THE MERCIFUL SERVANT

SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 10:25-37

Many of us have heard the parable of the Good Samaritan so often that we’ve reduced the significance of the story to T-shirt platitudes like “Be nice,” “Play well with others,” and “Be a good neighbor.” While being a good neighbor is an important message in this story, it is not the only message. I sense that our familiarity with the parable may betray an underlying and poignant message of the story, and the story’s ability to speak to our hearts and our lives on a deeper level. I invite you to explore with me some of the characteristics of this story, what the parable may have said to Jesus’ hearers, and what it may have to say to us today.

In Luke’s Gospel, this parable is offered by Jesus in response to the questions directly raised by the lawyer, questions raised, no doubt, to test Jesus’ knowledge and understanding of the Torah, the Jews sacred text and considered God’s rule for life. The intent of the lawyer may have been to see if he could trip Jesus up, and, if so, discredit him in front of his disciples and those who have gathered to hear what he has to say.

The first question posed by the lawyer is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It was a question that had been thoroughly discussed in Jewish literature and occupied many rabbis’ attention. Of course, Jesus knew, as did the lawyer, that the considered requirement for eternal life was strict observance of the Torah. But Jesus, as any good teacher might do, answers the lawyer’s question with a question, giving him the chance to show off his knowledge of the Torah. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

The testing and testy lawyer is all too quick to answer. Quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, he replies. “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, of course, commends the lawyer that he has responded correctly and tells him that if indeed he does do this, he will live.

But, of course, this rather arrogant man is not satisfied and wants to continue in his banter with Jesus. So, he further probes, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus, of course, being a good rabbi, does not answer his question directly, but responds with a story, a parable, and one that leads the attorney and all his listeners in a direction they had not anticipated. Jesus, in telling this parable, tricks his trickster, the lawyer.

Jesus tells the story of a “certain young man.” We do not know who this young man is, but he was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way, he is robbed, beaten, stripped of his clothing, and left to die on the side of the road. And here is where the story gets interesting. Those listening would have been familiar with stories using the characters of a priest and a Levite. But they would have expected the third character in the story to be a layperson, an Israelite. Jesus draws on the familiar characters, but the third figure in the story is not an ordinary layperson, a familiar Israelite.

When Jesus introduces a Samaritan, here he does the unthinkable. What you many not know is that the Jews despised the Samaritans since the end of the 10^th century B.C.E. when the Northern Kingdom of Israel split from Judah. After that time, Samaritans began to intermarry with Gentiles, thus corrupting the purity of the tribes and the faith tradition. To add insult to injury, Samaritan rejected Jerusalem as the center of life and faith. So, needless to say, any good law-abiding Jew would have nothing to do with Samaritans.

Furthermore, Jesus places these characters in unfamiliar roles and expectations. Anyone listening would have expected a priest to stop and help this poor man. After all, isn’t it in his job description to lend a hand to someone who has been hurt and wounded? But no, having seen him he crosses over to the other side of the road to avoid having any contact with him. Some scholars have tried to justify the priest’s behavior by saying that the priest must have been on his way to perform religious duties and any contact with a dying man would have rendered him ritually unclean, and, therefore, unable to carry out his professional duties. Personally, I find such justification even more abhorrent than the behavior itself.

Then along comes a Levite, one we would also expect to be a good neighbor and help out this suffering soul. A Levite, familiar after all with the Torah law, would well know what was expected of him, to bind up the broken and the brokenhearted. But the Levite also avoids contact with this beaten, broken man, and passes him by walking on the other side of the road.

Along comes this Samaritan, who, seeing this suffering man, this suffering servant of God, is moved with pity and compassionately responds by binding up his wounds after having tended to him with the only first-aid available, cleaning them with wine and soothing his wounds with oil. Then the Samaritan goes further than most people would do, as he takes the wounded man to the nearest inn, pays the innkeeper’s expenses with what money he has to take care of him and nurse him back to health. The Samaritan assures him that he will reimburse him for any extra expenses incurred in his care when he returns.

Those listening to the story could identify with the one who had been robbed, beaten and left to die. Any Jew may have seen themselves as victim, the suffering servant, so to speak. But what would have thrown the lawyer and Jesus’ other listeners for a loop was that the victim was saved by a mortal enemy of the Jews, a Samaritan. Jesus’ parable requires a shift in revolutionary shift in their consciousness.

The New Testament scholar, John Dominic Crossan, says this: “The whole point of the story demands that one say what cannot be said, what is a contradiction in terms: Good + Samaritan. In the process the hearer actually experiences the presence of God’s rule for life eternal, not the strict rule of the Torah. This means that the hearer must put aside prejudice against the Samaritan, “the other,” in order to experience the in-breaking of God’s rule, which does not separate insiders and outsiders. This is the more poignant point of the parable. God’s saving love and grace knows no bounds and any and all can be instruments of that love and grace – contrary to popular opinion. The despised Samaritan is now forced to be redeemed “good” in ears, minds and hearts of Jesus’ audience. The trickster, the lawyer, has been tricked at his own game with his own rule of law by being forced to confess that the one who was the real neighbor to the suffering servant was the one who showed him mercy, the Samaritan. Hence, it is the Samaritan who has done what is necessary to inherit eternal life.

The one who is saved by God is the one who is dismissed by the religious authorities. God’s mercy and grace know no bounds! Those who are cast out by popular opinion and culture are welcomed with open arms by God and given a place of honor at God’s table. Jesus’ exhorts the lawyer to go and do likewise.

This parable still speaks to us today. How many of us are still ruled by our own prejudice? We may not hold hundred-year-old grudges. Lord knows most of us don’t have that long-term a memory. But, do we not still pass judgment on others who are different from ourselves? And based on all kinds of distinctions and differences, like race, culture, socio-economic class, education, etc., do we not decide who is welcome into our circle of love and care? Furthermore, when faced with desperate human need, do we assess whether we want to risk getting involved based on what it would cost us in terms of time, money, energy, effort, reputation, and maybe even our personal security? Can we see past our own prejudices to accept God’s merciful love and compassion from those we deem in our own minds least likely to be instruments of God’s grace? Can we imagine ourselves crossing barriers and borders, breaking down the walls of hatred, and compassionately extending ourselves in acts of mercy, no matter what the cost? Sometimes I wonder if it is not just easier to cross to the other side of the road.

A number of years ago I was in Israel on tour. Tension ran and outbreaks of violence were numerous everywhere we traveled, but nowhere near what it is today. However, often we found ourselves in places where within hours an outbreak of violence between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers had just occurred. One day we got word that an Israeli soldier who had himself been the target of violence by Palestinian youth hurling rocks, stopped to help a bleeding Palestinian man who had gotten caught in the crossfire. The town was all a buzz when they heard that this Israeli soldier carried the man to a hospital on the other side of the Gaza border where medical care and supplies far outnumber what is available in the Gaza strip, and he received the care he needed. Not counting the cost, but seeing his need, that Israeli soldier was the merciful servant – he was the good Samaritan.

Richard Halverson once said about this parable, “The question is not who is my neighbor? But, “Am I a neighbor?” In other words, the burden of proof does not lie with another as to whether or not he is a neighbor to qualify for my love. The question is, “Am I a neighbor to any and all, especially to those who are in desperate need?” I wonder if we are willing to really be like the Samaritan. Are we willing to do as Jesus commands us to go and do likewise?

Sermon preached by Reverend Jane B. Anderson at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on July 15, 2007.