July 12-13 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What’s the message of our Gospel reading today? I’ve heard so many different ideas over the years. I’ve been told the central message is to be good to your neighbor. I’ve had people try to convince me the core truth is that we have an obligation to provide resources to all people. I’ve heard it’s a slam against lawyers, putting them in their place. I’ve read what’s being communicated by Jesus is that I need to avoid organized religion, because look at the way these professional clergymen acted. So what is Jesus’ message? Isn’t that the point of reading the Bible, to receive what Jesus is saying, not what I want Him to be saying? Solet’s get into the words written for us to discern the message He has for all of us.
Vs 25 – And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” A lawyer, which in this context means one who is an expert in the laws of God, wanted to test Jesus. And the question he chose to do this is very telling of the man’s mindset. “What shall I DO to inherit eternal life?” The Greek word for inherit is not complicated. Inherit simply means to receive something, a gift, from someone who has died. Inheritance is not about earning what is given, doing something to get it, it’s just the opposite. But this man asks, “What must I DO?” Jesus hears the question and keys in on the man’s clear bent, what must I DO? So Jesus asks a question back to him.
Vs 26 – “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man’s response is classic.
Vs 27 – “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.” And in vs 28 Jesus says the man’s answer is right on the mark. “Do this and you will live.” And then we get to the man’s heart in vs 29. “Desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”
And there it is, “DESIRING TO JUSTIFY HIMSELF…”. Jesus wasn’t telling a folksy yarn to convince us to be open to self-sacrifice. Neither is this parable a heart-warming story to obligate us to the cause of social justice. It is about the love of God for all of us, His sacrificial actions to serve us, the Lord obligating Himself to be present, to help us, to literally save us. Jesus is responding to the misguided idea that we can save ourselves, justifying ourselves through our good deeds.
Who is the hero in this parable? It isn’t the priest. It isn’t the Levite. Jesus’ message would have been shocking to the lawyer because the hero was a Samaritan. All Jews looked down on the Samaritans because they’re a mixed blood people. They had willingly intermarried and had children with people of invading countries. They’re a people of mixed religion. They don’t worship in Jerusalem, instead they built a Temple on Mount Gerizim and then imported false worship practices. Because of this the Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. We see this in John 4:9 where it says, “Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”. The Jews at that time thought of themselves as being pure and having the right to judge the Samaritans. But what’s wrong with that view? Who is the only One who is pure and sinless? It’s not me, it’s not you. God alone is righteous and 100% pure. Because of that we don’t have the right to judge others. Here’s a story about that.
There was a couple who moved into a new house that had lots of big windows that let in tons of light. They loved having breakfast by those windows. The husband was facing the windows when he noticed the next-door neighbor’s laundry hanging on a clothes line to dry. What he noticed was how poor a job had been done cleaning the entire load of laundry. It was all dingy and spotted. He said, “Why did they bother? It’s not clean at all.” A few days later the same thing happened. Another load of laundry with the same outcome, so he said to his wife, “Honey, you do a great job with our laundry, would you consider going over and letting them know what you do so they can get their act together?” His wife said, “That’s kind of personal, I don’t think I’m willing to do that.” About a week later the neighbor had another load out to dry, but this time everything looked great! So the man said to his wife, “Did you go talk to them? It looks like they figured it out.” The wife responded, “No, but I did wash our windows first thing this morning.” The whole time the man had been seeing his neighbor’s wash through his own filthy windows, and that’s exactly how it is for all of us.
When we judge others, we’re doing it from our own sinful, viewpoint. God is quite clear on this. “Judge not, lest you be judged.” The Samaritans and the Israelites were judging each other, but had no right to do so. That’s not our place. We are called to do just the opposite. We are called to share the love of Jesus, to point to Him as the only answer there is for our sin.
We all share two things Jesus talks about in this parable. We are all the wounded, robbed and left for dead, wounded in our body and soul by the deceit of the devil, and robbed of our relationship with God. And because of that, we all share the 2nd thing, our struggle with selfishness. When you’re hurting, really hurting, where is your focus? It’s on yourself, on getting better. It just makes sense. But there’s Good News. We have someone who has come to make us better, to heal us, to nurture us, to love us. It’s the Good Samaritan – it’s Jesus!
When we’ve been healed, then what do we want to do? We want to help others. Just like it says in 1 John 4. “We love because He first loved us.” We all need the Good Samaritan to come into our lives, into our pain and brokenness to heal us. So thank you Jesus for being our Healer and Redeemer and making us whole. Now instead of judging each other and just looking out for ourselves we can live a life that’s bigger and bolder because we don’t have to work to justify ourselves, it’s already been done for us. Jesus doesn’t wait until you’ve become good enough to deserve His help. Listen to verses 33-36. “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’” The Good Samaritan came to where the wounded man was, and that’s what He does for all of us, He meets us where we are and tends to what each of our needs are. Whatever your pain is, whatever your brokenness is, Jesus comes to take care of you and He pays the whole price, and He’s even going to come back, at His 2nd coming to bring you into His glory and perfection.
Does that give you something to rejoice about? You are loved! So as Jesus says in verse 37, “Go and do likewise.” In Jesus’ name, amen.
