Dearest e-votees-
This installment is coming out early since I will be at the Blackfeet Indian Reservation with a group of high school students on a service-mission trip this week.
If you have room in your prayer lists please add our group. We will be travelling by train to Whitefish, travelling by caravan to the reservation and serving with Youthworks! July 4-9. We will return the same way and be back to Portland by July 11. Please pray that we would be safe, that God would do through us and in us what is pleasing and good and that we would strive to see the image of God in all those we encounter. Thank you.
Peace,
Karl
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25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 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." 28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 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. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 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. 35 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.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one that is familiar and yet so easy to ignore.
The lawyer stands up in front of all (with a desire to test Jesus—rather presumptuous). He asks what must he do to inherit eternal life. The lawyer rightly sums up all the Law and the Prophets with the charge to love God with one’s whole being and the Golden Rule. Knowing the right answers is not sufficient.
The lawyer should have stopped there. But not only did the lawyer want to test Jesus—he wants to show that he himself passes the test. He asks who is his neighbor. Presumably this is so that he can demonstrate that anyone mentioned by Jesus has been covered by his largesse. As Jesus is known to do he turns the question, the questioner and the motivation on their heads.
Jesus tells a story of a man going down to Jericho from Jerusalem. All of the good people who pass by (a priest and a Levite) step out of the way to avoid helping the man who had been beset by robbers. Along comes a “bad” person (Samaritans and Jews were not on good terms). It is the one who was shunned by the common culture who helped the fallen man. He goes to extreme measures to see to the care of one who may well have shunned the help if he was truly aware of the source.
The lawyer probably wanted to show where the limits of his care and generosity could be safely established. Jesus tells a dangerous story of almost reckless compassion from a surprising source. When the lawyer rightly answers that the Samaritan was the most neighborly of the three who passed by the fallen man Jesus charges that lawyer to go and do likewise.
Where are you in this story today? Are you hurt and on the road? Are you one who might pass by (better things to do, needing to stay ritually clean, concerned for your own safety, not sure about this one on the road)? Are you one in a strange place noticing needs and knowing you could do something to help? Are you an innkeeper who might get a proposition that involves trust and largesse on your own part as well? Are you the lawyer wanting to justify yourself and have all know how well you have done? Are you the one who knows the truth and has stories to tell that will change lives if the hearers have ears to hear?
Wherever you find yourself in the story today God will find you. God loves you and will not forsake you. Jesus is like the Samaritan. Jesus comes to a foreign world and pours himself out on behalf of those who might reject the help if they really knew who it was (that is what the cross was about, in part). Jesus shows mercy. We are loved and salved and saved.
When we really get that deep and abiding truth we can start living into the charge to go and do likewise.
God, shape us again by this powerful and familiar story. Help us love all and see your image in them. Send folks to help us and send us to help others. Teach us again and again to “Go and do likewise.” Amen.
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