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Amos 7: 7-17, Colossians 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev. Deacon Deborah Hughes-Habel
I am always amazed each and every time I see news stories of the heroic acts of people like those that leap into rivers to rescue victims stranded in their cars after careening off the road; or the perfect strangers that run into burning homes to rescue trapped victims and their beloved animals. I am always amazed to see and hear about these events even though I have been a practicing nurse for over 21 years whose interest lies in helping and caring for the needs of others. These acts of total self-giving, by these modern day Samaritans, are amazing to me because they are totally out of our cultural norm. I ask myself could I do that. Could I risk my life to save the life of a total stranger?
After reading this passage in Luke, you may think that is what Jesus is calling us to do. In some instances, that may be the situation, but what I think Jesus is asking us to do is to reframe our understanding of who our neighbor really is and that may be very hard to do given the 21st century culture we live in. It was hard for the lawyer in the 1st century, as well, for he asks Jesus the question “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) This parable, in a very dramatic way, is reminding us that we are, by virtue of our baptism, citizens of God‟s kingdom and as citizens we‟re called to act in a way that is consistent with God‟s intention for the life of all humanity.
Luke weaves this story into his gospel to juxtapose the tension his listeners and readers, mostly Gentiles, lived with when they had to organize their lives amongst people of different cultures and races. The lawyer, while obviously a faithful Jew by his understanding of the law is asking Jesus to help him “justify” what is needed to find eternal life. The Greek word for justify is “dikaioo” which means “to be righteous”. With that understanding, you realize that the lawyer desires nothing more than to find a way to be right with God. Jesus provides him with the answer in this parable.
The story of the Good Samaritan highlights all the characters and cultural influences that Luke‟s audience would encounter while at the same time identifying the tensions that would be present in their everyday world. Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan to „turn around‟ the lawyers understanding of the law regardless of his cultures history or tradition.
One of the most obvious negative touch-points to this parable is that two passerby‟s were willing to ignore the suffering of a fellow human being befallen on the roadside; a fellow human being most likely of their own culture and tradition. Both the priest and the Levite saw the man down but were willing to go out their way and walk on the other side of the road. What‟s up with that you ask? Here is a priest and a Levite, two of the highest ranking Jewish authorities well versed in the Law of the Torah ignoring one of their own. Only when a third passerby arrives and sees the suffering man is aid and comfort rendered. This passerby is the mostly unlikely source of that kind of aid for he was an enemy of the Jews, a Samaritan.
But, this passerby is not so unlikely to render aid as you may think. Historically, the Samaritans found themselves at polar extremes to the Jews. Their past history, some 700 years worth, created deep hatreds and resentments between the Samaritans and Jews much of which came out of their differing political positions. Samaritans‟, as the Jews, held the Torah sacred and followed its laws as faithful followers of Yahweh.
This Samaritan applied his understanding of the Law and acted without concern for his own selfregard because he was “moved with pity” for the beaten, half-dead man. He saw what was needed to be done for a human being like himself. He was moved with compassion and mercy to fulfill what he understood to be the fullest sense of the law, to love this abandoned man as he loved his God and himself. He was moved with compassion and concern for a fellow humanbeing regardless of what he knew of this man‟s culture and tradition which for years was at odds with his and he invested in this man his time, energy and money. He created a relationship with him that would have lasted a lifetime.
A common saying that we see today, mostly on the speeding car bumpers of strangers traveling the roadways between our modern day Jerusalem‟s and Jericho‟s reads, “practice random acts of kindness”. Somehow this phrase seems a little trite and insincere. What does that mean “random acts of kindness”? Do we make them random to “justify” to ourselves that we can be kind to all people regardless of their race or culture when it is convenient to our schedules? Do we make it random because we can pick and choose who we deem should receive our time and attention? Certainly, this is not what Jesus had in mind when he commanded the lawyer in Luke‟s‟ gospel to go and show mercy as the Samaritan did.
But that is exactly what we do. We justify our acts of kindness in the most insincere and random ways because we choose not to really engage in relationships with our fellow strangers and perhaps perceived enemies. We cling to what is familiar and safe in our lives. We cling to our own ideals while making judgments of who is good enough for us to spend time with and form a relationship with. We do not take the time to be present to each other‟s needs that allow us to share a relationship for a lifetime. We choose to live in our little worlds housed in our homes, cars and computers. We choose to walk on the other side of the road even if it is one of our own down on their luck. We are afraid to risk looking beyond our own needs especially in this time of financial difficulties. The cultural influences during these times of war and a financial recession keeps us from seeing what our baptismal covenant calls us to do which is to be a neighbor in relationship.
While life treats us randomly because we may not know what will come at us down the road, we should not apply that meaning to how we engage each other. We must take the “random” out of our actions and pay attention to how we are to be intentional in our relationships. Like the Samaritan we must stop, look and engage our brother and sister in love and offer our hearts, time and resources.
Each Wednesday night at our WOW events, we have an opportunity in our midst with those that we think we already know and love. We have an opportunity to be more intentional and to seek out a relationship with each other and engage each other in love. This is a beautiful and wonderful thing but what about our neighbors outside the community of St. Stephens? Do we take that same opportunity to live out our baptismal covenant to seek and serve and respect the dignity of every human being? Does our culture and society allow us to be “random” while leading us to the other side of the road? That is our challenge, just like for the lawyer. We must be vigilant and merciful to be right with God. We must take the opportunity, even if it is life threatening, as faithful disciples of Jesus to show mercy and be that neighbor to all humanity. As faithful disciples, we must love our neighbor, as Our Lord Jesus Christ modeled for us; the Good Samaritan of the world, whose life, death and resurrection manifested the greatest neighborly love the world has ever seen.