Jesus is our Neighbour
Luke 10: 25-37
Jesus is my neighbour
Things are rarely what they seem at first sight. It also applies to Bible Stories. What I love about Bible stories, especially the accounts of Jesus and His parables, is that they are multilayered. There is a surface meaning to them that is accessible even to a child. Accessible and beneficial. But behind that there is sometimes layer upon layer deeper wisdom nuggets to be mined. If a passage had only one timeless meaning we wouldn’t mull and preach over the same stories many times over.
I want to peel a few layers of this very well-known parable today. The traditional way it is read is a moralistic one. As a passage that tells us what to do. Sure enough, it could be read that way. Jesus does end it by telling the man to go and do likewise. We should be the Samaritan, not the priest or the Levite. It looks like the question the man asks Jesus, namely, “who is my neighbour?”, is one that he asks to seek moral guidance on what he should do. But clever theologians like Samuel Wells, pointed out a few things that made me take a second look at this parable and the encounter Jesus had with the man that asked him the question…
Firstly, it is mentioned not without reason that this man was a lawyer. It means that he was somebody that not only knew the law but had the ability to interpret it. Much like modern lawyers, this man would often have been confronted by individuals in dispute, accusing one another of disregarding the law and calling for justice. Like modern day lawyers, this man knew the power of questions to delve for the truth. If there is one thing lawyers are good at besides knowing the law, it is to ask questions that help them to discover the truth. The questions lawyers ask is almost always questions that hide other more important questions. A lawyer would for instance not bluntly ask: “Did you do it?”. They would ask: “What did you do on December 16th?” trying to answer if the person is indeed guilty or innocent.
So, when this man is asking Jesus, “who is my neighbour?” we can safely assume, there are at least two questions lurking behind it. The first one is: “Who are you Jesus?” as in “are you really from God?”, Are you good? Could you be trusted?” We shouldn’t assume that this man had the same level of reverence and trust in Jesus we have. Not at all. Highly unlikely. The second one is a much deeper one. Remember this man was a devoted Jew, somebody who were convinced that the law of God is the way of life and how society should be run. But he lived in a world where what he believed in was contested much. His deepest convictions weren’t shared by those in power. Sometimes it was outright rejected and fought. This man was one of many that carried the burden of a God given conviction but found no support or space to live it out. We don’t always realize with how much turmoil and frustration the average Jew walked around in the time of Jesus. When you have pent up anger and frustration, you tend to bicker with strangers which is what this man did when he engaged with Jesus.
Lurking behind this man’s action was perhaps, probably a very painful question: “Who am I?”, “Who cares for me?” We read this parable assuming that the man identified most with either the Priest or the Levite or the Samaritan whilst actually, he might have identified most with the man that fell under the robbers. Because in many ways Jews felt robbed and mistreated by the Roman Empire. We should hear the pain in this man’s question. Many Jews felt that something happened to them that should not have happened and isn’t fair and threaten their very existence. Exactly how one would feel if being attacked out of the blue by robbers. So, let us read the passage in this way and then ask what is Jesus exactly telling this man? Who does He say he, Jesus is, and what insight does he give this man as to who he is and where he is at?
Because before Jesus asks us to do something, He introduces us to be-coming something. Also in this passage.
Jesus is our neighbour
The good Samaritan is good because he went out of his way to rescue this man. The man attacked was wounded and in need of medical care but ask anybody who has been attacked and they will tell you that one of the most dreadful things of such a situation is the utter loneliness you feel. That feeling of: Nobody understands what is happening to me and nobody sees, and nobody cares. This Samaritan breaks the isolation of the man with presence and empathy even before he attends to his wounds. He crosses cultural and religious boundaries to reach this man. Indeed, we never read that he even inquired about this man’s background or enemies or reason for being attacked. He is with Him in his time of need with understanding and empathy.
Can you see how Jesus answers the man’s first question? About who He, Jesus is, if He is to be trusted and if He cares. He tells this man that even though he is a stranger to Him, he that is Jesus understands him, cares about where his life is headed and attends to his needs. He is the one that breaks through this isolation of being alone.
Of course, Jesus wants you to be a good Samaritan, but you can only become one if you understand that actually you are not one and that Jesus is the real one. We are not only more like the Levite and the priest that passes by, we are much like the wounded man whose whole fate lies in the one reaching out to Him. We need Jesus more than anybody in your life needs us! I have lived in my current home for four months and I barely know my neighbour’s name! That is the kind of world we live in all the more. But in this world, Jesus tells us what he told this man: That He, Jesus, have become a neighbour to us. That he sees, understands and cares what we are going through. He has come very near to us in our circumstances.
Any meaningful transformation starts with an acknowledgement of our own powerlessness and need for God’s intervention. We are the wounded man in this passage, not the Samaritan.
Jesus is strange
The fact that Jesus, a Jew Himself, tells a story where the actions of a Samaritan, not a priest or a Levite mirrors his character also carries a message. Samaritans were to the Jews very strange people with ways they did not always understood or agreed with. Jesus is someone, we will often find strange. He meets us in strange ways. He messes with our plans, preconceived ideas and criteria.
The people we expect to be the people Jesus meets through and works with us, is sometimes not the people he meets and works through. It is often the exact opposite. Do you remember the prophesy about the sheep and the goats Jesus gave in Matthew 25? The sheep were surprised that Jesus said that He lets them in because He knew them from previous encounters. And in what people did Jesus meet them previously? Not through the Kardashians but through jailbirds, hungry people and sick people. Do you realise what this means? You came here wanting to listen to me and seeking guidance from God through my preaching. Hopefully you do get some of that but it is very likely that God can work more powerfully through the guy you serve at the hot dog ministry, your sick mother or you problem child that he does through the dude up in the pulpit!
Acknowledging Jesus for who He is, is getting to love and trust His strange ways. They might be strange, but they are effective and so much better than the world’s ways. One answer this man got on his question of who Jesus was, was: Not one that fits your categories. The great theologian Karl Barth called Jesus: “Das Ganz Andere”. It means the wholly different one! We should follow Jesus until his strange ways becomes our default way. When they parted, Jesus told the lawyer to be as strange as He was (“Go and do likewise”).
Jesus works long and slow
It is emphasized that the good Samaritans involvement went way beyond the urgent and immediate. He did not only provide medically for the man but also financially and socially and I came back to check in. Grace is sometimes, usually initially, instantaneous. But it is often also slow working and long lasting. The lawyer approached Jesus hoping to draw a quick answer and conclusion. Jesus did give Him one, but had he decided to do likewise, he would have realized that a relationship with Jesus is a lifelong journey of discovery.
In Rugby football there is what is known as impact players. It is players that are kept on the bench until the end of the game when everybody is tired. Then they are sent up when they are fresh. They usually score a try and wrap up the victory. I like to be an impact player. We all do. We like to be the center of attention and the ones enjoying quick results. But as I mature in my Christian journey, I realize how slow and on what a big canvas God paints. And I am but one of the brushes used for the odd eighty years or so. The real heroes may be overlooked but they are the ones that played the full game. May God give us the courage to persevere even when we don’t see the results we wish for! Let us trust in His slow, long acting but utterly healing grace.
Close
The man asked Jesus a very good question. Three questions wrapped into one. Who are you Jesus? Who am I? and Who is my neighbour? Jesus told Him that He is the one who came very near to us, our closest neighbour. He told the man that he is a person in desperate need of what He, Jesus has to offer. That He is one of God’s long-term rescue projects and loved as much. That our neighbour are all the people touched by God’s love through us. That to be with people and attentive to their needs, is the best way through your own.
This is who we are…Let us now go and do likewise!
Amen