So. Who is my neighbor? Who is your neighbor? Did you wonder why the lawyer asks this question of Jesus in our gospel lesson today? After all, there seems to be an obvious answer to it. Our neighbor is the person next door to us and just down the street from us. In fact we would probably say that everyone who lives in our “neighbor” hood is our neighbor. This is pretty close to what the lawyer was thinking when he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He believed he knew the answer. But the lawyer undoubtedly asked the question because Jesus had challenged his assumption. And we shouldn’t be surprised that some 2000 years later Jesus challenges our own assumptions about who our neighbor is. Because they haven’t changed a whole lot. At least not by the world’s standards.
It is pretty obvious that Jesus was challenging a definition of “neighbor” found in a rule of Jewish law. And this lawyer knows Jewish law. He is also a rabbi who is the keeper of Jewish law, and this is one of many encounters Jesus will have with lawyers throughout his ministry who ask him questions to put him to the test. And Jesus’ response will always be met with anger or disappointment. Because Jesus will always refute obedience to any rule or law which does not uphold the spirit of the law. Now, this lawyer knows the spirit of the law. He knows we are to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and strength, and typical of this lawyer, he adds that we are to love the Lord with all our mind as well. It’s the second part of the commandment which troubles him. We are to love our neighbor as ourself, and Jesus is challenging this lawyer to re-think his definition of “neighbor.”
The lawyer defines a neighbor as a Jew who has an obligation to another Jew who lives in closer proximity to him than to any other Jew. Now, this rule of law is not so different from our own understanding of who our neighbor is in today’s world. Our neighbors are the people who live in close proximity to us, and they are people very much like ourselves. In fact, proximity and likeness are so important to our concept of a neighbor that most neighborhoods guarantee that new neighbors will be much like the people who already live there. Inclusion or exclusion is determined by the various social and economic factors which define a community. Some communities are even gated and have strict rules for living in them. Some don’t allow children, and some have elaborate owners organizations which set their own standards for who will be allowed to be a neighbor.
Two-thousand years after the lawyer asks his question of Jesus, and 40 years after civil rights legislation opened the doors of our neighborhoods to people of color, to single women, to gay and lesbian couples and to other human anomalies, our understanding of neighbor and neighborhood have not changed very much. So our gospel lesson for today continues to be relevant for our time. Jesus is still challenging our limited and limiting view of who our neighbor is. But the challenge does not come in the form of a verbal argument. Jesus knows better than to argue with a lawyer, or anyone else who has strong pre-conceived laws and rules and definitions for living. Jesus knows that he would not win such a war of words; he would not be able to change the heart and soul of one who has already made up his mind. The only way Jesus can shake people out of their rigid and legalistic points of view is by telling them a story. A parable, if you will. A story which shows us something about ourselves that will provoke us to want to change our hearts and minds and find a new way to live in the world.
So instead of arguing with the lawyer over the rule of law or the definition of who is my neighbor, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. The lawyer comes away knowing exactly what Jesus intends by the story. But there is the problem for people like us who live in the modern world. The parable does not serve quite the same purpose for us, because, like so many other words and phrases and stories taken out of the context of scripture, the story of the Good Samaritan has been popularized to serve a modern purpose. Think about it. The term “good Samaritan” is used in many ways in our modern world. If you asked someone today to define or explain what a good Samaritan is, you will probably hear that it is a person who does a good deed for someone, even someone who is not necessarily a stranger. We have Good Samaritan laws to protect people from litigation who come to the aid of strangers. We name hospitals and other social agencies Good Samaritan. There are even “for profit” companies who have taken the name, Good Samaritan. And there are scores of people who receive Good Samaritan awards from businesses and service organizations. A good Samaritan comes across today as a good person who deserves protection and recognition and even reward for some good thing he or she has done for another. But Jesus had something very different in mind when he told this story to the lawyer. And it is important for us to know that difference if we are to live by his purpose for telling it.
First of all, the story of the Good Samaritan is about people who will, and people who will not help a stranger in need. The Greek word used to describe the stranger who has been beaten and robbed and left to die in a ditch is simply, “a man.” The story begins, “A man was walking down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” Such a generic reference indicates that in fact, this stranger represents “Everyman.” He is every man, woman or child who has ever found themselves wounded by the world and lying in a ditch, unable to find their own way out. Their only hope is the stranger who will notice their plight and be willing to help them. Otherwise they remain in the ditch to die a slow and painful death. Jesus wants us to know that we are the characters in his parable. We are either the man in the ditch or we are not. And if we are not the man in the ditch, then we are the priest and Levite who ignore the man we encounter in the ditch and choose to travel and wide berth around him so that we will not have to encounter his need. Or we are the Samaritan who risks helping the man and sacrifices much to make sure his needs are met so that he can be restored to life.
Good Samaritan awards and institutions which are named as such often fall short of what Jesus meant by telling us this parable. When modern people and institutions are scrutinized for their good Samaritan achievements they often do not meet Jesus’ criteria of neighbor, risk and sacrifice. When good Samaritans exercise their choice about the people they will help and the people they will not help, then they are not fulfilling the spirit of the law. They are not being the Good Samaritan of Jesus’ parable. Nevertheless, we do have the choice to be a neighbor, or not to the stranger in need. Our choices are informed by who we regard as in or out of our capacity for caring. Our choices are formed by our fear and prejudice, or by our ability to love and empathize with strangers who are not like us. We learn how to choose and whom to choose to be our neighbor from our parents and friends, from our churches and schools, from our social and political institutions and from all others who show us by word and example who their neighbors are and are not. We can see ourselves in the choice made by the Samaritan, or we can see ourselves in the choice made by the priest and the Levite who will not be a neighbor to the man in the ditch because of the purity laws which will make them unclean, and unacceptable to the pure people to whom they belong.
This choice is what keeps Christians and Jews and Muslims from being neighbors. This choice is what keeps people of race or ethnicity, or sexual or social difference segregated from each other. This choice is what causes people to become sick or die from famine or disease or natural disasters. Because we choose not to be their neighbor. In fact, our social, political and economic policies often place people in ditches and keep them there until they die. I am reminded of the choice we are invited to make to be a neighbor whenever I see a reference to the wonderful children’s TV program, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Do you remember Mr. Roger’s theme song? “Won’t you be my neighbor?” he sings to every child who is watching, regardless of who they are. I believe Jesus is asking the same question of us any time we are aware of, or any time we actually encounter the person or community or nation who is in need. Jesus asks us to be a neighbor to the strangers who have been beaten and robbed and ignored by the world, for any time we risk our life or sacrifice our time, talent or our material resources for the “least of these,” we have done it for Jesus. We have met his criteria for being a good Samaritan.
Have you ever wondered why Samaritans are often the good examples in Jesus’ parables or in his encounters with them? It is because Samaritans were hated by Jews, even though they were Jews themselves. Samaritans were considered heretical Jews because they intermarried with other people and they did not follow many of the rules and laws set forth in the purity codes of Judaism. But it is that very purity code which keeps the priest and Levite from helping the man in the ditch; it is the Samaritan who goes to the aid of the stranger. And the message Jesus gives us is clear. A Good Samaritan is not only NOT likely to receive an award for helping a stranger in need, he is quite likely to be hated for it, even by the one he has helped. Nevertheless, a Good Samaritan will do the right thing when he encounters the need of another, even if the other does not fit his categories of care. Even more, a good Samaritan will sacrifice his time and skill and material resources to see that the need is completely risk of being ridiculed or scorned, beaten or even killed for it.
Good Samaritans of recent history are a model for what Jesus is calling us to be. They are Christians who protected Jews in hiding from the consequences of the Holocaust. They are the Civil Rights workers who marched with people of color, and other minorities of gender and sexual orientation to guarantee them equal rights and equal protection under the law. They are people who give of their wealth and even leave their lucrative jobs to care for the poor and the marginalized, people like Doctors Without Borders. They are people who stand up to local and global political and economic institutions to see that the wealth and riches of a few people do not rob the many people who increasingly find themselves living without clean air and water, without enough food, and without adequate health care.
In our Hebrew scriptures today, Amos is one of those Good Samaritans who risks his life and sacrifices much to rescue the poor and marginalized from the power and riches of the few who ignore their plight. Amos has left his lucrative vocation as a farmer and a keeper of orchards to speak the hard words he needs to say to the leaders of Israel. And what is Amos’ reward for being a good Samaritan? The leaders of Israel consider him an enemy of the state and an unworthy Jew. It seems to me things haven’t changed much for people like Amos in our time. Nevertheless, Jesus calls us to be the agents of change. He calls us to be a loving and compassionate neighbor to all who call upon us in their need. Jesus knows that before laws can change, hearts and minds must change. We are the only people Jesus has to be his heart and mind and soul and strength in this world. He is calling us to be the good Samaritans of our time. He is calling us to be a neighbor. Jesuit priest, Larry Gillick, calls Christianity a “Neighborhood Watch relationship which goes beyond neighbors to God.”
I end this sermon with a modern parable written by Barbara Johnson called The Helpful Samaritan. If you are like me, you will find yourself among the many characters featured in it. But it is the character at the end that we strive to be.
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 he fell into the pit.
A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on his 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.”
A charismatic said, “Just confess that you are not in a pit.”
An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist said, “Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.”