Over the Line

Luke 10:25-37  

July 10, 2016

Good Samaritan
Dinah Roe Kendall

This parable has been called 

the Good Samaritan

The term “Good Samaritan” 

is a part of our lexicon,

it means a person who helps a stranger.

And the natural lesson 

we often get from this parable

is that we should be like the Samaritan, 

the only one

who didn’t worry about his own schedule or safety

and took his time to help someone he didn’t even know.

And that is a great lesson to learn any day.

But, of course, since this is  a parable of Jesus

the lesson isn’t so straight forward as that.

A lot of times it’s important in Jesus parables to

take a look at the question that is being asked.

And the question that’s being asked in this one

”What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?”

The question was asked by a lawyer.

Now the lawyer wouldn’t have been a lawyer

of secular law, he would have been an expert in Jewish religious law.

So the lawyer asked Jesus a question 

he already knew the answer to. 

It says he asked it in order to test Jesus.

So Jesus knows it, so he says,

“You know what the law says:
Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”

So the man asks a follow-up question –

He asks “Who is my neighbor?”
If I’m supposed to love my neighbor, then who is my neighbor?

 And Luke says here that the lawyer asked

this question in order to justify himself.

We know from looking at Galatians that to “Justify yourself”

means to put ourselves in the right.

To work up that ladder by our own works.

To impress our friends and to impress God.

So this expert in Jewish law wanted to make himself look good.

He expects Jesus to say that your neighbor is the one that

lives in your neighborhood, or the people in your region,

or at the very least, other Jews.

He wants to say, “I already love my neighbor”

I give the guy who lives next to me some bread when he needs it.

I share my old clothes with the ladies auxiliary.

I forgive the guy down the street the debt he owes me.

I love my neighbor, right?

Of course, Instead of any easy answer, Jesus tells a story.

The story is about a traveler is on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This was a notoriously dangerous road.

It was like Jesus mentioning the name of the bad part of town.

Someone was bound to get robbed and beaten up in this story.

And this guy does. He’s left on the side of the road half dead.

Then Jesus says that a Levite and a Priest go by.

This is not just anybody, these are trusted people,

people everyone would have looked up to.

These would have been the expected “neighbors”

to the lawyer who asked the question.

But we’re told that they both cross to the other side.

As many people do.

  

Now everyone knows, since the beginning of time,

that all stories happen in threes. So there would be one more.

The people listening and this lawyer who is trying to trick Jesus

would be waiting for this next character to arrive.

They would be the hero of the story.

But that third man was a Samaritan.

Jesus was Jewish, all of the people listening were Jewish,

The lawyer was Jewish and
Jewish people and Samaritans had a long history of

racial and religious hostility toward one another.

And yet in Jesus story, it’s the Samaritan who is moved with pity.

The Samaritan helps the man, takes care of him and saves his life.

And, guessing or knowing the lawyer’s dislike of Samaritans,

Jesus asks him an uncomfortable question:

“So was a neighbor here?”
And the lawyer couldn’t even bear to say the word “Samaritan.”

He says, “The one who showed mercy”

Now this story is clever if you know the truth about the

relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans.

It was clever of Jesus to make the lawyer see that

even enemies can be neighbors.

But Jesus goes the extra mile and makes

the hated one the hero of the story.

The one who is to be admired, emulated, imitated, learned from.

Jesus tells the lawyer, “Go and do likewise.”

Go and be like him.

Find your life in that whole arrangement.

Remember, the original question to Jesus was

“what must I do to gain eternal life?”

And this complicated story is the answer.

In other words, in order to gain your life,

don’t look to the priest and the Levite.

The priest and the Levite represent institutionalized religion, the law,

they were the usual brokers of eternal life, and God.

But they let the man in the road down.

Subtly, Jesus is saying that if this man wants to find his salvation,

he shouldn’t be looking to the regular systems of religion.

And where should he be looking?

To the outsider, the one who is despised, outcast, pushed aside.

And he should not just to look and to help

and have pity on and change him.

But to admire him emulate, to learn from, partner with.

Look for God working through the other.

That’s the new system God has ordained for us.

We find God by looking outside the people we know

and feel the most comfortable with.

There is a saying, it seems to come from no one in particular:
“Whenever we draw a line to keep people out,

Jesus is on the other side of that line. “

So who is on the other side of our line?

Today the world is surely divided.

Polarized is the word that’s used most often.

But today, the lines aren’t as simple as they used to be.

We don’t all share the same “Samaritan” as a group.

Now the Samaritan could be our own brother or sister

who belong to a different denomination than us,

our own neighbor with the wrong political sign in their yard.

So who is on the other side of your line?

With the violence that happened this week,

the devil wants to further the insult to this

country by deepening the divide that caused

the violence in the first place.

Who have you drawn a line in the sand to separate from

who you perceive the “good guys to be”?

Is it the Black Lives Matters protestors?

Is it the police?

Is it the people who won’t see that our justice system is broken?
Or is it people we dismiss as “thugs”?

Where have you drawn your line?

Wherever we draw that line,

Jesus is on the other side.

God can work through anywhere, in anyone.

God’s help comes in unexpected places.

Mercy does not just have one address.

With all the bad news this week,

it’s good to hear a little good news, 

maybe you heard this one.

Inmates break out to help a guard.

In Texas this week, 

not too far from Dallas actually,

Some inmates were in a holding cell,

they were waiting to be transported somewhere.

And the officer that was guarding them fell over in his chair and had an apparent heart attack.

When they saw this, the prisoners broke out of the holding cell,

and remember, the officer had a gun and handcuffs on him.

And they started to make a racket and yell and slam on the doors

all in order for the other guards to come upstairs

and help the other guard out. And he did survive.

The prisoners were very aware that they could have misinterpreted

what was going on and could have shot them.

But they put their own safety second to help this man out.

Good Samaritans. People to admire, emulate, learn from.

God’s mercy and presence and help, can come from anywhere.

Our salvation as a country and as a people

will not be found only on our side of the line

that we’ve drawn for ourselves.

It will be found in the other.

It won’t be found in just being nice and helping out occasionally.

It will be found in our understanding,

our repentance, and our forgiveness.

No matter how dismal it looks right now.

No matter how beaten up we feel,

God will not leave us by the side of the road.

God has more wonderful stories of surprise planned for us.

God has more neighbors for us to meet

and more mercy in this world to show us.