Luke 10:25-37 (Messy Church Theme) at Immanuel Lutheran, Boise

Luke 10:25-37

25 Just 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 neighbour as yourself.’ ²⁸And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 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 travelling 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 neighbour 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.’

Sermon – Meggan Manlove

We can hardly say the word Samaritan without first saying “good”: Good Samaritan Hospital, Good Samaritan Nursing Home, Good Samaritan Society, Good Samaritan Roadside Service. This story is so well known that newspersons and legislators who have no idea of what it meant to be a Samaritan will speak of passing “good Samaritan laws” and people being “good Samaritans.” This is so much more than a morality lesson.  It is one of Jesus’ most well-known parables and it is also one of the most scandalous. 

We are back on the road to Jerusalem, in a village along the way.  A scholar of the Torah is there.  He is one of the learned and well-respected people in the village.  This is someone who has been studying scripture for many years. He can recite the 10 Commandments in his sleep. He can quote and explain all the purity laws.

He stands up to test Jesus with a question about inheriting eternal life. Jesus responds with a questions of his own. The lawyer gives him a good answer, one we would expect from someone who has studied scripture his entire career.  He answers with a combination of Old Testament texts—love the Lord your God and love your neighbor.  

Jesus tells the lawyer to follow the law’s instruction. But the scholar wants “to justify himself.” He wants to put parameters on the law. He seeks a definition of neighbor. He expects a definition in line with the purity laws. He expects to discover the limits to the phrase “my neighbor.”

Jesus goes ahead and tells a story that blows the lawyer’s world view apart. This is not a story about normal roadside assistance in Idaho—where someone robs me and another person comes and kindly helps me out.

Jesus tells the story of a man beset by bandits.  Jesus does not say much about the man in the ditch. Jesus’ Jewish audience certainly assumed he was a Jew.  Two people pass on by the man in the ditch.  

Now these are not just two ordinary men.  The first is a priest and the second is a Levite.  

What they share in common is that they are students of the law. So presumably they knew the same two commandments that the lawyer quoted, love God and love your neighbor. These two men are leaders in the faith communities, they are what we might call the church establishment.  The priests and Levites head the purity list. They would avoid contact with a naked and therefore presumably dead body. 

Three is a common storytelling number. The first person did not stop to help the man and neither did the second. The audience is prepared; we are prepared for the third man to stop and help this poor fellow in the ditch. But then Jesus shatters all expectations, makes jaws drop and eyes pop. Then a Samaritan comes along.  What? It cannot be? 

The story does not pit an Israelite against a priest and a Levite.  By making the hero of the story a Samaritan, Jesus challenged the longstanding enmity between Jews and Samaritans.  Samaritans were regarded as unclean people.  They were descendants of the mixed marriages that followed from the Assyrian settlement of people from various regions in the fallen northern kingdom. 

By the time Jesus told this story, the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was ancient and bitter. The two groups disagreed about everything that mattered: how to honor God, how to interpret the Scriptures, and where to worship.  Though we’re inclined to love the Good Samaritan, Jesus’s choice to make him the hero of his story was nothing less than shocking to first century ears. 

The differences between them were not easily negotiated; each was fully convinced that the other was wrong. So what Jesus did when he had the Samaritan be merciful, was radical and risky. It stunned his listeners. He was asking them to dream of a different kind of kingdom. He was inviting them to consider the possibility that a person might add up to more than the sum of her political, racial, cultural, and economic identities. He was calling them to put aside the history they knew, and the prejudices they nursed. He was asking them to leave room for divine and world-altering surprises.         

By depicting a Samaritan as the hero of the story, Jesus demolished all boundary expectations. Social position—race, religion, or region count for nothing. The man in the ditch, from whose perspective the story is told, will not discriminate among potential helpers. Anyone who has compassion and stops to help is his neighbor.  

The question turns when viewed from the perspective of the one in desperate need.  Naming the third character as a Samaritan challenges the lawyer to examine stereotypes regarding Samaritans. But it also invalidates all stereotypes.  Community can no longer be defined or limited by such terms. The three on the road are each identified by social class, but the man in the ditch is not identified by such labels.

The lawyer will not even use the word Samaritan. When Jesus asks him who was the neighbor, the lawyer says only, “The one who showed mercy.” Ironically, his answer provides a very accurate description of a neighbor. Jesus turns the issue from boundaries required neighborliness to the essential nature of neighborliness. 

This parable has a scandalous edge.  [Amy-Jill Levine] One scholar says, “To hear this parable in contemporary terms, we should think of ourselves as the person in the ditch, and then ask, ‘Is there anyone, from any group, about whom we would rather die than acknowledge, ‘She offered help’ or ‘He showed compassion’? More, is there any group whose membership might rather die than help us? If so, then we know how to find he modern equivalent of the Samaritan.

It might be Muslim, Skikh, Buddhist, Jew, Black, White, Mexican, Arabic, Mormon, Lutheran, gay, lesbian, transgender. Genuine kindness and goodness and mercy cannot be restricted to any one people. They also do not depend up on having learned the “right” answers.  

Jesus’ parable shatters the stereotypes of social boundaries and class division and renders void any system of religious quid pro quo. Neighbors do not recognize social class. This is key: mercy is not the conduct of a calculating heart.  Eternal life is not the reward of prescribed duties.  

The duty of neighborliness is an expression of love of God and love of others. The duty of neighborliness transcends any calculation of reward. The Samaritan could not have expected any reward or repayment for what he did for the beaten man.  One who shows mercy in order to gain a reward would, therefore, not be doing “likewise.” To do “likewise,” to cross boundaries, is to respond to boundaries that have already been crossed on our behalf.

The Samaritan is the one who notices—who actually sees—this beaten man.  By seeing him he is moved to pity.  The Samaritan is the one who recognizes that when it comes to the question of who is our neighbor, there are no rules. Our neighbor is anyone in need. So where are we to get such vision?  

This parable shows us that the ability to see our neighbors clearly does not come from your ethnic background or where you are from or what your job is. None of those things matter. So, do I go to Walgreens or Costco for those lenses?  If only it were that easy. It takes practice to see the neighbor. It takes diligence in the midst of weariness. It requires a community to which we are accountable for our seeing.  It takes intentionality and humility.

“Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asked.  Your neighbor is the one who scandalizes you with compassion, Jesus answered.  Your neighbor is the one who upends all the entrenched categories and shocks you with a fresh face of God.