8
PENTECOST, PROPER X - C - 16 LUKE 10.
25-37
Today’s
collect sets the tone for today’s Gospel passage: “O Lord, mercifully receive
the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and
understand what things they ought to do, and also may have the grace and power
faithfully to accomplish them…”
It
would appear that the lawyer in today’s gospel who asked Jesus “what must I do
to inherit eternal life?” already knew the answer. His question was a standard
rabbinical one to which there were standard answers, much like the questions
and answers in our own Catechism. Jesus confirms his answer and directs him to
go and live it and he will indeed inherit eternal life.
Each
of the synoptic present a version of this same question. In Mark, for example,
a scribe asks Jesus which commandment is “the first of all?” Jesus answers with
the summary of the law, “ we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, and
mind; and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.” There is no other
commandment greater than these two.
The
scribe recognized the truth of Jesus’ response and commented that such love for
God and others is much more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Jesus was surprised by his comment and told the scribe in turn that he was not
far from the kingdom of God.
Matthew says that the question comes from a
Pharisee. His version of the incident emphasizes the fact that the command to
love one’s neighbor as oneself “is like” the command to love God with one’s
whole being. Although each of the Synoptic presents us with a different version
of the question the basic message is the same: love God first, then our
neighbor as ourselves.
The
uniqueness and richness of each of the gospel accounts lies in their individual
contributions to the over all picture of Jesus and His teachings that tell us
who he really is and what he is all about. For example, Luke alone gives us the
parable of the Good Samaritan that appears in today’s gospel as a response to
the lawyer’s second question “who is my neighbor?”
It
appears that Jesus’ response to his initial question was not enough. The lawyer
leaves God out of his second question, perhaps because he thinks he knows all
he needs to know about God, and focuses entirely on the concept of “neighbor.”
His sole purpose in asking the second,
however, is to justify himself in the eyes of God; hoping that in the final
analysis God would find him acceptable. The answer Jesus gives surely must have
shocked as well as surprised him.
During
the time of Jesus, Jews and Samaritans literally hated each other. This hatred
had gone on for hundreds of years and is still reflected in the smoldering
tension between Israel and Palestine today. Both sides claim to be the true
inheritors of the promise to Abraham and Moses; both sides, in consequence,
regard themselves as the rightful possessors of the land.
Few
Israelis today will travel from Galilee to Jerusalem by the direct route,
because it will take them through the West Bank and risk violence. In exactly
the same way, most first century pilgrims making the same journey would prefer,
as Jesus did himself, to travel down the Jordan Valley to Jericho and then turn
West up the hill to Jerusalem. It was much safer.
Some
might go so far as to say that Jesus’ response was not “politically correct.”
The priest, who represented the highest religious leadership among the Jews
does not come off well, and neither does the Levite, who, in the time of Jesus,
was a Lay-Associate of the priest. The Samaritan, on the other hand, was not
expected to show mercy to any Jew. And As far as Jews were concerned, there
were no “good” Samaritans.
With
that said, the one thing that has always interested me about this well-known
story is the fact that the lawyer had not asked “how” one is to be a loving
neighbor, he had asked how one is to recognize the neighbor we are called to love.
He asked “who;” he was told “how.”
We
are familiar with the story, and we get the point. The Samaritan’s actions are
the gospel ideal. And like the lawyer, we are to “go and do likewise.” But
wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we only knew who it was we are called to love
instead of “how?” if only we could identify those persons. If only we could get
a list.
If
God would only provide their names for me at the beginning of each day as I
prayed the Morning Office. Then, I could be on the look out for those
individuals throughout the day expecting to find them. But it doesn’t work that
way. I don’t know and you don’t know. Because God’s love is unconditional
towards us, our love of neighbor is to be likewise; nothing less than a
reflection of His.
We
are not provided with a list in advance, and we never will be. Jesus’
description of “how” we are to love tells us that the “who” is open-ended.
Neighborly love knows no limit. The moral of the story is “if you see someone
in the ditch, go and help them.” Neighbor is anyone in need.
What
is at stake, then and now, is the question of whether we will use the God-given
revelation of love and grace as a way of boosting our own sense of isolated
security and purity, or whether we will see it as a call, a challenge to extend
that love and grace to the whole world.
No
Church, no Christian, can remain content with easy definitions which allow us
to watch most of the world lying half dead in the road and do nothing.
Rather
we pray that we may know and understand what things we ought to do, and that
God in his wide reaching grace and mercy will give us the power to faithfully
accomplish them, that is, to live the gospel ideal, not in hope of justifying
ourselves before God, but for the Glory of God and for the sake of Him who died
and rose again, even Jesus Christ, Our Lord. AMEN+
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