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| Homeless man and friend, Barcelona |
Luke 10:25-37
Our gospel story this coming
story begins with a lawyer—one learned in the Law, and thus one of those who
have just been criticized for not being able to see what Jesus’s message is about—questioning
Jesus. Thus this story is used to reinforce the point that those who follow the
gospel are judged to be fools or child-like, in a time when neither was
respected.
Luke carefully constructs
this pericope. The lawyer (his motive to test Jesus and possibly trap him) asks
Jesus a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Remember,
in Luke, those who call Jesus “Teacher” are those who resist Jesus’s teachings
and status as the Messiah. Possibly sensing that the lawyer is being
manipulative, given that as a lawyer he should know the Law, Jesus answers the
questions with a question. The fact that the lawyer answers immediately is
telling. The answer has a two part requirement: Love God with all of your
being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
We have seen a similar
questioning from a lawyer in Matthew 22.34-40: When the Pharisees heard that he had
silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a
lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which
commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the
greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 40On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.’ Notice in Matthew’s version, Jesus
straightforwardly answers the lawyer’s question and explains the significance.
In Mark 12.28-34, a scribe asks the
question and engages in conversation with Jesus about it: One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the
first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear,
O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater
than these.’ 32Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher;
you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; 33and
“to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the
strength”, and “to love one’s neighbor as oneself”,—this is much more important
than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ 34When Jesus saw
that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of
God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question. In this case, the scribe’s question and
Jesus’s answer brings the scribe into willingness to consider the truth of
Jesus’s message.
But in Luke, the lawyer then
immediately follows up with another question: Who is my neighbor? Now, normally
that question could be defined rather narrowly in the cultural context of the
time of Jesus. Your neighbor would be those in actual physical proximity to
your home, or perhaps it could be extended to your tribe, or at the very most
your nation—Israel. Jesus is going to extend this boundary, and in Luke the
person who is depicted well is, once again, NOT the Jewish authorities but an
outsider. But once again, Jesus does not answer directly but uses a teaching
story, which has become known to as “The Good Samaritan.”
There are two Samaritans
mentioned specifically in the Gospels. One is the Samaritan man who was the
good neighbor in this story. The other is the Samaritan woman in John 4.7-42,
to whom Jesus speaks at the well. We will hear the story of that second
Samaritan in this Sunday’s gospel.
Let’s remember that after we get
familiar with most stories, we sometimes forget what was meant by the words in
them at the time they were being used, just as we now forget that “the Prodigal
Son” doesn’t mean “lost son,” but “spendthrift son.” “Good Samaritan” would
have sounded strange indeed to the original hearers of Jesus’s story. The two
words were not considered to go together, and were oxymoronic to good Jews. It
would be like “honest politician” or “trustworthy liar.” Samaritans were those had intermarried with
non-Jews during the Assyrian conquest and who had begun following practices that were
considered heretical, such as worshipping on their own mountain, Mount Gerazim,
rather than the Temple in Jerusalem. Good Jews considered them to be outside
the Law. That’s what makes the Samaritan’s action all the more striking. He is
outside the Law, a follower of unclean practices, and yet he follows the intent
of the Law better than the priest or the Levite, with no hope of compensation.
He does what is right for its own sake.
Yet, we are letting ourselves off the
hook if we do not realize that the impulses of the priest and Levite certainly
live within us as much as the impulse of the Samaritan. We have all been each
of the four people in the story—including the man who had been beaten, robbed,
and left for dead by robbers and by the passersby. The man lying beside the
road could have been a robber himself pretending to be hurt so that he could ensnare
someone trying to help him. If he had been dead, the priest and the Levite
would have been ritually unclean and unable to perform their duties according
to the Law, and they would not have been able to help him. Also, remember that
a denarius was a day’s full wage. The Samaritan spent TWO of them, and promised
to pay more if necessary.
Further, if the man who had fallen among
thieves was a Jew, the Samaritan has done his deed for someone who could be
considered his enemy. Thus this story makes it clear that we owe kindness and
concern for everyone—even, or maybe especially, those we consider to be
outsiders or even enemies. The boundaries of blood, race, religion, tribe—Jesus
calls us to transcend all of these and to treat others as we would want to be treated—with
mercy and kindness—even if we think they are outside of our own group, even if
our first impulse is to blame them for their misfortune. This is an important
story for this, the day after Independence Day, a day in which some of us may
have been tempted to believe that our country is especially favored by God. It
is good to be reminded that we are to love our neighbors, especially when they
are NOT just like us. Our refugee
neighbors. Our LGBTQ neighbors. Our Muslim neighbors. Our Jewish neighbors. Our
homeless neighbors. Our “huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” neighbors,
as the words on the Statue of Liberty reminds us.
The joining together of the two
commands—to love God and love others—is a command not for what we need to
understand but what we need to do. This is the perfect summary of the Law and
Prophets. That is why Jesus tells the lawyer, “Go, and do likewise.”
It’s that simple.
