Yesterday the New York Daily News had an article titled “Little Duckling has Guardian Angel as Good Samaritan Rescues it at New York Botanical Garden.” It’s about a New Yorker, who saw a little duckling and wanted to save it from predators. So she scooped it up, took it home, and let the duckling frolic in her bathtub that night. Then on the following day she took it to a safe place called “Berkshire Bird Paradise,” where it would be cared for along with many other “saved” birds.
The news likes to use the term “Good Samaritan” as an abbreviated way of describing a person who goes out of their way to help someone else, especially as the rest of the world walks by. Is that what a Good Samaritan is? Well, actually, the original question that produced the story of the Good Samaritan wasn’t “Who is a Good Samaritan?” but rather, “Who is my neighbor?”
But this question actually was the follow-up question on an even deeper question: On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" What does eternal life have to do with my neighbor? As the question implies, being an heir to eternal life doesn’t depend on who my neighbor is, but what I do. At least that was thinking of the expert in the law. But I’d like you to notice something when you read Christ’s discussions with others. If someone asks Jesus a question, and Jesus answers with another question, you’ll find that Christ’s questioner was working with a wrong premise.
Let’s look at the ‘wrong’ premise of the expert’s question: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” What does a son have to do to inherit his father’s land? Isn’t the inheritance a gift, something for which the parent had worked for? Well, we know of parents, who were so upset with their children, that they wrote them out of the will. Maybe the expert realized that God has good reason to disinherit his children. Since he obviously believed in the possibility of hell, he wanted to know how he could make the list of ‘heirs,’ so that God’s vengeance would not be upon him. Since the expert in the law, emphasized his own doing as the cause of making the list of God’s heirs, Jesus pursues this and in essence says, “Okay, expert on the law, tell me, what does the law say you have to do in order to become an heir of eternal life?”
“'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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.” His answer could have come right out of catechism classes. He answers with both tables of the Law. God wants us to love him and our neighbor. But what an impossibility! Who can claim that he does everything out of a perfect love for God? Even if you do the right thing, but fail to do it because you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, you have failed to observe the law. Every aspect of your being must love God: Pastor F.W. Wenzel describes the love God demands of us: “the heart puts sincerity into the love; the soul, feeling and warmth; the mind, intelligence; the strength, the power.”
Consider the best environment for loving God as he demands. Isn’t it here in his house - together with your fellow Christians. But how well did you show your love for him in the first half of our worship? Did you sincerely bring your sins before God, admitting your failures and lack of love? Did you answer God’s merciful forgiveness with a heartfelt song of thanks, or did you get lost in thought, falling into mind-numbing repetition? Did you ponder both hymns we’ve sung so far, as prayers that you are bringing before the Almighty? Was your strength all their in your worship? If we can’t even love God perfectly for one hour, what hope can we have of remaining on his list of heirs?
But the person next to you, can’t say, “I’ve noticed that your worship was half-hearted.” The most obvious examples of someone who is weak in their love for God are those ways in which they fail to serve God by loving their neighbor. So when Jesus accepted the expert’s answer and said, “Do this and you will live,” the expert must have felt a twinge of guilt. Luke says, “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” We all try to justify ourselves before God: ‘I’m a good father, worker, friend, and neighbor to the guy next door… at least the one who is nice to me on the one side.’ Is that enough? Though there are a lot of holes in that argument already, Jesus zeroes in on the false premise of the expert. The man is trying to limit the number of people he needs to love as himself. Jesus doesn’t let him get away with it. And finally we get to the story of the Good Samaritan and the real question we all have to ask ourselves.
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
We aren’t told the reason why the priest and Levite would have passed the man dying… we don’t need to know, because no reason would be sufficient. None could have stood up against the litmus test: Was it more important than a dying man? They weren’t passing by a dying squirrel or a duckling that was in danger. They weren’t passing by the detestable smell of a dying carcass. That man was not roadkill. No man is! And yet that is how they treated him. Something you want to pass by, hoping that no one will catch you being so loveless, hoping that the next person will take care of what you failed to do.
You know what those two men were guilty of? Murder. The robbers started the job – “left him for half dead,” but by refusing to help, the priest and Levite were finishing the job. That’s how God sees things. You fail to do the good that he asks you, and you are just as guilty as the malicious perpetrator who committed the crime. Don’t stop the gossip? Don’t defend your neighbor? You’re just as bad as the gossip. Don’t speak out against abortion? Don’t warn others that you know are contemplating it? You are just as guilty through your silence. See a man cheating on his wife and say nothing to him? You are contributing in the destruction of their marriage! How many times have you hoped for someone else to step, but didn’t want to get involved yourself?
The Good Samaritan, according to God’s law, was NOT an extraordinary person. He was doing exactly what God commanded. Every one of us is to be a Good Samaritan… ALL the time. Why did Jesus use the example of a priest or a Levite? Because he is discussing heirs of heaven. If anyone out of the Jews, should have realized their obligation to God and neighbor, it would have been the priests and Levites. If anyone should recognize their obligation today to serve their fellow man, wouldn’t it be the Christian? Don’t hide behind your Sunday attendance, or your Christian ‘speak’ or your complaints about immoral society. There are no excuses. We are to serve our neighbors with love. So we better know the answer to “Who is my neighbor?”
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.
To answer Christ’s question, the expert in the law could not get himself to say, “Samaritan” because Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along with each other. Could he not hear his own lovelessness in his own voice? Could he not recognize that he failed at keeping the law of love? Instead of saying “Samaritan” the expert in the law, said, “The one who had mercy.” Since the expert refused to admit his own need for mercy, Jesus left him with the law, “Go and do likewise.” Many Good Samaritan sermons fail to learn the lesson Jesus was teaching the expert in the law. They preach about the need to show mercy to everyone, but that doesn’t answer the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” No one will be in heaven, because they succeeded in being a Good Samaritan. Everyone fails. That was the point of Jesus’ lesson to the expert in the law: ‘Learn the need of mercy. See how unmerciful you are by nature – and therefore, damned. Then when you recognize this deep need, come back to me, and I’ll show you what real mercy is. I’ll forgive you, welcome you. I’ll give you my own flesh and blood.’
So let the world talk about its Good Samaritans, who take care of little ducklings. Let them recognize that as often as the world describes most people as naturally good, we all get excited about those rare instances, when someone steps up as Good Samaritan. Why are Good Samaritans so rare, if we all are so good? Let’s stop trying to justify our lack of mercy. Let’s stop using our other obligations as reasons for not showing mercy to others. And if that seems like all too big a task for you, then go to God for mercy… every day… read his Word… receive his sacrament… hear his promises over and over again. Then you will be… NOT an expert on the law… but an expert on mercy… as a first-hand recipient of mercy. That’s how the Holy Spirit works. As you grow in understanding God’s mercy, you’ll become more and more aware of the true heart of the law and all the people to whom you can show mercy. You’ll find that you don’t need any rewards to do so, because God has already promised you rewards you didn’t even deserve. So go, heirs of heaven. You can’t be a Good Samaritan, until you know what it took for Christ to make you an heir of heaven. He had mercy on you, go and do likewise. Amen.
