Walk on By

Read Luke 10:25-37

This week the children had encounters with two bigtime Bible stories.  The whole Bible is important and we should have a hunger to read it again and again, but this week amidst everything else happening in outer space, the kids made a visit to the lion’s den and saw the faith of Daniel and how God showed himself as the one true God in a pagan world.

We also had the story of the Good Samaritan, which would have been an oxymoron in the time in which Jesus told it.  Good and Samaritan would have never been used in the same sentence.

The Samaritans were considered a lesser sort of people by the Jews who had not intermixed with their conquerors.  If you had to say the word Samaritan, then you had better spit after you said it so folks knew your disdain for them.

This is more than horns up or down come October in Oklahoma and Texas.  Realize that these two fingers up or down is something of an improvement over when I was young.  A single finger did all of the talking for both sides back then. This Samaritan stuff is genuine disgust and hatred and some holier-than-thou attitudes mixed in. 

So an expert in the law—a Pharisee or a Scribe or a Rabbi of some acclaim—wanted to test Jesus.  By test, we generally believe that he wanted to be the one guy who bested Jesus.  If he could just catch him misquoting Isaiah or getting the days of creation in the wrong order or anything slightly off kilter, then he would make a real name for himself.

He could be the one who bested Jesus.  Think old west gun fighters.  There’s always some young gun who rides into town looking to make a name for himself.

So this expert asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied:  What does the law say?

The expert replied:  Love God with everything you have—heart, soul, mind, strength.  And to love your neighbor as yourself.  I would think that this expert was glad that Jesus asked him to answer his own question.  He go to show off a little.

Jesus told him to do this and he would live.  Elsewhere Jesus would note that all of the law and the prophets were anchored in these two commandments. 

But in this encounter, Jesus just tells him to obey these two simple commands and he would live.  One of those commands was love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

The expert not content with just getting the correct answer to his own question, ventures a little farther, to an area where his expertise might have been more speculative than authoritative, and he asks:  “Well just who is my neighbor?”

I’m sure that this had been a matter of some discussion among the many teachers and experts of the law.  Searching the finer points of the law at the expense of its goodness was common practice among the self-righteous.  Surely this question did not have a definitive answer and would stump Jesus.

So Jesus tells a story.

A man who was not named was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho.  This was a stretch of road of something less than 20 miles that was known for its perils.  This lone individual was ambushed, beaten, robbed, and left for dead.

He probably thought that this is where his life would come to an end, but then a priest was also traveling along the same road.  Perhaps the man got his hopes up for a moment, but only for a moment for the priest walked on the other side of the road and passed the man by.

The priest surely had duties that required his attention and didn’t have time for checking on a man who would probably die shortly anyway.

So much for any help from this man of God.

Some time later a Levite came by.  Was he on his way to duty in the temple or on his way home following his temple tour?  We don’t know.

Did the man who was left for dead have a glimmer of hope?  We don’t know.

What we do know is that the Levite like the priest passed this man in need of help without stopping.  Like the man of God before him, he passed on the other side of the road.  Perhaps he thought there was a reason that justified this.  If he was on his way to the temple, how could he stop and check on this man, especially if he was dead.

There would surely be some ritual cleansings involved if that were the case.

In any case the man left for dead had gone 0 for 2. 

Then a Samaritan man came along.  The Samaritan saw the man and had mercy on him.  He cleaned and bandaged his wounds with what he had—mostly wine and oil.  Then he put him on his own donkey and took him into town.

He found an inn, got the wounded man a room, tended to him some more, paid the innkeeper and told him that the wounded man could run a tab.  If he needed something that wasn’t already paid for, the Samaritan would make good when he returned.

This Samaritan obviously had some means and status.  You don’t just let anyone open a charge account with your establishment.  He couldn’t run his credit card for incidentals.

So at the end of this story, Jesus asked the expert, who do you think was a neighbor to the man left for dead?

The expert in the law unwilling to say the Samaritan, said the one who showed him mercy, who just happened to be the Samaritan.

So the expert asked who is my neighbor and Jesus answered with a story that said be a neighbor.

It’s the story of the good Samaritan.  Everyone has heard it.  Good Samaritan is a term that we all know and it doesn’t seem like an oxymoron to us today. 

Some states have Good Samaritan laws where those who help someone on the side of the road are not at risk from being prosecuted for helping without being a doctor or medic.  Negligence still applies but not to the same standard as for a medical professional.

But we live in Oklahoma.  Of course, we are going to stop and help.  If your traveling with your family, your risk tolerance might be different, but I can say with much certainty that most men traveling alone will stop and help someone on the side of the road who looks like they are in trouble.

That’s Oklahoma.  Besides, you just don’t see a lot of people robbed on the roads out in these parts.  If someone tries to rob you with their 38 special, they might encounter your 357 extra special or two barrels of a shotgun.  You just don’t see people getting robbed between here and Elk City.

Broken down vehicles, hitchhikers, and the occasional person claiming to be homeless and needing help pop up on our radar every now and then, but we are not talking about discerning between a panhandler and legitimate need this morning.

We are talking about who is my neighbor.  So does this pericope have any bearing on our modern day lives?  What does this story of the Good Samaritan say to us?

Suppose that you are walking through town on your way to Rudy’s or Gret’s and there is a person that you don’t know up ahead watering their rose bushes with the hose, what do you do?

Well, surely, they have a place to live and care enough for it to water their plants, so what is there to do?

Do they have the gospel of life in Jesus Christ?

Have they received the good news?

Just by looking at someone with a garden hose it’s really hard to tell.

We could just keep on waking, making sure to pass on the other side and wave from a safe distance.  There is some risk here when you talk to someone with a garden hose at the ready.

Would we look straight ahead and keep on walking on the other side of the street so as not to risk a conversation.

We could respect that person’s privacy.  Some people just want to be left alone.  They enjoy their solitude and the peace that comes with water flowing from a hose.

But if that person has not received Christ as Lord, he or she has been left for dead.  He has been left for dead.

But surely God wouldn’t let that happen, would he?  No.  He sent you.

In our day and time it is much more likely that we will encounter someone in our travels who is dead already because they have not believed in Jesus than it is to find someone beaten to near death and left on  the side of the road.

So what do we do?  Do we walk on by because our destination is more important than this poor soul on the side of the road?  Do we walk by on the other side so we don’t have to risk an encounter, or will we be more like the Samaritan?

For everyone here who has received Jesus as Lord, we look forward to coming before him at some point after we have left these earthen vessels.  We don’t fear being condemned for our sins.  The blood of Jesus took them away, but we do expect to give an account for our lives after we were saved.

I have preached the parable of the talents many times and in the course of those homilies usually come to the question that is never asked but always answered.  We are sure that we will answer Jesus whether he has to ask the question or not.

What did you do with what I gave you?

There might be another question.  We will all give an account before God.  What is it that we will account for?  How about this as we stand before Jesus.

Where are all the people that I sent you to bring to me?

That’s not fair.  Come on now, I made hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches for hundreds of kids.  There is surely a jewel in your crown for that.

I tithed faithfully even during some hard times.  There were surely some blessings in this life and more jewels for your crown in the one to come.

I sang all of the hymns every Sunday and even got most of the words right.  That’s got to be a really shiny jewel right there.

I wore my GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER wristband at least once a week.  That surely has to count for something.  Was that not me being the light of the world?

I drove a van full of kids more times that you can count.  I’m sure that heaven is going to have to open the vault to give you your rewards for that one.

I know what it is to be VBS tired for the Lord!  That’s got to count for something.

But, but, but…how will we answer this question whether it is asked or not?

Where are all the people that I sent you to bring to me?

Will I have to say, “Well, I walked by them on the other side of the road?”

As this the second decade of this new century comes near its end, we are unlikely to encounter someone beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, but we are very likely to see hundreds of people every week who have been left for dead because they have not received Jesus Christ as Lord.

Surely, God will not leave them in that state.  He desires that none perish and all come to repentance and saving grace.  That is his heart’s desire.

Surely, he will send someone to them with the good news of life in Jesus Christ.

The expert in the law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor.”  He wanted to wiggle out of any obligation to deal with people not already in his circle.  Surely God would not require him to venture out of his comfort zone.

Jesus told him to be a neighbor.

We consider all of the people that we know who have not received Jesus as Lord and ask, “Who will bring the good news to them?”

I hope that we hear ever so clearly, Jesus calling to us:  “I sent you .”

I hope that we hear him say: “I commissioned you.”

I hope that we have eyes to see that those without Jesus have been left for dead. 

I hope that we take the example of the Good Samaritan and don’t just throw a card and a wristband at someone, or just leave them with a gospel and a gruff charge to read it for your own good.

I hope that we share what Jesus has meant to us and help someone receive Jesus as Lord.  The Good Samaritan was obviously a man of some means.  He had oil and wine, a donkey, and money to pay the innkeeper.

We have some substantial means as well.  We travel the roads of this life with the Holy Spirit.  We have what we need to help those who have been left for dead.

We can be a good neighbor.  We can fulfill our commission.  We can help people who are dead in their sin come to life in Christ.

We can do this.  Let’s be a neighbor to those who need our help the most.  Be a neighbor to those who are dead in their sin.  We have more than oil, wine, and a donkey.  We have the Holy Spirit and good news.

Be a neighbor.

Amen!

The Good Samaritan

Read Luke 10:25-37

This is one of the more familiar parables in the Bible.  The term Good Samaritan is so common these days that we forget what a contradiction in terms, what an oxymoron it would have been to use this term 2000 years ago.

The term Good Samaritan is not even used in the scripture.  This is a title or pericope heading that attached itself to the text in later years.  In Luke’s Gospel, this story is sandwiched in between the sending of the 72 and a very personal encounter with Mary who truly valued her time with Jesus and Martha who remained wrapped up in things of the world.

This parable begins with a question.  It is a question from a teacher of the law who is seeking to best Jesus in public more than he is seeking an answer.

The teacher asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life.

Jesus answers with a question and the teacher replies:  Love the Lord with all you heart, soul, strength, and mind; and to love your neighbor as yourself. 

Jesus replies, yes you got the right answer.  Do this and you will live. 

There is another train of thought that could be pursued here—he didn’t say the words, Jesus is Lord or whosoever believeth in hiim, and Jesus told him he would live if he did these four things.  We don’t have a ticket for that train at this time.  Perhaps we will board that train on another day.

The teacher wants to take one more shot and asks who is my neighbor?

Jesus tells the parable, in which we can easily see five or six main characters.  The robbers set the story in motion by ambushing a man.

The man is probably a Jew.  Jesus was talking to a teacher of the law and most of the people around him at this time were likely Jews.  The man was one of them.  The crowd likely had empathy for the man.

Next we have the priest and the Levite.  Both see the man and pass by on the other side.  Our reaction in the twenty-first century is often look at how sanctimonious these religious leaders were.  We have seen that holier than thou attitude before.

These two might have received a little more sympathy from the Jewish crowd.  After all, Priests had to remain clean and pure to fulfill their duties in the temple.  Some might have said, they were just following the law and the provisions and commentaries on the law found in the Talmud and Mishnah.  The teacher of the law, however, should have known that the Mishnah provided and exception to these restrictive guidelines when encountering an abandon corpse. 

If we take the words literally that both the Priest and the Levite are going down the road, then they were leaving Jerusalem which was several hundred feet above sea level and Jericho was below sea level.  Today, we might say that we were going down the road and in western Oklahoma that term may or may not connote a change in altitude.  But if the priest and the Levite were both going down, then they were leaving Jerusalem, traveling the same direction as the man, and thus would have concluded any temple duties which would have required purification.

In any case, both passed the man on the other side of the road.

Next we come to the Samaritan.  I would suspect that there might have even been a few boos and hisses at the mention of this character.  It’s not that there was underlying racial hatred towards the Samaritans.  There was overt racial hatred towards these “half breeds.”  Whether the roots of this hatred go back to the time of the Babylonian Captivity or were a more recent development really doesn’t bear on the situation.  Racial hatred is racial hatred and it is not going to be dispelled by finding the historical roots.  Hatred is a condition of the heart and many in the crowd that was listening likely had this hatred ingrained in their hearts.

When Jesus asks the teacher of the law which one of the three was a neighbor to the man who was robbed, the teacher replies the one who showed mercy.  Perhaps this is just the teacher revealing his insight into the parable or perhaps it is his reluctance to say the word Samaritan without spitting at the same time.

But it is the Samaritan who does what most had hoped the priest or the Levite would do.  He cares for the man with his own oil, and wine, and beast of burden.  He brings him to an Inn and doesn’t drop him off.  He cares for him overnight.  The next day, he pays the innkeeper in advance and tells him that he will settle accounts upon his return and pay him anything else that he is due.  The Samaritan truly shows love and mercy.

There is another human character in this story, one who has no lines to say or action, but who perhaps has something to reveal.  That is the innkeeper.  He accepts the Samaritan at his word that he will make good on any expense incurred by the innkeeper.  This tells us that he either witnessed something that inspired trust in the Samaritan or there was an existing relationship.  In either case, the innkeeper agrees—at least we hear of no objection—to keep and care for the beaten man. 

Others throughout history have interpreted this parable allegorically.  Origin Adamatius, one of the church fathers that lived in the second and third centuries would offer the following representations.

The man in Adam.

Jerusalem is Paradise.

Jericho is the world.

The priest is the law.

The Levite represents the prophets.

The beast or donkey is the Lord’s incarnate body.

The Inn which accepts all—whosoever will may come—is the church.

The Innkeeper is the head of the church.

The Samaritan is Christ and the message to the Innkeeper that he will settle accounts upon his return reminds us of the second coming of Christ.

Augustine and others might parallel this traditional allegorical interpretation to some degree.  They might add that the robbers were the Devil and his angels.

John Newton, who would write Amazing Grace and lived in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, also penned these lines supporting the traditional allegorical interpretation:

How kind the good Samaritan
To him who fell among the thieves!
Thus Jesus pities fallen man,
And heals the wounds the soul receives.

There have been many interpretations of this parable through the ages, but this morning, I would like to focus on the two very direct statements that Jesus makes in conjunction with this scripture.

The first comes before the parable when the teacher responds to the question posed by Jesus, how do you interpret the law.  The man says 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 love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says do this and you will live.  The conversation could have stopped here.  Jesus said love God with everything that you are and everything that you have.  Jesus said, truly love God.

We—the generations of believers who followed—are enriched by the parable that followed the teacher’s question, who is my neighbor.  Jesus answered the teacher’s question with a parable and with a command.

When the teacher revealed that the neighbor was the one who showed mercy; Jesus said go and do likewise.

The answer to who is my neighbor is to be a neighbor.  For all of the interpretation and representation that this parable may include; the directive words are to love God and to be a neighbor—to love one another.  We are not to be so much concerned about who to love or where to love or in what circumstances do we show love.  We are told to go and do likewise—to be mercy, to be love, to be a neighbor.

It is a wonderful parable that so many have tried to make more intricate than it need be.  Love God, love each other, and be a neighbor are powerful and direct.

There are so many ways to examine this parable, but the question to us is what are we going to do in response to this teaching?

How about:

Love God.

Love one another.

Be a neighbor.

Amen!