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THE REAL NEIGHBOUR
- by Julie Chacko-Lee Introduction
The report ended by saying that this was a case in point of the urban apathy that was sweeping across Northern America in the second half of the twentieth century. A shocking tale, isn’t it? What was wrong with those people, anyway? I can’t get over it. I keep thinking of how she must have felt. How desperate, frantic, helpless and alone she must have felt even though she was surrounded by so many people – people who could have saved her life if they had done something. But before we cast stones on Kitty’s neighbours, it’s good to sit back and think if we were her neighbours, would we have responded any differently? Would we have called the police? Would we have rushed down to see if she were all right? Or would we have gone back to our beds and pulled the sheets over our heads and gone to sleep within the safety of our apartments? These people, though they lived near Kitty, did not behave in a neighbourly way to her. That brings us to the question as to who is our neighbour and whether we Christians are real neighbours to others which is the subject matter of our reflection today. Most Christians are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan; most of us can rattle of the story more or less accurately without looking at the Bible. The world at large may not be so familiar with the story though the concept of the Good Samaritan is familiar enough to everyone. We name hospitals, churches, help agencies in his honour. Most people know a Good Samaritan when they see one – Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, or that anonymous person who simply stops to help change a flat tyre or help a blind person cross the road. We all have encountered such a person at one time or another in our lives. This well-known parable is introduced to us by a dialogue between Jesus and a lawyer (an expert in the law, a scribe). And he asks Jesus a question: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Why does this expert in the law question Jesus? Luke says it is to ‘test’ Jesus – perhaps he was hostile to the teachings of Jesus; or perhaps he wanted to see how Jesus, this popular rabbi, would respond; Whatever his reason, one thing is sure – he wanted to prove something: We are told that he wanted to justify himself – in other words, he wanted to establish that he was righteous – that his knowledge and wisdom and law-keeping were sufficient to make him acceptable to God – enough for him to inherit eternal life. Jesus being the great teacher that He was, answers his question with a question of His own: What is written in the law? How do you read it (how do you understand it)? The lawyer answers correctly, with a proper understanding of what the Law taught concerning eternal life: He quotes from Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18 – to love God and to loves one’s neighbour as oneself. Upon these 2 laws the entire Law had been based and those who kept these 2 laws received eternal life. Good answer and Jesus agreed with his answer. But the lawyer was not finished. “OK Jesus, I know I am to love God and care for my neighbour but who exactly is my neighbour?” Jesus could have simply answered, “Everyone is your neighbour.” Instead, He tells a story that emphasizes breadth of the meaning of a neighbour. Who is my neighbour? In asking this question, the lawyer wanted to define who falls and who doesn’t fall into his category of a neighbour because a neighbour is someone you have to care for, someone you have to love just like you love yourself. The lawyer wanted to limit and define his obligations; he wanted to restrict as narrowly as possible the number of people that he was required to love. And herein lies his mistake. Here is the difference between true religion and false religion, true faith and false faith, true love of God and false love of God, between legalism and grace. The lawyer was looking to the letter of the law – what was minimally required of him so that he can be acceptable to God– he probably thought that the person whom Jesus will point to as his neighbour will be a fellow Jew, a learned man from similar background who was also well versed in the Law, who holds the same likes and biases as himself. And therefore easier to love. Imagine his shock and the shock of all who heard Jesus that day to whom He referred to as a neighbour. And if we study the parable carefully, there is a shift in focus from ‘who is my neighbour’ to ‘whom can I be a neighbour to?’ There are several characters presented in this parable and I want us to look all briefly so that we will see just who our neighbour is and how we ourselves are to be neighbours to others – by Jesus’ standards. 1. The Unfortunate Traveler The first person to whom we are introduced to in this parable is the unfortunate traveller. He had taken a road from Jerusalem to Jericho; Jerusalem was situated high in mountain country and Jericho was way down below sea level and the road that links the two places was a rocky winding road that drops about 3,300 feet in 17 miles. It was a dangerous road because the terrain afforded thieves opportunities for ambush and easy escape routes. It was also known as ‘The Way of the Blood’ because of the terrible crimes that had taken place there. Whenever possible, those who had to travel that road went in groups for protection. Travelling alone, this man had taken a chance and paid dearly for it. The passage describes that he was robbed, stripped, beaten and left half dead by the robbers. Nothing more is known about this man; not his nationality, or his occupation, or if he was rich or poor, Jesus doesn’t elaborate, which points to an important principle that Jesus held – love doesn’t depend on any characteristic of the one being served except their need. The only thing that mattered was that this man was in need. And his need alone is deserving of compassion. 2. The Priest and the Levite Next we are introduced to the priest and the Levite – they both see the injured man lying there on the dirt road and they pass by the on other side. Now, once again, before we condemn them out of hand, let’s sit back and think for a minute. It’s easier to see things in retrospect; easier to say that we would done the right thing if we had been in their place while we sit in the comfort and safety of our homes and church buildings, far removed from the actual situation. Now, while their behaviour was certainly not commendable, neither was it without reason. Though we are not told why they didn’t stop to help, we can guess some of the reasons why they had passed by on the other side. i. Perhaps it was fear –
Not an unreasonable fear is it? How many times have held back from helping someone for fear of being dragged down by their problems. Have you ever refused to help for fear that whatever got them might get you too? Perhaps that’s why the priest and the Levite kept moving. ii. Maybe they felt that the traveler deserved what happened to him –
Have we ever done that? Refused to help someone because their trouble was due to their own sin or foolishness? If we have ever thought that way, then Jesus is saying that is not His way. We don’t help others because they deserve it. We help them because we love them. Of course there are times the best thing we can do for a person is withhold help but that’s not the issue we are talking about here. And we are in no position to pass judgment on a person’s worthiness, are we? Because Jesus, our Redeemer, who is our example in everything, loved us without cause. He saved us not because we were worthy, but because He saw that we were helpless to save ourselves. Were we guilty of sin? Yes! Did we deserve God’s judgment and condemnation? Yes! Did we deserve to be saved? No! But He saved us anyway – He died for us a brutal death that we might have eternal life – Why? All because of His love and mercy and no other reason. Could we do any less as His followers? iii. Another reason the priest and the Levite did not help the man – perhaps they convinced themselves that he was dead already. No use wasting time stopping to help if there was nothing they could do, (though I read somewhere that the if a priest found a body on their journey, he was duty bound to bury it). iv. Maybe they had important matters to attend to. Priest and Levites were important men in their community. They had responsibilities, obligations. People depended on them. Stopping to help the injured man would delay them and upset their schedules. It would take a lot of time to clean and bandage someone’s wounds, load them onto the back of a donkey and take them to a place where they can care for him. Too much time to waste on one stranger. v. Or they were overwhelmed with the logistics of transporting this injured man through the mountainous terrain. It was difficult enough when one was whole and healthy, let alone when you have an injured man to care for as well. vi. Or consider this: they might have expected that someone else would come along and take care of the problem. Someone less important, who is in less of a hurry. Someone with more time and resources, perhaps even more qualified than them to help. And it’s not like they did not care at all. They would pray as they walk off, asking God to send someone along shortly to do what they couldn’t do. vii. Or it could be that they had no stomach to face the goriness of the injured person. The traveller wasn’t a pretty sight – he was naked, beaten to a pulp, blood oozing from all over the place – helping this man would be very unpleasant – very messy and smelly – not to mention expensive. It was just too much for one person to do. So there are at least half a dozen reasons for passing by. But we would do well not to demonize the priest and the Levite. Jesus did not choose the priest and the Levite because they were the worst but because they were the very best. If there were terrible people, the story loses its force. They had legitimate reasons for passing by on the other side - for why they didn’t have to stop and care for the injured stranger. And if we are honest with ourselves, those reasons sound disturbingly familiar, don’t they? We ourselves may have employed similar excuses in order not to help someone in need:- we have urgent duties that will not permit delay; we too don’t want to get dirty; we too are afraid of stopping on a deserted road to help a stranger; we too find ourselves overwhelmed with the logistics of helping needy people - We also have real and legitimate reasons. But reasons being real and legitimate don’t make them right in the eyes of God. If externally we are doing all the right things as Christians – coming to church, participating in worship, involved in ministry, leading in prayer meeting, attending cell groups, teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, preaching on Sundays etc., etc., but we don’t have love for those who need our help and care, then Jesus is telling us that we are just like that priest and Levite - there is no difference. I know that’s hard to hear but I feel strongly that that’s what the Lord is telling us today. Just as we have been shown love and compassion by God, He expects the same from us towards others – towards anyone in need – we are to give of our time and energy, put up with the inconvenience and the mess and love compassionately and sacrificially. - just as the Samaritan in this parable did. 3. The Samaritan And that brings at the third person we want to look at this morning the Samaritan. There isn’t enough time for me to comment much about his ethnicity except to say that this is another case in point in which Jesus reverses the expectations of His audience. The hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews went back hundreds of years. The Jews despised the Samaritans. The Samaritans were descendants of Jews who had intermarried with foreigners during the Babylonian captivity of Israel during the 6th century B.C. As a result they were considered outcasts by orthodox Jews, rejected as religious and ethnic half-breeds. Jews avoided contact with them whenever possible and considered them worse than pagans. They were not permitted to worship in the temple at Jerusalem, because they were though to be defiled and unfit for God’s service, and so they constructed their temple on Mt Gerizim. Ceremonially unclean, socially outcast, and religiously a heretic, the Samaritan is the very opposite of the lawyer, the priest and the Levite. And yet, in Jesus’ story it was the Samaritan and not the priest or the Levite who acted according to the true meaning of the Law. What did he do? He lived out the spirit and intention of the Law by loving sacrificially. When the Samaritan came across the wounded traveler, he was moved with compassion for the man. And that compassion led him to take action. He didn’t take action because he wanted to be righteous or earn points with God. He took action because of the need that was facing him. He was willing to take risk in caring for the wounded man - he had no thought of his own safety or well being when others had only thought of themselves. The same messy, smelly sight that greeted the priest and the Levite greeted him but instead of walking away in repulsion, he came near, touched the hurt man, poured oil on the wounds for healing and wine for disinfectant and bandaged his wounds. He put him on his own transport, his donkey, and brought him to an inn. There, he nursed the victim through the night and the next day, before leaving the inn, he paid for his care and promised an unlimited amount for whatever additional care might be required. Looking at all that he had done, we might say that he went beyond what was required of him but the Samaritan wasn’t thinking about himself. He was totally focused on the injured man before him – his needs, his wounds, his well-being and comfort - his health. And that Jesus points out, is true love of a neighbour. The lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?” wanting to know whom he was obligated to love, thinking that they would be people like himself. He wanted to draw a circle to keep people out. Jesus told this parable and asked him “Who was a neighbour to the man?” and the answer – “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus re-draws the circle to bring people in. Conclusion: We take a look at the need around us and we know that there is no way we can help everybody. And it is easy to feel overwhelmed and so do nothing at all. We can’t help every person in need but there is someone we can reach to, someone whose tears we can wipe, someone whose burden we can help bear, someone whose wounds we can help bind up with Christ-like love. And our helping them isn’t dependant on who they are – not their race, nationality, language, status or ability. Not only that, according to Jesus’ standards, we are called to be a neighbour to even those whom we may consider our enemies. To emphasize this point about loving even the enemy, recently I read a sermon in which the author puts this parable in contemporary context. Let me read this out to you:
Imagine that! That is what Jesus requires of His disciples – love and compassion toward all regardless of who they are. Christians don’t have the luxury of deciding who they will help and who they will not. They have no right to biases and prejudices. Need alone is the criteria that invokes compassion. As Christians, we are called to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is merciful. But mercy and compassion for others comes at a cost: it means taking risks and being inconvenienced; it means a depletion of our provision and funds, it means setting aside our own awkwardness and discomfort and prejudices; it means going that extra mile, it means making adjustment to our plans, it means a giving of ourselves to the needs of others – In the end what it really means dying to ourselves. It seems like a tall order but really, as disciples of Christ can we do any less? Jesus is the Good Samaritan who came near to us. And we are the victims on the road to Jericho. Like the priest and the Levite He saw us but He didn’t pass us by. He was moved with compassion for us. We were broken, ruined by sin, unable to help ourselves, and He rescued us – not because of anything we had done; not because of anything worthy or attractive in us, but only because of His great love for us. He took our distance from God away and brought us near to the Father at great cost to Himself. All we had to offer Him was our need and He responded. He alone is The Real Neighbour. And that Real Neighbour who gave His all, is asking His disciples who are seated here today to be real neighbour like Himself toward others – those who are in need, those whom we are in a position to help. And in the light of all that we have been given, all the blessings we have received, we can do no less than heed His command, “Go and do likewise.” It is my prayer that God will give us the grace to do so. Amen. [Top] |
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