he can’t. As I said, all he’s ever known is handouts. Well his time had come. His family is no longer willing to help him and has now kicked him out. I feel like I’ve exhausted all my options to provide long-term help, but he refuses. Frustrated I came back to the office and prayed, telling God I didn’t know what else to do.
Not fifteen minutes after I was done praying, the individual came into the office and announced that the elderly person I took the message for, wants the young man to come live with him in exchange for providing help around the house and taking care of the things he can’t. Even before I had prayed, God was busy answering my prayers for both these individuals. Because the elderly person now has someone to live with him, he can come home from the rehab facility. And because the elderly person needs help, the younger man now has a place to stay and food on the table. God is good and does step in when things are beyond our control. Was I expected to reach out as best I could to help my neighbor? Yes, for more than 9 years, but when the time came and when the situation was beyond my control, God took over. I could have made excuses, but I would have been no better than the lawyer who tried to justify himself.
Jesus has left us with the command to do as He does and love others regardless. We’re expected to reach out to those in need regardless of who they are, regardless of whether or not they deserve it, regardless if they’re our enemy or someone who has spitefully misused us. We’re commanded to respond to the needs of others the best we can for as long as we can, even if it doesn’t make us feel good. But we’re also expected to use good judgement. We reach out to our neighbors because once upon a time we were the ones lying in a ditch and a stranger reached out to us. And it’s Jesus who reaches out to our neighbor through us—using our hands, our material resources, our valuable time.
The story of the Good Samaritan is more than a story to make us feel good, it’s a story about how much God loves us and about how far He’s willing to go to share that love. And His command is still in effect today, “Go and do likewise.”
Amen
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