Loving God, your mercy and salvation go beyond any barriers that we might erect.  By the power of your Spirit, help us to see others as you see them, and to hear your word for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            It would be easy to take today’s gospel from Luke and make it into a great big “should.”  You should help people!  Now go and do it!  That’s it.  End of sermon… But there is so much more going on.

         It all starts when a lawyer (or a Torah expert) stands up in order “to test Jesus” (Lk. 10:25).  He does this by asking what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life.  Jesus, like any good rabbi, asks him a question in response: “What is written in the law?  What do you read there?” (Lk. 10:26).  The lawyer responds with the Great Commandment – to love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbour as yourself – an excellent summary of the Torah.  Jesus, it seems, agrees: “Do this, and you will live” (Lk. 10:28).

         The lawyer, however, is looking for far more details than this.  He would prefer a list of do’s and don’ts – something that will tell him if he has actually kept the law or not.  He knows what the rabbis teach: Keep the law, and you will achieve eternal life (Crossways).  And so, he asks Jesus another question: “And who is my neighbor?”

         It is entirely likely that the lawyer is hoping that Jesus will narrow it down for him – perhaps defining his neighbour as just his family and friends.  That way, perhaps he could actually keep the law.  There is, of course, a passage in Leviticus (19:17-18) that defines other Israelites as neighbours who are to be loved.  And so, the rabbis at the time taught that Jewish people needed to love and serve one another, but they did not need to help Gentiles.  There was also wisdom literature at the time that said to help godly people, but not sinners (Sir. 12:1-7).

         Jesus, then, as he so often does, tells a story.  It is the story of a man who quite obviously needs help.  He has been robbed, beaten up, stripped of his clothes, and left to die on the side of the road.  As the various people travel down the road and see him lying there, they do not know if he is Jewish or Gentile (or even Samaritan), or if he is godly or not.  Still, they each need to decide whether they will try to help him, or not.

         The first person who comes along is a priest – probably on his way home from Jerusalem after serving in the Temple.  Perhaps because of the many requirements of the Jewish Law, the priest is faced with a dilemma.  If he stops to help, and the man is either dead or a Gentile, he will have made himself ritually unclean.  He would be unable to serve in the Temple for at least a week, would have to find a red heifer to sacrifice, and would need to spend both time and money in order to purify himself.  There was also the possibility that he, too, might be robbed, as this particular road was known for attacks by thieves and bandits.  And so, not wanting to risk it, he gives the man a wide berth and passes by on the other side.

         The next person to come along is a Levite, who also would have served in the Temple, but didn’t have quite as many regulations to follow as the priest did.  He was likely traveling on foot, being of a lower social class than the priest.  He also would have known that there was a priest traveling not too far ahead of him on the road.  And so, if the priest didn’t want to risk stopping, he wouldn’t either.  After all, he, too, might be either defiled or robbed.

         However, along comes a Samaritan, who has compassion for the man, and stops to help.  At this point in the story, Jesus’ listeners would have been absolutely shocked. Samaritans were regarded as idolaters and outsiders.  They had both Jews and Gentiles as ancestors, and were treated as “lesser than” by their pure-blooded Jewish cousins.  They are described as not even a nation and foolish in the Apocrypha (Sir. 50:25-26).  However, the Samaritans had the same Torah and the same commandments – and this particular Samaritan faced all the same risks as the priest and the Levite who had preceded him.

         You may or may not have noticed that by the end of the story, Jesus has changed the question.  Rather than, “who is my neighbour?”, Jesus asks which one of the people acted like a neighbour (Lk. 10:36).  The answer is obvious, and Jesus concludes, “Go and do likewise.”

         Rather than narrowing the list of who is our neighbour, Jesus has thrown the sphere of God’s mercy wide open.  At the same time, Jesus is the one who has put himself at risk for the sake of all those who need healing.  He, too, was beaten, and stripped, and crucified, and left to die.  However, because of his life, death and resurrection, the gift of eternal life is given to all those who put their trust in him.  Yes – we are still commanded to love God and love our neighbour – but it is not in order to achieve eternal life.  Rather, it is in response to the salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Lectionary 15C                                 Luke 10:25-37

July 10, 2022

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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