Text Luke 10:25-37; Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 25:1-10; Colossians 1:1-14

Theme Legal Benefactors

Subject The parable of the merciful Samaritan

Occasion Lectionary 15 – July 15, 2007 – Zion – Iowa City (Baptism of Margaret Louise Mahoney)

Grace and peace to you from our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Most of us are familiar with this story Jesus told to answer a lawyer’s question:

Who’s my neighbor? (Lk 10:29b)

In one way or another the parable of the Good Samaritan is played out in books, theatre, and movies

It’s got what it takes:

That presenting question:

Who’s my neighbor?

` The scene: a roadside

accessible to everyone

The Cast:

a victim beaten, robbed, left for dead

antagonists – thieves

protagonist – the Samaritan

spectators – a priest and a Levite

Themes:

Greed and grace

Good and evil

Life and death

Since a lawyer asked the question,

One would suppose this is a legal question

Be careful

For sure, in Matthew’s telling the lawyer asks Jesus to name the great commandment

Luke’s telling is teaching something else

God inspired Luke to write for the poor who were not benefactors of the law

God had inspired Matthew to write for Jews who did benefit from the law

In Luke’s report the lawyer asks,

"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (10:25b)

Eternal life is not a teaching from Judaism

It was part of Jesus’ proclamation

Hear this account from 2 perspectives:

On the surface it seems the lawyer is inviting Jesus into a game of wits

As if the lawyer could be a legal benefactor of eternal life

But hear this report from the perspective of the poor, the Gentiles, who wonder,

Do we have to be Jewish, obedient to the law, to receive eternal life?

Be careful

I know I’m not talking to Jewish audience

but we are part of a religious establishment

Lutheran Christianity is nearly 500 years old

The same institutional dangers befall us that the Jews faced when Jesus ended 400 years of prophetic silence

Does a person have to be Lutheran to inherit eternal life?

So Jesus seems to play the lawyer’s game, according to Luke

True to the rabbinic teaching style

Jesus answers the question with a question

"What is written in the law? What do you read there?" (10:26)

The lawyer is astute

Gives the right answer and then some

Quotes the Schema from Deuteronomy (Deut. 6:5)

… love the Lord your God with all your heart, … soul, … strength, and … mind; (10:27a)

And then couples it with a verse from Leviticus (Lev. 19:18b)

and your neighbor as yourself. (10:27b)

Just like Jesus did in Matthew’s report

Good answer!

Many of us would have gotten this right

And Jesus affirms him – "… right answer; do this, and you will live." (10:28)

But legality prevails: define your terms

"who is my neighbor?" (10:29b)

And we know what’s underneath that question

Who is not my neighbor?

Then comes the parable

Thieves aren’t my neighbor

they aren’t are they?

Always a shock when they live next-door

And yikes, seems the priest and Levite aren’t either

One’s too busy to be a neighbor

The other’s too clean, ritually clean, too holy to be a neighbor

The guy in the ditch might be my neighbor – your neighbor

The guy in the ditch could be me – could be you

The Samaritan?

Sure is a nice guy

We’d like a neighbor just like that

Why, he even made the inn keeper neighborly

Which of these three (or 4 or 5), do you think, was a neighbor? (10:36a)

"The one who showed him mercy." (10:37a)

Great story

Great answer

But back where we started

How do we get to be a legal benefactor?

How do we get in God’s will so we inherit eternal life?

Apparently a Jewish lawyer wanted to know

Early Christians wanted to know

Be real: we want to know

If there’s something, anything, we can do for eternal life, we’ll do it.

Go do Florida?

Ponce de Lion did in the 16^th century looking for the Fountain of Youth

That’s not it

Truth in this Boomer-dominated culture

We deny death

Joined to The Grateful Dead – live in the now

“Reach for the gusto” – have another beer

Sing “We’ve got a lot to live” – drink some caffeine

“Just do it” – go for a run

Our reality is so much like the world in which Jesus walked

Roman laws ordered the empire – preserved Pax Romana

The American Empire is intent on preserving democracy

Mosaic law ordered the faith community – preserved righteousness

Christians today scramble to name absolutes

Everybody wants to be legal benefactors

To benefit from the law

Set the boundaries to preserve and protect

The priest was a legal benefactor – places to go and people to see

The Levite was a legal benefactor – holy and clean

Whenever we set the boundaries,

We limit our vision

When we limit our vision,

We’re short on compassion

In Luke’s account of this parable, the Samaritan is “moved with pity”

The Greek word is a form of σπλαγχνιζσομαι (splang-nidz-o-my)

It describes a gut-feeling

Tears come; stomach hurts; literally one’s bowels churn

You know the feeling

It can grip you powerless

But in the parable compassion motivated the Samaritan

Inspired a vision; launched a mission

This Samaritan had no station among the Jews – was despised

A hybrid Jew – a convert from the days in Babylon (Baghdad)

Hardly a legal benefactor

Yet this one knew about neighbor-love

The early church struggled with the love command of Jesus – just us or everybody?

The mandate to love stretches us

Neighbor-love?

Next-door? Iowan? American? Lutheran? Christian? Everybody?

Jesús Mardi Vargus had pestered me for months

This Cuban, released by Fidel Castro from an institution, sent to America, bereft of English, came often to my office asking for money or medication

By winter I had run out of money and patience

Then came that Sunday in February, early in Lent

I arrived early to open the church

There in the vestibule, wrapped in the carpet was Jesús: ashen, cold and coughing

Could Jesús Mardi Vargus be a legal benefactor?

We who have received the revelation of God’s love in Jesus Christ

carry the revelation wherever we go

With heart, soul, strength and mind we bring neighbor-love to life

Our compassion, faith, power and wits live the love of Jesus

People who meet one of us meet Jesus

This is not works righteousness - not a means to becoming legal benefactors

This is righteousness at work,

because we are beneficiaries named in the will of God