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SERMONS

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 15, 2001

By David Christian

In a week my family will be going away on vacation. As is our custom we will take with us several board games and a couple of decks of cards. Much of every day will be spent sitting around playing games.

Today's gospel is about playing games as well, although these games have more serious implications. Jesus and his disciples are with a crowd of people. In the middle of the crowd is a lawyer. He tests Jesus by asking him a question: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus, being a good teacher, answers the question with a question: "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"

The lawyer has spent his adult life reading and studying the law. He answers, "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."

Jesus says to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

End of test, Jesus wins.

But the lawyer refuses to stop there. Luke tells us that, wanting to justify himself, he goes on to ask Jesus a further question: "And who is my neighbor?"

Wanting to justify himself.… The lawyer has just raised the stakes. He is now playing the game called self-justification. We also call it wanting to look good, trying not to be embarrassed, defending ourselves, defending our name, defending our honor. We play it by trying to make ourselves look good and the other person look bad.

Again Jesus refuses to answer directly. This time he responds with a story, the story that we know as the story of the Good Samaritan.

A certain man, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, was attacked by robbers who beat him and stripped him and left him half dead, lying by the side of the road.

A priest, going down that road, seeing him and no one else around, crossed to the other side and passed him by. A Levite did the same thing. Jesus does not tell us why the priest and the Levite did not stop. They may have had very good reasons, perhaps they had important business or were afraid that they also would be attacked. We don't know. We only know that they kept going.

At last a third man came along, this man a Samaritan. Here Jesus raises the stakes for the lawyer. Samaritans were despised by Jews, and they hated the Jews in return. Both groups played the game of self-justification as a team sport. Samaritans would have nothing to do with Jews or Jews with Samaritans.

It would be like a present-day Jewish settler lying by the side of the road and seeing an Arab come along, or an Arab lying by the side of the road and seeing a Jew; a Serb seeing an Albanian; a Northern Irish Protestant seeing a member of the IRA; a Klansman seeing a member of the Black Panthers or a Black Panther seeing a Klansman. You get the picture.

The Samaritan could probably come up with a page of reasons to keep on walking. But Jesus says he was "moved with pity." He stopped. He cleaned and bandaged the man's wounds, lifted him onto his own animal, took him to an inn, cared for him there, and paid the innkeeper to continue to care for him until he was well.

Then Jesus asks the question that everyone could see coming. "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

The lawyer answers in the only way that he can: "The one who showed him mercy."

And Jesus says, "Go and do likewise."

Jesus will have nothing to do with mind games. Jesus will have nothing to do with games of self-justification. Jesus will have nothing to do with the games that we play to convince ourselves that we are better than other people, or to make ourselves feel good about not acting when we might.

Jesus knows that we use just these games to justify ignoring those in need. We use them to justify turning our backs on the homeless, the hungry, the poor, the sick, the stranger; anyone who is different, who is not like us. And Jesus knows that these games are deadly. It's clear what would have happened to the traveler if the priest and Levite had been the only two to come upon him.

The lawyer's question-"Who is my neighbor?"-was asked in an attempt to determine the limits of his compassion, of his love. It was asked in an attempt to learn who he was expected to care for and who he could safely ignore. Jesus will have no part in such games. His answer is that our neighbor is anyone who is in need. That is the one we are called to love, regardless of race or heritage or belief or education or any other circumstance.

Showing mercy is the only thing that truly gives life. And showing mercy-acting in compassion-cannot happen when we are caught up in games of justifying ourselves. On the other hand, when we are caught up in the good news of God's love and acceptance and mercy, we have no need to justify ourselves. Then, and only then, are we free to share that love with our neighbor wherever we may find him; even on the road to Jericho.

David Christian

The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Luke 10:25-37