St John's Anglican Church

Let’s open to the Gospel that has just been read to us: Luke 10:25-37

Today's scripture lesson tells a familiar story. So familiar in fact, people who have zero knowledge of the bible have heard of the main character.

Is there anybody who has never heard of the Good Samaritan?

Tonight Show host, Jay Leno from time to time sends people out to ask questions about the bible of people on the street.

One question was, "Do you know who the Good Samaritan is?" The answer was, "He was some guy who did a good deed." "Oh", the reporter says, "I see. Do you know anything else about him?" "Yea," the man answers, "I think they named a hospital after him." The reporter continues, "Did you know he was also a character in the bible?" "No," the man says, "I wouldn't know about that."

The problem with familiar stories is that we tend to skip to the end and tune out. "Oh yea… The Good Samaritan… God wants us to have mercy… Time for a nap!" But don't tune out just yet. Let's wrap our minds around this scripture lesson in a way that will yield wonderful new insights into an old tale!

The Expert in the Law

The story actually begins with an expert in the law standing up to TEST Jesus. So the scene is clearly set. I am glad that Luke records the schemer in the story as an expert in the law and not as a lawyer. There are enough naughty jokes about lawyers and I can’t use any of them because this would have been a religious expert of the law – a Pharisee in all probability.

How did he go about testing Jesus. Well, he asks a question that he knows the answer to. The question was “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus throws it back at him like a stealth bomber to undermine the quest that the legal eagle was on.

After all, the pharisee would have used the correct answer almost as a mantra in his teachings. “"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

              

Okay, says the lawyer type to himself, I will get him wrapped up in definitions with the question “Who is my neighbor?”

 

Again Jesus turns the law back on the lawyer with the “answer” which comes in the form of this parable in front of us because, clearly, the expert in the law wasn’t going to get it through argument.

 

The expert in the law didn’t really give a hoot about what Jesus might say. His only objective according to the text is to fly a kite and entrap Jesus and so he tried to trap Jesus into giving a definition of who our neighbor might be. Any answer could have fueled another question.

 

Jesus cuts through his hypocrisy and nitpicking in a way that will leave the lawyer without further argument and any further questions would simply get the poor guy deeper into trouble in front of his cronies.

 

The Use of Parables

 

The disciples, the Pharisees, us – the readers of the Word, sometimes just don’t “get it” and Jesus often turns to stories using truths that the listener will understand to reveal an even deeper truth to them leaving them with no room to question or doubt.

 

In fact, as Eugene Peterson says, “parables are narrative time bombs designed to explode people into new awareness, and in this case one of the pieces of shrapnel is designed to tear into the idea that the law will ever save anybody. Jesus is exposing the futility of the law as a way to inherit eternal life. Jesus was certainly out to shock.

 

What follows next is the so-called Parable of the Good Samaritan:  a title we use to capture Jesus’ oxymoronic point.  Modifying “Samaritan” with “good” would have choked the Pharisee.  Contradiction in terms. The actual parable in Scripture doesn’t qualify the Samaritan as good – he was just a Samaritan and we will see what that means later.

The Teacher – Jesus

The episode in our scripture reinforces a message Jesus tries to convey to religious people and religious leaders over and over again throughout the Gospels. A message that will finally cost him his life. In plain English that message is: "You are not getting it! God is not interested in religion and its rules and regulations, but in a relationship of love with Him and that you should live in that love with each other!"

We just don’t get it!

I can remember my high school algebra teacher trying to help me understand a particular set of equations I just could not get through my head.  After several abortive attempts to help me "get it," her frustration began to show a bit when she said, "Don't you see?  It's simple."   But I didn't see at the time.  I did not have the insight that would give me that "aha" experience

There are still men in this culture who do not understand what the gift of a dozen roses means to a woman. A married couple sat in my office trying to come to terms with the distance in their relationship.  During the conversation, the woman said, "He hasn't sent roses for over five years now."  Surprised, the husband responded, "But you said you didn't care about roses."  She looked at him like he was a dunce and snapped, "You don't get it!"  And of course, being from Mars, he didn't get it!

Parables do that for us.

Let's engage the parable.

The Parable is set on the incredibly dangerous pass between Jerusalem and Jericho. Only 30 kms away from each other but one would have to negotiate a narrow pass that would drop from Jerusalem for almost 3600ft to Jericho situated 13ooft below sea level. The pass was called the “red pass” or the “Bloody Way” right up until the 19^th century because it was so dangerous.

This familiar story of the Good Samaritan doesn’t really need amplification. You know it well. The story draws the lawyer into the corner he originally intended to back Jesus into.

The good guys in the story (orthodox, Jewish believers of position) don't do good. The bad guys (half-breed Samaritans) do good. The traditional neighbors are not neighborly, while the non-neighbors are neighborly.

Maybe it’s not really so clear to us… a Samaritan, a Jewish Priest and a Levite are all rather foreign to us. But… then as now, most everyone has their prejudices. It would be as though an Ayatollah told his Moslem congregation a story about "The Good Jew" and the indifferent or a Priest in Northern Ireland telling about "The Good Protestant" and the uncaring Catholics. Let’s look at our Lord’s characters.

The Priest

The Jewish Priest’s only role was to do duty in the Temple in Jerusalem. Never had to worry about computers, or dirty floors, or beggars at the door, or leaking roof in the Parish Centre.  BUT the thing about the priest was that he would not be allowed to enter the Holy of Holies unless he was ritually clean and the law stipulated that if he were to touch the body of a dead person he would be ritually unclean for 7 days. If he helped here he wouldn’t be able to do duty in the temple.

The Levite

Same as, same as!

In fact he shows a disgusting lack of interest in the plight of this irresponsible traveller who shouldn’t have been on this road anyway.

In our Lord’s day there were more than enough pharisaic laws to justify by-passing the Samaritan and even feeling righteous about doing so.

The "Gotcha!"

The point of the story is crystal clear. The neighbor we are to love is the one who is in need of our love. The Priest doesn't get it! The expert bible teacher doesn't get it! The unlikely, despised Samaritan gets it! Here's the "Gotcha!" in the story

The lawyer must either admit in front of the crowd that the Samaritan in the story is the one who "gets it" — or he himself doesn't "get it!"

"Gotcha!"

Too much bad blood.  Too much disdain.  No neighbor-love lost there.  So how and why could the Samaritan be the hero of this or any story, the Pharisee ponders aghast?  And in the emotion of that confident repulsion, Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisee who sub-consciously knows the Samaritan is no neighbor to him.  And if no neighbor, then no neighbor-love required.

CONCLUSION

Can you see yourself in the story? Would you have stopped for the Samaritan?

First and foremost this parable is all about legalism and dogma (of the Pharisees) juxtaposed against grace and mercy (of God towards us).

There are always 2 ways of looking at things:-

1.                The Priest’s and Levites will ask “What will happen to me if I help this man?”

2.                The Samaritan will ask “What will happen to this man if I don’t help him?”

God is not interested in obedience to legalism and ceremonial claptrap (Do yourself a favour and read Isaiah 1:11-17) God is interested in relationship of unconditional love with Him and grace outpoured to all who need us to be neighbours to them.

Secondly it is a parable about doing things God’s way. Isn't it wonderful! The message is clear and it is simple. You should go away thinking “Am I truly ready to participate in a community of peculiar, unexplained, and undeserved love? And, if not, whose neighbour am I? Anyone’s?”

Here's the problem. This kind of love — the kind that has to make a quantum leap over intolerance, bigotry and social class – has to be Divine love. Deep down, when I look at myself, I know there is way too much of the person who would "pass by on the other side" in my own heart. Jesus' "Gotcha!" gets me too. I can get there only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:1 “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”