2022 07 10 Sermon

Sermon for July 10, 2022 Pentecost 5C House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Luke 10:25-37 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

The words “Good” and “Samaritan” are so closely associated nowadays that we can hardly think of one without the other. There are Good Samaritan laws, and Good Samaritan hospitals, and Good Samaritan funds, as well as our general expectation that we should all try to be “Good Samaritans” ourselves. And these are all to the good.

It wasn’t always this way, though. Back in Jesus’ day Jews and Samaritans hated each other, and had hated each other for hundreds of years. Both sides had a common origin among the 12 Tribes of Israel—the Samaritans descending from the northern tribes, and the Jews descending from the southern tribes. Both sides claimed to be the rightful inheritors of God’s promises to Abraham and Moses, and both sides even claimed the Five Books of Moses in the Old Testament as Holy Scripture. So put yourself in the shoes of original people to hear Jesus telling this parable for a moment: a “good” Samaritan was a contradiction in terms. Samaritans couldn’t be good—they were Samaritans! Samaritans were bad!

Most of us know the story. A man falls into the hands or robbers and is left for dead on the twisty, rocky, lonely desert road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. That much is maybe no surprise. But as Jesus continues the story, he sets up one surprise after another. A priest and a Levite both see the man as they walk by, and they both leave him alone. Well, they should have known better about what to do for someone who was left half-dead in a ditch—because, like the lawyer who asked Jesus the questions that prompted the parable, they knew very well that God’s law instructed them to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then in the next part of the story, a Samaritan walks by. Those original hearers of this story are starting to think: Obviously, this is a terrible person because he is a Samaritan. But who is the one who actually shows mercy to the man in the ditch—treating his wounds, and paying to support the man until he can recover his health? It’s the Samaritan. And that is the big, offensive, surprise.

A Samaritan. Who would it be for us today? Who would you regard as your enemy or opponent. Or, who would you want nothing to do with? Who would you detest or distrust? Who is the last person you would call upon for help? Who would you want to keep safely away from your concern? Now, substitute that kind of person for the Samaritan, and you’ll see what Jesus is getting at, as you apply this story to yourself.

Who would you want to keep your distance from? This is what the lawyer in the story is concerned about. Now remember, he was an expert in knowing God’s law. He had no problems with loving God and loving his neighbors. He just wanted some clarification about who his actual neighbors were, so that he could know who to keep his distance from. The smaller he could make his circle of neighbors, then the better he could make himself look. He could more easily succeed in loving his neighbors as long as there weren’t too many of them. This is how he wants to “justify himself.”

By making the Samaritan into a “good” Samaritan in this parable, Jesus is saying “not so fast!” Don’t make your circle of neighbors smaller—make it bigger! Even the lawyer who asked the question gets the point in the end. And it turns out, the better question to ask is not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Whom will I be a neighbor to?” The better question is not “how can I justify myself to inherit eternal life?” but “how can I contribute to justice for everyone, everywhere, and in that way begin living right now as a reflection of what eternal life will be like?”

Of course, this is much harder. It would be easier to just have little, small circles of neighbors. Jesus is complicating our lives, and the irony is that by lifting up the Good Samaritan as an example to follow, this does the opposite of us justifying ourselves: we’ll make ourselves look not as good because of the difficulty of drawing the circle wider for who is our neighbor; and the difficulty of contributing to justice for everyone, everywhere. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but we are almost guaranteed to fall short. Give your best effort, and learn from your mistakes; but don’t worry if you fall short; don’t worry if you fail. Jesus is not interested in whether or not you can justify yourself. He simply wants you to show mercy when you have an opportunity to show mercy, regardless of who you are helping.

The flip side of following the teaching of this parable is that if you are the one “in the ditch” who is in need of mercy—and we all spend time “in the ditches” during our lives when we need someone to come and help us out—then maybe the person who will come to your aid is someone you’d rather keep your distance from. What is harder? To offer compassionate service to someone you detest or distrust or want to keep your distance from? Or to accept compassionate service from someone you detest or distrust or want to keep your distance from?

Either way, Jesus is challenging us to continually expand the circle, and to see by faith that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is the God of the whole human family. God is compassionate and merciful upon people regardless of their social, ethnic, racial, national, economic, religious, or any other background.

Because God is merciful upon us, and because God sent Jesus to embody that mercy by going to the cross—therefore we can follow Jesus by learning to be merciful to wider and wider circles of people when the opportunities arise.

Like the man in the ditch being cared for by the Samaritan, this is how we experience Christ in our own lives—in the living relationships that develop between people, which leads to greater health and well-being. The Spirit of the risen Christ is present in the spaces between us when you find ways of being merciful to those in need, and when you accept mercy when you are the one in need. The deeper you are able to make connections with people, then the deeper you will experience being connected to God—which means that it’s impossible to go to heaven alone; salvation is always a communal experience, and God can help you make “eternal life” into your way of life today. Amen.