Stepping Over The Line

July 10, 2022

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Luke 10:25-37

Stepping over the Line

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ole worked as a bank teller. One afternoon a couple of robbers entered the bank, brandishing guns. They pushed the tellers into a corner and then drew a line on the floor to box them in.

“Stay behind that line!” the robbers warned, “or there’ll be trouble!”

The robbers opened up the first teller’s drawer and started shoving the cash into a bag. Ole let out a chuckle. The robbers stopped what they were doing and glared over at Ole.

“You’d better keep quiet, if you know what’s good for you!”

As they moved to the second teller’s drawer, Ole let out another chuckle. The robbers glared over at him again. Ole quickly stopped smiling and looked down at his feet.

When the robbers got to the third teller’s drawer, Ole let out a guffaw. The robbers looked over at him and asked, “What’s so funny over there?”

Ole said, “I stepped my foot over da line tree times, and you never noticed!” I know, it’s bad.

Today we hear Jesus’ very familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. He tells the story to answer a question about lines.

A man described as a lawyer has approached Jesus and asked him a question. He isn’t what we picture as a lawyer today: someone well versed at our nation’s laws who counsels and represents clients in legal matters. This man is a religious lawyer. He’s dedicated his life to the study of the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. These books are known as the Torah. It means “teachings” or “the law.”

This religious scholar has studied all the finer points of Moses’ law. He knows it inside and out. He carefully follows all of the mandates as written in the scriptures. Here’s a guy who colors within the lines. He’s very meticulous about following exactly how the law should be applied in every situation imaginable. How many steps can you take on the Sabbath? What do you need to do if you’ve touched a dead person? What’s the proper way to clean your pots? This is how he shows his love for the Lord – by following God’s commands.

He asks Jesus a question to test him. It’s a fairly simple question. It’s more like a Sunday School question, not a doctoral thesis question. The lawyer basically served up a fat pitch to Jesus. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus responds with a very basic answer: Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Boom. It’s the two tables of the 10 commandments distilled into their most fundamental essence. Jesus’ answer is extremely orthodox. He learned his catechism as a young boy, and he’s answering straight from his catechism. This is as basic and as fundamental as it gets: love God, love your neighbor. The law boils down to love.

And then the man asks a follow-up question. And Luke tells us something very interesting. This man wants to justify himself. He wants to be found standing on the right side of the line. He wants his actions to be judged correct and true within God’s law.

But when it comes to how he treats his neighbor, well, he’s not so sure. It depends on who exactly is defined as his neighbor. Where is the line drawn on who qualifies as a neighbor?

The biblical lawyer wants to justify himself. His follow-up question is very lawyerly. The law is one thing. How we interpret its meaning is very much another! This is true for how we interpret God’s law and also for our secular laws, too. Lawyers – and judges – can warp and distort the law towards their own desired ends. The law seems like an indelible line etched in stone. But it’s possible to bend the hard line of the law through our interpretations.

This is exactly what the lawyer wants to do. Reading between the lines, we can infer that he hasn’t exactly treated everyone kindly. His conscience is troubled. But depending upon the definition of “neighbor” his actions might be just. So he asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” He wants to define the boundary line of who qualifies as a neighbor (and therefore falls under the law) and those who stand on the other side of the neighborly line (and so NOT under the law).

He tosses out his follow-up question and hopes Jesus will take the bait: hook, line, and sinker. But instead, Jesus turns the question on its side.

Jesus tells the lawyer a story about a man accosted by robbers and left for dead. Who should come along that same lonely road but two holy men! First one and then another. Certainly, one these good, godly men will throw him a lifeline and help!