Luke 10:25-37

08/21/11 Luke 10:25-37 Grace UMC

It seems that we are in something of a season where we are looking some of the parables of Jesus. The parables are interesting because we often speak of them as if they are more or less straightforward stories that speak to the common people in such a way that the mysteries of the kingdom are laid bare for all to see. We tend to look at the parables as if anyone who took a moment to look at them would understand exactly what they say. And yet, it is amazing because we actually find, more often than not, that some of the parables get interpreted in one particular way so often that it blinds us to what is actually there.

One of the classic examples of this is the parable of the Good Samaritan. I know that I have heard my fair share of sermons on this parable and you probably have, too. How does a classic sermon on the Good Samaritan go? We look at what it means to be a neighbor. There is a man, beaten and bloodied on the side of the road, attacked by bandits, who is hurting and may not even be able to survive without help. First, a priest, a holy man, one whose very job it is to take the concerns of the people before God, walks by. However, he does not help the man in need. In fact, he purposely crosses the road to the other side so that he doesn't even need to walk near the man. Perhaps he planned to help in his own way; perhaps he was going to go before God and pray for that man, perhaps he was going to speak to the authorities responsible for this dangerous road and try to stop this kind of thing from happening in the future. Perhaps the priest can sooth his conscience by telling himself that the problem is too big for him and he will do what he can by petitioning the secular leaders.

The next person who comes by is a Levite. Now the Levites were a whole tribe of Israel who were set aside to serve in the Temple. Every priest came from the tribe of Levi, so this is a guy who is not as high and lofty as the priest who walked by a moment ago, but he was still one of the people associated more fully with the work of God. So, if the first one who walked by was like a modern pastor walking by, the second one was like a church employee or a major church volunteer. These are people that culture teaches us to expect to help, even when nobody else does. When they come and pass by, what hope can we have?

The final person we read about is a Samaritan. We emphasize that Jewish people hated the Samaritans, that they were half-breeds, according to the "pure" Israelites. They did not worship in temple, but on a mountain in the North. They had different opinions on a number of issues. The Israelites did not just think that the Samaritans had problems, but that they hated God and were hated by God. If there was anyone who we would expect would leave this hurt man on the side of the road, it is the Samaritan. After all, the Israelites had systematically excluded the Samaritans from the people of God, had treated them poorly, and had given them every reason to ignore them, if not be hostile to them.

And yet, he stops and helps. But he does not just come by and offer a prayer, which in itself would have been better than what the priest and Levite did. He comes and takes him and applies first aid to his wounds. Then, he chooses to walk and intentionally inconvenience himself, so he can put the hurt man on his animal. This means that he will likely be late to wherever he was going. Then, he takes him to an inn and tells the innkeeper to take care of the man at any cost and he will be responsible for it. This Samaritan, in the blink of an eye, went from being on his own way, minding his own business, to being late, inconvenienced, and financially obligated for the recovery of another person, and had absolutely no idea how much his bill would run. This is a man who made tremendous sacrifices for someone who probably hated him.

We nearly always conclude by looking at the last exchange between Jesus and the lawyer. "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" The lawyer responds, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." I want to share with you the words of Karl Barth, without a doubt one of the most important theologians in the last several hundred years. He says, "We might expect...that Jesus would have said to the teacher of the Law: This Samaritan did not ask questions like you. He found his neighbor in the man that had fallen among thieves. He treated him accordingly. Go and do thou likewise."

That is precisely what we would expect, and it is precisely what we have heard over and over again. We heard it in Sunday School when we talked about this story, we have been told that this is the main point of the story whenever we hear sermons about it. But when Barth says that we might expect this would be the lesson, he means that, in his judgment, as true as it might be, it isn't actually what the parable is about. When I first read that, I was taken aback. What else could it mean? What else could Jesus possibly be telling us than to go and be like the Good Samaritan. Isn't that the point, to help one another, to be a blessing to those who need it?

Amazingly, this is not what Jesus has set out to tell, and I must admit that I never realized this until I was basically clubbed over the head with this one day. When we read the story of the Good Samaritan this way, we are almost always putting ourselves into the story in one way or another. We are asked who we are, are we the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan? Of course, we find ourselves being all too much like the priest and Levite and not enough like the Samaritan. But that isn't where Jesus puts us in the story. Somehow, we lose our way between the beginning of the story and its end.

Immediately before Jesus starts telling the story, we read, "But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor.'" At the very end, Jesus asks the question, "Which of these three men, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" Do you see what Jesus has done? The question still needs to be asked, who are we in the story, but the answer is not what we expected. We are the man who fell into the hands of the robbers, the one who is broken and bleeding on the side of the road. We are not the ones who are helping those who are in need, but the ones who are in need themselves.

When we look at this story from this point of view, the whole thing changes on us. The question is no longer "who is in need that you can you help," but, "from whom are you willing to receive help?" And, as it turns out, this is a much harder question to answer. The fact of the matter is that we see ourselves as very self-sufficient people. We don't want to ask the question that Jesus asks, because it presupposes a picture of ourselves that we simply don't want to entertain. We want to focus on who it is that we can help because we look at ourselves and we see that we, by and large, have the resources, financial and otherwise, to take care of ourselves. We are so self-sufficient that it is hard for us to even really understand what it is like to be in need. We have had skills and a strong work ethic drilled into us from an early age and we have worked hard all our lives.

To look at ourselves and ask, "From whom are you willing to receive help," is to offend deeply. We want to respond and say, "What makes you think that I need to receive help at all? Have I not worked hard to be where I am, do I not deserve what I have?" We are much more comfortable with the call to help others, because that call allows us to continue to see ourselves as those with power, those in control, those of means who can stoop down and bless those who are in need.

In light of this, let us look again more closely at the context. We read that the reason the lawyer asked his question at all was because he wanted to justify himself. He wanted to be reassured that he was already being faithful. He expected to show Jesus up, to be better than Jesus actually expected him to be, to be the one who truly loved God and loved his neighbor. However, he had too much pride for this. He was starting from a position of self-assurance. He already presupposed that he loved God and loved his neighbor, and we have no reason to believe that he was an obvious hypocrite. He was probably loved and respected by all, as one who really did love God and love his neighbors. However, Jesus wants him to rethink his whole conception of what it means to be a neighbor.

He asks, "And who is my neighbor." To ask this means already that we want the category of "neighbor" to be restricted to one degree or another. Surely, it cannot mean everyone. If everyone is our neighbor, it means not only that we are called to show love and kindness to them, even if we do not like them, but it means also that we must submit ourselves to receive love and kindness from them as well, even if we do not like them. The real question, according to Jesus in the telling of this story, is not "Who you can help, who you can bless with your abundance," but "From whom you are willing to be blessed, whether you are even willing to admit that you need blessing from beyond yourself?"

This is a much harder question. For a wealthy and secure Israelite to come alongside of the Samaritan he dislikes is still possible, it is still something that he can make himself do. However, it is a completely different situation to be the one in need and have the Samaritan be the one doing the assisting. After all, this Israelite would have no problem believing that the Samaritan needed his help, perhaps even help that only he could provide, but how humiliating would it be for this Israelite to have to admit that he is so far from being able to help someone else, that he himself is in need and, in particular, in need of the help of a Samaritan, one he hates, one he believes hates God and is hated by God. How far has he fallen, that he needs to be helped by a Samaritan?

Are we willing to be blessed by those we think don't have the money to do it? Are we willing to receive help from those we don't think are able to help us, who are, perhaps, not as equipped to help us as we think we are to help ourselves? Are we willing to be blessed by those we consider to be beneath us. Do we even dare to admit that there are those we actually consider to be beneath us, in our hearts if never in our words? Why do we, as human beings, feel that help can come from some people, but it can't from others? I am more and more convinced that it reveals that we have something of a stunted understanding of grace.

If someone with whom you got along pretty well were to come up to you and say, "I just wanted you to know that I forgive you," how might you react? Well, we might want to say that we are grateful, because it is always good to be reconciled. But, judging by my own tendencies and those I have seen in others over the years, I imagine the response might be somewhat different. If someone with whom I did not think I had a problem came up and declared their forgiveness, I am quite likely to get somewhat upset. After all, that word of forgiveness carries with it, at the very same time, a word of condemnation. They are saying, "You have done something that needs forgiveness, and I am forgiving you." The word of grace is simultaneously a word of judgment. I will probably question the person for assuming that I even needed to be forgiven; after all, in my own mind, I'd done nothing wrong.

When the man who was attacked by robbers was helped by the Samaritan, he had to come face-to-face with the fact that he needed help, because he was not, in fact, self-sufficient. He did not get to choose who helped him; those he would have preferred just crossed the road and ignored him. To push this image as far as I think we need to, we need to remember that, if the man was stubborn and said, "No! Absolutely not! I will not submit to be helped by a Samaritan!" what would have happened? He would have died.

Jesus is saying that, in order for us to really love our neighbors, we have to be willing to be saved by them. We have to be willing to let them serve us, we have to admit that we have needs that we are unable to fill and that we welcome anyone who can help us to do so. If we say in our hearts that we can do it ourselves, that we have all we need and that we would rather do without than to rely on another, we do not yet love our neighbor as we have been called to love.

Let us think about this in the light of the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus, while on the cross, actively dying because one of his own disciples betrayed him, said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." The fact of the matter is that the people who nailed him up thought of themselves as knowing exactly what they were doing. They didn't need his pity, his forgiveness. As far as they were concerned, he was a criminal, a disturber of the peace. It never crossed their minds that they were the broken and bleeding man and that Jesus, this despised person, was their help. They were doing quite well enough on their own, thank you very much; they didn't need a Good Samaritan.

Jesus once said to Pharisees who wanted to put him in a bad light, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." Jesus came to save sinners. If you are a sinner, take heart, for God came to earth for you, he suffered for you, he died for you, he was raised for you, he ascended back to heaven for you, and he prays for you. All that God, in his mercy, has done, has been for you. If you are not a sinner, then Jesus did not come to save you. If you are not a sinner, or, at least, if you do not consider yourself a sinner, you won't even listen to Jesus, for Jesus speaks only to sinners, to those who know all too well that they need help.

Brothers and sisters, we find ourselves broken by the side of the road in our sin. Even though our life depends on it, we can do nothing to free ourselves. Will we allow ourselves to be helped by this man, this man who was crucified as a criminal, who challenges the powers of this world, who completely changes the way we think and the way we live? Will we receive help by those he sends, even if they are poor, even if they are weak, even if they are, in our opinion, of no account? By God's grace, let us do so. Let us be willing to hear that word of judgment, for it is lodged deep in the word of grace. Let us pray.

AMEN