“Do what?” is what my father would say when he couldn’t something.
Not “What did you say?” or “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” Or even, “Huh?”
But as I was preparing this sermon I realized that my Dad’s funny question is
the perfect one for Jesus’ parables reminding us to listen well because they
always call us to “do” something. And that “do” was often shocking to Jesus’
audience in ways that’s sometimes are hard to duplicate. So today I want to use
my Father’s question to help us hear this parable anew. Our first surprising note
has to do with why the priest and Levite don’t stop.
1.
Go to Jericho
with Martin Luther King, Jr. – Why do the two men fail to stop?
One of the most common interpretations
for understanding this parable is that the priest and the Levite fail to help
because they are worried about encountering a potentially dead body thereby violating
purity laws (e.g. Numbers 5:2; 19:11-13, says that those who touch a dead human
being shall be unclean seven days). Now, this is certainly possible though
admittedly an interpretation. We are never told why having seen the “half dead”
man they both “passed by on the other side.” However, a seemingly incidental
remark makes that interpretation suspect. We are told that the priest, along with the the robbed man, were not going up but “going
down" from Jerusalem to Jericho (vss. 30-31). That is, they are not going up to the Temple
to perform priestly duties when such uncleanliness would have been, admittedly,
a problem but away from the Temple and down to Jericho. Furthermore, the Babylonian Talmud, the interpretation of the laws
found in the Pentateuch called for Jews to become unclean in order to care for a
corpse that they encountered. It stated: “As long as there are no other people
to look after the burial of a corpse, the duty is incumbent on the first Jew
that passes by, without exception, to perform the burial.” Moreover, any
self-respecting Jew would tell you that saving a life is so important that it
overrides every other concern, including the Sabbath (1 Macc. 2:31-41). So it
probably wasn’t legalism that kept them from helping the man. In fact, it was
probably something far easier and more relatable then laws from Numbers that
have little sway over our lives as Christians. But what is it? Well, I found my
answer by locating a good guide – Martin Luther King, Jr. In the last sermon he
ever gave, which was on this parable, in support of Memphis Sanitation workers
who were serving in wretched conditions with unlivable pay. He preached:
“I’m going to
tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that those men were
afraid. You see, the Jericho Road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs.
King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem
down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, ‘I can
see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.’ It’s a winding,
meandering road. . . really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem,
which is about . . . twelve hundred feet above sea level. And by the time you
get down to Jericho . . . you’re about twenty-two feet below sea level. That’s
a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the ‘Bloody
Pass.’ And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over at
that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s
possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking , and he
was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to lure them over. And so
the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite
asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But then the
Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help
this man, what will happen to him?'”
Then King mindful
that the parable was also challenging him said, “If I do not stop to help the
sanitation workers, what will happen to them?”
After the sermon, King traveled
to Memphis where in a few short days he was assassinated. There are bandits on
the road. Whatever the motives of the priest and the Levite, King is correct. They
thought only about themselves, not about the man in the ditch. Who will you
think about?
That question has plagued me this
week, plagued this sermon. I want to take this story seriously but I keep
coming up against the thing that every preacher fears – the political moment –
because I keep hearing Jesus say to me, to us, here and now, “Go and do
likewise.” And I hear my Father’s question, “Do what?”
2.
Do what?
One of our ECC leaders posted this
picture on his Facebook this week. How does this story address that? Stay with
me.
First, we must refuse to “test”
one another and “justify” ourselves. Surprisingly, the lawyer knows the answers
to his own questions, and in both cases Jesus expresses full agreement. Then
what is wrong with this conversation? Despite the fact that we have two good
questions, two good answers, and two men who seem to agree on almost every
point, why is this conversation so troubling?
We are told by Luke in vs. 25 that
the lawyer
asks his question not with the intent to gain knowledge but “test” Jesus. The conversation is troubling because the lawyer seeks to win
rather than know and live out the truth. Now it’s time for the Greek of the
Week! To “test”
ἐκπειράζων [ekpeirazō] is precisely what kingdom people should not do. It’s
now how kingdom people should have a theological conversation. It’s what we are
to pray to avoid Jesus tells us in Luke 11:4, just a few verses after the story
of the Good Samaritan, “Do not bring us to the test.” Furthermore, it’s the
activity of Satan himself who “tested” Jesus in the wilderness with Jesus
shutting him up by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16. Friends, the goal of
theological conversation is not to outwit another nor is it simply to have the
right answer. The lawyer was saying the right things. But Jesus seems to
understand that you can be right and still miss God. You can be correct and
still miss the point, still talk and think in an un-kingdom-like way. This
parable should teach us in part how to love others and listen in a
conversation. “Testing” others and “justifying” ourselves are not ways Jesus
followers should talk. It feels like our current political moment wants us to
“test” others and “justify” ourselves with questions that aim to challenge
others rather than change ourselves.
2. We must say “no” to a message that would say people are
expendable. The lawyer wants
to know “Who is my neighbor?” He wants to suggest that there is a clear
boundary between people that might limit our compassion, that would make us not
responsible for their care. But this argument works both ways. While we cannot
excuse neighborliness toward the weak and frail by being cavalier about their
health, on the one hand, it’s also a form of “walking by them” to suggest that
we don’t worry about the economy, the loss of jobs, the people out work, who
are now struggling to feed themselves, to pay their bills, particularly when
many of us have donkeys to spare, oil and wine to share, and denarii to give. We
must “see” those in need and refuse to pass by. If you read
the parable carefully, maybe the most unnerving thing about it is that “care”
and “compassion” are not warm feelings of sentiment but inextricably linked to
money. Not only does the Samaritan offer two denarii for the innkeeper to look
after the man (A denarius was the usual daily wage of a day laborer). He goes
on to offer a reimbursement for further expenses without even knowing what
those would be.
Third, we must refuse to hate. The challenge of Jesus is not a
“love” problem. Love in our current context is so milky soft and smooth, so
sweet – no one would have a problem with it. No one. The “love” of Jesus,
expressed in the parable, is that the neighborliness of the “kingdom of God”
exists primarily as “love of enemy.” The neighbor of Jesus’ story is a hated
enemy of Jews and not unnecessarily so – that is Samaritans could also, and
did, do terrible, violent things to Jews. The lawyer is so horrified by the
story that he can’t even say, “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question. He can
only say, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus isn’t just saying that we
should “love” those who are ethnically or religiously different from us. He’s
saying imagine an enemy and love him. But even further Jesus acknowledged that
our enemies, even one’s whose theology is mistaken, can act in God honoring
ways and love us in return. Who is the enemy that you refuse to name?
Fourth, we must practice compassion. When Jesus says “go and do
likewise” he is inviting us to let God’s heart of compassion take root and grow
in us. The literal meaning of “compassion” is to suffer with – to entwine one’s
life with others such that there hurts are our hurts. In fact, the word in
Greek is splagchnizomai
and refers to the guts and this word is primarily used for Jesus in
the Gospels.
Which person
in the story are you?
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