A Man

July 15, 2007

By

Reverend Litton Logan

Scriptures:

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.” Luke 10:25-37

Sermon:

I imagine we have all heard sermons, lectures, or lessons of various kinds on this famous parable of the Good Samaritan

However, let’s re-look at this well-worn story and see if we can glean some new insight. Previously, Jesus has sent out seventy or seventy-two of his disciples to prepare the towns and villages to receive him and his ministry. They have returned from their mission elated that even the unclean spirits are submissive to the power of Jesus’ commission. Jesus tells the disciples that their greatest Joy should be that their names are listed as citizens of the kingdom of God.

Luke introduces his next segment of Jesus’ ministry as Jesus continues on to Jerusalem and Calvary with a story of a lawyer who confronts Jesus. The implication is that the lawyer wants to put this country bumpkin preacher in his place, especially in light of some Jesus’ loft claims for himself and his ministry. This lawyer would have been considered an expert on Jewish religious and social law.

The lawyer asks Jesus what is the bottom line regarding a person’s place in the kingdom of God. Jesus’ response might have sounded something like this, “Friend you are the expert in the Scriptures what do they say on such matters?” Luke has the lawyer as opposed to Jesus in Mark’s and Matthew’s account of this story combine two Old Testament passages—Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18—to frame a summary of one’s assurance of eternal life, or citizenship in the kingdom of God.

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 [Jesus] said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

The Lawyer responds correctly. God’s claim on a person’s life encompasses the entirety of a person’s being and if a person truly loves God, they will consequently love their neighbor as they love them selves.

Nevertheless, the lawyer isn’t through with Jesus. He asks another question—“And who is my neighbor?” Whoa! This was a religious hot button topic. However, I would hasten to point out that this haggling over who was the neighbor would have been a bone of contention most commonly chewed on among religious extremist not the average rabbi and his synagogue. It would have been one of those esoteric, religious issues, not something the average person would have been hung up on. However, the average rabbi and Jewish community would have had reservations about calling a Samaritan or a Roman a neighbor in the sense of our parable.

Like many societies, there are social castes--in and out groups, etc. The longer such social boundaries exist and the more those boundaries benefit those who make the rules that underwrite the social order, the more the social order tends to take on the weight of the divine. Millions of minorities, women and children the world over have existed and do exist under the oppression of such divine, “social orders”.

Nevertheless, the rational for the Jew in extremis not to define one’s neighbor too broadly would violate God’s mandate to be holy, that is separated from the profane, the world of the non-Jew. Yet, in spite of such passages in our New Testament that we have heard today, Jewish society in actuality, then and now, was and is more hospitable and open to the non-Jew than we have been lead to believe.

Nevertheless, the lawyer wants to push Jesus in to giving specifics, i.e., my neighbor is my next door Jewish neighbor, who is kosher, but not my next door gentile neighbor or my Samaritan neighbor down the road. Jesus is not so easily cornered. He gives his response in this now famous parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable in one form or another has been used, and rightly so, to assault and tear at the very fabric of harmful and hateful ethnic, social and religious boundaries and prejudices long before the time of Christ. This parable in one of its original forms would have featured a priest, a Levite, and a common Jewish man as the compassionate traveler. However, Jesus kicks the parable and its meaning into a completely different realm—the realm of earthly behaviors that warrant kingdom citizenship.

I believe the purpose of this parable is to focus people’s attention on a universal truth that can dismantle all social, political, cultural, and religious divisions that adversely excluded and harm others.

In short, I would say this parable pushes our thinking beyond the ingrained notions of person seeing himself or herself as a member of a particular group, nation, or tribe into seeing oneself in a broader understanding as a child of God. It means for us to see ourselves not only caring for and protecting just those of our group, families, nation, tribe, social strata, or caste but for all the other children of God—our brothers and sisters--regardless of race, color, creed, culture, ethnicity, vocation, or socio-economic status. Therefore, the insights, the truths, and the living of these scriptures are far less complicated that one would imagine.

Turn with me again to these passages of scriptures. Jesus says that…, “’a man’ was going down from Jerusalem.” Jesus does not say it was a Jew, a Gentile, or a Samaritan. Luke’s Jewish audiences may have assumed it was a Jewish man. Luke’s gentile audience may have supposed a gentile. Who would we suppose the man to have been?

This man was accosted--robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left for dead. I bet you didn’t notice the subtlety of the guy being left naked did you. It would have been easy to determine at the very least whether a naked man was Jew or Samaritan, he would have been circumcised as opposed to a Gentile who would not have been. However, regardless of his nakedness our scriptures he remains just a naked man who has been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. Curious, huh? In addition, why would Jesus feature a non-descript man, and identify his rescuer as a Samaritan?

Furthermore, please do not be too hard on the priest and the Levite because after all they were just men too. They didn’t behave very well in these circumstances. Implications are that these men’s piety and sense of compassion was shallow and self-serving. Or, their faith was not strong enough to overcome their fear. It was a common ploy for robbers to use previous victims or fake victims to lure folks into a trap. This priest and the Levite many would say were cautious and sensible not necessarily calloused or indifferent any more than some of us are for not picking up hitchhikers or rushing in to render aid to victims of violence.

Many would tell you that the Samaritan, a person just one-step above a gentile in the thinking of many Jews of the day, would have been more prone to reach out to the down trodden and the victimized out of some sense of minority empathy. To such foolishness we must respond with a little history.

The Samaritans, of which roughly 700 remain to day, trace their lineage back to the original Jewish tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. The rift between the Samaritans and the Jews involves a long and complex cultural, religious, and political history where fact and fiction often masquerade as justifications for hatred on both sides. Let us just say that these two groups of people despised each other with a vehemence that rivals the Jews and Palestinians of today.

Furthermore, the Samaritans as a religious people held much in common with the Jews. For instance, their holy scriptures were the first five books of the Old Testament and the book of Joshua. These people saw themselves as pious descendants of Abraham and as such true people of the covenant. They were often just as militant and obsessive about maintaining their religious distinction and social boundaries as the Jews.

However, for a despised Samaritans to show compassion and concern as opposed to a Jewish priest or Levite would have built a fire under some folks. In fact, when Jesus finishes the story and he asks the lawyer the question, “³⁶Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer could not even say the word Samaritan, ³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

This word mercy and its evolution through out Scriptures may be translated as compassion and is frequently associated with divine, unmerited favor. Thus, we see that the true neighbor, the true citizen of the kingdom of God, is one who shows compassion, unmerited favor to those in need whom they encounter along life’s way regardless of who they are or are not.

It all boils down to this—“a man” one person, showing compassion for “a man”, another person, that arises out of the human capacity for empathy—the ability identify with the self of another. Just think of it, a person’s standing before God is to a large part based upon how we respond to an impulse as old as the defining moment of humanity. Let me assure you that empathy, compassion, and the willingness to help or benefit others at personal costs and sacrifice were a part of our human psyche long before humans even thought of religion. Yet, this natural capacity for empathy and its impulse to compassion was generally understood to be limited to those in one’s own group that is until Jesus in this story and on the cross of Calvary showed us the most excellent way to be human—love your neighbor as your self even if it kills you. Moreover, your neighbor is anyone you encounter along life’s way who needs help.

On the other hand, as Matthew Fox said, “Your neighbor is your unmet self.” Your neighbor is “a man”, a person, who has more in common with us than differences. His or her differences determine your differences to him or her. Each neighbor reflects your possibilities under different circumstances.

Religion, culture, politics erect barriers that artificially separate us from that which is most common--our universal identity as children of a Common Creator and Sustainer. Religions, culture, politics often give us easy excuses and justification not to answer the inner call of human empathy and compassion—the presence of God in the human heart and mind before God even had a voice.

I pray you may have gleaned a new insight in to this old parable. If so, then as Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”