Empowered by Grace to Serve

I’m thankful to be with you this morning, and to join you in your series as you explore the theme “empowered by grace.” The lessons we’ve read this morning are powerful messages about serving in God’s Kingdom. And the Gospel lesson is one of the most famous of Jesus’ parables - the Good Samaritan.

I’m certain most of you have heard this parable many times…and heard it preached on many times. Now, I don’t know about you, but the more I read these passages, the more I discover that I hadn’t learned yet. This parable is no exception.

As I studied it this week, I learned that when the lawyer asked Jesus his question: “who is my neighbor?” there was a cultural understanding of that word “neighbor” which implied “fellow Jew”. When he quotes the Old Testament commandment “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”, if you read the whole verse from Leviticus 19:18 it says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Your own people: fellow Jews.

So when the lawyer (who is an expert on Torah) asks Jesus this question, he’s not asking Jesus to give him information. He wants to make himself look good in front of the crowd. He wants “to vindicate himself. The question really means: Where do I draw the line? How large must the circle be? If I know who my neighbor is, I also know who is not my neighbor. On the other hand [as Jesus describes in his parable], whoever has love in his or her heart will know who the neighbor is.” [Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary, ed. David Noel Freedman and Astrid B. Beck, The Bible in Its World (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 94–95.]

So, he wants to establish what the requirement really is. This is like “so, if a tithe is 10%, does that mean 10% of net or gross?” You can ask Pastor Heidi the answer to that one. This teacher of the Law is now quibbling about how to draw the line between who might be a neighbor and who might not be…according to the Commandment.

The Law plays a big part here - all throughout the parable. And let’s not forget: there were 613 laws in the Torah, and they were quite strict, especially the laws on cleanliness. The first person to encounter the victim in the parable was a priest, who must always keep himself clean. Jesus tells us the man was “half-dead”, meaning he probably either looked like he was already dead, or was about to be. “According to the law, a priest should not touch a corpse, except that of a family member, and then he was unclean for seven days.” [Ibid., p. 97] Levites were also of the priestly class; they too were expected to keep themselves pure and clean and would avoid corpses. If either of these 2 experts on God’s Law had violated this and touched the man - they would have discovered that he was not, in fact, dead…but rather very much alive and in need of help. And, by the way, the Law also says that “if the priest could see that the man was in need, he should help him. Saving a life overrides any other prescript of the law.” [Ibid.] But even if he *had* been dead, the worst that would happen to them is that they would be then declared “unclean” and would have to endure seven days of uncleanliness (which meant isolation), and then present a sin offering. That’s it. A small price in comparison to saving a life in my book.

So why didn’t they just help him? Well, the third traveler gives us a clue: he’s a Samaritan. I hope you remember that Jews and Samaritans did *not* get along. Their cultures clashed, they had strong disagreements about their respective religions. The Jews viewed the Samaritans as less-than-human…and the feeling was mutual. And yet, the only one to offer kindness and aid to the victim was this…Samaritan.

Remember how the lawyer asked his question? A “neighbor” is a fellow Jew, right? So what did the fellow Jews do for this unlucky victim? Nothing. In fact, they put distance between themselves and the victim so that he would be far enough away that they wouldn’t be responsible. Far enough away to not meet the definition of “neighbor”.

So this not-Jewish traveler stops and helps the victim. He even brings him to a safe place where he can be cared for, and heal and recuperate, and he pays for the costs of all this…even offering to pay more if more care is needed. Why would a Samaritan do this for a Jew?

Keeping in mind that this is a parable, and not a memory of an actual event… even so, it’s clear that this Samaritan didn’t stop to see if the victim was a friend or an enemy. He didn’t distinguish between Jew and Samaritan. He just helped because the victim needed help. Did this act of help make him unclean? Most definitely. No, he didn’t touch a dead body, but he most likely had the man’s blood on him.

Jesus is highlighting here what love your neighbor actually looks like in practice. Don’t try to define who your neighbor is and quantify that. Simply be a neighbor to someone in need when you encounter them. This Samaritan gives a good example for all of us, in that he “does good to a person in need without any apparent regard for religion or ethnicity… [his example] illustrates how authentic love pays no attention to religious, ethnic, or cultural [differences].” [Ibid., p. 100.]

And that’s the driving force right there: authentic “love”. Selfless, not self-serving love; this is Christ-like love. Where was the love from the priest and the Levite? They very likely believed that they were loving God by obeying His Law and avoiding uncleanliness. Sadly, they got their priorities backward. They took the easy path - they walked around the unclean victim and went along their way. They didn’t get involved.

In the 2nd lesson this morning, John is explaining what this love looks like. The heart of the matter is in verses 10 & 11: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” [ESV, 1 John 4:10–11.]

God’s love for us came first. That is the whole reason there is any love in the world at all. That is the only reason we are capable of love - because we have received love. Because we benefit from the love that is already shown to us. Particularly the amazing selfless love that was shown to us on the cross by His Son.

The last sentence in chapter 4 says this: “whoever loves God must also love his brother.” [ESV, 1 John 4:21.] That sums it up right there. You can’t claim to love God and not love your neighbor.

But let’s put that another way: when you love God, you cannot help but love your neighbor. This is what empowers us to serve our neighbor. God’s love is transforming. God’s love is consuming. God’s love is certainly empowering.

Very shortly this morning, we will come together to receive the Sacrament of the Altar. We have already been reconciled to God in the confession; shortly we will be reconciled to our neighbor as we exchange the Peace…and so we come to the table as one - brothers and sisters in Christ, all neighbors to one another. We will together receive the body and blood of our Savior and taste the love that He showed us in His death on the cross. We can take that into our very mouths and taste it. God’s grace and forgiveness, accomplished for us in love. This, too, is empowering. In this Sacrament, we remember all of the promises that God made to us in our Baptism. We are reminded of God’s love for us. And we are strengthened and kept in grace.

So now we know what loving neighbor looks like, and we know where that love comes from. I’d like to finish with one final thought about the lawyer’s question: “who is my neighbor?” Did you notice how Jesus actually answered that? Notice how he worded his own question to the lawyer: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” [Luke 10:36] It is no longer the victim who is the neighbor; it is the one who showed compassion.

Or as one scholar puts it: “...the question one should be asking is that of how one is to express that love, not to whom it should be expressed. ‘[You] cannot define [your] neighbor; [you] can only be a neighbor’. ... The question for a disciple of Jesus is not, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ but rather, ‘Am I neighbor to the person in need?’ The demand of the commandment to love [your] neighbor as [your]self knows no limit.” [Hultgren, 99.]

The idea of neighbor for us Christians starts with a look in the mirror. We have been empowered with the love of Christ and the grace given to us because of that love. The question that now confronts us: what are we going to do with it?

My prayer - and I hope you will join me in this - is that God would be at work in our hearts that we would not walk to the other side of the road when we see a victim, but would rush to help. That we would not be more concerned with our own cleanliness but with the well-being of those who are in need. That we would strive to be good neighbors, and not merely to look for the kind of neighbors we want to find. Let us follow the example of the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable - blind to the differences of culture and background but keenly attentive to needs.

I would like now to close with the prayer of someone else who set a good example for us: St Francis of Assisi - let us pray:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and

it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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