From Acts:
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the
word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the
gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles…
From I John: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.
From I John: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.
and from John: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
let us
pray.
so
first of all, in Acts, when the circumcised believers are all shocked that
these unclean Gentiles can receive anything from God, this is so us. all of us.
We are so sure we know who God loves and doesn't love. who is deserving of
God's gifts.
The
reason we are so sure is because we want to be the ones who receive God's
gifts. We want to be in right standing with God. That where the next text comes
in – believe in Jesus and obey God's commandments. ok, but what are God's
commandments?
So
now the Gospel reading – Jesus tells us that His commandment is to love one
another. Ok! now we know what the requirements are, we can live right. Where do
we start?
All
of this reminded me of a certain expert in Jewish law. He too wanted to make
sure he was the right sort of person. He wanted to justify himself, to declare
himself righteous, to defend his position. He too was surprised by the hero of
Jesus story.
The
story goes like this:
One day an
expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question:
“Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus
replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
The man
answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will
live!”
The man
wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus
replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to
Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat
him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along.
But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road
and passed him by. A Temple assistant (Levite) walked over and looked at him
lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan
came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to
him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged
them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he
took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling
him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you
the next time I’m here.’
“Now which
of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by
bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man
replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus
said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
This is a
weird answer to the question "who is my neighbor?" It seems
convoluted and lengthy. The priest and the Levite are supposed to be the good
guys in the story but they are not. Then this enemy, this unclean, despised
Samaritan comes on the scene. This is the where the dark music comes in – oooh,
the bad guy! what's he gonna do to this poor helpless guy lying in the ditch?
he has compassion on him. he binds up his wounds. he takes him to a place where
he can receive more care and promises to come back and pay his bills.
Jesus is
seriously blowing this law expert's mind. But, if we are careful in our reading
of God's word, we will see that God has been telling us all along that He
ALWAYS uses the "wrong sort" of person: Adam and Eve blew it, Noah
got drunk, Abraham lied about his wife and tried to hurry God's promise, Jacob
was a deceiver and trickster, Tamar posed as a prostitute, Rahab was a prostitute, Moses was a murderer,
Ehud was left-handed, Deborah was a woman Judge, Gideon was the least of the
least, Samson was, well, don't even get me started on Samson!, Ruth was a foreigner,
David was an adulterer and a murderer and a warmonger, Jonah disobeyed God,
then repented and then got seriously angry over a dead plant.
Jesus
stories and actions show us the same thing: healing beggars, celebrating the
prodigal son, talking to the woman at the well, going to Zacchaeus' house, hanging
out with tax-collectors and prostitutes and now this: the "good" Samaritan.
All my
life, I have thought of this story as a message to reach out to others who are
not like me or to help those in need regardless of their gender, creed or
color. And is it that. God does want us to love our neighbor and this story
does cast a wide net over who our neighbor might include. But Jesus is a master
story teller, and as I read this story over and over, I started to see some
other connections.
First of
all, the priest and the Levite are not accidental choices for the ones leaving
the guy in the ditch. What is Jesus trying to say about that? The priest is a
representative of the Law. The Law was what this expert was banking on to
guarantee him eternal life. The Levite was one who carried out the duties in
the Temple and in that represents service to God. So, neither the Law nor
service to God saved this man from his helpless condition.
Then a
certain Samaritan came by. Someone who was "despised and rejected" by
the Jews – and Jesus says "when he saw the man, he felt compassion for
him" This is almost word for word what the Bible says about Jesus in
Matthew 9:36 "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because
they were harassed and helpless" Then he goes over to him. The man can do
nothing but lie there half-dead. The Samaritan pours oil and wine over his cuts
and bruises. Oil and wine are used frequently in the Old Testament as examples
of how God will provide for His people. Joel 2:19 says The LORD will answer and
say to His people, "Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and
oil, And you will be satisfied in full with them." Jesus often uses wine
to represent His blood.
He bandaged
the wounds and put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn. An inn is
not a home. People don't live in an inn forever. It is a temporary place of
safety, of rest. There is an inn keeper there who will take care of him. The
inn keeper is given what he needs to care for the man and a promise to pay back
if he spends more. And lastly, the Samaritan promises to come back.
Could Jesus
be talking about Himself?
Tullian
Tchividjian, professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando,
Florida, thinks so: "In a rich irony, we move from being identified with
the priest and the Levite who never perfectly love our best friends “as
ourselves,” much less our enemies, to being identified with the traveler in
desperate need of salvation. Jesus intends the parable itself to leave us
beaten and bloodied, lying in a ditch, like the man in the story. We are the
breathless bruised. We are the needy, unable to do anything to help ourselves.
We are the broken people, beaten up by life, robbed of hope.
But then
Jesus comes.
Unlike the
Priest and Levite, He doesn’t avoid us. He crosses the street—from heaven to
earth—comes into our mess, gets his hands dirty. At great cost to himself on
the cross, he heals our wounds, covers our nakedness, and loves us with a
no-strings-attached love. He brings us to the Father and promises that his 'help' is not simply a one-time gift—rather, it’s a gift that will forever
cover 'the charges' we incur."
This view
of the Samaritan as Jesus dates all the way back to the 3rd century.
It takes this story from the realm of a moralistic tale to a story of
salvation. The original question was “Teacher, what should I do to inherit
eternal life?” and it would uncharacteristic of Jesus and contrary to the
gospel for Him to give an answer that reinforces human effort as the way to
salvation. In answering the question
"who is my neighbor?” Jesus shows us the condition of our souls.
Romans 5
says, "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and
died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an
upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who
is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to
die for us while we were still sinners." Jesus said, “Healthy people don’t
need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are
righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Now it's
Jesus turn for questions: " Now which of these three would you say was a
neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” The expert in the law can't
even bring himself to say the word Samaritan. He answers: “The one who showed
him mercy.”
Then Jesus
says, "go and do likewise" Show mercy. He is asking us to be his
hands and feet here on earth. To find those lying in ditches and bring them
hope and healing in His name. But we have to remember that we were once in that
ditch ourselves. We were dead in our sins and transgressions, and we have been
made alive in Christ. Only when we see our own need for God’s grace and mercy can
we reach out to others from a place of mutuality and compassion instead of
advantage or privilege.
But we find
ourselves like the expert in the law and the circumcised believers trying to
figure out if we are doing it right. Jesus
says "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love…This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." So there's
not a formula per se, but if there were, it would look something like this:
Loving God
= Obeying God
Obeying God
= Loving one another
In
mathematics, there is something called the transitive property of equality which states
that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. Using this property, we can conclude that:
Loving God
= Loving one another
We can show
God how much we love Him by loving those around us. And we can also see how
much of God's love we have by noticing how much we love those around us.
Frederick Buechner describes this kind of love: "Loving each other doesn't
mean loving each other in some sentimental, unrealistic, greeting-card kind of
way but the way families love each other even though they may fight tooth and
nail and get fed up to the teeth with each other and drive each other crazy,
yet all the time know deep down in their hearts that they belong to each other
and need each other and can't imagine what life would be without each other--even
the ones they often wish had never been born."
Jesus saw our
need, had compassion, crossed the road, bandaged our wounds and brought us to
safety – go and do likewise.
