The Greatest Commandment

I know this might feel like a long haul. We have worked through all of the Ten Commandments one at a time. That means we have been at this sermon series for ten weeks. But it would not be right to let this topic go without giving a series finale to highlight the way these commandments are summarized and fulfilled by Jesus in the gospels.

There are so many places in the New Testament we could go with this, there are several stories that capture this summary of the commandments. Today, I am choosing to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan as our approach; but this is by no means the only place in the New Testament we could go to find an angle on this summary of the commandments.

Every month when our Administrative Board meets, we always open our meeting a devotion and prayer. Recently, the devotion we looked at had to do with this parable of the Good Samaritan. The time of devotions at the front of our Administrative Board meetings is not meant to be a Bible study discussion group; but this time it led to some further discussion—which is not a bad thing. It highlighted for me that even though it is a passage which puts forth God’s summary of the commandments and illustrates it with a parable, there can still be questions and confusion about the way this commandment can and should apply in our world today.

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.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Let’s note a couple details about this story that will help bring it into focus for us today as a lens through which to see the commandments in our lives today.

shema — the greatest commandment - Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18

First, the way that Luke chooses to share this summary of the commandments comes in the form of a parable—a story. In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, it is Jesus who says that the summary of the law is love for God and love for neighbors. Here in Luke, it shows up as a back-and-forth question between Jesus and an expert in the Jewish law; and it is the Jewish lawyer who gives the answer with the summary of the law. Which means that this summary of the commandments is not something Jesus just makes up himself on the fly in the moment; other people knew this already. It actually comes from the Old Testament. In Hebrew it is called the shema quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. It is traditionally held that devout Jewish people would recite the shema out loud every morning as they began the day. So, this greatest commandment we find in the gospels as Jesus’ summary of the law is nothing new. But the way Jesus applies it in this parable is something new. We will get to that in a bit.

Samaritans — Jesus includes a ‘neighbor’ in the story who is hated

The second detail we should note from this story is the way in which the characters in this story unfold. It cannot be understated just how much Jewish people during the time of Jesus absolutely hated Samaritans. To have someone from Samaria come out as the hero in this story would have been insulting to a Jewish audience. But of course, Jesus does this intentionally because the question on the table has to do with neighbors. The Jewish lawyer asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answers with a story that calls out the people’s systems of ethnic and cultural discrimination.

The religious people in the time of Jesus would have carried several assumptions about this shema commandment they recited every day. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength?—no problem. Love your neighbor as yourself?—got it…depending on who it is I count as my neighbor. I suppose on one level we can back away from this parable and ask, who are the ‘samaritans’ in my world today? But I think that still leaves us short; there is still more to the story that needs to be uncovered.

Priest and Levite — members of Jewish society who would have important jobs working in the temple

Let’s spend a few minutes examining the two characters who do NOT stop to help the wounded traveler along the road. The parable tells us that they were a priest and a Levite. These are both members of Jewish society who would have important jobs working in the temple. The priests and Levites would know the law of God; they would know the commandments. Priests and Levites would have had an extra layer of laws to follow because they would have to keep themselves ceremonially clean and pure in order to do the jobs that were assigned to them in the law.

no detail in the story to tell us why these two pass by without helping

The way that Jesus tells the story only says the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road from the wounded traveler. Jesus does not give any detail in the story to tell us why these two pass by without helping. Several commentaries on this passage note the Old Testament ceremonial purity laws that were required for priests and Levites. One of the things that would have made a priest or Levite ceremonially unclean and impure would be contact with a dead body. And so, commentators speculate that these two would not help because contact with this half-dead traveler beside the road would have made them impure and unclean. However, as I noted, this is speculation. Jesus never says in the story why the priest and Levite walk past without helping.

story is open ended because the audience is meant to insert ourselves into the story

I think Jesus does this on purpose. He leaves the story open ended here because this is the point where we—the audience—are meant to insert ourselves into the story. Jesus leaves that detail vague on purpose so that the parable creates a bridge into our own world for us to enter the story. It is not the intention of Jesus that we see ourselves in this story as the traveler who was attacked and beaten. And—stay with me on this—it is not the intention of Jesus that we see ourselves in this story as the Samaritan. I know that maybe strikes you as odd because it is the example of the Samaritan that Jesus pulls at the end of the story as the example for us to follow. It is the intention of Jesus that we see ourselves in this story as the priest and the Levite.

it is the intention of Jesus that we see ourselves in this story as the priest and the Levite

Here is the reason I know that. It has to do with one extra detail that Luke slips into the story in verse 29. The Jewish lawyer gives Jesus a correct answer by quoting the shema. And then Luke gives us this extra detail inside the story. Verse 29 says,

Luke 10:29 NIV

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

The Question

Now then, we may speculate at the exact reason why the priest and the Levite step past the traveler without helping because Jesus does not include the reason in his telling of the parable. But Luke has already given us the reason right there. The priest and the Levite pass by the wounded traveler without stopping to help because—as Luke has already told us—they are looking to justify themselves.

entire parable is set up as an exchange between just two people: Jesus and a Jewish expert in the law

The entire parable of the Good Samaritan hinges on this one observation. The entire parable is set up as an exchange between just two people: Jesus and a Jewish expert in the law. And because Luke tells us that this Jewish lawyer is trying to justify himself, Jesus gives back the parable of the Good Samaritan for the very purpose of calling this out. It is as though the entire parable could carry a subtitle in which Jesus says to the Jewish expert in the law, “I see what you’re doing here; you’re just trying to justify yourself; but that doesn’t work.”

question in this parable is NOT ‘how can I be more like the good Samaritan?’ the question in this parable is ‘how do I try to justify myself?’

We can’t skip over this detail. It makes all the difference in this parable. This is why. If we walk away from the parable of the Good Samaritan thinking that the application for us to be more like the samaritan, then we miss the point Jesus is making. The question which this parable smacks in our face is NOT ‘how can I be more like the good Samaritan?’ The question which this parable smacks in our face is ‘how do I try to justify myself?’ That is the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

love for neighbors is the the thing that makes out love for God tangible and real in our everyday lives in this world right now

Alright, let’s pull this all together with some application. This is where this entire series of the last ten weeks collides. We have talked week after week about each of the Ten Commandments. And today we see the summary of those commandments in one principle: love God and love others. Jesus tells his disciples in the gospels, the world will know that they are Christ’s disciples by the way they show love for one another. Our love for neighbors is the the thing that makes out love for God tangible and real in our everyday lives in this world right now. We love God above all; and the way that love for God shows up is evident in the way we love neighbors.

The Greatest Commandment: a lesson in priority

Jesus is telling us today that the application of that commandment to love God and love others hinges entirely upon us having a brutally honest confrontation with one issue. We cannot skip ahead to thinking we have this figured out unless we take a close hard look at the ways in which we try to justify ourselves.

the priest and the Levite felt justified in passing by without helping

remaining pure and righteous before God was the more important priority

Let’s unpack that idea in order to find our application of this parable. What does it mean that we struggle to love neighbors because instead we become preoccupied with justifying ourselves? In the parable, Jesus tells us the priest and the Levite pass by the wounded traveler without stopping to help. Our best speculation on this passage tells us that they felt justified in passing by without helping. To stop and help in that situation would have made a priest or a Levite unclean and impure. They were justified to pass by without helping because remaining pure and righteous before God was the more important priority. For the priest and the Levite, being right was more important than being a good neighbor; and they thought they were justified in that choice.

the example of the Samaritan — being a good neighbor is more important than being right

bending down to touch those who live in a world that we may have labeled as being impure and unclean is more important than keeping our distance so that we can somehow convince ourselves that we are standing up for what’s right

Now then, here comes the hard part. Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan to show us that being a good neighbor is more important than being right. Bending down to touch those who live in a world that we may have labeled as being impure and unclean is more important than keeping our distance so that we can somehow convince ourselves that we are standing up for what’s right. I’m pretty convinced that God does not need you to defend his righteousness; God is perfectly capable of taking care of that himself. And yet you and I continue to live in ways which prioritize showing God and everybody else that we are right rather than showing compassionate and merciful love for those in our world whom we have labeled as impure and unclean.

where have you prioritized being right as more important than loving a neighbor whom you have labeled as being wrong?

we all have examples in our own lives of withholding neighborly love because we feel justified that we are right and they are wrong

How does this show up in your world? How is it that you are trying to justify yourself before God? Where is it in your experiences that you have prioritized being right as more important than loving a neighbor whom you have labeled as being wrong? Don’t think you have any experiences like this? Of course you do; we all do. We all have examples in our own lives of withholding neighborly love because we feel justified that we are right and they are wrong. We’ve all done this at some point. They have the wrong cultural or ethnic background, so I am justified in passing them by because being right is more important than being a good neighbor. They have the wrong political ideology and party affiliation, so I am justified in passing them by because being right is more important than being a good neighbor. They have the wrong sexual orientation, so I am justified in passing them by because being right is more important than being a good neighbor.

I am grateful that God gives us opportunities to work on that right here. I am thankful that this church has members who come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds so that we together may learn to better love neighbors of different cultures instead of justifying a response to pass them by. I am thankful that this church has both members who are conservative Republicans and members who are progressive Democrats so that we together may learn to better love neighbors of different political ideology instead of justifying a response to pass them by. I am thankful that this church has members who are LGBT so that we together may learn to better love neighbors of different sexual orientation instead of justifying a response to pass them by.

the Good Samaritan is also a story Jesus uses to prophesy about himself

Of course, this parable of the Good Samaritan is also a story Jesus uses to prophesy about himself. Like the Samaritans who were despised and hated at that time, Jesus too came into a world in which he would experience being despised and hated. Like the Samaritan who gave a personal sacrifice to bend down to the impure and unclean wounded traveler, Jesus bent down into the world of your impure and unclean sin to heal the wounds of your soul. The apostle Paul says this about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus is getting into trouble with religious people because he chooses to go and associate himself with the wrong people

Again and again and again in the gospels Jesus is getting into trouble with religious people because he chooses to go and associate himself with the wrong people, impure people, unclean people. That’s us. That is every single one of us. God would have been right to step to the other side of the road and pass us by and let us die—God would have been right to do that! But in grace God chooses to bend down to our half-dead souls, heal the wounds of our sin, and bring us to renewed life. He would have been right to let us die in our sin as we were; but God chooses that his love for you is more important.

“go and do likewise” — be like the Samaritan who prioritized being a good neighbor as more important than being right.

Jesus ends this conversation with a seemingly simple instruction, “go and do likewise.” Be like the Samaritan who prioritized being a good neighbor as more important than being right. This week, look for just one step you can take in that direction. Identify just one relationship in which you have stepped across the road and kept someone else at a distance because you have justified that being right was more important than bending down into that other person’s world. “Go and do likewise” means we look this week for a step like that, a step which starts with the love of Jesus which has come into our own lives, and echoes that love into the life of someone else.