Luke 10:25-37 July 29, 2007
“Won’t You Be A Neighbor?”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Usually on Friday mornings, I wake up, and I lie still in bed while I ask this question. “How do you want this sermon to go today, Lord?” I wait. I listen. I get up while praying, “Okay – let’s get it going.”
This past Friday morning, I did the same thing. Often I don’t have any idea how to begin, or where a sermon is going to go. I usually know the focus of the teaching after studying, reading, and listening all week, but sometimes even the focus I think has emerged is not the one that comes to the top in the midst of the writing. It’s an amazing, fluid, life-giving process for me. So, on Friday morning I didn’t have any idea how to begin this sermon. I went out to my living room sofa where I sit to do my writing, turned on Fox News, grabbed a bowl of cereal, and picked up my computer to read the newspaper on line. And – and I almost missed it! I almost missed this story on Fox News: GOOD SAMARITAN PULLS MAN FROM BURNING CAR! I looked up, and the words good Samaritan were right there in front of me on the TV screen. I thought, “This is amazing, Lord. I’m getting ready to start this sermon about the parable of the good Samaritan, and you’re giving me a story to begin. Thank you!” Well, this nice person, called a good Samaritan was riding along in his car when he saw another car flip over and slide in front of him in flames. He stopped his car, ran over to see if he could help get the driver out of the car. He was able to reach in and help the guy get out – and he’s feeling like superman or something – and the guy he pulled out, ran across the road (the good Samaritan is thinking, ‘he must be delusional or something’) – until the guy he just pulled a burning vehicle, jumps into the good Samaritan’s car, and drives away! Turns out, the guy’s car was flipped over because he was in a highspeed chase with the law! The good Samaritan was asked, “I guess this will make you think twice about stopping to help people, won’t it?” He answered, “No. I’ll help the next person who needs help, too.”
I’ll never forget that snowy day several years ago, when I pulled over on the way from Amberson to help a lady whose car had slid into a ditch. While I was out of my car, a truck came along and squashed my car like an accordion! Will this deter me from being a good Samaritan in order to help someone the next time? No!
There are hospitals called Good Samaritan Hospitals! There are vessels that come to help in water emergencies called Good Samaritan Vessels! There are Good Samaritan laws (Acts) in the US and Canada that “protect from blame those who choose to help others who are injured or ill.” These laws are intended to reduce any hesitation on your part or mine if we see someone who needs assistance, fearing that we might get taken to court if we do something wrong in rushing in to help. In other countries, Good Samaritan laws describe a legal requirement for citizens to assist people in distress, unless doing so would put them in harm’s way. Citizens are often required to, at the minimum, call a local emergency number. Such laws currently exist in countries such as Israel, Italy, Japan, France, Belgium, and Spain. The photographers at the scene of Princess Diana’s fatal car accident, were investigated for violation of the French Good Samaritan law. In Germany, neglect of duty to provide assistance is an offense; a citizen is obliged to provide first aid when necessary and is immune from prosecution if assistance given in good faith turns out to be harmful. In Germany, knowledge of first aid is a prerequisite for the granting of a driver’s license. All this, under the heading of being a Good Samaritan!
How amazing is this? We’re talking about a law that is based on a parable told by Jesus in the Bible in countries that have more empty church buildings than occupied ones. How astounding is it that people who are so opposed to anything Christian would allow a law such as this to exist?
I wonder how many times it happens that someone is watching the news, and hears a story about a good Samaritan. How many times does it happen in this technological age, that that person then asks himself, “where did the phrase good Samaritan come from?” And then, they go to Google, type it in, and up pops the following:
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a famous New Testament parable appearing only in the Gospel of Luke (10:25-37). The parable is told by Jesus to illustrate that compassion should be for all people, and that fulfilling the spirit of the Law is just as important as fulfilling the letter of the Law. Jesus puts the definition of neighbor into an enlarged context, beyond what people usually thought of as a neighbor.
Is all of this not a great example of God’s sovereignty over all things, no matter how far away the culture seems to be from Biblical truth?
Jesus is teaching us in this parable about what it means to be a neighbor. Let’s read the parable now: Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
We learned in our Sunday school class this morning, that the priest who passed by wasn’t just a coldhearted stiff shirt. There were very clear laws about priests touching dead people. Without touching this beat up guy, the priest couldn’t know if he was dead or alive. So, he took the only route he thought was open to him: he got as far away as he could. That way, his ministry wouldn’t be put on hold for 7 days while he went through some purification ritual. After all, he had a whole congregation to think about, not just this one person, who was no more than a stranger.
We learned that the Levite (one who assisted the priests in temple worship) had similar rules as the priest. What happened here was the rule of the law overruled the rule of compassion. The protection of self or protection of religious appearances or religious rules, overruled the protection and care of a stranger.
In the nursing home where my mom has resided for the last 4 weeks, there are some people there who challenge the comfort barriers we put around ourselves. There’s a woman in a chair that almost is like a bed on wheels that yells out from time to time, “I want to go home! I want to go home!” Once she gets started, she will yell it out over and over and over. One day I was visiting my mom on the sun porch that sits along 2nd street, and this woman was asking, “Is it 4:00? Is it 4:00?” Someone came by and said, “It’s almost 5, Edna.” “Almost 5?” she asked. “I want to go home. I need my cap. I want to go home. I need my cap.” The receptionist walked to her, and looking right at her, with compassion said, “Edna, it’s warm outside. You don’t need a cap today.” “I don’t need a cap today?” “No, not today.” “Alright,” she said. And then she was satisfied.
What did my mom and I do when she was yelling? We looked at each other like, “what do you do?” I can’t say I knew what to do. They didn’t teach me anything about this in seminary. But I learned something when I heard the interaction between the receptionist and the woman. See, I assumed because of the repetitive nature of Edna’s calling out, that responding to her wouldn’t really help. I assumed she was too sick to respond to attention. But in watching, I learned that, for a time, a reasonable, compassionate response will help ease this woman’s sense of chaos and loss.
We get set in our own ways very quickly in life. We make assumptions about others before we even know their names. The very fact that you prefer to sit in the same place every week in church, that you automatically sit in the same place around the meeting table, that even without assigned seats, you head for the same desk at school - these patterns of behavior are visible reminders that we quickly, without thinking about it, get set in our ways. Some of those ways prohibit us from offering compassion to others.
When Jesus was asked the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” he responded with his own question. What do you think you should do? What does the law say? The questioner responded with scripture from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said, “Good answer! If you fulfill these scriptures, you will live.”
We are most alive when we are helping others. In our Tuesday night Bible study this week, we heard a new definition of love from pastor John Piper, “Love is the overflow of abundant joy in God that meets the needs of others.”
There are people around us who (we say) “rub us the wrong way.” People whose way of talking, or gesturing, or interacting with others just “gets on our nerves.” And so we avoid these people. We certainly won’t volunteer to serve alongside them. “We couldn’t take it,” we say. “I know how they are,” we declare. We get set in our ways – and even put limits on how we will help, or with whom we will serve. Where’s God in that? Where’s Jesus and his love in this?
According to human labels, the least likely person to stop and help the wounded one on the road, is the one Jesus used in his story to give compassion. A Samaritan was nothing but a rebel, an outcast, a troublemaker. In our day, to make his point, Jesus might have said, “Along came a terrorist, who went to the man, bandaged his wounds, poured oil & wine on the wounds, put him on his own animal, brought him to a place where he could get better, cared for him on his own, and left money to make sure he was cared for later.”
What is the point of this parable? Who is our neighbor? The ones who live right around us, that we know, the ones that we usually sit beside, who are most like us in the way they live their lives, in the way they talk, or the way they dress, or the things they believe? Are they our neighbors?
Or, according to Jesus, is our neighbor anyone who needs compassion?
In our Bible study this past week, one of the members said this, “There are a lot of non-Christians I’d rather spend time with, than some Christians.” I so appreciated this person speaking this truth out in the group. Because we all know it’s true. The Church of Jesus Christ continues to provide a poor example of what it looks like to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We continue to do a pitiful job of living that definition of love: Love is an overflow of abundant joy in God that meets the needs of others. Abundant joy in God? We surely don’t live that out very well, do we? We get so set in our ways, in our patterns of living, that we will not allow ourselves to be moved by pity for those who need what God wants to provide through us.
Have we not learned that it is in serving that we are most alive? The man asked Jesus, “How can I get eternal life?” The key word there is not eternal. The key word there is life. God wants us our lives to be full – not full of serving ourselves, and making ourselves all comfortable with the rules we’ve set up to protect our own interests and comfortable boundaries. The only way our lives can be full of real life, abundant joy in God, is by loving God first with all we are, and then allowing his love to overflow into the lives of others.
The Rev. Fred Rogers would open his show, “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” with the song, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” This is not the question Jesus asks us today. He is asking us, “Won’t you be a neighbor?” See, if I said to you, “won’t you be my neighbor?” I hope, most of you would say, “sure, I’d love to be your neighbor, Meagan.” But the greater question to us, to move us to greater spiritual maturity is this, “Won’t you be a neighbor to that guy over there, or that woman across the room yelling, “I want to go home, I want to go home,” or that child over in Africa who needs some pencils for school, or a little baby whose parents have no time or use for such responsibility?” Will you, will I be a neighbor to anyone the Lord points out – or do I have to hurry home to watch Dr. Schuller? (Not that Dr. Schuller is not worth watching, but if we can’t help someone because we have to get home to watch him on TV, that’s a problem, right?)
It’s risky work, being a Good Samaritan. Gee, you might even lose your car in this line of work. But remember, Jesus was willing to lose his life for us – because he looked upon us with great compassion. Nothing could stop him from fulfilling the purpose for which he was sent.
“For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:8-10).
This way of life is not a “set” way. This way of life is fluid; is moving with the Holy Spirit; is allowing God’s love to overflow into the lives of others. This was Jesus’ way. Go and do likewise. Amen.
