Luke 10:25-37
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But
wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus
replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the
hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half
dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that
road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So
likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on
the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came
near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He
went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then
he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The
next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take
care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which
of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Introduction:
As
I was preparing for today’s sermon, I found myself listening to Dr. King’s
sermon “The Church on the Frontier of Racial Tension.” It’s a sermon he
delivered to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary just ten years after
that institution abandoned segregation, yet the practice remained elsewhere.
Listening to Dr. King is always a bit of a surprising experience. It’s as
though the stories that are told to those who were not yet alive when he was
omit much of the framework from which he worked. Nearly every child in this
country grows up learning about him, yet our exposure is limited – censored
even. He is remembered for his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” and for his “I
Have a Dream” speech. He is remembered as the face of the countless masses who
fought to end segregation in this country and move us towards a more integrated
era. Yet we often forget that his fight for desegregation was never
disconnected from his larger framework.
We
teach our children about the parts of his life that meet our new status quo and
we omit facts like his opposition to the Vietnam War, his support for
reproductive rights and education in poor communities, or his very public embrace
of democratic socialism. He was intimately concerned with problems like
economic inequality, imperialism, and the damages the Cold War inflicted upon
third world countries caught between competing Super Powers. Cultural memory is
a funny thing. How many people might we know who commemorate Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. yet remain either ignorant or strangely ambivalent towards the larger
framework of his life. Perhaps MLK has already assumed a place in our society
much like George Washington’s or Abraham Lincoln’s – a place occupied with
chopped cherry trees and the inability to lie. Perhaps there is irony in the
fact that we selectively remember our heroes. We remember their victories, but
forget the wars which consumed their lives. I tend to think that we do not yet
live in the world described by MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Racial tensions
still exist and a mass incarceration of black and brown bodies fills our
prisons to the point where we have the highest incarceration rates in the
world.
My
friends, the cause of racial justice is not yet complete. There are certainly
questions and areas for disagreement, particularly when it comes to policies,
but I don’t believe any of us could say we live in a land where King’s words
still retain a sense of relevancy:
“Now is the time to make real the promises
of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of
segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our
nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of
brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's
children.” (MLK, I Have a Dream Speech, 1963).
I
may have disagreements with some of my activist friends who fight this fight. I
may disagree with some of my former classmates who are fighting to remove
commemorations to President Woodrow Wilson from the campus of Princeton because
of his of racism. For a man who was such an idealist in so many other areas, he
was fatally flawed in regards to his views on race. I can’t help but think, “Why’d
you have to be so racist Wilson? You were pretty awesome in so many other
areas.”
Even
if I think MLK – as radical as he was – would be more eager to gather around a
charitable and forgiving memory of past leaders, I still recognize that our
society faces serious racial problems. While I respect Malcom X, I will always
prefer MLK. For me, his character and his work characterize an embrace of all
humanity in the power of God’s healing and redemptive love – something that is
expressed and grounded in justice.
Scripture:
Many
of us are probably familiar with the scripture we heard a little bit ago. It’s
a story deeply ingrained in our faith histories. But I think that it would be
good for us to reflect upon it a little more this morning. Let’s read it again
from a slightly different translation,
“And
see: A Torah scholar stood up and posed a question to test him:
Teacher,
what must I do to have life in its eternal fullness?
[Jesus]
said to him: What is in the Torah? How do you read it?
He
answered: You shall love Adonai, your God, out of your whole heart
and
with your whole life and with your whole strength and with your
whole
mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus
said to him: You have answered rightly. Do that and you will live.
[The
Torah scholar] wanted to defend his question and said to Jesus:
And
who is my neighbor?
Jesus took thus up
and said: A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of
robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and left him lying there half dead.
As it happened, a
priest was going down by the same way and he saw [the wounded man] and passed
him by.
In the same way, a
Levite also came to the place and saw [the wounded man] and passed him by.
A Samaritan who
was traveling came to him and saw him and took pity on him.
And he went to
him, bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them. Then he placed him on
his own donkey and brought him to the inn and took care of him.
The next morning
he took two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper and said: Take care iof him,
and if you have additional costs, I will compensate you for them when I come
back.
What do you think?
Which of these three became a neighbor to the one who fell among the robbers?
[The Torah
scholar] said: The one who showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go your
way and do likewise.
Many
of us have likely heard this text preached on before. It’s a favorite of the
church and we oftentimes emphasize the fact that the hero of the story is a Samaritan
– a Jew who did not embrace the full Old Testament as we know it but only a
modified version of the first five books.
But today I want to bring your eyes
to something else. I want you to pay attention to the question and answer game
that’s going on in this teaching moment. The Torah scholar is testing Jesus by
asking him how someone can find eternal life. Interestingly, Jesus gets the
right answer and the scholar agrees. The idea that the Shema – the Old Testament indictment to 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 your neighbor as yourself – was the essential part of
Judaism had already been established. The issue between Jesus and this scholar is
a matter of application and escape.
When I read this passage I can
almost imagine the movie Wallstreet
where one of the key characters says, “Greed is good” in a fashion akin to an
Ayn Rand novel. And so the Torah scholar likewise looks at Jesus and perhaps
even confidently asks, “And who is my neighbor?” This, my friends, is where
things get interesting! People will be people and we will always be looking for
ways to delineate between those within our circle of those outside of it. Jesus
doesn’t answer the scholar directly. Instead, he tells a story.
In this story the two men who should
have expressed the love, compassion, and mercy of God didn’t. Instead, they saw
distress, pain, suffering, and loss and turned away and went on turning away
from the opportunity to help. They saw, but they did not act. The third
character, the hero of the story, saw another person’s suffering and acted for
that stranger’s good. This is Jesus’ answer.
The question we face is not who our
neighbor is, but what kind of neighbor we should be. Jesus flips the question
on its head. You see, this whole story is a commentary on the essence of the
law. To a great degree it answers a very simple theological question. How do I
find eternal life? For Jesus, one’s love for God cannot be disconnected from
one’s love for his or her neighbors. If we love God, then we must not just see
the problems and sufferings of the world but confront them head-on. This is a
parable about the failure of those who did not want to fail, and of an action
that brought the love of God to earth through the expression of love. At the
end of the story Jesus then turns to the scholar and to us and gives us a
command. The charge, “God and do likewise” is not feint or weak-handed. It is a
statement that encompasses the power of the Gospel. It is a charge that tells
us that we are called to live out and act God’s love in the world. Our love for
God cannot be disconnected from our love for the rest of our human race. We are
called to be stewards and expressions of God’s mercy.
The Life of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.:
The life of MLK is a powerful
reminder of the work that God can do through one very flawed person. We are
each human, both MLK and Ghandi had points of weak character. But we should
remember them for the beauty that comes from their accomplishments. Love and
justice and mercy are not separable things we can keep in independent boxes.
They are intimately intertwined. And so it is with this in mind that we
remember the lessons the MLK taught us. We remember the lesson that love and justice
are not confined to the color of one’s skin or ethnic origin but to the very
fabric of every human being. We are each created in the image of God and imbued
with the value that comes with God’s love for us.
The Value of Every
Life:
Earlier this week I read an article
in The New York Times written by
David Brooks entitled, “When Beauty Strikes” wherein he reflects on the power
of beauty to impact our lives. He begins by describing the profound beauty that
can be found in banal moments that can almost be taken for granted –
streetscapes and ballet practices. The things we take for granted. In his mind
beauty has the power to conquer the deadening aspects of routine; and educate the emotions and connect us
to the eternal. At
the heart of his concern is the promise of the fullest inner-life that we can
live. In my view, this is something we can see in the beauty of life
exemplified to us figures like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In him we see
triumph, failure, fragility, resilience, and a connection to the God who wants
to fill our lives with love. May we too become canvases of God’s work in the
world – stories of expressionistic beauty. May our striving for worship be
filled with the outpouring of our own transformation into better neighbors. May
we too become less concerned with the categories that divide us and more
concerned with the love that unites us.