Howdy, my name is still Michael Wesley and I want to thank all
of you for being here to share and worship together. I pray you will be patient with me and that I
may provide you some insight. This comes
not from me but Jesus and Mr. Rogers.
While I am certain most of you have heard this story, I will
not presume that all of you are familiar with it. I’ll ask that you indulge me while I share a
familiar piece of scripture. From Luke
10:25-37, the New International Version, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
25 On one
occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked,
“what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is
written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He
answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have
answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he
wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply
Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was
attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away,
leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going
down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So
too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other
side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the
man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He
went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the
man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The
next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave
them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will
reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of
these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of
robbers?”
37 The
expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus
told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The first
part of this exchange is merely a recitation of direction found in the Torah
with which every even casually devout Jew would be familiar. Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your strength. and Leviticus 19:18, Do not seek
revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your
neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Originally these verses
were addressed to a select group as indicated by the phrase “among your people”
and where they are found, in the Torah.
The
person to whom Jesus is speaking is no mere casual jew but an expert in the
law, a scribe. They were basically bureaucrats, experts
on Jewish life and law. They might be lower level scribes who served the
villages as village scribes, making contracts, documents, and serving as
government officials. This expert was
not content with a response with which he was already intimately familiar but
wanted to “justify” himself. He sought
to validate his position and confirm his entitlement to eternal life. In this context he inquires as to who his
neighbor is. Maybe before one may know
WHO their neighbor is it is necessary to know WHAT a neighbor is. According to dictionary.com:
1.
a neighbor can be a person who lives near another.
2.
a person or thing that is near another.
3.
one's fellow human being:
In the
context of this teaching tool, the parable, although it is possible, it is not
likely the victim in the ditch lived next to or near to any of his potential
rescuers. The victim certainly was near
to the Priest, Levite and Samaritan, separated by no more than the width of the
road and without any doubt was a fellow human being. So, in the context of our parable, what makes
a neighbor? I would not feign to address
this issue adequately. Rather, I turned
to THE authority on neighbors and neighborliness of the 20th
century, Fred Rogers. Or, if the name Fred
is not familiar to you, MR. Rogers, some of you may be familiar with the
television personality. This year “Mr.
Rogers’ Neighborhood is celebrating 50 years of syndication. Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian
minister and dedicated most of his adult life to inviting you to be his
neighbor. He didn’t have to live next
door to you or even nearby. You were a
fellow human being and that was sufficient.
He expressed this by saying “We live in a world in which we
need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my
community, not my world, not my problem.”
That’s what the Priest
and Levite said to themselves. The
Priest would be made “unclean” in touching a corpse. Therefore, he did not even risk determining
the status of the man in the ditch.
Although the “rule of mercy” would take precedence if the man were
clearly alive it was not worth the risk.
Also, the rules for Levites were not as strict but he also desired to
avoid defilement. As if one could be
defiled by another human being.
Then, along comes a
Samaritan. He has money, transportation,
and a centuries long quarrel with this dude in the ditch. The D-I-D, dude in the ditch, is an obvious
sign the Samaritan needs to move along. This part of the road is putting him at
risk. He doesn’t make the prudent
decision. The Samaritan chooses to make
the welfare of another at least commensurate to his own. He ascertains the D-I-D is not dead. At this point surely no one could have
criticized him for moving along. Get the
dude on his feet, maybe give him some water and move along. That’s not what happened. As mentioned above he provided
transportation, found shelter for the Jew and fronted the cost of care to the
innkeeper, even pledging to make good on any additional costs. In these acts the Samaritan practiced Mr.
Rogers 3 ways to ultimate success. According
to Fred Rogers, the first way to ultimate success is to be kind. The second way is to be kind and the 3rd
way is to be kind.
Jesus asked
the scribe who was the neighbor to the man in need and the scribe answered the
one who showed him mercy. I think there
are actually two neighbors in this parable, the man in need and the man who
provided for that need. There was an
offer of care and at least a tolerance of his ministrations. There’s 2 characteristics we could use more
of, care and tolerance.
Your neighbor will not always look like
you. Your neighbor will not always act
like you. Your neighbor may not share
your beliefs. That does not preclude
them being your neighbor.
“Perhaps we think that we won't find another human being
inside that person. Perhaps we think that there are some people in this world
who I can't ever communicate with, and so I'll just give up before I try. And
how sad it is to think that we would give up on any other creature who's just
like us.” Again, thanks to Mr. Rogers.
The only limits to being neighborly are
self-imposed. The basis for being a
neighbor is love. “Love is
like infinity: You can’t have more or less infinity, and you can’t compare two
things to see if they’re “equally infinite.” Infinity just is, and that’s the
way I think love is, too.”
The Samaritan was
kind and generous in his love. Go and do
likewise. Amen
