The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

Delivered at Anglican Church of the Redeemer, Camden, NC and Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, Nags Head, NC on July 11, 2010.

Well, how many people here have heard the story of the Good Samaritan? Since you learned it it Sunday school, right? That's when I learned it. Over and over. I knew it backwards and forwards, but I didn't really know it. How many people here have gone deeper into this parable? There are at least three layers to this parable. Let's uncover the three layers and see what we can find.

First there's the Sunday School layer, and it's valid. It's good. It's the social gospel. Help the poor, the sick, the beaten and downtrodden. Don't be like the priest and the levite. Be like the Samaritan. You never know when you might be the guy dying in the street. This story is an example of the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's a great story. Notice the priest and the Levite are headed away from Jerusalem. They are going back home to Jericho. They are done with their temple worship. They aren't in a hurry. They do not need to worry about touching something unclean. There's no valid reason for them to walk on the other side of the street. And they do, because they don't want to get involved. They are filled with dread and apprehension. Some say that they are worried the robbers may still be around. Whatever the reason, their minds are not there. They may be the representatives of Judaism, but they are not representing Judaism very well.

Well, we're not like those two, are we? No, not at all. We're probably worse. There's a video on the Internet. I don't recommend you find it. There is a crowd of people waiting to be served in a Popeye's, and the security cam is filming everything. And one guy gets on his cell phone to tell his wife that he is going to be late getting home, because of the crowd. Now, he must have said something nasty, because the really big guy standing in front of him turns around and starts beating him. Then he's stomping on him, and fortunately the security cam doesn't show below the counter. The guy had to be rushed to intensive care. I can't remember if he lived or not. That's pretty awful, but that's not the worst part. The worst part is everyone else staring ahead, pretending it wasn't happening. A whole lot of priests and levites there. Who turned out to be the good Samaritan? The best our culture was able to do was someone who discretely slipped out of the building and called 911 in a corner of the parking lot.

Jesus' Samaritan is a missionally-minded man. He doesn't even think—he kicks into gear. He helps the fallen victim. He is the example for all of us. We should be like the Samaritan. Good Samaritan! Jesus ends his parable with the words, “You go, and do likewise.” Go and be a good Samaritan. Help the poor, the sick, the needy. The one beaten down.

But that interpretation—and it's a good one!—is the answer to the first question the lawyer in our passage asks: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Actually, Jesus' parable is an answer to the lawyer's second question: “who is my neighbor?” The neighbor isn't the fallen victim; The neighbor is the good Samaritan. Why did Jesus pick a Samaritan? Because Jews HATE Samaritans. This is the second layer, and as adults we hear this layer. We don't hear it when we are a kid in Sunday school. We hear it when we are older and more ready for this tough lesson. Your neighbor is your ENEMY. The person you hate. When Jesus asks the lawyer, “which one of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?” The lawyer responds, “The one who showed him mercy.” Ha can't even get the word SAMARITAN out of his mouth. Never will he say that a Samaritan is his neighbor. Now, when Jesus says the words, “You go, and do likewise,” they mean something different. Love your enemies. Well, that gives us something to think about. Let's go home and think about what it means to love our enemies.

But here's the amazing third layer that I was telling you about! Here's the big twist, that you don't usually hear. Here's the part that made me raise an eyebrow and think, “ohhh, now I'm starting get it!” We know this: the Jews and the Samaritans are enemies. They don't like each other. They hate each other. Got it. This means, the Samaritan hates the Jew as much as the Jew hates the Samaritan. The Lawyer can't say that the Samaritan is his neighbor, and just as true: the Samaritan can't say the Lawyer is his neighbor. Now, we have another reason why Jesus picked a Samaritan as the hero of this parable. In real life, never in a million, billion years would a Samaritan help a Jew out! Jesus us making a big point here. Never in a million, billion years! Let's update the story a little, so it will make more sense to us today. The Jew on his way to Jericho is attacked by robbers and he lies bleeding and dying. Other Jews pass him by. So far the same story. Now, instead of a Samaritan, now we have an Militant Muslim terrorist from Iran, complete with bomb strapped around him, on his way to his 72 virgins in the great hereafter. Things start to get more clear. Does the Islamic terrorist come up to the fallen Jew and say, “oh dear. You're hurt. Let me help you.” Never in a million, billion years. He may kick him when he walks by. He may finish him off. But he will not help him.

So why does Jesus pick a Samaritan as his hero, knowing that in real life, never will a Samaritan help a fallen Jew? Because, in real life, we will never, never be able to love our enemies. It is impossible for us to love our enemies. Impossible. On our own. By human means. Never will we be able to will ourselves to help an enemy who has fallen. And that is Jesus' big point. You need God to be able to love your enemies. You need God's help. God loves our enemies. Really loves them. He made them. He loves them. Every hair on your enemy's head is numbered, too. God wants your enemy to have everlasting life, too. And once we get it in our heads that God loves our enemies just as much as he loves us, our behavior toward our enemies will start to change.

Now, I've heard from a lot of people what loving your enemy looks like. Here's what I hear a lot: “loving your enemy means wishing him well, even if you don't like him.” That's loving your enemy? Wishing someone well is not hard. Wishing someone well is always conditional. I can say, “I wish you well, as long as I don't have to be around you.” I can wish the Nazis well, as long as they surrender, because that's really the only way they are going to be well off.” I wish the guy who stole my girlfriend well, as long as he gets lost and lets me have my girlfriend back. See where I'm going. Wishing someone well is always conditional. You can't wish someone well as they are blowing up a cafe in Baghdad. Good luck in your bombing, I wish you well! No! You want the guy to not blow up people! That's how we wish people well. It's all conditional.

With God nothing is conditional. God loves every single person on this earth unconditionally. God plants his cross on earth, and he says, here it is! Grab hold! I will save you. But isn't that conditional? If you don't grab hold of the cross you aren't saved? That's not God's condition—that's our condition. God, I want to be saved, but I don't want to grab hold of your cross. I don't want to repent. I don't want to change my life. I don't want to put others first. I want to remain selfish. I want to continue to live a sinful life. I'll do it MY WAY, thank you. Those are my conditions.

And it's not like God won't agree to our conditions. God CAN'T agree to our conditions. Imagine that! God CAN'T do something. God can't agree to our conditions, because that is not the way creation works. That is not the way the universe works. God sustains the universe. He is the energy the universe runs on. God is wholly and perfectly good. The universe, therefore, runs on Good. But not us: we chose to run on sin. We actively chose to run on sin. Sin is our fuel. But the universe runs on good. If we run on bad sin and the universe runs on a good god, what should happen? Zaaaap! Like a bug zapper. Fried. Dead. God said it would happen in the garden. You will surely die, he told Adam and Eve. But it didn't happen. God loves us so much that he suspended the laws of goodness. He stopped the overwhelming good that he created from zapping us like bugs. He's still suspending the laws of the universe. He's still doing it at this moment. Right now. He is keeping all the amazing goodness in the universe from slamming closed on our heads and pulverizing us. Because he loves us.

And the only way he can get us out of this situation is through Jesus Christ. The cross is stopping the universe from crashing down on us. Jesus is like the big strong guy in the movies that holds the big steel door open, keeps it from slamming shut forever. He's holding the door, and he's saying come on! Get through! Everyone through! Come on! We jump through, right? Um, no, we stand there, and we say, “I've got three conditions!”

We are our own worst enemies. Which is why we'll never be able to love ourselves without God's help. God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross and create that way for us to have a relationship with the creator of the universe, the being who is so good that we would incinerate. No conditions, just the most amazing love.

What do I need to do to inherit eternal life? Love like God loves. Love God and love your neighbor.

Who is my neighbor? The one who shows us mercy. Our enemy.

How am I able to love my enemy? You can't. With man it is impossible. With God nothing is impossible.

Amen.