“But wanting to justify himself, he
asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10:29)
So just what the heck can I say about his gospel lesson for Pentecost 5, year C (Luke 10:25-37)? I mean, c’mon! Everybody knows the parable of “The Good Samaritan.” It’s certainly one of Jesus’ Top Ten Parables, right up there with the “Prodigal Son” and “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” Writing or preaching about it leaves your Old Religious Guy in something of a quandary. I’ve looked at some of the sermon/commentaries I’ve posted about this passage before, and I feel like it's my duty to come up with something I haven’t said yet.
Whenever I feel like I’m getting stuck for ideas with a Bible story, the old actor in me kicks in and I start to think about characters in this little drama. Actors always look at a script and think “What part would I like to play?” Lovers of the gospel, on the other hand, might look at a Bible story and ask,” What part do I play? Which character resonates with who I am and where I am in my life?”
(I’ll give you a hint: None of us are Jesus)
Personally, with everything that’s been going on in the news these past few weeks, I have no desire to identify with the lawyer who wants to test Jesus and justify himself. I’ve had pretty much all I can take of legal experts—especially six I can think of who sit on the US Supreme Court. I’d like to ask these august teachers of the Law to show me how they think denying the rights of women to govern their own bodies will make America more moral. Tell me how making access to firearms easier will make America safer. I want it explained how limiting the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency will make America a healthier, cleaner nation. But I guess lawyers can justify anything these days.
Of course, I don’t want to identify with the robbers who rob, strip, beat, and abandon the traveler. Who would want to identify with characters who wound someone for their own gain? Would anyone be willing to say, “Yeah, I’m just like those guys. I’ve taken advantage of someone, hurt them deeply, and then ran away leaving them like they’re trash by the side of the road.” No. No one wants to be the robbers—even if they can claim desperate poverty or some other reason to justify their behavior.
So do we want to identify with the victim? Possibly. Have you ever been a victim of crime? I have. Once upon a time I had my home burglarized and, I have to tell you, I felt pretty violated and not at all as secure as I’d felt before the s.o.b. or s.o.b.’s unknown smashed my kitchen door, ripped off my stereo (among other things) and scared the living bejeezus out of my cat. One minute you’ve got the world by the Fruit-of-the-Looms, and the next you find yourself unable to sleep as you lie contemplating the bowel-emptying, brain-ripping reality that you’re really pretty helpless, uncertain, and fragile. And if you’ve ever found yourself stranded by the side of the road in unfamiliar territory, you know you likely wouldn’t question the stranger who stops to help you about his position on Roe v. Wade or gun control.
(Or, perhaps, you would. Jesus never tells us how this Jew felt about getting help from a Samaritan. Maybe there are some folks like Inspector Javert in Les Misérables who’d rather commit suicide than accept help from an enemy.[i] People are funny like that.)
I don’t think anyone wants to see themselves as the priest or the Levi either. They’re not particularly attractive characters. Rather hypocritical, don’t you think? They’re supposed to be holy folks who know better. They know the Law of Moses about loving neighbor. They know, like it says in the First Lesson assigned for Pentecost 5, Year C in the RCL (Deuteronomy 30:9-14), that God’s Law is “not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.” It just seems to be too inconvenient.
That leaves us with the Samaritan, that semi-foreign heretic whose people aren’t pure and whose religion is corrupt. He’s a guy who is willing to help someone who may not want or appreciate his help. And, when you put it that way, he may not be all that attractive a character to some people either. There are probably those who wouldn’t sully their dignity by lifting a finger for the ungrateful. Still, you have to admire this fellow who doesn’t see nationality, religion, race, or anything else which makes this traveler less of a human being. What he sees are the wounds. He looks at the pain, and that cuts through all the superfluous distinctions we love to make between ourselves. All he knows is there is a human need which must be met. There is something which must be done.
Faith is not believing something is true. It is acting as if it is true.
So who are you in this story? Jesus is a clever teller of tales. He gets the lawyer to answer his own question about who a neighbor is. Who we are turns on how we answer the question of who Jesus is to us.
Thanks again for reading. Safe travels.
[i]
Never seen or read Les Misérables? Sorry for the spoiler. If you can see
a good production of the opera, you really should. Javert’s suicide has some crazy
good stage effects!
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