July 10, 2022 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Good Samaritan"
Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
(Other lectionary choices include Amos 7:7-17, Psalm 82, and Colossians 1:1-14.)
Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He 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 given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, 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 while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
The Scripture lesson we heard today was about the Good Samaritan, and that is the title of this sermon. You may recall that I preached on this topic the very first time I preached in this church, and that was on July 8, 2018. You may not remember that, but I do! Also, I received a nice compliment from Sang Han after the sermon. Don't worry! I am not going to preach the very same sermon! I wrote a new one!
This parable that Jesus told may be my favorite, except for the parable of the Prodigal Son. I like it because it tells of one person being compassionate to another, and the person being compassionate is from a different racial or ethnic or religious group from the person he is helping. I have said before that one of the points of ALL religions, not just OURS, is to be compassionate. Some would argue that the point of religion is to be RIGHT, but I strongly disagree. It's to be compassionate. Some have argued that we are supposed to convert souls to Christ, and while I wouldn't argue about that, I would say that first of all we are supposed to be compassionate, and perhaps a wayward soul who saw our compassion might be drawn to us - and therefore Christ - because he/she saw us being compassionate to somebody.
There is so much in this parable, and I don't think one sermon can unpack everything that's in this story. But let's start with the question of the lawyer, who asks the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" {By the way, lawyers aren't bad! We need lawyers and judges in our society. But they DO get a bad rap every so often. I think even in Shakespeare's time, there was an antipathy for those in the legal profession!} {And here is a joke told to me by my brother, a retired lawyer: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 60? Answer: Your Honor!}
First of all, that was the wrong question to ask: how do I INHERIT eternal life? Eternal life is God's great GIFT, not something one can earn or inherit.
Something else about the lawyer's question is troubling. Without saying so, he is saying, "What is the LEAST I can do to get into Heaven?" The lawyer is under the impression that God is a blind judge who will weigh the good and weigh the bad, and then determine if he "deserves" Heaven. Actually, there are probably a lot of folks in the world today who think that way. Some think, "There are probably a lot worse people out there than I am, so I hope I'll be okay." People who think that way are wrong, in my opinion. First of all, Jesus called God "Father" and maybe even "Daddy", so for Jesus God is not a dispassionate blind judge but a loving father. For Jesus, the dynamic is different. There is a RELATIONSHIP, a familial relationship, NOT a cut-and-dried, thumbs up or thumbs down iron-clad rule. It's not RULES but a RELATIONSHIP. The lawyer asking the question did not grasp that fact.
The lawyer asks another question: "And who is my neighbor?" Again, there is a certain hope in between the lines that "my neighbor" will be somebody who looks just like me! So, Jesus follows that question with the parable of the Good Samaritan, because Jesus - in all his wisdom - just KNEW that this guy needed to have his idea of "neighbor" stretched just a little bit! In the minds of his listeners, and especially the lawyer, there was no such thing as a GOOD Samaritan - so when Jesus told this tale, there were LOTS of shocked listeners when the good guy turned out to be from a social group that most Jews hated!
And look at who did NOT offer any help: two supposedly good guys who were also religious! Jesus is sticking it to religious folks who aren't compassionate! Is that you? Is that me? Sometimes, I'm afraid it is. I'm a minister, but sometimes I react in anger to those who irritate me, and I'm sorry. (If you were here last week, you may remember how I was irritated by that guy who asked for money, and when I gave him a buck, he said, "That's not enough!" Those of us who consider ourselves religious need to be compassionate, and maybe my anger got in the way in that story I told last week.)
At the end of the parable, when Jesus asked who was most neighborly of the three, the lawyer could not bring himself to say, "The Samaritan". He referred to him as, "The one who showed him mercy." And then Jesus says, "Go and do likewise." I hope you heard that: Go and DO likewise. We may be saved by grace, you and I.......but we are also called to DO merciful things. Remember last week and the quote from Micah 6? "What does the Lord require of you, but that you do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?" The Samaritan hated by the listeners to Jesus' parable did exactly that! He took a risk because he LOVED MERCY......and that had to have irritated some of those listeners!
Last week - and the week before that! - I quoted a Lutheran minister from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, by the name of Nathan Aaseng. I need to quote him again. He says, "Eternal life is not a reward for having jumped through God's hoops for all these years. Eternal life is living in true relationship with God, now and forever.....Jesus steers him (the lawyer) in the right direction. Open yourself up to God and your neighbor, and you will enter the kingdom."
The Rev. Mr. Aaseng has a list of things he has gleaned from this parable of the Good Samaritan. First on the list: "Proximity does not matter - the Samaritan did not live in the same country as the victim." Number 2: "Nationality does not matter - the Samaritan was a despised enemy." I've already said that! Number 3: "Friendship does not matter - the Samaritan was not even a casual acquaintance of the victim." Number 4: "Social status does not matter - the victim had no social contacts to join a caravan, nor money to have protection." Number 5: "Responsibility does not matter - the victim made poor choices in his life. What kind of idiot travels the most dangerous road in Israel without protection?" That's one of my favorites: how dumb was that! But the Samaritan doesn't say that! Finally, Number 6: "Religious beliefs do not matter - the men who passed by were devout members of the victim's religion. The Samaritan was of a different faith group - and Jesus doesn't bother to tell us if he was devout or not."
WOW! Isn't that great? Smart Jesus! Wonderful Jesus! See why I like this parable so much? Clever Jesus has eliminated any excuse the lawyer or you or I might make. Don't say, "Well, he was black and I'm white." I think Jesus would say, "SO?" And the reason the black-vs.-white argument is not mentioned in that parable is that different races didn't seem to matter to the people of the first century. They had OTHER prejudices, to be sure - but racism doesn't seem to be one of them.
"The message is", according to Rev. Nathan, "there are no loopholes in the 'love-your-neighbor' clause. Living in the presence of God means loving all of God's children as ourselves. Russians, Iranians, and illegal aliens. Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists. Criminals, drug addicts, the homeless, the obnoxious." Now THERE is a tough one, right there: the OBNOXIOUS! I think Jesus loved the obnoxious more than I! Maybe it's because I AM ONE!
Rev. Nathan concludes his commentary on this parable this way: "What must I do to inherit eternal life? Simple. Love every person on earth as you love yourself. Think you can do that? All the time? The good news is you don't have to. We do not DO anything to inherit the kingdom. The inheritance is given to us. We inherit eternal life by living in the presence of God, loving God and our neighbor. When we fall short, and shove our lifeboat away from our sinking neighbor, we fall out of God's presence. When that happens, we plead for God to draw us back into God's presence. What I have is yours, says God. {{That sounds like the parable of the Prodigal Son, doesn't it?}} You will inherit it by giving it away. That's what it means to live in the presence of God. That is what it means to enjoy eternal life." Amen.
Pastor Skip
