Luke
10:25-37
Charlottesville
isn’t the only place it has happened. Back in 1996 it was Ann Arbor, Michigan.
White supremacists held a rally and in response hundreds of people gathered to
protest. In that case, though, the two groups were kept separate. Still the
atmosphere was tense. And at some point during the rally a middle-aged, white
man wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt and sporting a Nazi SS tattoo on his arm
was spotted amongst the anti-KKK protesters. A woman with a megaphone cried
out, “There’s a Klansman in the crowd!” And the man began to run. Some in the
group shouted, “Kill the Nazi!” The man was quickly knocked to the ground,
pummeled with kicks and blows. Watching this violence 18 year old Keshia
Thomas, an African-American high school student said to herself, “This isn’t
right.” And without any thought to her own safety or consideration of who this
man was or what he thought of her, she threw herself on top of the stranger
shielding him from the blows until he was taken to safety. Keshia’s act of
courage and mercy was caught on film and later upon reflection the photographer
was quoted as saying, "She put herself at physical risk to protect someone
who, in my opinion, would not have done the same for her.” And then he marveled,
“Who does that in this world?"
Who does that? A
neighbor does that - at least the type of neighbor that Jesus talks about in
his story of the Good Samaritan. It all begins one day with a lawyer who asks
Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s a question that probably all
of us have asked at one time or another. We may have phrased it a bit
differently like, “Where is God?” or “What is the meaning of life?” or maybe,
“What is God’s will for me?” But at the heart of all these questions is the
quest to know the truth about life and God and purpose.
Now it’s probably
no surprise that instead of answering the question with pat answer Jesus
responds with his own query. Throwing the question back to the lawyer, who in
Jesus’ day was more like a religious scholar than a modern day attorney, Jesus
basically asks, “What do you think?” And this lawyer/scholar answers by quoting
scripture, “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.” It’s a perfect, A+ answer. Jesus has nothing to add to it but
simply, “Do this, and you will live.”
But the lawyer is
not satisfied. He already knew this in his head. Surely there must be more. So
he presses the point and asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds by telling
what has become the familiar story of how one day a man was accosted by
robbers, who not only took his valuables but also stripped, beat, and left him
for dead on the side of the road. Thankfully, though, someone soon passed by
and saw him lying there suffering and in need. But this one didn’t stop. In
fact, he avoided him altogether by going to the other side of the road and continued on his way. After some time,
another man came along, saw his need but also opted not to get involved.
Finally a third person approached, a Samaritan. He saw the wounded man just as
the others did, but there was something more. Jesus says that when the
Samaritan saw this man, unlike the others, he was “moved with pity.” The
original Greek literally reads, “moved in the bowels” - nowadays we might say
something like, “he felt it in his gut.” And when we feel things that deep
there’s a knowing that goes along with it. The Samaritan knew the humanity of
the suffering one. He recognized that there was, there is a bond that exists
between us all that is greater and deeper than anything else which made it
possible to look past the fact that this man was likely a Jew. Someone who
looked down on his kind. Someone who, if roles had been reversed, probably
would not have offered compassion to him. All that faded away as the Samaritan
saw him and was moved with that kind of connecting compassion. There was no way
he could pass on by. Instead he drew near with mercy and care.
The lawyer asks,
“Who is my neighbor?” But at the end of the story the question that Jesus asks
is not “Who is” but “Who was” a neighbor? And once again the
lawyer gets the answer right. The neighbor was the one who showed mercy. The
one who was not afraid, or distracted, or busy, or had a hundred other excuses.
The neighbor was the one who saw the other in need and drew near.
When Keshia
Thomas was later asked why she intervened, what made her put herself at risk in
order to protect the white man from the assault she said that it was because of
her faith. And because she saw him - she saw him as a human being, a human
being in need which transcended all of their differences. "I knew what it
was like to be hurt," she said. "The many times that that happened, I
wish someone would have stood up for me...violence is violence - nobody
deserves to be hurt.” That day Keshia Thomas drew near and was a true and
merciful neighbor.
Jesus tells us to
go and do likewise. To take all the right answers that we have in our heads
about love and mercy and grace and put them in our bodies. To act them out in
our lives. To really see the others around us - not just the ones that are like
us that we bump into day to day but also the ones that we know are suffering in
this world and who may seem completely different from us. Go and do likewise. See and be moved with
pity and compassion. Draw near. Be a true and merciful neighbor.
We can do this
because we have already been neighbored in just that way. For ultimately Jesus’
story about the Good Samaritan is not so much about us but about God. God who
really sees us. Who is moved with pity and compassion. Who draws near to us
with unconditional love. Saving us with mercy and grace. God is our neighbor.
And as we know this truth in our heads and live it out in our lives we will not
only inherit eternal life in some distant future, but we will inhabit that life
together - right here and right now.
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