"WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?"

Rev. Jim Petersen

7-15-07

First Congregational UCC-Great Falls, Montana

Text: Luke 10:25-37

 We are in the middle of summer, already. Today is the 8^th Sunday of Pentecost, which began May 27.  What to preach?  A good time to look at the lectionary, our given scripture texts for each Sunday of the Christian year.

The lectionary is on three-year cycle, years A-B-C.  We are in year C.  The Gospel reading for year C is Luke.  Today's text is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found only in Luke.  Perhaps the Bible's best known parable, and one some of you have heard all of your life.

For this reason I tend to stay away from best-known parables.  Looking up my own sermon file I was surprised to find I have not preached this parable for over 20 years, since my first year here with you.  My how time flies.  Anyway, despite its familiarity, perhaps you would indulge this preacher's rendering of this well-known parable.  At least this tells you I don't typically preach the lectionary, or you would have this parable coming out your ears.

Let's turn to the text.  "Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus."  Another word for "lawyer" is scribe.  He ?stands up" and addresses Jesus as, "Teacher."  Both signs of deference.

Don't be fooled.  The scribe seeks to trap Jesus with his question, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  The scribes and Pharisees have witnessed Jesus eating with outcasts, healing on the Sabbath, elevating women and children,  and in other ways trying the Torah, the Hebrew Law.  The scribes and Pharisees are the teachers of the Torah and the keepers of the Law.  They seek to trap Jesus.

"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  Of course, the scribe knows the answer to the question; he has helped write the book.  He is seeking to flunk Jesus and tarnish his growing reputation.

Jesus answers question with question, "What is written in the Law?"  The scribe cannot refuse this opportunity to shine, so he answers his own question correctly, with what comes to be known as the two great commandments of the New Testament, "Love God with all your heart & soul & strength & mind (Deuteronomy 6:5), and love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18)."

On second reflection the scribe realizes Jesus has escaped the bait, so seeking to reset the trap, he questions Jesus again, "And who is my neighbor?"  In response Jesus tells the scribe a parable:  "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho..."  (Screen comes down for 14 slides Jeru-Jericho road) We couldn't do this 20 years ago!

Ah, the Jerusalem to Jericho road.  Indeed, the man would be going down.  Jerusalem is 2400' elevation.  The City of David was built upon a hill, called Mt. Zion.  All the better to fortify.  The Temple was built upon a mount as well, located where the golden Dome of the Rock is located today atop Mt. Moriah.

Jericho is one of the lowest cities on earth, at about -600' sea level, lying along the Syrian-African rift, as well as one of the oldest cities on earth, dating back 10,000 years. Yes, the man would be going down to Jericho, a 3000' drop from Jerusalem to Jericho in the east.

The 17-mile road is windy and steep in parts, today inhabited by the monks of St. George's monastery, as well as Bedouins, but back then frequented by bad men, for it was an excellent location for highwaymen to do their business.

Therefore we are not surprised to be told by Jesus in the parable, the "man...fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving the man half dead."  Such was the Jericho road.

As it has been throughout history.  Pompey, upon leading the Roman invasion of Jerusalem in 63 B.C., coming in from the east, recorded how he had to wipe out "strongholds of brigands (roving bandits)" near Jericho.  The crusaders in the 11^th century built a small fort at the half-way point on this road to give protection to the pilgrims.

Later British archeologist, William Thomson, writes of a group he was leading in 1857, how one among them fell behind and was "attacked, robbed and stripped naked."  Today a large wall sadly provides security and divides the land, as well as communities, neighborhoods and families.   (Last picture, screen elevated)

So Jesus' story, though a parable, is conceivable. He would have "buy in" from his audience, including the questioning scribe.  "A man...fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving the man half dead."

Who the man is, we are not told.  That he was left naked and unconscious we are told even less.  Back in biblical times, as now, this area was populated by two principal ethnic groups, Jews and Arabs.  A person's ethnic group could be determined by dress and language.  "Stripped and...half dead," we have nary a clue.  The man could be anybody.  "Now by chance a priest was going down that road..."  My heavens, what is a priest doing traveling this road?  Well, actually, he is going to work.  Even priests have to earn their keep.  In fact, he might quite literally be doing this, traveling to Jericho to collect the tithes.  Jericho, as on oasis, was a good place to collect the first fruits, dates, olives, figs, and pomegranates.  Oh, he could be performing other sacerdotal duties, for the priests took the Temple and its practices to the people, but let's assume the priest is traveling the Jerusalem to Jericho road to collect tithes.  It doesn't matter.

What matters in our story is that the priest spies and passes on by our man. "And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side."  This is all we are told.  Jesus' audience would understand.  The priest is keeping the letter of the Law, as he must.

From Leviticus 21:11, "The priest shall not go where there is a dead body."  We are told our man is "half dead," but from a distance one could not tell, he may be all the way dead.  The priest cannot risk it.  And he cannot get close enough to tell, for the Law, in further detail, says the priest must not be within 4 cubits of a corpse, which is six feet. No wonder he passed by "on the other side."

If he is to do his job, and return with the tithes from Jericho, he has got to pass by.  If he were to get too close to the corpse, he would become ritually unclean, and immediately have to go through a process of ritual cleansing which lasts several days, thus interrupting his work.  Women handled corpses back then.  They were used to being unclean and exiled from the Temple for periods of a time.  The priest could not afford this.  Don't blame him for passing on by.   He's doing his job and keeping the Law.

"So likewise a Levite..."  A who?  A Levite.  A descendant of Levi, one of the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the tribe that was designated to be either the priests, if a descendant of Moses' brother, Aaron, further down the Levitical line, or otherwise, a Levite, who served as the assistants to the priests, as deacons, ushers, musicians, guards, custodians, and the like, of the Temple.

"So likewise" means, and I did not mention this with our priest, our Levite is riding a donkey.  This is how he, like the priest, is traveling our Jericho road.  Priests and Levites were men of stature.  They road donkeys when they traveled.  Poor people walked.

What is our Levite doing?   Again, the story does not tell us.  Jesus was smart enough to keep his stories short.  Plus his audience knew. We can guess.  The Levite is going home. 

It was the practice of the Levites to serve two-week periods in the Temple and then have some time off.  The Levites, as the only landless tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel, lived in the towns surrounding Jerusalem, if not Jerusalem itself.  Our Levite lives in Jericho.  He is going home.

Being off duty he is not as ritually bound as the priest.  He can actually approach the body.  Which is why in careful reading of the story we see the Levite, "came to the place and saw the man." Whereas the priest gives wide birth, steering his donkey "on the other side," the Levite gives our man a closer look.  

Yet he still has the predicament.  If he touches the man and he is dead, the Levite, too, is unclean, and instead of going home, he will have to return to the Temple in Jerusalem for a ritualistic cleansing. 

Furthermore, who can tell what the man is, Jew or Arab?  The Law tells us to "love our neighbor as yourself."  But it also goes on to define neighbor.  In Leviticus 19:17, "You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin."  Neighbor was meant to be fellow Jews.  And even at that, you only helped good Jews.  Listen to this from the Book of Sirach, found in the biblical Apocrypha, and a part of the Hebrew Torah:

"If you do a good turn, know for whom you are doing it...

 Do good to a devout man, and you will receive a reward...

 Do not go to the help of a sinner,

 For the Most High detests sinners,

 And will repay the wicked with a vengeance." (12:1-7)

"Stripped and half dead," how could the Levite know who the man was or what the man was?  Was he a Jew or Gentile?  And even if Jewish, was he a good Jew?

Was he a righteous man who encountered wicked men?  Or was he a wicked man who encountered a righteous God?

Better not to mess with God and risk breaking the Law.  Anyway, it is Saturday night, and our Levite is on his way home.  Don't be too harsh on him either. 

"But a Samaritan..."  Say, who?  Yes, a Samaritan.  We cannot comprehend the jolt Jesus is giving his Jewish audience, yet alone the questioning scribe, with the introduction of the Samaritan to his story.

Not only are they not expecting a Samaritan, for after the priest and the Levite, one would naturally expect a Jewish layman, but the Jews hate the Samaritans.  So what is he doing here?  The Jews are not supposed to associate with Samaritans.

You see, the Samaritans were Assyrians introduced to Palestine centuries before, and who had mixed and mingled over time, but only to the point of being Hebrew half-breeds.  You know how half-breeds are viewed in every culture.

To quote from Ben Sirach, another book of the Apocrypha: There are two nations that my soul detests, the third is not a nation at all; the inhabitants of Mount Seir (Edomites) and the Philistines (these are the two nations), and the stupid people living at Shechem (these are the Samaritans, and "no nation at all.") (50:25-26)

Or to quote another source on the Samaritans, from the Mishna, the Jewish book of Oral Law, He that eats the bread of the Samaritan is like one that eats the flesh of swine.  (Shebiith 8:10).

Well, you get the point.  And it went both ways. "But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity."  "He was moved with pity."  In contrast to the priest, who "passed by on the other side,"  and the Levite, "likewise...passed by on the other side,"  the Samaritan "was moved with pity."

Mind you, the Samaritan is not a Gentile.  He, too, keeps the Torah, and is bound by the Law, as the Jew, "to love his neighbor as himself."  Like the Jew, his neighbor is his fellow kinsmen, other Samaritans, not Jews.  He is traveling in Judea, a Jewish territory.  It is very unlikely the robbed and beaten man is his neighbor.

Nevertheless, and incredibly, the Samaritan "went to him and bandaged his wounds...Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him."   Not knowing whether this was his neighbor or not, not knowing even if whether this was a deserving neighbor or not, not regarding the example of the priest & Levite before him, and not being bound by the inconvenience of the Law should he be handling a corpse, the dreaded Samaritan dismounts his animal, meaning our Samaritan is a man of means, making this all the more impressive, for it is often the ?haves' who do not care to be inconvenienced by the ?have nots', dismounts his animal, dresses the stranger's wounds, and carries him to an inn where he continues to care for him.  What risk!  What courage!  What compassion!  Can you imagine him riding into Jericho with the half dead stranger dumped on his donkey?   What if someone recognizes the victim as his Jewish neighbor? 

You want an American equivalent?  Try a Plains Indian in 1875 riding into Dodge City with a half-scalped cowboy slung over his saddle?  You think the town folks would ask questions, let along listen to the story?

Our Samaritan is way outside the box.  He is willing to pay a steep price for his complete act of compassion.  And to keep on paying, as he leaves money with the innkeeper for the strangers continued care.

"Well," Jesus says to Mr. Scribe at the conclusion of his story,  "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

The scribe, to his credit, answers correctly.  Though note he won't put the name Samaritan upon his lips.  He simply, and we pray, humbly, responds, though maybe it is more of a mutter,  "The one who showed him mercy."

Remember the beginning.  "...a scribe stood up to test Jesus, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  The answer: he must love God with all his heart and soul, strength and mind, and he must love his neighbor, the Samaritan, as he loves his own and as he loves himself.

The radical, all-inclusive, totally irritating teachings of Jesus.  Don't point your finger at Jesus' Jewish audience, or to the Middle East, though isn't this the solution to that problem, but let us look to our own hearts, and own neighborhoods, and our own country, and see if this isn't the solution to our problems. For as Jesus concludes our parable,  "Go and do likewise." 

AMEN.

Lay reader reads Sister Patricia Mulhall's poem

"Call No One Stranger"

You first saw them by the roadside

standing at the crossroads, waiting...

listening.. .watching...

They walked in silence, small bundles on their backs

clutching other bits in their hands.

Fear on the faces of those women, men, and children.

Frightened by the past, fearful of the future.

Will no one understand their pain?

Will anyone open a door to receive them?

Look again and you will see

familiar people.,,.

mothers and fathers,   ..

sisters and brothers,

grandparents.

Listen and you will hear

familiar sounds...

talking, crying, laughing.

Understand and you will know

the stuff of which your dreams are made...

love and laughter, security and safety,

peace and prosperity...

are their dreams, too.

That which is joy to every human heart

is not alien to theirs.

The peace you long for is that same peace

they strive for.

We stand together as one...

drawing warmth from the same sun and

life from the same earth

And though we travel on different roads

We're part of one God, one Earth, one Universe...

There are no strangers.

Tears shed in compassion...

songs of love and dreams of peace

make us all one.

Recognize your family in the stranger

Open your door, invite them in

to sit at your table

and share your bread.

Call no one stranger

whose roots are kin to your own.

whose lives all spring from the

One Great Fountain of Life!

"Call No One Stranger" by Sr. Patricia Mulhall

from On Frequent Journeys: Worship Resources on Uprooted People, United Church Publishing House, 1997, p. 119. Reprinted with permission