Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Ah the power of advertising. The State Farm Insurance Company has gotten its money’s worth out of this advertising campaign. Whether we are policy holders or not, we all know that State Farm Insurance is like having a good neighbor.

So if our house burns to the ground, if a hurricane blows our house away, if we get in accident, or if we become critically ill; State Farm Insurance will help us rebuild, they’ll help us pay our bills to get our lives back on track.

Of course State Farm’s neighborliness has one very big condition. They will only be a good neighbor IF you are a policy holder. They don’t go around helping anyone. They will only help those who have bought their insurance.

And you can’t blame them. They are in the insurance business, not the neighborly business.

So if you are not a policy holder, and if you become a victim of a robbery, I’m afraid the State Farm agent will be like the priest and the Levite; and will pass you by on the other side.

So who then really is your neighbor? In this world who will go out of his way to notice you when you’ve fallen down? Who will interrupt her journey to bind up your wounds when you’ve been beaten? Who will take out their wallet and help you rebuild your life after you have been left for half dead on the road?

When we read the parable of the Good Samaritan we hear Jesus telling us to be a good neighbor. As we travel through life and come upon strangers in need we remember Jesus’ words to not pass by on the other side; instead we as God’s people are called to have compassion, to bind up the wounds, to go out of our way to insure that the victims of this world are cared for.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is about being Samaritans; showing mercy in a cruel world.

“And like a good neighbor, Zion is there.”

But I’m not convinced this morning that the parable is about being a good neighbor. Remember to whom the parable is being told.

Jesus is not teaching the disciples. Jesus is not preaching to the crowds. He’s not telling people how to live; instead he’s going one on one with a Jewish lawyer. And the lawyer is setting a trap.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

This is the context of the parable. The parable is not about being a good neighbor; the parable is about inheriting eternal life. And the lawyer is out to prove that eternal life is about following Jewish law.

Jesus now answers the lawyer’s question with a question of his own.

What is written in the law?

The lawyer is an expert in this.

He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and will all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus says,

You have given the right answer, do this and you will live.

But all of the sudden it is not Jesus being tested, but the lawyer. The lawyer knows the law, but how is the law interpreted?

But wanting to justify himself, he asked, “And who is my neighbor?”

This is the key question of the parable. The lawyer doesn’t ask how can I be a neighbor, he asks who is my neighbor. And to know who his neighbor is the lawyer has to become the victim in the parable.

As we read The Good Samaritan most of the time we identify with the priest and the Levite in the story. We are the holy people who do not always practice what we preach. Sometimes we are down right hypocritical passing by on the other side when someone is in need.

We read the parable and say to ourselves, “You know I really should be more like the Samaritan. I really should try and show a little more mercy to the strangers I meet on the road.”

But how often to we see ourselves as the victim in the story? How often to we see ourselves being stripped, beaten, and left for half dead on the road?

Remember that the lawyer is asking Jesus about inheriting eternal life. He’s not asking Jesus about how to be a good neighbor; he’s asking Jesus who is my neighbor. Who is the one who will stop to save him?

Now we get to the heart of the parable. This is not a parable about being a good neighbor; it is a parable about having a good neighbor.

The lawyer’s first question of Jesus was,

What must I DO to inherit eternal life?

The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus’ answer that the lawyer cannot Do anything.

Eternal life is about being robbed, stripped, and left for half dead alongside the road and being unable to help yourself. All you can do is accept help given from a most unlikely source.

Remember that to the Jews Samaritans were of mixed race. They were people to be avoided.

In fact in chapter 9 after Jesus has begun his journey to Jerusalem Luke makes the point that a Samaritan village did not welcome Jesus.

And yet the source of salvation, the one who stopped on the road after the priest and the Levite passed by; was a Samaritan.

Jesus is telling the lawyer that salvation comes from beyond anything that the lawyer could do to save himself. Eternal life comes from beyond any people the lawyer could imagine helping him. Eternal life comes from beyond any boundary the lawyer has drawn as being the source of his salvation.

As the victim in the road was saved by a Samaritan, we are saved by a God dying on a cross. Eternal life comes from beyond the realm of human effort.

So again I ask the question who is your neighbor?

I close with a short poem this morning from Barbara Johnson.

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.

A subjective person came along and said, “I feel for you down there.”

An objective person came along and said, “It’s logical that someone would fall down there.”

A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into a pit.”

A mathematician calculated how the man fell into the pit.

A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on the pit.

A fundamentalist said, “You deserve your pit.”

An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.

A self-pitying person said, “You haven’t’ seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”

An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”

A pessimist said, “Things will get worse.”

Finally, and thankfully, Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.

The man had a neighbor in Jesus Christ.

Amen

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