Scriptures for my homily for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Key understanding today's gospel is the reality that Jews and Samaritans were religious/social/political enemies of each other.)
They say the scriptures are an inexhaustible resource for instructing us in how to live the Christian life. And this weekend I found out that’s really true!
I've been preaching the gospel of the good Samaritan for 53 years - and this was the first time I took notice of one particular word in the story. It's in the dialogue between Jesus and the scholar of the law. Remember this? “And because the man wished to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"
The word I've overlooked for more than five decades is justify. The man wanted to justify himself. Now, this man is a lawyer, so he's accustomed to defining the letter of the law. Jesus has just detailed for him the law one must obey to inherit eternal life. “Love God with all your heart and being, with all your strength and your mind - and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And because the man wished to justify himself, he asked, "Who's my neighbor?”
As a scholar of the law, the man immediately recognizes that the term "neighbor” was a category of persons open to incredibly broad interpretation. So he wants to justify himself. He wants to define the category, set some limits. He wants to be very clear about who is and who is not his neighbor - lest he transgress the law and forfeit the eternal life he's seeking.
What this lawyer doesn’t yet understand but is about to find out is that Jesus is the defense attorney, in a class action suit, representing every neighbor in the history of humankind.
So, before you and I try to figure out if we identify more with the kind and compassionate Samaritan, or with the self-absorbed, uncaring priest and Levite, we might want to examine how we all identify with the lawyer. We might want to look at how sometimes we want to justify ourselves by defining the term and setting limits on just who our neighbor might be.
Sitting at the defense table is Jesus and in The Case of the Cood Samaritan, Jesus is arguing that everyone is our neighbor (just what the lawyer hoped would not be the answer) and that each of us is called to be neighbor, to everyone.
Jesus makes his case very simply and quickly by proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the category of neighbor includes, without reservation, even:
• those I don't know - complete strangers, left for dead on the road
• people I don't prefer;
• people who annoy me;
• folks I don't like, folks who don't like me;
• people I deem undeserving
• those who despise me, those whom I despise;
• those who oppose me, my sworn enemies.
All these, says Jesus, are my neighbor - and to all of these am I called to be neighbor. Jesus says that - like the good Samaritan who bandaged, transported and cared for the man he found on the road – we too, are to touch and care for and carry our neighbor, whomever our neighbor might be.
Not only that, but Jesus gives us here, I think the first example of paying it forward. Remember that the Samaritan left the injured man at the inn and slipped the innkeeper some coins. "Take care of the guy till I come back. And if it costs more, I'll reimburse you.”
Let's go back to where we started. “Because the lawyer wished to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbor?’”
It's not an easy question. It's a hard question. And it's a loaded question even today, isn't it? We still look for all kinds of ways to justify ourselves because it's so hard to love our neighbor as ourselves. Consider the religious, social, and political tensions that fester and erupt in hatred and hostility, in all-out war, at the boundaries and the borders and the divisions that separate neighbor from neighbor.
Boundaries, borders, and division…
Think of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland;
Think of Palestine and Israel, India and Pakistan.
Think of our own nation divided by how we answer the question,
“Who is my neighbor and how will we love our neighbor at the border - as we love ourselves.
Now, not for a moment would I suggest that today's gospel offers a strategy for peace in the Middle East. It doesn't.
And not for a moment would I suggest that the story of the Good Samaritan offers us a plan for immigration reform. It doesn't.
What I will suggest is that what Jesus does in this gospel is to give us Christians The. Starting. Point. for all our consideration, negotiation, planning, and strategizing for resolving these difficult critical international issues. And this starting point, Jesus gives us his followers, is the question “Who is your neighbor?”
Fortunately, Jesus also gives us the answer. Our task is to take the question and the answer, and then as Jesus told the lawyer, go and do likewise. Now, doing likewise will involve many factors. Doing likewise means attending to social concerns, legal matters, constitutional questions, financial realities, international relationships and political differences. It’s our answer to the question “Who is my neighbor?” that must precede and inform the way we attend to all the secondary factors.
Not attending to these factors would be irresponsible. Not attending to these factors would be to reduce the word of Jesus to a slogan. But the words of Jesus are never a slogan - at least not for folks like the lawyer in the gospel, for folks like you and me, folks who want to know what we must do to inherit eternal life.
The words of Jesus here are so much more than a slogan. They are words of wisdom and truth. And the story of the Good Samaritan is The. Starting. Point. - the only starting point for us to consider and to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Any other starting point, any other starting point, lies outside the faith that you and I profess here today.
We are gathered at the Lord's table in the shadow of the cross, where Jesus laid down his life for his neighbor. He laid down his life for those who would love him - and he laid down his life for those who would never know him. He laid down his life for those who would abandon and betray him; for those who would not deserve him or his mercy; for those who would, over and over and over again, fail to recognize him in their neighbor.
So, pray with me today that we will hear the words of Jesus and begin anew to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
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