What do I Have to Do?

And who is my neighbor? The gall of that lawyer to ask that question. And every time I read this story it always sounds the same in my head, “and who is my neighbor?” The tone I always hear is like a kid wanting to know how many more vegetables they have to eat before they’ve eaten enough so that they can have ice cream for dessert. “How many more pieces of broccoli so I can have ice cream?” This lawyer wants to justify himself to ensure he is doing the right thing and it is probably also a further of his test as well. It just irks me when I hear him speaking. Maybe Jesus was irked too. I mean this lawyer guy just won’t let up on the test and wants to make sure he knows exactly what to do so that he has done just enough to inherit eternal life. Which, by the way, was a debated topic in and of itself. Whether there was eternal life or not. So this whole thing on many different levels was a test.

So in response to this nit-picky question Jesus decides to be just about as annoying as the lawyer was to him. I say that because the one person who is the kind and good person in the story is the Samaritan. Let me explain a little as to why that is such a big deal for those hearing the parable at the time Jesus heard it and for the original audiences as well. Now Samaritans were Jews from the exile but they chose to settle/stay in Samaria. They had their own central place of worship that was not the temple at Jerusalem and they believed the core texts were the Pentateuch and not all the other writings of the prophets, etc. They also mingled with the people and the culture of Samaria. Because of all this there was a very bitter view of them by the Jews of Israel which included clashes not unlike other religious clashes we have seen or heard about elsewhere.

Not only was that the person that was the good person in the story, but Jesus even sets them up so that they have to answer that it was the Samaritan on two levels. The first obvious level is that he is the person who actually stops and helps this poor man who is near death. But on the other level there is a literary device that everyone knew at the time that when you tell a story the third thing in the story is the right answer. So Jesus sets them up so that in their minds when Jesus gets to the third person in the story they know that this last person is the right answer. But boy are they in for a big surprise about who the right answer is for this story. So the priest wasn’t right, ok. Hmmm…a levite isn’t the right answer, ok. Who is this great person who helps this poor man? Who is this third mystery person that is the right answer? A Samaritan. A Samaritan?!?!?!?!! That can’t be right. You can even tell that he lawyer doesn’t want it to be right or even admit that he was the neighborly person because he answers that it was the one who showed him mercy. He couldn’t even say that it was the Samaritan by name.

Sometimes helping those people we least want to help or as Jesus also puts it, admitting that people we don’t care for are just as capable of showing mercy. Because eternal life is about loving God and loving neighbor. The lawyer was very right about that. But he was trying to create a narrow focus or a a narrow net of who neighbor meant. Being neighbor isn’t about those in your neighborhood. It isn’t about those in your congregation or your faith. We don’t just help people who are those who are convenient to help. We don’t just help those who are like us because it’s easier to help them, because we can relate to them. It’s about showing mercy to anyone who is in need of it. Maybe it’s also about accepting mercy from someone we don’t want help from. Accepting the gift of neighbor from someone we least expect it from or would want it from. Go and do likewise.

Martha, Martha, Martha. That’s the focus of our next story. At least that’s the problem. Martha is so focused on doing what is expected that she loses sight of doing what might be right. Now that’s not to say that being a good hostess is the wrong thing to do, but sometimes we need to set aside what has become an expectation or something that is rote to be able to open our eyes to doing something that we wouldn’t have thought about in the past.

I am guilty of this as anyone else. We get so focused on the task at hand that we don’t notice the things going on around us or we even view them as negative because they are a distraction. There are times when I sit down to write these very sermons and I am so focused on writing them that I view interruptions as frustrating. Martha is not only distracted by her tasks but she is also distracted by the very fact that her sister isn’t focused on those same tasks…and it’s annoying her. She thinks she is right because when she brings it up to Jesus she even prompts Jesus to tell her to get u and help her. She expects Jesus to tell Mary to get up and do the chores because that is the expectation of a hostess.

This is where I believe our stories connect. We are people with expectations and those expectations create a mindset that then creates an expected outcome to a situation. The lawyer expected Jesus to give him a set of parameters for who his neighbor is so that he could serve that expected group and then inherit eternal life. Jesus blew that out of the water and said that the least expected person was the neighbor and that you should do the same time. Martha expected Jesus to tell Mary to help her and Jesus tells her that Mary is actually doing the right thing even though it was unexpected. There’s always going to be chores. Trust me....there’s always going to be chores. For me…there’s always going to be sermons.

Jesus invites us out of our areas of comfort. Out of the expected so that we can enter into the unexpected. Not so that we can be nervous or afraid or not know what is coming next, but to help us understand how to care for others. We can’t fit love into a box and say that we will love and care for people in this way because the Bible says so and not go outside of it. We have to be open to new ways and new opportunities because they are opportunities not threats. They are ways to love and people to love that we may not have ever thought of before and reach people we didn’t want to reach or didn’t think we could reach simply because we did something different.

God did that very thing for us. God did the unexpected for our sake. God sent God’s one and only son Jesus in the form of a human. No one expected that. No one anticipated God would do something like that. God is God. God is up in heaven, high above our reach. That’s just where God is. Not anymore. God entered our world. God became one of us to show us what God’s love is like. And as if that weren’t enough then Jesus died. He didn’t just die but he died for us…for our sake. To forgive us our sins and to bring us to everlasting life with God in heaven. God is a God that breaks expectations and tears down barriers and walls like defining who a neighbor is or that spending time with the people God created is more important than doing a chore. Live in the the glow of God’s embrace. That you are loved, that you are God’s neighbor, that God comes to you when you are naked and beaten half to death. God comes in your darkest moment and offers life, life eternal. A gift beyond understanding and without barriers, limitations, or expectations. Amen.