Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The 7th Sunday after Pentecost
We love the Parable of the Good Samaritan, don’t we? For most everyone here, it is a parable we could tell from memory, unlike so much of the rest of the Bible for most Christians. We can barely utter the word Samaritan without adding the word good. Because of this parable, the two are synonymous.
Yet, the people who first heard this parable would not have liked it at all. No doubt, some who heard it might even have thought, “Jesus, I would have liked you a whole lot better if you hadn’t told that story!”
You see, Samaritans and Jews were mortal enemies. In our own Civil War times, it would have been as if Jesus had told the Parable of the Good Yankee, if he was in the South, or the Parable of the Good Rebel, if he was in the North. Or in our own day, it might be the Parable of the Good Muslim Terrorist. Why couldn’t he tell a nice story, with the good neighbor being someone we want to like, rather than someone we want to hate?
In the Gospel according to Luke, right before Jesus tells this parable we read that “when a Samaritan village refused to welcome Jesus, his disciples wanted to call down fire to consume the inhabitants.” That gives you an idea of what Jesus’ own disciples thought about Samaritans.
The antipathy between Jews and Samaritans went back hundreds of years, “beginning with the Assyrian occupation in 722 B.C. During the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Samaritans opposed the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, and instead worshipped at a shrine on Mt. Gerizim.
“Over the centuries other points of dispute over theology and liturgy evolved, resulting in enmity, distrust, and limited contact between the two groups.” In the second century B.C. the Samaritans had even helped an outside nation in its wars against the Jews. In retaliation, the Jewish High Priest burned the temple on Mt. Gerizim. “Roughly 25 years before Jesus told this parable, a group of Samaritans entered the temple in Jerusalem and scattered human bones around,” making the temple unclean and thus stopping the making of sacrifices for a time. There was no love lost between the Jews and the Samaritans.
So a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him what the scriptures say. The lawyer responds, “To love God and to love one’s neighbor.” Jesus tells the man he has answered correctly. That’s what you do to inherit eternal life. Love God and your neighbor.
But the lawyer wouldn’t let it go at that. He asks, “Who is my neighbor?” In other words, “Who must I love, Jesus? Draw up some boundaries so that I can know what kind of people I am responsible for. Whom can I exclude from the category of neighbor? Are my neighbors those who live next door? Are they people who are religious like I am? People I work with? Or perhaps just blood relatives.
Or being a lawyer, perhaps he wanted Jesus to express it in contract form, something on the order of “A neighbor (hereinafter referred to as the party of the first part) is to be construed as meaning a person of Jewish descent whose legal residence is within a radius of no more than three statute miles from one’s own legal residence unless there is another person of Jewish descent (hereinafter to be referred to as the party of the second part) living closer to the party of the first part than one is oneself, in which case the party of the second part is to be construed as the neighbor to the party of the first part and one is oneself relieved of all responsibility of any sort or kind whatsoever.” Source unknown.
But instead of giving the lawyer a straightforward answer, Jesus tells a parable. A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among robbers, and was beaten to within an inch of his life.
That road was notorious. Only twenty miles long, it drops 3200 feet. It was extremely unsafe, the haunt of thieves and robbers. It wouldn’t have been especially surprising to any of Jesus’ hearers that a priest and Levite passed by the man. Most likely they took him for dead, and if a priest touched a dead person that would make him unclean ritually, rendering him unable to worship. Also, it wasn’t unusual for robbers to place one of their own by the road, appearing to be in need of help, and then falling upon a would-be rescuer. So, there were plausible reasons for religious people not to make themselves vulnerable by helping one of their fellow Israelites, but it was still clearly a sin of omission.
The surprise is when a hated Samaritan turns out to be the hero of the story. He binds up the man’s wounds, treating them with wine and oil, the wine as an antiseptic and the oil for healing, then takes him to an inn and gives the innkeeper an amount of money that could sustain a person for about three weeks, with a promise for more if needed.
Then Jesus asks the lawyer, “Who proved to be the neighbor of the man who fell among robbers?” The Lawyer answered, “The one who showed mercy on him.” I wonder if he just couldn’t bring himself to say the word Samaritan!
How does one inherit eternal life? Love God and love our neighbor. And who is my neighbor? Our Lord Jesus makes the circle very large, including virtually every person, and especially those who are in need.
It occurs to me that as a parish we have a neighbor in need on our very doorstep. One hundred seventeen families or individuals, some of whom live full time in Dolphin Tower, have been told that they cannot return to their home for at least six months. For some of means, that won’t be a great problem. For others, however, this is a crisis of huge proportions. I believe God calls us to reach out to our neighbors, and for that reason we are going to offer to host a meeting of the residents of Dolphin Tower in order to assess their needs and offer assistance where possible. At the very least, we can offer a place for them to meet as often as they feel it necessary to conduct their business. I will keep you informed about this opportunity for ministry.
How do you inherit eternal life? Love God with all of your being and love your neighbor.
Quotes not otherwise noted are from Synthesis, a weekly resource for Preaching and Worship following the Revised Common Lectionary.