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Pentecost |
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| Sermon July 15, 2001 6 Pentecost If someone asked you, "What is the heart of our religion? What is the most important thing that God requires of me?" What would you say? I’m not asking for an oral response; but I am asking you to think, "What first comes to my mind? How would you respond? Essentially, this is the question that a devout Jew asks Jesus in today’s gospel. Jesus, as he is frequently portrayed in the gospels, doses not answer the Jewish lawyer’s question, but turns the question back to his questioner, asking the lawyer what he thinks. The lawyer responds with the double command of love, or the summary of the law, as we know it. It is a combination of the two texts from the Old Testament. The first, to love God with all the heart and mind and soul and strength is from Deuteronomy. The second, to love the neighbor as the self, is Leviticus. Thus, this double command of love is not original to Jesus. It comes from the Old Testament. Although it is not found joined there, we cannot be sure that the combination of the two is original to Jesus, because it is found in later Jewish literature. Although the lawyer is commended for answering well, he still is not content. He wants to be certain that he is in right relationship with God. He wants to be sure that he is doing what God requires of him. So he asks, ""Who is my neighbor?" In other words, he wants a definition of the word "neighbor". "O.K., I know I am to love God and my neighbor, but what does "neighbor" mean? Who are the people I am obliged to show love to? Is it my fellow Jews? Does it include foreigners? Tell me who I am supposed to love." Jesus "answer" to this second query is the parable of the Good Samaritan. In order for us fully to appreciate the impact that this story had for the Jewish lawyer, and in order for us not to domesticate the story, it is important for us to recall several things. First of all and perhaps most importantly, there was long-standing – centuries actually of- antagonism and hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be pagans because they had intermarried with pagans. They also considered the Samaritans to be heretics because their center for worshipping God was not Jerusalem, but Mount Gerazim. Because of this animosity, the Jews had rejected the Samaritan offer to help with the rebuilding of the second Temple. Generally, the two groups despised each other. That is why Jesus’ disciples were so surprised that Jesus spoke to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Secondly, the road which runs between Jericho and Jerusalem was and is, a deserted one which twists and turns over the steep hills and ravines of the Judean desert. It was a prime spot for thieves and robbers precisely because it was deserted and offered many convenient places for ambush. So high-risk and dangerous a road was it that it was known as "the path of blood." For us it is comparable perhaps to late night walking in urban centers. Or perhaps the parking lots of some shopping malls. So the Samaritan was putting himself at risk by stopping to aid the injured man. The point of view from which Jesus tells the story is also important. It could have been told from the point of view of the priest, the Levite, the Samaritan or the innkeeper. But the story begins with the man who was beaten and robbed and left for dead. Thus, it invites the lawyer, and us, to hear the story from the injured man’s point of view. Remember, the text of the second commandment is "to love one’s neighbor as oneself." By inviting us to hear this story from the view of the injured man, we are being asked a subtle and self –examining question: Namely, "If you had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead, how would you want someone to respond to you? How would you want to be "loved" in this situation?" The story supposes that the injured man is a Jew. From his point of view, the last person he would expect to stop and help him would be a Samaritan – his enemy. Imagine his amazement when two of his fellow Jews have passed him by, and his religious and social enemy –a Samaritan – responds with compassion. Finally, Jesus ends the story by reversing the lawyer’s query. The question, "Who is my neighbor?" has been changed into "Who proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?" We might paraphrase Jesus’ shift of emphasis here, "Do not ask, "Who am I to love?" ask rather, "How am I to love others given God’s mercy toward me?" Note also, the lawyer’s reply. The animosity between Jews and Samaritans was such that he could not even bring himself to speak the word "Samaritan". He simply calls the Samaritan "the one, I suppose, who showed mercy." In some ways, we have tamed the parable of the Good Samaritan by applying it to any institution or person who exercises a work of charity. There are Good Samaritan hospitals and Good Samaritan ministries. Those works of mercy are good and badly needed, and I do not mean to suggest otherwise. But the heart of the story in today’s gospel is to remind us that Jesus’ ministry, and therefore ours, is about breaking through and breaking down the barriers- racial, social, religious and economic- that divide us and keep us from acting like neighbors to each other. It is about exercising compassion and mercy even toward those who differ from us, and whom we may think of as our enemy. It is about becoming merciful as God is merciful: Who makes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust and causes the sun to shine on the evil and on the good. To the question, who is my neighbor? The implied answer is: the neighbor is anyone whose path we cross who is in need of compassion and mercy, be they friend or family, stranger, or foe. The definition of neighbor is as all-inclusive as the love of God. Everyone is a potential neighbor for us. Today’s parable invites us to put ourselves in the position of the injured man, and to apply the second great commandment from his perspective. In our hour of need, how do we desire that people respond to us? It is another way of saying, "Do unto others-all others- as you would have them do unto you." Amen. The Rev’d Pamela P. Snare |
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