Who is My Neighbor?

Here is a summary of my homily for this Sunday. The readings are from the Eastern Church Lectionary. 

In today’s Gospel (Luke 10:25-37) we walk into the middle of a fascinating and earth-shattering conversation between Jesus and a Jewish lawyer. He is one of the experts of the Law and one who would interpret the Law and teach the people how to live properly according to this interpretation. Let us watch and listen to what happens and think about how these words of our Lord himself challenge us as his disciples and the world as a whole.

This lawyer comes up to Jesus and asks him an important question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Now keep in mind what this question means. He is not simply asking Jesus, as some quickly conclude, “how do I get to heaven when I die.” No, he is asking him, “how do I have life in God’s new age.” This is hard for us to grasp at first, but this man wants to know, when God acts in creation and rescues his world as he said he would always do, how do we have life in that new age and time of God’s rule. This will become even clearer by the answer that Jesus gives to the man later. Now, Jesus knows this lawyer is trying to trick him into saying something that he could make a charge that Jesus is teaching falsely. Being that this is not Jesus’ first day on the job, he turns the tables around and asks the lawyer to answer his own question, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” Indeed, you are the expert here, please to tell what the Law says about this important question. Then from the lawyer’s lips comes the answer that anyone would expect at the time, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” He quotes part of the great Jewish prayer the Shema, a prayer that Jews pray three times a day from that day to ours. Jesus then confirms the man’s interpretation of the Law by saying, “you have answer rightly.” This prayer sums up not only the Jewish Law but also the teachings of the New Testament as well. It is for anyone who desires life and communion with the Living God, this is where it starts. Loving the one God who created the world by listening and worshiping him alone with your whole being, then loving all those around you with the same zeal. This is the very reason that God created us in the first place, to bring his love and mercy into the world by his image-bearing family. This is what the prayer is recalling for God’s people daily. It is because of this that Jesus can then tell the man, “do this and you will live.” You will be alive fully as God’s image in the world. You will be the light that burns upon the hill. Yes, through your very actions people will see the promised salvation of our God.

Could the lawyer be satisfied by this response from Jesus? No, not at all. He had to ask a follow-up question because he wanted to exalt himself above this well-known and famous preacher and healer Jesus of Nazareth. We are told, “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” It is because of this challenging question that Jesus then tells the famous Parable of the Good Samaritan. Now on the surface this man would believe that everyone was his “neighbor”, but then he would have to pull out his required list of exceptions: women, sinners, non-Jews or Gentiles, anyone with a physical problem, etc... So basically, anyone who did not act and look like him was not his neighbor. Jesus also understands this list and the resulting wall that it put around the people of God and he is about to break it down and smash it to its very foundations!

Jesus tells the story of a traveler, who we must assume was a Jew, and while he is making his journey, he is attacked and robbed by a group of thugs. Then left almost dead, three men come by the same path where the man lay bruised, bloody, and battered. The first two men work in the Temple and when they see the body, they “pass by on the other side.” Why do they do this? Do they not see this man in need? Do they not see their neighbor? But, it is much more then that going on here. They knew that if they went to help the man, they would be unclean according to their interpretation of the Law and unable to perform the offering in the Temple. This is the mindset that Jesus came into the world to challenge and break down. Proving through his very actions that God’s healing mercy and love are for all people to be blessed. Then to everyone who was listening surprise, a third man came along and helped the beaten traveler. The shock factor is that he was a Samaritan, sworn enemies of the Jews. Relations where so bad between the two that Jews and Samaritans would go out of their ways not to cross into one another’s territory. Jesus says the Samaritan, “saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” He had compassion on him. That deep-down feeling that leads him to love and heal his must despised “neighbor”. The Samaritan puts off his old ways of thinking, leaves behind his comfort zone and goes directly to a person who needs his help. He then takes him to the inn to be sure that the man will be ok and restored to good health. Wow, the challenge of this message to us from the lips of our Lord is almost overwhelming. Gives credence to what St. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” (2 5:17) Walls have been broken down, doors unlocked, and bridges crossed. We just have to ask ourselves if we are ready to make this new journey are Jesus and the Good Samaritan did?

Also, into the middle of this awesome and challenging story we can add the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Humanity as a whole is bruised and battered by the effects of sin and death, therefore we were unable to live up to the full potential that God desired when he created us. For this reason, Jesus himself brings to us the oil of healing and restoration at baptism. He then gives us his very self under the appearance of wine in the holy eucharist. The “Inn” in this parable clearly foreshadows the Church. The place where all the division of the old covenant are broken down when the new covenant is brought about by Jesus’ own blood upon the Cross. The Church becomes the place where healing and love come together through the actions of Jesus’ own disciples. Yes, we are the ones sent into the dark places of the world to bring the love and mercy of God to those who need it most, our neighbors. We are indeed called to be like the “Good Samaritan” and leave our old comfort zones behind and carry in our very selves God’s powerful healing. Showing forth to the world that God’s love is for all people and his grace is for everyone, not just one race or people. This is what the message of the oneness of the Gospel calls us to do. Where there was once division and hate, there must now be love and communion in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what is at the heart of today’s Epistle reading from St. Paul. He tells the Ephesians, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.” (4:1-6) These words are as groundbreaking and earth shattering as the Parable that Jesus himself tells us. They reiterate the great call of the Gospel and the oneness of the faith that comes from the call. It’s a call to a new lifestyle where, love, lowliness, meekness, and patience, are the direction and center of our lives. We must therefore, put these actions in the practice daily. If we are married, we have the duty to live lives that reflect this to one another. If we are constantly quarreling with each other, then how are we going to be Good Samaritans in the world. Let us put aside pride and arrogance and live totally for each other, doing all this out of our love for Christ. The same thing goes for our other relationships in life. Rather at work or at home, we are called to be healers and mercy bringers, not dividers and gossips. God’s love knows no constraints or boundaries, and neither should ours.

Let us open our own hearts and minds to God’s own transforming love and healing. Reminding ourselves daily that all people are indeed our neighbor. Let each of us spend more time in the Inn with Jesus. Then we will be fully willing and empowered to take the healing wine and oil of Jesus to those who themselves are bruised and battered; those who more than anyone else needs the mercy and love that God works through us.