Sermon 7/14/2019 “Love God and love your neighbor”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection at Immanuel Chapel, Virginia Theological Seminary
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Day: 5Pentecost, Proper 10, Year C
In today’s gospel lesson, a young man who had reached the pinnacle of success in his world sought out Jesus—the greatest healer of his time—and tested him, hoping to show Jesus up. The young man asked Jesus, “What must I do to live forever?”
The young man already knew the answer—the only answer, even today, to the question of how to achieve eternal life. The answer the young man knew was a rather advanced answer, too. When Jesus turned the question back to the questioner, the young man promptly quoted JESUS’ own creative merging of two passages of Hebrew scripture: “Love God,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man knew all about loving God. His JOB was to know scripture, to know the law of scripture, to know all the rules about which actions DID and which actions DID NOT mean someone loved God. Some of the God-laws were original to God; others had been derived or accumulated, but the young man knew, like Jesus knew, that all those laws boiled down into these two: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God and carry our God-love into the world by loving others.
The young man didn’t quit there, though. He asked Jesus a follow-on question, “And who is my neighbor?” The text says the young man wanted to “justify himself,” like we do when we ask a question to show how much we know. And maybe he was still trying to trip Jesus up. But he may also have wanted to hear Jesus’ “take” on the “Who is my neighbor?” question because Hebrew scripture is isn’t as clear on this subject. Resident aliens were to be considered neighbors. But were soldiers of the occupying Roman army “resident aliens?” The ENEMY? My NEIGHBOR?? Really!? You can see the trap; you can understand the interest.
But Jesus again avoided this trap. He told a parable, one that is famous well beyond the church, famous even to this day. We call Jesus’ story the Good Samaritan parable. We name churches and ministries “Good Samaritan.” We have “Good Samaritan” laws to protect people who render aid from lawsuits. We even—in this case the “we” is our government at all levels prior to Hurricane Katrina—relied on the people of New Orleans all being “good Samaritans” to help their neighbors get out of the city in the event the levees burst. So we know the story that Jesus told, more or less.
In this parable a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was beaten and robbed of everything, including his clothing, and left for dead by the side of the road. The first person to happen by was a priest, who did nothing to help the man.
We don’t know why the priest passed the man by, but we know we might have done the same, so we make excuses for him. We point to purity laws that would have prevented the priest from helping for fear that the man was dead and by touching a dead man, becoming ritually impure. We think the priest prioritized his job over the man’s need.
The second person to pass by the man was Levite (a temple worker, someone who also should have helped). We have a harder time excusing the Levite, though, because Levites were not bound with as many purity restrictions as the priest. The Levite could have given aid and not have been legally in trouble. And we see that the Levite did approach the man. But maybe the Levite feared this was a clever trap, much like some people today fake a break-down to rob those who render aid.
Fortunately for the man in need, there was a third passer-by, a Samaritan who helped. This would have been a surprising turn of events, having a Samaritan be the one who helped. Most Jews considered Samaritans amoral idiots undeserving of life—eternal or otherwise—much like we view people of the OTHER political party today.
Like the young man, we think we know what Jesus’ story means. “Be kind to everyone, especially to those in need.” This IS one important message, if we remember the FIRST part: “Love the Lord.”
Here’s another lesson in Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable. We know nothing about the victim except he is a human being who needs help. That’s all: he was a human being. But the road between Jerusalem and Jericho was widely known as dangerous. Only a very fool hearty (or very desperate) person would have traveled that road alone. Jesus didn’t fault the victim though. Instead, Jesus just saw his need, as did the Samaritan.
How often do we—how often do I—let my judgment about fault dictate my response to a person in need? The response of compassion, the response of love, is merely to help without judgment.
But the point of the story isn’t how to be right with God. Anybody can be good. But a Samaritan? Can a member of ICE, our Immigration and Customs Enforcement, be a Samaritan? Can a democrat, a republican?
Wait. Who again is my neighbor? Anyone can love the ones who they believe are being persecuted. But this parable calls us to love the persecutors as well, and this is a very hard thing to do. We may disagree about who’s who, but in the end, we are to love them all. And in this way, we share in Christ’s mission of love.
I read that a Hindu once told Ghandi that a Muslim had killed his eight-year-old son and he was going to kill a Muslim in revenge. Ghandi told the Hindu to instead find an orphaned eight-year-old Muslim boy and adopt him as his own. This is what it means to show mercy to your enemy, to love your neighbor as yourself.
On a local level, a homeless man once told me that he got money or other tangible assistance each day but what he rarely got and needed as much was respect. I had this in mind this week when thinking of how to put Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable into action. Someone else was thinking along the same lines when they had 500 Good Samaritan cards made. Who will you give a card to this week? How will you share God’s love?
