The Spirit of the Lord is great and mighty. Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world. For I am more than a conqueror by the power of His word. In the name of Jesus I can do anything. By the power of His Spirit - Through the one who strengthens me, strengthens me. An hour before getting up this morning the “greater is He” part of that song (from 1 John 4:4) was speaking to me until Faith Radio turned on and that song miraculously fulfilled that promise. Jesus is Your first neighbor. Jesus Christ is also the Good Samaritan that lives within you – who is greater than the you that lives in the world. Jesus is both the suffering victim and the healer – He is the suffering servant – the wounded healer.
If the Spirit of the Lord had not lived in Winston Churchill’s family they would have been less generous and would have given some lesser gift than a medical education to Alexander Fleming for rescuing Winston from drowning. Alexander might have been a gardener rather than a doctor -- and Churchill's pneumonia might have carried him away.
The lawyer in today’s story is unwittingly drowning in his own search for eternal life in his study and legalistic life I was living before the Spirit of the Lord spoke too clearly and reached beyond mere formula’s like the “schma” that I would teach Brantley Hunter in Lakeland Florida. Each time that cerebral palsied and autistic child would repeat “and you shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL your might” (Deuteronomy 6:6) then I was growing with Brantley a little closer to the kingdom of God like Mark 12:34 says about this lawyer. In Deuteronomy 10;13 God promises that if you will obey this commandment then you will have “the good and complete life”. The horizontal formula for eternally good life is to ”love your neighbor as well as you do yourself,” but that lawyer knew the first part of Leviticus 19:18 that doesn’t justify any smug feelings about satisfying God’s command:
You see, the “golden rule” part of the lawyer’s answer about loving people comes right after the 10 commandments are restated. Then verse 18 in its entirety says, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” In other words “practice love” with others as with yourself.
That lawyer (and this one) struggles with who is one of “his people.” This raises the ancient Gentile versus Jew issue. And Jesus straightway tells a story about two Jews who had the same problem about someone beat by unidentified robbers and left to die on the side of the Jericho road. The Greek text says that the robbery victim is “a man” not a Jew or some “non-neighbor.” So, the priest and the Levite could excuse themselves just like this Pharisee because the strict reading of Leviticus 19:18 required no revenge or grudge against those who were one of their people. After all maybe the robbers were good Jews who took from someone who had no national identity what was rightfully theirs. Maybe they would be blamed for (God forbid) being the robbers themselves, if they get too close.
The only prevailing issue here is “who is my neighbor” and if it rests with “who are my people” then we can stand apart or engage and take responsibility when “my people” is defined as well. Remember Ruth? She told Naomi “your people will be my people – your God will be my God.” She was a Moabite from Jordan another half-breed race descended from children of Lot’s incestuous relations with his daughters after his wife was turned to salt when the left Sodom.
Jesus uses another half-breed person to show how the Good Samaritan’s actions prove that he is more like the people of God than the Jewish priest on his way to the temple or the Levite who was his official deacon in worship services. Religious people are not your people, or the people of that injured man or the people of that Samaritan.
But in the conclusion the lawyer has to name the non-person Samaritan as “the neighbor” that is “one of his people” if you knew what was good for him. If he wanted the eternal – the good life and God promised.
The lawyer want to know who IS is neighbor so that he can avoid responsibility and love for someone who IS NOT is neighbor. But Jesus refuses to give us ways to see people see other people in categories that tend to stick as part of their name or essential character. Today we might see in homeless circumstances and treat him or her as a bum, a schmuck, a person is without a definite occupation, an idle person or a helpless schmuck. The ones who robbed the man in this parables were savages, because they followed the law the jungle. Many people seem to expect their neighbor to be “a real human who has an honorable and decent occupation or retirement.” 2 Chronicles 28:5-15 tells of how Samaritans rescued Judeans who had been defeated in battle, fed them, clothed them, anointed them, and brought them back to their home in Jericho. The lawyer knew this.
So the non-Jewish Samaritans were already known to have redemptive character that was better than savages or helpless people. But the Jews refused to consider them as good, decent or honorable, ie a neighbor according to Leviticus 19:18.
Unless I humble myself and realize that I am no better than the robbed, beaten and naked unidentified human on the side of the road, then I will remain tormented like the priest and Levite or like the Pharisee who thanked God that he wasn’t like the tax collector. My life cries out “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” I must find the neighbor within who is greater before I can share love with the neighbor outside.
Each on of us is helplessly victimized by our own limited relationship with He that in in me. Instead, we assume official religious right-versus-wrong status like priests and Levites or even like the well meaning and helpful Martha at the end of chapter 10 who is caught up with busy work instead of Mary’s love for Jesus.
Every act and word of Jesus in the Gospel is like the Samaritan’s help and healing touch to hurting people who’ve been robbed of their identity as children of God. So many lost souls are stripped bare and left on the side of life’s road without the strength to change or help themselves. They’re in need. I’m in need and so are you. Why don’t we “do church together” like the little girl told the little boy with only one arm.
Dear Heavenly Father, we come before Your thrown and humbly ask, What will it take for Dexter Avenue United Methodist Church to become a Samaritan community that helps the helpless before it prejudges? How do we constructively help in Christ-like ways? I know the neighbor is the one in front of me right now. But l have failed to love You with my whole heart mind and strength as I have failed to love my neighbor as myself.
Please look on me and others here with pity and help us to help the helpless and Your hands and feet. We know what it means to lose a job, to lose heart, to be rejected and cast away from others. We’ve have been injured too. But right now some of us are less injured and less weak from the robbers of this world. Please forgive us for ignoring the needy and us to love our neighbor in the name of Jesus Christ who stooped down and took me to Your hospital the church so I would get better, Amen.
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