15th Sunday (Luke 10:25-27)
People who think in conventional ways aren’t the people we usually remember. Jesus didn’t think in the same way that most people who say they believe in God do. He addresses a question in the Gospel today that is a timeless question. In fact, it is a controversial question that is very much on our minds as Americans living in the 21st century.
A scholar of religious law came to Jesus to ask him questions. As with many religious people who came to Jesus, we must wonder if he came to Jesus seeking answers. Or did he come to try to trip up an ill-educated rabbi from Galilee? We often notice Jesus was very good at thinking on his feet. He turns the tables on the expert not once but twice. In the end, it is the scholar who is left with a question that he must answer.
The scholar begins the conversation by asking Jesus what the essence of the law is. Jesus requests that the man answer his own question. “How do you read it?” The scholar gives the answer that all good Jews memorize from the moment they can talk. In brief, he says that every believer is to love God, and they are to love their neighbor. The scholar was the type of religious person we might run into often in our lives. He was a person who wanted to “qualify” things. The idea of helping everyone is too broad. In fact, it seems impossible. He wants Jesus to categorize the people that should be helped. He wants to know the exact identity of his neighbor.
Jesus has set the trap. The scholar walks into it. Jesus tells his parable. When we reflect on a parable, if we are really going to desire to learn, we need to ask the question. “Who am I in the parable?”
We see how two men walked by the man who had been robbed, beaten and tossed in a ditch. One man who walks by is a priest. The other man who walks by is a Levite. Both distanced themselves from the robbery victim. We can come up with various justifications for this. At the most basic level, the reason they turned their backs is that they didn’t know the man. He was a stranger. Because the man was unfamiliar, they absolved themselves from any obligation to assist.
But then along comes the Samaritan. The Samaritan was walking through hostile territory. He was of a different race and religion from the people he was walking past. Most of the people he met on the road to Jerusalem would have despised him simply because of who he was. The Samaritan looks at the man in the ditch. He felt empathy for the man. We can imagine him saying to himself as he sees the poor wretch lying beaten, bloody, naked: “You know that could be me.” He helped the man even though the victim was probably of a different race, a different religion, and from a different place.
Who is my neighbor? Maybe we are asking that question today. Some well-meaning people might say, “I take care of my family first, the people in my neighborhood second, the people who look like me, act like me, speak like me next. And if I have anything left to give, then I take care of the stranger”. All that sounds very logical.
The reason Jesus is one of the most important religious leaders in the history of the world is because Jesus didn’t process things the way everyone else did. He also didn’t give pat answers. Jesus gave us challenging teaching. He always seemed to tell the world to beware of the easy answer. He leaves us, not with answers, but with the same question the scholar asked him. “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus seems to say, “Your neighbor is the person right in front of you who needs help.” The person might not be of your race. The person might not speak your language. The person might not pray like you. The individual might have been born on the other side of the world, but just keep in mind that if you ignore such a person, you might do so at the risk of losing your own sense of human decency, maybe even your own soul."