Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on July 14 & 15, 2007
(Proper 10, Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Psalm 25:3-9
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

Today’s Gospel is a great piece of literature which manifests Jesus’ ability to redirect a conversation to his purpose especially when the original intent of the conversation was designed to make him look somewhat stupid.

The story begins with a lawyer testing Jesus with a question. But just prior to this, the seventy disciples who had been commissioned as the advance team for Jesus’ ministry to the Galilean countryside have returned to him. And as you remember they were excited and flying high with what they had accomplished, for even demons were subject to the Name of Jesus. And Jesus cautioned them not to rest on their laurels but to be thankful that their names were now written in the rolls of heaven.

Jesus then prayed to the Father giving thanks for the fact that a group of intellectual rookies were able to comprehend the Gospel message even though the wise and learned people couldn’t quite wrap their brains around it.

Well, obviously this lawyer overheard the conversation and prayer and as one of the wise and learned who didn’t get it, he was somewhat annoyed with what he was hearing. On the one hand he was feeling a little bit disparaged because as an interpreter of God’s Law he was wondering what was being hidden from him and was being given to a bunch of wandering ne’er-do wells. On the other hand he, too, wanted to guarantee that his name would be in the rolls of heaven and he was wondering what exactly it was that he needed to do to insure it. And on the third hand, as an educated lawyer he didn’t want to be one-upped by an itinerant teacher with dubious credentials. So he inserted himself into the conversation by asking the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Now Jesus, recognizing that this man was a lawyer by his dress or accoutrement answered his question with a question: “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” And the man recites a combination of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, which is exactly what you would expect from a lawyer in that time and place. “Love the Lord thy God with all of thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” And Jesus says, “You are right, sir! Do these things and you will indeed live.”

Now this probably grates on the lawyer because he came to test Jesus and Jesus has turned the tables on him and tested him, and by telling him that he is correct, Jesus has actually passed judgment on the lawyer who by his profession is used to passing judgment on others. So rather than showing a great command of the language and remaining silent, he tries to justify himself by attempting to one-up Jesus by asking, “So who is my neighbor?”

And then Jesus tells the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan, which we have all heard and know so well from our years in Sunday school. But at the end of the parable, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of the three men; the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan was a neighbor to the half-dead man along the side of the road?”

Now did you catch the subtle change in the conversation? In essence, Jesus has transformed a noun into a adverb. By asking, “Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer is trying to shift attention from the “doing” part of the Law to the “boundaries” of the Law. And by replying, “Which one of the three was being neighborly?” Jesus is drawing his attention back to the “doing” part. But Jesus is much more clever than that because given that the correct answer is the Samaritan, Jesus is saying that there are no boundaries when it comes to being merciful.

You see, the lawyer’s original intent was to prove to Jesus that unlike the disciples, he had a “right” to eternal life by defining the legal limits and fulfilling his duty according to the Law. And Jesus said, “Great, if you indeed do this, you will live.” But Jesus knew that he wasn’t capable of doing it. Let’s go back to the parable. The priest and the Levite, by not giving aid to the half-dead man, were technically living by the Law. If they had touched his naked body or if the man was truly dead, they would have been rendered ritually unclean and not able to perform their required Temple duties. So in order to adhere to the Law they passed by on the other side of the road. But that’s total hogwash and Jesus knows it because scripture says that they were traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. In the Bible, one always travels up to Jerusalem to get there and down from Jerusalem to go anywhere else because Jerusalem is on Mt. Zion and the Temple is God’s dwelling place, and therefore the focal point for all God-fearing Jews. Since they were going down to Jericho, the priest and the Levite had already fulfilled their Temple duties. Yes, they would have been rendered ritually unclean by helping the half-dead man but they were heading home and would have had time to clean up their act before their next round of duty at the Temple. They chose to do their perceived duties by staying within the defined limits of the Law instead of showing mercy to a fallen brother in need, and in their minds they could live with it.

But the point Jesus is trying to make is that we shouldn’t inquire as to who our neighbors are but rather we should realize that we are to be neighbors to everyone! The Samaritan, who traditionally had nothing to do with and was hated by the Jews, in this instance, was the ultimate neighbor by setting aside all racial limitations, all ritual limitations, and all economic limitations in order to be of aid to the half-dead man. By showing mercy, especially to his enemy, he was more faithfully living God’s Law than either of the other two men. By acting through God’s love, the Samaritan was fulfilling God’s Law.

Now by the end of the Gospel story it is pretty obvious that we are being instructed to be neighbors to everyone regardless of any cultural limitations imaginable. But how do we know this to be true? The answer is because it has already happened to us.

Usually when we listen to the parable of the Good Samaritan, we can identify a little with the priest and the Levite but in the end we hope that we can be like the Samaritan if the opportunity ever comes along. But think about it differently. Try identifying with the half-dead man lying naked and beaten along the side of the road because we are that man! Tossed and turned by trials and tribulations we have been left along the highway of life in desperate need of being saved. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves and no human being who happens along can save us either. But then Jesus Christ comes into our lives, and moved with compassion he bathes and dresses our wounds with oil and wine, anointing us with his Spirit and feeding us with his Sacraments. He brings us to a place of community where we can stay and be made whole, paying for our stay with all that he has and promising more if we need it. He does this for us not because we deserve it or because it is our “right” but because he loves us so very much. And by doing so, he has provided us with the supreme example of what it means to be a neighbor.

By virtue of our baptisms, we have been brought into the Church and have received the gift of eternal life. By believing in Jesus Christ we have been granted the knowledge and understanding of the things that we ought to do, and we have been given the grace and the power to accomplish them. The only thing left to do is to obey our Lord when he says to us, “Go and do likewise.”

Gloria Patri