July 10, 2022 - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10)
In Matthew, when Jesus is approached by the rich young ruler who asks, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” the answer Jesus gives is pretty stunning:
“Keep the commandments: You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt 19:17-19)
The rich young ruler dared to ask Jesus the question. But he wasn’t alone. The other person to ask Jesus this all-important question is recounted in today’s Gospel story of the lawyer who comes to test him. “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25)
Jesus, the model of what it means to be a good teacher, doesn’t answer the question. He asks a question of the questioner so that he can figure it out himself. Jesus says, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” (Lk 10:26)
Now we know that the lawyer probably isn’t satisfied with his question remaining unanswered. In fact, I think if he were in court, he’d probably object that the witness failed to answer the question and ask the judge to intervene. But the lawyer was in Jesus’ court, and normal court rules didn’t apply. He probably wasn’t expecting to answer his own question. If he was, as we are told, testing Jesus, then he was probably wanting to see if Jesus knew what he was talking about. Or maybe he wanted Jesus to give such an outlandish answer that he could take that answer to the authorities and have Jesus prosecuted.
Regardless, instead of hearing blasphemy, the lawyer is relegated to answering his own question. I can see the scene in my head… Jesus asks the lawyer, “What is written in the law?” and the lawyer hems and haws, and eventually sputters out “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Not bad! Jesus was fond of this phrase… The lawyer got extra Jesus points for this one! And Jesus responds, in effect, with, “Yep, you got it… Go… do that.”
But there’s something odd about this exchange from today’s standards. Let’s bring the story into modern times. You see a preacher on the street corner and decide to ask him or her, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Well, I hope you’ve got hours to stand there, because you’d be bludgeoned with biblical quotes for what might seem like an eternity. There’d be a definitive answer and an expectation that you accept the answer given as the truth right here, right now. Oh, and repent of your sins and turn to Jesus NOW.
But Jesus doesn’t get excited; in fact, Jesus seems bored with the question. He doesn’t try to keep it going. He is asked a question, and he asks a question right back. He gets an answer, accepts it and sends the man on his way.
Notice that the lawyer is quoting from two Old Testament laws:
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Deut 6:5)
- Love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev 19:18)
These are two commandments from the first five books of the Bible, also known as “The Law” or the “Torah”. Just like Jesus answered the rich young ruler in Matthew with a string of quotes from the Old Testament, here Jesus accepts the explanation from the Old Testament laws as acceptable.
No comment on repentance. No discussion of faith. No judging.
Admittedly, it would be hard to love God with all that you are without faith. And it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to love God without turning away from your sins… BUT, it’s not part of the answer. There is no direct appeal to faith or repentance.
Only a direct appeal to love. Love God. Love your neighbor.
The initial question and answer exchange, though, isn’t the end of the story. The lawyer came to test Jesus. But he got nothing juicy. There wasn’t any blasphemy, any proof that Jesus knows anything. And there certainly wasn’t enough to even write a third-rate sitcom about!
The lawyer has done all the talking. So… he has a follow up:
“And who is my neighbor?” (Lk 10:29)
Jesus, if I have to love my neighbor as myself, who exactly is it that I have to heap all of this love upon?
Now THIS is a good question that would be fertile ground for a juicy answer. As long as we have been on this earth organizing ourselves into societies, there have always been people who are “in” and people who are “out.” The lawyer has a very good chance, knowing Jesus, of getting him to say that you have to love someone who is one of the “outs” according to society.
And depending on how “out” Jesus goes, he has a good chance of some serious blasphemy being spouted. In fact, if Jesus isn’t careful, he might get himself arrested. Or crucified.
But good old Jesus disappoints the lawyer again! Using a brilliant good-teacher move, he doesn’t answer the question but rather tells a story - the story of the Good Samaritan.
Although we just heard the story, let’s replay it in our heads. Run through the story with me: The story is about a man who got beat up and left to die on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite walk by and keep walking - presumably to keep their ritual purity because touching blood or a corpse would have left them out of work for several days or weeks. Then a Samaritan comes upon the scene, and he jumps into the ditch with the bloody, beat up man, cares for him, and provides for his recovery. At the end of the story, Jesus asks the lawyer which person was a neighbor to the man. The lawyer says, “The one who showed him mercy.” (Lk 10:37)
Had Jesus simply answered by saying something like “all people are your neighbor, including the Samaritans,” the lawyer would have had the answer he was looking for and the fodder to put Jesus away for a long time. But instead, Jesus told a story and asked the lawyer to answer for himself.
Isn’t Jesus brilliant?
The story of the Good Samaritan is known and loved by many. Just take a moment and ponder how many Sunday Schools have performed skits of kids beat up and saved by another kid. The kindness in this story does not come from the Levite or the priest - they are the ones who should recognize the wounded man as their neighbor - but from an unknown person from whom no sympathy would be expected and to whom no kindness would be shown. But the story wasn’t ever meant to stand on its own. It’s the story Jesus told during a conversation on salvation.
A conversation that pivoted on a single command. LOVE. Love so much and so broad that not only do you have to love God with everything you are and everything you have, but you have to love other people. All people. Even the ones who - for one reason or another make you uncomfortable - people who smell different, people who look different, people who worship differently, people who love differently.
True kindness, true love, is always something unexpected. It does not belong to us. It belongs to God. It is everyone’s and meant for everyone.
When asked by Jesus who was the neighbor, the lawyer doesn’t say, “The Samaritan.” He didn’t even utter the word. For in society, Samaritans were “that far out.” Or maybe the lawyer no longer saw Samaritan and Jew; he simply saw one person who did good and another person who was needy.
Compared to the beginning of the story, the question has changed. At the end, Jesus does not ask “Who is my neighbor?” but rather “Who was the neighbor of the man attacked by the robbers?” The perspective is reversed. We can no longer ask who is our neighbor and who is not. Instead, we must ask ourselves:
- “Am I acting as a neighbor?”
- “Is wanting to know who should be loved and who should not be loved really love?”
After the events of this week, I seriously considered scrapping this sermon and rewriting it completely. But the fact is that in each of the events that has occurred over the past year - from Buffalo to Uvalde to Highland Park – and at last count the 305 other mass shootings – we have seen violence done by and to our neighbors. We - as observers on the sidelines - need to raise the awareness of who among us is our neighbor. We need each person to fight to show God’s way by raising our voices.
Friends, there is evil in the world, and that is not of God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. That, my siblings, is God’s way. Let each one of us go and do likewise... for to love in the way that Christ shows us, we must let love take all the space and all the breadth it requires, no matter to whom it is shown.