One of the interesting aspects of my particular ministry within the church is that I am constantly finding myself in ministry and in community with people- from the college, from elsewhere- who have never been Christian, or who've only ever been a really, really different kind of Christian from Lutheran. They find our campus ministry to be a loving group of friends, a safe place to ask questions and push back on ideas, or just a fine place to spend a couple hours once a week. And, in their Christianity, they are starting almost from scratch.
If somebody were starting from scratch in Christianity-
What would you tell them first?
What would you tell them is the Big Idea?
What would you tell them is, when you wake up every morning and think about your day, is the work of a Christian?
If they converted from being an atheist, how would you tell them to expect their life to change? Their sense of responsibility? Their willingness to forgive? Their willingness to sacrifice?
The Good Samaritan is one of those stories that paints the entire picture of Christianity in one passage, and it does it both by stating it plainly, and then again through the telling of a parable.
The Big Idea, the Work of the Christian is this: Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Makes sense, and also raises the question what does it mean to love? who is my neighbor? how far should I be willing to go in loving my neighbor? And one of these sneaky lawyers asks him that question, and Jesus responds with this story.
There is a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho and he's robbed and beaten. He's not in your family, he's not in your tribe, you don't know him, you don't know anything about him. He's your neighbor. The priest, who you might expect to be really good at this- decides this man is not his neighbor, or that he's too much work to help, and does not help him. The Levite, from a people named after descendants of Jacob and Rachel, who themselves are religious figures and religious leaders, both by birth and by role, you would think would be really good at this- the Levite decides this man is not his neighbor, or that he's too much work to help, and does not help him.
You might see what Jesus is doing here, he says, hey, this first group of people that you feel predisposed to like- they didn't do the right thing. This second group of people that you feel predisposed to trust- they didn't do the right thing either. Huh! And then he says, this Samaritan, a group of people that are really looked down upon both in their heritage and religious practices, this person that you are predisposed to not like, this person did the right thing. The Samaritan decided this person was his neighbor, decided it was not too much work, decided to sacrifice of his own time and money, didn't interrogate the robbed man first to assess if his morals were true and pure or if he deserved the help. The Samaritan saw him as his neighbor and helped him.
This is a really, really hard story because it cuts cleanly across the way the world teaches us, asks us, begs us, supports us, to live. We have near endless permission to withhold the label of neighbor or to decide that the help is too hard or too costly to give or isn't ours to give. We are encouraged even to be judgmental or to seek out reasons why someone is undeserving. Jesus says,, none of that. None of that here, none of that in this story. Your job is not to stand in the place of God judging who is worthy and unworthy of your help. Your job is to give your help to those who need it. Your neighbor is not just your family, not just your friends, not just the people with whom you agree or identify. Your neighbor is anybody who you lay eyes upon.
It is an enormous task. A huge task! Wow, what a responsibility Jesus gives us and that we accept by being here. Part of what he's doing here is not only saying "here is your job and here is your neighbor" but also saying, can you imagine what the world would be like if you saw everybody as your neighbor, and everybody saw you as their neighbor. Imagine what the world would be like if we stopped passing the buck on who's job it was to give help. Imagine what the world would be like if we lived that way. And that is a message that'll preach now more than ever.
It is hard as ever to follow Jesus, to collectively parse right from wrong, to build the community that we think God wants us to build, to know what the price of eggs will be like next week. We joke that these are "unprecedented times" we are living in which is euphemism for everything being tense and confusing, but at least in scripture, the times we are in are really quite precedented. As long as the story of Jesus has been told, we have told stories of Jesus clashing with the economic and social and religious realities of the world, we have told stories of politicians and religious leaders playing games with God and being set straight by God. As tough as things feel now, it's been like this for the whole story of the people of God, and it was like this for Jesus.
And in the midst of it all, he is really quite clear and simple in his instruction. Don't put yourself in the position of God; don't put yourself in the role of judge or jury or prosecutor. Don't withhold the label of neighbor. Give help where it's needed, not only where it is deserved. Be brave enough to lay down your labels of good people and bad people, right people and wrong people. Look to their actions, to their hearts. Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The one who showed him mercy. The one who showed him mercy.
Amen.
Comments