Sermon for Sunday July 10, 2022 - The Good Samaritan

GOSPEL: Luke 10:25-37

The holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 10th chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord.

25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27He 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.” 28And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus 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. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He 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. 35The 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.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

A couple of stories….

About 20 years ago,

I was driving home from the office in NE Calgary;

traffic was more backed up than normal,

and I hadn’t even made it to the Deerfoot yet.

I noticed a man on a motorized scooter

with four wheels.

He was in the middle of the road.

People were honking their horns

for the man to move out of the intersection.

But he was having trouble getting up the incline.

Maybe it wasn’t powerful enough,

or maybe the battery was dying.

The poor man even fell out of the scooter.

He was wounded and bloody.

He was backing up traffic

and people were upset at the inconvenience.

Then I noticed one of my coworkers walk right past my car.

She had put her car into park not far behind me,

to go and help the man get into the scooter,

and reach the sidewalk safely.

I felt guilty.

I did not get out of my car to help.

I was not the Good Samaritan.

I was annoyed at the inconvenience.

And I was naive:

I figured he should figure it out himself.

I was too naive to see that he couldn’t.

Thinking back on that drive home,

I saw Jesus in my coworker’s mercy for this man.

For a long time I was hard on myself because of it.

I really should have known better:

I was raised in the faith,

I considered myself a faithful Christian.

Even if I wasn’t,

I should have helped the man, because

15 years earlier I was the man,

lying bloody and helpless on the road.

Well, I wasn’t a man, yet.

I was only 10 years old,

and our class went on a hike on Nose Hill

at the end of the school year.

Some of us kids were jumping

from giant rock to giant rock up the path

and I fell,

and hit my knee hard,

and the wound was gushing blood.

A friend of mine was the Good Samaritan;

he took the shirt off his back

to wrap my gushing wound.

Another Good Samaritan saw me in tears

and carried me down the hill

and drove me to the walk-in clinic

to get stitched up.

In my own way,

I was the man,

helpless and bloodied on the side of the road,

and on that rush-hour drive-home from work years later,

I couldn’t see that it was my turn

to be the Good Samaritan

to the man with the scooter.

I know I’m not alone.

Many of us have been the priest or Levite in this parable.

Many of us have passed by those in need

allowing someone else to be the Good Samaritan.

I heard about a social experiment in the 1970’s.

Seminary students were asked to prepare presentations

on various biblical topics;

including some presenting on

the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

On the university campus,

Students were sent from one building to another

in order to make their presentations.

Unknown to the students,

there was an actor

portraying a person in need of assistance

who met them on their rush between buildings.

This story has become urban legend

and there are many variations on the story -

but you can imagine the outcome:

how many simply rushed by

in order to give their biblical presentation

on the Good Samaritan,

and how many actually stopped

to help the person in need?

No matter how well we know the parable of the Good Samaritan

We have plenty of reasons why we don’t stop,

why we don’t show mercy.

In the parable,

the priest might not want to touch the blood

so as to avoid becoming ritually impure.

If he stopped to help the man,

he couldn’t enter the Temple

and do his job.

Like the students about to give their presentation,

the priest had religious reasons not to help the man.

The Levite might have seen the scene as a possible set-up.

Someone could stage being hurt and in need,

and the person who stops to help

might find themselves robbed,

bloody and beaten

by hidden assailants.

Like declining a beggar on the street,

sometimes we don’t want to be taken advantage of.

Plus, this parable did not take place

in a time and place with convenient health care.

You couldn’t just call an ambulance.

He needed urgent and expensive care:

oil and wine poured over wounds,

new clothing,

and at least two days wages

to house the man in the inn.

Showing mercy to the beaten and stripped man is costly.

The Good Samaritan gives of himself and his livelihood

in order to show mercy.

Sometimes we find it too costly to show mercy.

Being the Good Samaritan

is not unlike Jesus’ words we heard last month:

“No one has greater love

than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Being the Good Samaritan is risky:

it means a willingness to lay down your life for the other.

Thanks be to God,

by God’s grace,

many of us have our own stories

of times that we were the Good Samaritan,

times that we stopped and helped, 

times that we showed mercy

even with potential risk or cost.

That is God’s Spirit at work in us.

I do believe that we are called to listen to Jesus here:

to go and do likewise;

to love the Lord our God

with all our heart, soul, mind, body and strength,

and to do this by loving our neighbour,

to be a good neighbour,

a Good Samaritan,

to show mercy.

At the same time,

Parables have hidden meaning,

that you find when you peel back the layers like an onion.

Jesus used parables to teach us about the Kingdom of God

and to understand God’s character

and God’s work in the world.

Consider briefly the parable of the Prodigal Son:

there are various interpretations,

but we know the father in the story is God.

The parable teaches us,

not just to avoid squandering our inheritance,

but that God welcomes us with open arms,

that God rejoices in our return,

that God’s gifts are ours

even if we have squandered them.

That parable of the Prodigal is about God; the Prodigal Father.

So is the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The lawyer in today’s story is trying to justify himself.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

What must I do?

Just like the rich young ruler,

he is asking the wrong question.

You don’t earn an inheritance.

An inheritance is something that is given.

However, Jesus engages in the question

and gives the impossible answer.

Love God with your whole being.

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Do this, and you will live.

Note, Jesus doesn’t say

“Do this and you will eternally live.”

Jesus says do this and you will live.

Seeking to justify himself, the lawyer asks:

“Who is my neighbour?”

There’s got to be some limit here, Jesus.

I can’t love everyone.

Who do I have to love

and who don’t I?

It helps us see that

we can’t keep the commandments,

hard as we try.

We cannot love our God with our whole being,

because we are going to chose self over God,

others over God.

We cannot love our neighbour

- all our neighbours -

as ourselves

because we are all going to choose ourselves over others,

we all have neighbours

of one kind or another

that we don’t want to love.

Sometimes the stripped and bloody man on the side of the road

is lying there because we put him there.

Our ways of destruction and dominance over creation

often leave God’s creation stripped and bloody.

We, knowingly and unknowingly,

give our stamp of approval to oppressive systems

that leave people half-dead and helpless.

Sometimes the stripped and bloody man on the side of the road

is lying there because we put him there,

and it is too costly for us to lay down our lives,

too costly to consider them friends.

What is really offensive,

but totally true in the parable:

When it comes to trying to earn the inheritance of eternal life,

we are the ones lying on the side of the road,

we are the ones lying half dead,

completely helpless

in need of someone to have mercy on us.

Jesus of Nazareth,

Jesus the Christ,

Jesus our Rabbi, Healer, and Friend

is the Good Samaritan,

who lifts us up out of our death,

lifts us out of the impossible situation

we find ourselves in

and restores us to abundant, eternal life.

That’s the point:

that when it comes to eternal life,

Jesus is the Good Samaritan.

Which of these three, do you think,

was a neighbour to the man

who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The lawyer said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”

My friends,

we have been lifted up by our Saviour,

Jesus, the Good Samaritan, has shown us mercy,

has lavished forgiveness upon us;

for the times we have walked past the helpless one,

for the times we have, knowingly and unknowingly,

left others on the side of the road,

for the times we thought

they should just help themselves,

for the times we have tried to justify ourselves,

for the times we haven’t forgiven ourselves,

for the times we have limited our view

of who our neighbour is,

and for the times we have tried to earn our inheritance.

Indeed, Jesus the Good Samaritan,

has come to us who are helpless

and has shown us mercy.

Forgiven and set free by God’s grace,

may we go and do mercy, likewise.

Thanks be to God. Amen.