3/19/23 Sermon
Here’s the problem with having multiple gospels that report the same stories: Sometimes they use the exact same verses in some parts but then change another part of it to fit their particular needs. Sometimes the parts they change become super popular and when you go back and read other accounts, it feels odd and different. Yet, you can’t figure out why. This passage that we just read is one of those times. Mark reports the story of the legal experts questioning Jesus on the greatest commandments and Jesus recites back to him a passage from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agree on this except that Luke has Jesus asking the question back and the Legal expert answering it. But then Mark has Jesus really blasting and calling out the religious leaders of the time quite harshly. Matthew takes a similar approach but tones it down quite a bit.
However, Luke had to go and do a reboot on the whole thing and gives us one of the most famous parables of all time. And now, every time I read this story, I can’t focus on anything Mark is telling us because I keep thinking about what Luke said - I can’t separate out what Luke says from Mark. So, instead of fighting that urge, I thought we’d read Luke’s version of the story this morning and unpack it a bit. So, Here’s what Luke says in Chapter 10 verses 25-37 of his Gospel:
A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?”
He responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’
What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”
Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
WORD OF LORD
I think of this passage in the same way I think about the song Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. It’s so good but it’s so overplayed that I can get tired of hearing it and I can almost say the words in my sleep. Almost everybody knows or at least has heard of this parable that Jesus tells. And so normally what we preachers do is data-mine it for any little interesting fact or new twist that we can possibly think of in order to make it come ALIVE for you. To make it interesting and compelling. Because come on… you’re telling me that you didn’t almost zone out or start looking around the room or pay more attention to Hudson while I was reading it?
And so in our efforts to make this passage be interesting and compelling to you, we preachers usually turn this into one of the most complicated pieces of scripture that ever existed. And I know that because I’ve done it. But let’s take Occam’s Razor seriously that the simplest explanation is usually the best. Interestingly enough, Occam was a Franciscan Friar so while his razor’s been used for scientific explanation the most, maybe the guy really meant it for scripture too.
So, let’s break this down to it’s simplest parts. It says that a legal expert stands up to test Jesus. Some translations use lawyer. But this isn’t like what we think about when we think about a lawyer. This is a guy who’s a legal expert in Mosaic law. That’s what the Greek word Nomikos means. It’s a specific type of legal expert - he’s essentially a biblical scholar in the laws of the bible. And he asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, Jesus turns the question back on him, and the guy quotes what’s considered maybe the most important piece of Hebrew Scripture called the Shema which is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Shema means to Hear or to listen in Hebrew and the passage goes:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And this passage is why in a lot of Jewish households, you’ll see that little scroll thing next to the door and why there are some Jewish people who wear the tefelim when they pray - that strap thingy that they wrap around their head and down their arms that have little boxes on them. In those little boxes are little scrolls of scripture that go on their forehead and hand just like the passage suggests here. So, this guy gives Jesus about the best answer possible. But then there’s this power struggle in the conversation and the guy isn’t thrilled with Jesus’s socratic method of making him answer his own questions and so he asks Jesus to define who exactly is his neighbor and that’s where the parable launches off.
And Jesus gives us the example of two people who really were supposed to help - people that we should expect to help but don’t - and he tells us about the guy who no one expected to help actually helping and going above and beyond what’s required to give that help. He ends it by turning the question back on the legal expert again - Jesus never seems to give straight answers to questions - and we’re told that the neighbor is the one who shows mercy. It’s the samaritan - the person no one expects.
Now, what’s interesting is that the question is who is my neighbor and the answer is the one who shows mercy. And usually we take this to mean that we need to be good neighbors and we need to help others. And that’s absolutely true. We’re not supposed to be like the priest or the levite. But what if we’re considering this story from the wrong perspective? What if we’re supposed to put ourselves in the roll of the injured man? I mean the question isn’t how do we love our neighbor or how do we be a good neighbor. The question is who is our neighbor. And according to Jesus our neighbor is the one who shows mercy.
And if we focus on that question and not allow ourselves to get distracted by the familiarity of the text and go data-mining for all sorts of meanings, what Jesus is saying is something profound and probably shocking to people. Because Jesus isn’t defining a neighbor by proximity or familiarity or religious identity or national connection. It’s isn’t a tribal identity or a family connection. Jesus is saying that neighbors and community are defined by caring and by relationship. And this basically flies in the face of years of anthropological study.
You see, ever since the dawn of humanity we’ve lived in community and that community has gotten bigger and bigger. At first the community was just the family unit. Then, we began living in tribes. Then we started banding together by religion. That expanded into the ideas of nations. There were steps in-between but you get the basic idea. And all of these things, all of these communities were and are defined by some level of shared identity. I feel a certain connection with another Presbyterian or even another pastor when I first meet them because we share something in common - we identify in the same way. Or you ever travel abroad and run into another American? You’re almost instantly best friends even though you may have hated each other if you met stateside in a Starbucks. But we share an identity. And we as people are hardwired to seek community with other people that share some sort of identity with us. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just how we are.
But what Jesus is saying is Ok, you have a priest. Not just another Jewish person but a Jewish leader - a super Jew - but he’s not stopping to help the guy. And then you have a Levite and Levites not only help in the temple but are also a kind of political class - they were judges and teachers and could be seen as helping to carry the national identity -but he doesn’t stop to help. Instead it’s the Samaritan - the guy who’s religion and national identity are totally different. The guy who shares NO identity in common with the man in a ditch - that’s the guy who stops and helps. In fact, he’s the last one anyone would expect. And so for Jesus, what makes a neighbor to us shouldn’t be defined by anything other than by who shows us mercy. Who really cares. Who’s willing to share in compassion and not necessarily who shares our commonality. He’s basically asking us to totally rethink the way we understand and define community. That it isn’t about the people who are most like us necessarily. Community is about people who care.
And that all sounds good and well. And we can nod our heads and agree with it. And we might even congratulate ourselves for believing it. BUT… What if… What if that person who’s showing us mercy is wearing a Make America Great Again hat? Or voted for Joe Biden? Or even worse, what if they supported that socialist from Vermont? What if they listen to those idiots on Fox or the Fake news on MSNBC? They aren’t my neighbor - are they? I mean They aren’t even real Americans. What if they post something that I think is stupid on Facebook? What if they’re like a super conservative or super liberal Christian or even worse, what if they’re not even christian at all? I mean there are limits to what Jesus is saying here, right?
And yet, the words are pretty clear here: What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”
Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
A Samaritan was everything a Jewish person would despise and was taught to hate back then. And yet, that’s who Jesus claims is the good neighbor because at the end of the day it wasn’t the person from the same religion, the same tribe, the same political party, or the same country that showed mercy. It was the one we were conditioned to hate, to fear, and to be suspicious of. Jesus isn’t necessarily telling us here how to be a good neighbor - State Farm does that - royalty check in the mail - Jesus is telling us that sometimes our neighbor, sometimes the one who will show us mercy and be a good neighbor isn’t just the last person we’d expect, but sometimes it’s the very person we’ve been conditioned to hate and be suspicious of. Jesus is defining neighbor and community by very different standards. It isn’t about what we have in common or a shared identity but community is defined by how well or poorly the people in the community exercise mercy, grace, love, and patience with each other…
Listen, there’s enough fear and anger and anxiety and uncertainty and blame in our world right now. But is there ever enough mercy and grace and love and patience? And there’s enough division and lines drawn in the sand. But is there ever enough care and concern? Let us BE the church. Let us be a true community and good neighbors to each other. Let us be the ones who show mercy, who go and do likewise.
Because Right now what really matters is that we really consider who our neighbors are.
Right now what really matters is mercy and love.
Right now what really matters is that we go and do likewise…