Loving the Foreigner

This morning I want to acknowledge that I will be sharing some of what I learned from David Smith’s book Learning from the Stranger, where he has a chapter in which he deals with our text for this morning from Luke 10.

Luke 10:25–37 NIV

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “ ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

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The last time I preached on this text—which was around 2 years ago--we were in a sermon series called, “The Parables of Jesus” and in that sermon I mostly focused on the first question that the scribe or expert in the law asks Jesus. And that was “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

A brief summary of that sermon would be this: .... What must I do to inherit eternal life? There is nothing I can do. I am like the one in the ditch who is completely dependent on the Outsider, our Lord Jesus, who like the Samaritan was despised and rejected. And I must graciously receive the compassion of God and respond with the same compassion towards others.

That was the thrust of the sermon two years ago....you all remember it right?… when I focussed primarily on the first question.

Today I want to focus primarily on the second question that the expert in the law asks, “Who is my neighbour?”

Remember how Jesus affirms the response of the scribe to Jesus’ initial question, “What is written in the Law, how do you read it? The scribe answered, “ ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The first part of that answer comes from Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

And the second part of the answer comes from Lev. 19:18

Leviticus 19:18 NIV

18 “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

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And Jesus replies, “You have answered correctly, do this and you will live”

that’s a high bar.... how do we know if we attain it.... many in our society, if they believe in a heaven may think that if you’re basically a good person, you’ll go to heaven when you die… but how does one know?

Scribe wanted to “justify himself”.... wanted to know if he was good enough, or wanted to show he was good enough.

So he asks Jesus the question, “who is my neighbour?” And that of course leads into the parable. Jesus tells this significant story to answer the questions: what must I do to inherit eternal life? and who is my neighbour?

So, it’s that second question that we are going to think about more deeply this morning.... and we’re going to think about it particularly as it relates to how God is inviting us to grow in our cross-cultural friendships.

At the end of the parable Jesus asks the scribe a question that really focuses our attention on the matter of neighborliness.

Luke 10:36 NIV

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

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Scene One

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho (map).

The old Jerusalem-Jericho road (trail) is still passable today everyone knew the journey, about 6-7 hours on foot, a total of 17 miles. Jerusalem sits at 2,500 ft. about sea level and Jericho at 850 ft. below sea level. Hence going down.

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The next thing we find in the story is that the man fell among robbers.

One can tell from the slides that the curves in the road could easily conceal a band of robbers and thieves. In fact, the descending road through the desert has been dangerous all through history. Numerous writers throughout history have testified to this fact.

Though not mentioned, we have every reason to believe that the traveler is a Jew.

The robbers strip him, beat him and leave him half dead. Bailey notes that the rabbis had identified stages for death and half dead meant at the point of death.. .completely unconscious.

In Middle Eastern world there are two ways in which one identifies a stranger: Clothing and dialect. Clothing and dialect could give away people's identity even to the point of knowing which village they came from. Without being able to identify the man.. .no clothes.. .and no voice to give away a dialect, the simple fact is that here we have a mere human being in need.. .as Bailey notes: "he belonged to no man's ethnic or religious community!" He's just a human being in need.

The first people that the traveler meets Came, stripped him of everything to the point of death, and then left him.

Scene Two

Another man enters the scene and meets the traveler. This time a priest. And most certainly he was riding, for priests belonged to the upper classes of their society. And in this society, no one in the "upper class" takes a 17 mile hike through the desert. This is a safe assumption to make.

if the priest had been walking, all he could have done is given the traveler first aid, BUT if he was riding, at least he could have really helped him and taken him to a place when he could be cared for. BUT HE DIDN'T.

Good reason why he didn't:

religious world of priest guided by texts like this one:

Sirach 12: 1-7

If you do good, know to whom you do it, and you will be thanked for your good deeds. Do good to the devout, and you will be repaid—if not by them, certainly by the Most High… Give to the devout, but do not help the sinner. Do good to the humble, but do not give to the ungodly; hold back their bread, and do not give it to them, for by means of it they might subdue you; then you will receive twice as much evil for all the good you have done to them. For the Most High also hates sinners and will inflict punishment on the ungodly. Give to the one who is good, but do not help the sinner. (Sirach 12:1-7)

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How did the priest know if this man was ungodly? The man could not speak, he was stripped; there was no way to tell. Sure the wounded man might have been a neighbor, but how was the priest to tell? The system of religious rules and regulations that evolved had drawn boundaries around God's mercy. The priest faced a dilemma in another sense too: The command to love neighbor (assuming the neighbor was a Jew) was in tension with the command to leave the sinner to die.

Not only did the priest face this problem. He also faced the problem of becoming ceremonially and ritually unclean if he touched a dead body. It would have been assumed that in all likelihood he just came from 2 weeks of temple service in Jerusalem, and now was heading to his own town and would be expected to perform religious duties there. And if he was ritually impure, he could do nothing...in fact he would have to find, buy, and burn a red heifer for sacrifice to purify himself, and that cost money and it took an entire week.

If he came within 6 feet of the man and he proved to be dead, the priest would have to tear his now impure garments and this would conflict with an obligation not to destroy valuable things. Yes the priest was in a dilemma. Bailey recalls the history for us well. So the priest did what would be expected of him.. .what else could he do.. .he left the man for dead and passed by on the other side.

maybe there's a way in which we sense the dilemma when it comes to showing unconditional love to an individual in our congregation who struggles with sin.....tension between loving the sinner and hating the sin....Tension between loving and shuning… [story of my experience with a particular alcoholic....or someone looking for handout].. So hard for our humanly manufactured customs and traditions to completely love God and neighbor.. . so in a practical way, we pass by on the other side.

Scene Three

Levite: slightly lower in the pecking order.. .most likely not riding

Probably knows the Priest is ahead of him. [Remember slides]

Bound to same system of regulations and interpretations as priest

Levite couldn't have given the traveler a ride, but he could have given him minimal first aid to try and prolong the travelers' life.

If priest didn't risk helping the traveler, how much less should the Levite.

Scene Four

another certain man comes.. . .all ears would likely expect it to be a noble Jewish lay person who might help the one in need. BUT IT'S A SAMARITAN.

One Jewish wisdom book says this about the people who live at Shechem, that is Samaritans."There are two nations that my soul detests, the third is not a nation at all; the inhabitants of Mount Seir (Edomites) and the Philistines, and [thirdly] the stupid people living at Shechem. " Another Jewish writing says, "he that eats the bread of Samaritans is like to one who eats the flesh of swine.”

All ears were now perked up.

And notice the movement in the story...Priest came down the road, the Levite came to the place, BUT the Samaritan comes to the man.

The Samaritan risks retaliation from his people if he were to be found helping a Jew. The Samaritan risks ritual contamination if he touched a dead body.

If he saw the Priest and Levite and knew what they did, he could have said to himself, "the traveler's probably a Jew, and if they left him for dead, why shouldn't I?"

BUT

the Samaritan has compassion on him. Compassion is a strong word. "Overwhelming pity" or "deeply moved. Greek word in same family as word used to describe "guts, innards"

In Luke is used in two other places: Jesus has compassion on a widow in Nain, mourning her son's death. AND the father has compassion on the prodigal son when he returns home. In the parable of the Prodigal son Father=God. and in other case used for Jesus. Here the Samaritan has same emotion that God does.

Risked: ritual impurity, not obliged to help since Jewish traveler not a neighbor, . . .

WE NOW FIND OUT what this God-like COMPASSION LOOKS like

binded up his wounds, poured on oil and wine. - oil to soften the wounds, and wine to disinfect them. THERE'S ALMOST A SACREMENTAL LANGUAGE USED HERE. In OT God is often described as binding up the wounds of his people. "Pouring our oil and wine" is language used for describing what Priests and Levites do when administering the sacrifices in the temple. Is it possible that Luke is saying here a Samaritan does what the Priest and Levite would not, or perhaps even could not do. Other passages in the OT remind us that the sacrifices offered to God were only pleasing to him when they came out of a heart filled with love. Here a Samaritan shows true love to the traveler. He is the one who had mercy and compassion.. .and that kind of love is the kind of sacrifice that God desires.

The Samaritan places the man on his own horse. Giving someone your own mount, in the culture of the day was certainly a concrete sign of becoming a servant. Jesus seems to be saying that this man became a servant of the traveler.

Finally he take the traveler to an inn.. .in all likelihood the inn was in Jericho. More risk: What if he met the man's family along the road? Surely he would be implicated in the man's injury, or even worse his death if he died. Bailey notes: This would be like an Indian bringing a scalped cowboy into town and checking him into the local saloon. He'd be lucky to get out of the city alive even if he had saved the cowboy's life.

He gives him first aid; what the Levite could have done but didn't. He gives him his own horse to ride; what the priest could have done but didn't. AND he does a complete reversal of what the robbers did in the first place. They rob him, the Samaritan pays for him, they leave him for dead, the Samaritan restores him to life, they abandon him, the Samaritan promises to come back.

So, back to Jesus’ question: Who of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man left for dead?

And the obvious answer to the parable is “the Samaritan”....but the scribe cannot even identify him that way, because of how much animosity he held towards this foreigner. All he could say was, “the one who had mercy on him”.

The Samaritan is our neighbor, and so now we’re left to wonder what does this parable teach us about our neighbours?

FIRST POINT

The first thing I want to notice with us is something that Jesus himself is addressing in this parable.... “the foreigner is our neighbor”

Let’s go back to Lev. 19. Notice phrase “among your people”....Jew though their neighbor was one of their own.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV

18 “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

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But very likely Jesus intends to correct that wrong understanding by indirectly bringing them back to Lev. 19

Leviticus 19:33–34 NIV

33 “ ‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

same language as in Lev. 19:18 - Love neighbor and love foreigner as yourself....

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SECOND POINT

“How does the Bible invite us to think about neighbourly love?”

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Obviously not romantic love, or an enthusiastic attraction to the other.... the love of the Samaritan was towards a man beaten and bloodied and half dead.

“Love here means considerate responsiveness…a set of attitudes and actions that intentionally places the other’s well-being at the heart of my concerns and respons accordingly.” (Smith, Learning From the Stranger)

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Perhaps another verse from the Bible that comes to mind is this:

Matthew 7:12 NIV

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

In Matthew 22 we read that Loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as our selves, sums up the all the Law and the Prophets (the OT).....and in Matt.7 it says doing to others as you would have them do to you also sums up the Law and the Prophets.

So that implies that Loving your neighbour as yourself involves doing to others what you would have them do to you.

Now let’s combine that with our first point.... if our neighbour includes the foreigner, then Loving the foreigner involves doing to them what you would have them do to you.

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Perhaps it seems obvious to us, but it’s still a beautiful point to consider.

David Smith in his book invites us to think about might look like if we are that foreigner.

So imagine if I’m a tourist visiting a foreign country, say I’m visiting Korea. Listen to what Smith writes,

“If I am that tourist, what does my typical behaviour suggest that I want from other? I probably want them to invest the effort to speak my language, so that I am not humiliated or inconvenienced. I am likely to want them to understand some things about my culture and my ways of behaving, so that they do not offend or misunderstand me. I may well want them to think well of me, to impute good motives to me and to my country, and not to make hasty negative judgments based on my nationality, language or culture. I will derive pleasure from encounters in which people are attentive to me and willing to listen to my stories and questions. I want to be heard, valued, and respected.” (Smith, Learning from the Stranger)

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Now if this is what I would appreciate from them, and Jesus says, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do for you.”....in everything.....

Wouldn’t the foreigners that I encounter appreciate if I made some effort to learn their language? And if I want people to understand me, shouldn’t I work to understand them? [story of man in our church who learned the typical greetings in all the languages of those he worked with.....] ....consider learning how to say thank you in a variety of different languages.....

....I must work to understand, but attentive to, avoid hasty judgments.... OPPOSITE OF BEING COLOURBLIND..... we are to be COLOUR AWARE, or COLOUR SENSITIVE.

THIRD POINT

Going back to the parable.... every parable invites us to identify with a particular character in the story… Who is the Scribe invited to identify with?

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Most easily with Priest and Levite…but they are not the hero....they are judged. Can identify with Samaritan…can’t even mention him by name.... that leaves him with the only other person, the man in the ditch.

The story calls the Scribe to recognize his need for the foreigner.

“If the scribe identifies with the beaten man, then he must humble himself. He must admit his need, see himself as lying lost and helpless, and step down from his pedestal in order to see the neighbor as one who may come to him with needed assistance. Foreign others are now no longer just objects of my charity—they are the neighbors that I need… Can the scribe imagine receiving compassion from a Samaritan, as from God?” (Smith)

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Listen to how this parable challenges the scribe.... and how it also challenges us:

he is challenged to put himself in the position of needing help

he is challenged to see that help coming from a Samaritan and not from “his own” or from representatives from the Temple

he challenges the scribe’s assumption that some people are excluded from the command to love one’s neighbor

on top of all that, Jesus challenges the scribe to learn from a Samaritan, to learn from a foreigner, how to interpret and obey the law.

People of God, I believe our text is inviting all of us to imagine a community where each of us is humble enough to be challenged by Jesus in this way. A community where we love the foreigner but also need the foreigner!

Remember the thrust of the first sermon I summarized at the beginning..... Jesus is that Samaritan, the one who we despised and rejected....he came to us…and lifted us up to life....

How might Jesus be coming to us through the foreigner in our midst....How might Jesus be coming to me through my Chinese, Columbian, Indian, Congolese, German brother or sister.....

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