Luke 10:25-37: Sermon The Hardest Part

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

There was a commercial a few years ago, it was unique because it did not advertise a product, but an action. The commercial started with a man riding a mountain bike on a trail after a rain storm. He is trucking along when this Jeep Wrangler comes up from behind him. The Jeep is full of young boys and as a gag they drive up close to the man on the bike and splash him with mud. They drive off laughing hysterically while the man on the bike is left dripping and dirty. The scene changes when the man of the bike continues on the trail only to find that same Jeep Wrangler pulled over, hood up, with smoke pouring out. The young men are standing there with their heads stuck under the hood and they turn to see that man who was the butt of their earlier joke. The man thinks for a second, should I help or give them what they deserve. The man on the bike smiles and offers a hand to the stranded young men. I saw this commercial and immediately though of today’s Scripture reading.

This story is probably one of the most well known stories from the Bible besides the Christmas and Easter stories. People can identify with the story probably because they can identify with all the characters in the story. This story is another example of Jesus teaching love for God and love for one another. That I think was the central theme of all his teachings, they all boiled down to love. We have talked a lot of love, loving God and loving our neighbor, this is the goal of every Christian life to have perfect love of God and of neighbor. This is the primary goal of our personal Christian life and it is the hardest thing to do as a Christian. It is easy to help someone we know, a friend, maybe a next door neighbor. It is hard to help someone we don’t like, especially if that someone has done us harm. Love is something that is easier said than done.

But let’s look at the story. Jesus is being questioned by a legal expert. The lawyer is trying to test Jesus and he asks him “what must he do to inherit eternal life?” This man was trying to trick Jesus into saying something against the Jewish law, something blasphemous. So Jesus turns the question around, as he always does so eloquently, he says “what does the law say?” The man responds “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus says “you’re right, if you do this then you with live.” Then the man wants clarification, “who is my neighbor?” The question that he really wants to ask is “how far does this love stuff go? Who don’t I have to love? Is it just my next door neighbors, the people living on the same street, the same neighborhood? Surely I don’t have to love everyone I meet on the street. What about the Gentiles? Surely I don’t have to love them.”

Jesus responds with a story, a parable to explain what he meant. In this story Jesus shows who a neighbor really is, who the people are that we are to love and help. Also, Jesus in choosing the particular characters in the story, Jesus is demonstrating what prevents this neighborly love from taking place. This serves both as a guide and as a warning. Jesus tells the story. A man is walking down the Jericho Road. This road is very treacherous; it descends many thousands of feet in altitude in a very short distance making it steep. There are also many places that people can hide and ambush unsuspecting travelers. The man is ambushed, robbed, and beaten half to death, and left to die. He is lying in the gutter, bleeding, body aching, there is no worse place to be. We have been there. We have been the man beaten and bruised, maybe not a literal physical beating, but an emotional, spiritual beating. We have felt abandoned in our lives from time to time. We feel that the world has left us to die by the side of the road. We can identify with this man. We can sympathize with his plight. What about the rest of the characters?

Jesus goes on; a priest walks by the scene. Now, surely this man of God would stop and help a person in need. No, he doesn’t even poke the man with a stick to see if he is still breathing. He moves to the opposite side of the road, as far away from the dying man as possible and goes on his way. Why? We don’t know specifically in this story because Jesus doesn’t say, but we can look at clues from the culture then to guess and answer. A priest was required, by Jewish Law to bury a corpse. However, this act also made the priest ceremonially unclean. Perhaps the priest was heading to a festival or ceremony and did not want to be excluded or hassled by burying the body. Perhaps, this beaten man was a gentile and that would make him unclean. His religious beliefs and laws stopped him from helping this man.

Do our own religious affiliations prevent us from being a neighbor to others? You might have heard this week about Pope Benedict XVI’s comments calling any church outside the Roman Catholic Church, wounded and not a full true church of Christ. This has of course caused and uproar among Protestants of all denominations, but it only shows the real problem that we have today. There is so much division within the Church of Christ and it does nothing but harm the entire Body. We must start with ourselves. We must work as Christians with one another, helping one another instead of tearing one another down. We have to love each other because if we don’t what kind of example is that setting for the rest of the world. How can we talk about love if we don’t love another within the Church? Sometimes it is our own religious beliefs and affiliations; like that priest can prevent us from being a neighbor to others.

The next person is a Levite who passes by and his actions are the same as the priest. He walks by and does nothing, perhaps for the same reason as the priest. Why does Jesus choose these two characters? It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke, “a priest and a Levite are walking down the road…” We don’t know for sure, but maybe it is because these are the high, well respected, pillars of the Jewish community. These are the people you expect to look up to. The people you expect to always do the right thing and so it is shocking to the system when we see them acting in this way. It would be like Billy Graham passing over us without lifting a finger. It lets us know, however, that we could be in the place of either of these two people. If they can do it then we can be guilty of the same thing. We can be the ones to ignore and pass over a wounded dying person, maybe not physically, but spiritually and emotionally. This serves as a warning.

As shocking as the actions or lack thereof, of the priest and Levite is the next character who passes by, it is a Samaritan. We know that Jews and Samaritans did not like one another, in fact the word that I would use for their feelings is loathing. It is similar to the Israelis and Palestinians today. So this Samaritan who was hated by the crowd hearing the story becomes the hero of the story. He helps the man up, binds his wounds, takes him on his own animal to an inn and pays his way. It is not the pillars of the Jewish community who step up, but it is the lowest, in the Jews eyes, person on the ladder.

Why does Jesus choose a Samaritan to be the hero of the story? This is for the crowd gathered there the ultimate answer to the question of, who is my neighbor. It would be like a member of Al Qaeda stopping to help one of us. It shocks us that the one you have been taught to hate is the one who stops and helps you. Who is our neighbor? Our neighbor is the person who hates you, who cheats you, who lies to you, who robs you, who spits in your face, that person is your neighbor. That is why this is the hardest part of Christianity. We can love God, of course, God gave us life, and God gave us the gift of grace through his son Jesus even when we do not deserve it. We can love our family and friends, but our neighborhood is not limited by the people we know or the people we like. But remember, you cannot love God without first loving your neighbor. That is the hardest part.

Jesus’ goal for his ministry and for his Church today is to establish community for all people. Jesus wants a community that goes beyond race, gender, idealism, political affiliation, even sexual orientation. God loves us without question and despite of our sins. That is the kind of love he expects that we have for one another. It is the hardest part. Love someone who will not love you back. Be a neighbor to someone that has done you harm. Give to someone who will not say thank you. Sacrifice without expectation of reimbursement. That is the kind of love God wants toward all people, all 6.7 billion people living on earth today.

We don’t know the outcome of the story. Jesus finishes and asks a question, who was neighbor to the beaten man? The lawyer responds by saying the one who gave him mercy. Jesus responds “Go and do likewise.” Jesus still says it to us today. Go and do likewise. See how I treat others, go and do likewise. See how I look at people, go and do likewise. See how I touch these people, go and do likewise. See how I heal these people, go and do likewise. See how I love these people, go and do likewise. That is our challenge and it is the hardest part, but with God’s help we can do it.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen