Heirs Of Heaven Make Good Samaritans

But here Christ again answers a question with a question. The question of the expert in the law is the wrong question to ask. He is asking, “what type of person am I to consider to be my neighbor?” How easily we look at the people around us and start crossing them off of the list. Not a member of my church. Not a member of my family. Not a friend. Too many tattoos and body-piercings. Too ugly. They owe me money. I don’t talk to that person anymore. Not my race. Not my age… And the list could go on.

The question isn’t, “Who is my neighbor?” so I can narrow down, who I need to love; the question Jesus asks is this? “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Who am I to be a neighbor to? It isn’t something in them that determines whether or not I will be a neighbor to them, it is something with me. How am I to be a neighbor to others? The news often has it right when they talk about a Good Samaritan. It’s a person, who does something for someone else – with whom they have no relationship, in a situation where they are putting themselves in danger or sacrificing time or money with no advantage to themselves.

Christians aren’t Good Samaritans, because they are anticipating some advantage from God. They don’t step up to help someone, because that is what is demanded of them as neighbors. They are Good Samaritans, because they know the desperate situation of that man who fell in the hands of robbers. For all of our loveless acts, for all of the times that we were duped into thinking that we had higher obligations in our lives than the law of love, we have been fooled by the devil, tempted and pummeled by the consequences. God’s law has stripped us and exposed the indignity of our shameful selfishness, where peer pressure kept us from helping the guy who was bullied. Afraid of being yelled at, we’ve avoided correcting someone who was ruining their family. According to God’s law, this alienated us from our loving God, who calls on us to help everyone regardless of what they are like. Our names, by God’s justice, have been repealed from the list of God’s heirs.

But the example that exceeds every image of the Good Samaritan is God’s Son. We were dead on the path to heaven, unable to claw ourselves back into a place of honor in God’s eyes. Though we were obvious enemies by our actions and attitudes, undermining God’s purpose for our lives, Christ came. He had pity on us. He bandaged the wounds of our iniquity, by taking the wounds upon himself. He paid the full price of our sins. He lifted us up and carried us to the shelter of his Gospel, so that we know that we will be received by his Father on the Last Day. Though we may have avoided answering the phone, because we didn’t want to help the caller out, Christ always hears our prayers. Though we may have conveniently forgotten to meet someone to assist them, Christ is always at our disposal. When we felt that someone else wasn’t worth it, Jesus calls us his precious sheep.