A Lesson in Love

SCRIPTURE LESSON:  Luke 10:25-37
Rev. Monte Marshall

The pain of this past week is still fresh.  Three incidents of violence in three days—all involving race—have sent a shudder through our nation.  Guns in the hands of human beings have once again brought death to other human beings, and inflicted wounds, both visible and invisible.  Anguished cries resound throughout the land:  Cries of grief.  Cries of anger.  Cries of protest.  Cries of longing for healing and peace.

As followers of Jesus, we understand that these horrific events and the anguished cries of so many suffering people, require a response from us.  In word and deed, we’re called to bear witness to God’s unconditional love and justice for all people.  And we’re called to pray so please bow with me as we lift our hearts to God:  O gracious and redeeming Savior, hear our anguished cries and have mercy upon us.  We weep as Rachel for her children.  We weep for the victims of violence in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Falcon Heights, Minnesota; and Dallas, Texas.  We weep for those whose acts of violence have cost others their lives.  We weep for our country and our world as Jesus wept over Jerusalem. 

Bring to success, O God, our efforts to end violence.  Empower our earthly rulers to break open old arguments and act for the common good.  Lead us in examining our own consciences for the remnants of prejudice and hate within us.  Keep us from acting out of fear to brand others as enemies.  Surround us with your loving arms.  Draw us together across the lines that divide us.  Inspire us to act in ways that bring all people closer to your promised reign of peace.  For the dead we pray.  For the wounded we pray.  For a transformed world we pray.  In the name of Jesus, the Christ, we pray.  Amen.       

It seems to me that this is a good day to receive a lesson in love from Jesus.  In this morning’s text from Luke’s gospel, Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem.  Along the way, a religion scholar puts him to the test—and as the Greek indicates, it’s not exactly a friendly test:  The scholar asks:  “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

Jesus responds by questioning the scholar: “What’s written in God’s law?  How do you interpret it?”

The scholar doesn’t miss a beat: “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

Jesus is impressed: “Good answer!”  But having a “textbook theology” is not what brings life.  So Jesus goes to the heart of the matter: “Do it and you’ll live.”

But this doesn’t satisfy the scholar.  He’s looking for a loophole so he asks: “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”  As commentator Debie Thomas notes, the scholar is actually asking: “Who is not my neighbor?  How much love are we talking about here, Jesus?  Can you be specific?  Where can I draw the line?  Outside my front door?  At the edges of my neighborhood?  Along the cultural and racial boundaries, I was raised with?  I mean, there are lines…aren’t there?”[1]

The scholar wants a theoretical debate.  But Jesus isn’t interested in talking theory or endlessly exploring “the finer points of responsible neighborliness.”[2]  Jesus is interested in a life transformed in both word and deed.  So he tells a parable.

A Jewish traveler is on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  He’s attacked by bandits.  They rob him, beat him, strip him naked, and leave him for dead.  A little later, a priest comes by, sees the wounded man, but passes by on the other side of the road.  Next, a Levite arrives on the scene and he too moves on by.  But then, a Samaritan comes along.  He sees the man’s condition and he feels compassion.  His heart goes out to the man.  He moves toward the man, not away from the man.  He renders aid.  He carries the man to the nearest inn on his own animal, pays the innkeeper for the victim’s further care, and promises to return with more money as needed.

At the end of the story, Jesus asks the scholar: “What do you think?  Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

The scholar answers: “The one who treated him kindly.”

   And Jesus says: “Go and do the same.”  And there we have it, a lesson in love.  As Debie Thomas puts it: “Do this.  Draw close.  Show mercy.  Extend kindness.  Live out your theology in hands-on care for other people.  Don’t just think love.  Do it.”[3]

This is a good word, to be sure, but Jesus’ lesson in love goes even deeper.  Jesus tells a story that compels this learned scholar to embrace a truth that is for him, utterly scandalous:  Samaritan lives matter!

Debie Thomas notes that “By the time Jesus told this story, the enmity between Jews and Samaritans was ancient, entrenched, and bitter.  The two groups disagreed about everything that mattered: how to honor God, how to interpret Scriptures, and where to worship.  They practiced their faith in separate temples, read different versions of the Torah, and avoided social contact with each other whenever possible.  Truth be told, they hated each other’s guts.”[4]

So for the Jewish scholar at the beginning of Luke’s gospel story, Samaritan lives didn’t matter very much.  But at the parable’s end, in response to questions from Jesus, the scholar yields to the logic of the story and admits that Samaritan lives do matter.  In fact, the scholar is simply following the lead of the Samaritan in the parable whose generous care for the Jewish victim makes it scandalously clear that Jewish lives matter.  The story compels the scholar to admit that Samaritans are human beings of value who can actually model neighborliness by embodying God’s compassion and mercy for others.  And in making this admission, love’s limits, imposed by hatred and bigotry, are shattered, allowing love’s reach to embrace the once-despised Other.

Now isn’t this a lesson of love desperately needed in our day and time, especially in the aftermath of events like those we’ve endured this past week?  As a white male in America, I thank God that there are those who won’t let me forget that Black Lives Matter.  And I thank God that there are those among us today whose lives are living parables, modeling for us how to be loving neighbors across the barriers that divide us from one another.

For example, I came across an online story written by Daniele Selby, dated July 6, 2016.  It’s a story from the Palestinian territory on the West Bank that’s been the scene of so much violence and division between Israeli’s and Palestinians.  Selby writes:  “Most days, we wake up to headlines touting stories of conflict and violence between Israelis and Palestinians, but today, we are sharing a heartwarming story about a group of citizens rising above their differences to help people in need. 

“Last week, Rabbi Michael Mark was driving in the West Bank with his family when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on his car.  While Mark was killed, his wife and daughter were injured, and his son left unwounded.

“While this happens sadly with some frequency, this story takes a different turn.  Rather than driving on and minding their own business, a group of Palestinians and Israelis came together to help the victims.

“The New York Times tells the story of Dr. Ali Shrouk, a Palestinian doctor who was driving to Jerusalem to take part in Ramadan prayers.  He noticed his brother Mahmoud directing traffic around Mark’s overturned vehicle.  They worked quickly to pull the wife and daughter from the car and treated them while waiting for a medic to arrive.

“’I instantly stopped my car and rushed toward it to provide aid to the wounded.  I didn’t care that my life, and the lives of my family members who were with me, could be at risk.  I am a doctor and my first priority is providing needed aid,” [Dr. Shrouk said].

“The Associated Press tells the story of al-Bayed, another Palestinian who helped at the scene.  Al-Bayed told the AP he and his wife were driving by when they spotted the overturned car with fuel spilling out.

“’I heard kids’ voices inside the car, screaming for help in Hebrew.  It was heartbreaking…this was a very human moment.  I didn’t think of the occupation or the conflict.  I thought only of human beings, children who needed my help,” he said in an interview.

“Despite language and cultural barriers, this group of people stood up to do what was right—they helped [other human beings] in a time of need.”[5]

This, it seems to me, is an example of Jesus’ parable come alive.  It’s a lesson in love, embodied.  So in our day and time, in the aftermath of horrendous violence and despite deep divisions of race, ethnicity, class, religion, politics, and more, Jesus says to us what Jesus said to the religion scholar in Luke’s gospel story:  “Go and do the same….Do it and you’ll live.”  Thanks be to God!  Amen.