Wanting to justify himself, [the lawyer] asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:29

The Parable of the Good Samaritan has got to be one of the most familiar and beloved stories in all of scripture. And for good reason. It is a simple story with a powerful point. 

But it is also a sneaky story, one that has many layers of meaning. And so I want to look at this story again this morning, and see what new meaning we might find in it for our daily lives.

What Must I Do?

The story begins with a lawyer standing up to test Jesus. And he does this by asking a question, the first of two that he will ask Jesus. First, he simply asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

He is not the only person to ask Jesus this question. The rich young ruler will ask him the very same question in Chapter 18. 

In both cases, we have examples of people revealing a belief that eternal life is all about what we do, not what God does. What must I do? This question implies that it is ours for the taking, if we do the right things. It is not a gift from God, but rather something that we can earn. 

So, it’s the wrong question. In both cases. Jesus obviously knows this. But Jesus almost never answers the same question with the same answer. I suspect that it is because he can see right through the question into the person’s heart. 

So, with the lawyer in today’s reading, Jesus begins by asking him what is written in the law. The lawyer answers correctly: 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and [love] your neighbor as yourself.” 

Yes, Jesus responds, knowing this is not the end of it.  Do this, and you will live. 

Who Is My Neighbor?

And the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, asks a follow up question: “Who is my neighbor?” 

In other words, “Who must I love as myself?” 

This question suggests that this lawyer wants to know how little he has to do to get eternal life, rather than how much he can do in response to God’s love. This is a person looking for loopholes, or at least looking for the minimum he must do. 

And so he again asks the wrong question. Because the commandment to love our neighbor is not about how to limit our love, but how to expand it. As soon as we ask this question, we are on the wrong track. 

The question is not: who is my neighbor? But: how can I better love my neighbor? It is not about who deserves my love. Anyone in need deserves my love. 

But Jesus does something clever here. He does not answer this question in a simple way, but by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan. 

This story has the obvious meaning – that we should love our neighbor regardless of the risk, of how uncomfortable it makes us, and even regardless of whether the neighbor deserves our help. 

But there is another meaning to this story that we can see when we look at the story from the point of view of the lawyer. What is Jesus trying to tell this lawyer by telling him this story? Let’s go through the story again and see. 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

The story begins with a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. This is a famous and very dangerous journey of about 20 miles, that is filled with narrow, rocky passages and many opportunities for robbers to surprise passers-by. People rarely traveled this road alone, and so the man in this story was not acting very sensibly if he was indeed alone. 

This man ends up robbed and left for dead in a ditch. Jesus tells us that a Jewish priest comes by, and then a Levite, but neither are willing to help this man. It is risky, after all. It could be a trap. But then a Samaritan comes along. And he stops to help. Why? 

I really like Martin Luther King Jr.’s answer, in a sermon he preached on this parable: 

“The first question that the priest [and] the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ … But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” 

The Samaritan, in other words, asked the right question. And he had the courage to risk helping this man, despite the possible consequences. And so, the Samaritan stopped and helped this man who was robbed and left half dead. 

Now, if you are this man in the ditch, this is the worst possible person to help you. This Samaritan is your enemy. You might prefer to die in the ditch rather than be helped by this man. But you don’t have a choice. You’re half-dead, and there’s no avoiding it. 

This enemy of yours is moved with pity, and bandages your wounds, and puts you on his own animal and brings you to an inn.

Who Are We in This Story?

So, how does this story answer the question asked by the lawyer: who is my neighbor? 

I once came across a very interesting take on this story from a Lutheran seminary professor, Dr. Mark Allen Powell. Until his retirement, Dr. Powell was a professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio. And he observed that whenever he taught this parable, the students invariably identified with the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan. They felt challenged by this parable, as we do, to be a neighbor to those in need, to learn from this Good Samaritan, and to do likewise. Okay. 

But Dr. Powell said that he was surprised, when he taught this same parable in Tanzania, Africa, to discover that the people there did not identify with the priest, Levite, or the Samaritan. They identified, instead, with the man who was beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. And the way that they understood this parable was that when we need help, we don’t always get to choose who helps us. 

This man on the side of the road was forced to receive help from the Samaritan, because the priest and Levite ignored him. When we are desperate enough, we don’t worry about what our neighbor looks like. We are just grateful to be helped. 

So, who is my neighbor? The one who needs my help, or the one willing to help me? Or both? You see, this is a sneaky story, with layers of meaning. 

Who Is Our Neighbor When We Are in the Ditch?

And there is another layer that I want to point out that I think is very important, and perhaps is the real reason why Jesus answered this lawyer’s question by telling him this story. 

Think again about this story from the perspective of the person in the ditch. Who is not helped by the priest or the Levite, but only by the Samaritan. 

What does this teach us? Well, if this story is simply about Jesus encouraging the lawyer to accept Samaritans and Jews alike as his neighbors, why would the hero of the story be a Samaritan? Why wouldn’t the person lying helpless in the ditch be the Samaritan, and the hero be a Jew? And why would Jesus bother casting a priest and Levite in such a bad light, if that’s what this story was about? Something else is clearly going on here. 

Here’s what I think it is. To a lawyer who thinks he knows what to do to obtain eternal life, Jesus tells the story of a man who can do absolutely nothing to save himself. The man lying in the ditch is completely helpless. He can’t do anything to save himself. In fact, he ends up relying not on a priest or a Levite, but on an outsider, a Samaritan, to save him. He never would have accepted this offer of help if he thought that he could do something to save himself. He had to be completely desperate in order to accept the help of a Samaritan.

So what will it take for the lawyer to realize that there is nothing that he can do to save himself, to earn eternal life? What will it take for the lawyer to realize that priests and Levites do not offer us eternal life, nor does obeying God’s law? Only Jesus, the outsider from Nazareth, can really save that lawyer, or can save us from the ditch in which we all find ourselves.

This is another layer of this sneaky story. And to see it, you must identify with the person in the ditch. 

So Jesus most likely tells this story for both of these reasons. First, to challenge the lawyer – and to challenge each of us – to help our neighbor in need, regardless of the risk, and regardless of whether we think of that person as a neighbor.

But this story also challenges the lawyer – and challenges each of us – to think of the ways in which we find ourselves lying helpless in a ditch. For it is only when we realize that we are helpless that we are most open to being helped.

And we all need help. We are all in the ditch, half-dead, spiritually speaking. Because we are all captive to sin, as we often confess. And it is when we are most aware of our captivity to sin that we are most open to the help that Jesus offers us. When we become aware of our captivity to sin, we allow Jesus to come to our aid, and bandage our wounds, and bring us to the inn for continued healing.

And it is really only when we are freed from this captivity, from this ditch, that we are able to help others. And then we are freed to become the Samaritan who surprises others with his love and mercy. 

Closing 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan turns out to be as much about being open to God’s mercy as it is about helping a neighbor in need. 

Or, maybe it is about the order of these things. 

When we are open to the love and mercy of God, and filled with God’s healing love, then we are ready to love our neighbor as ourselves. Without worrying about who our neighbor is, or whether they deserve our help. 

We know that we are laying half-dead in a ditch, dying of our sins, and it is Jesus alone who comes to our rescue. It is Jesus who bandages our wounds and carries us to the safety of the inn. It is Jesus who offers us true, eternal life. And it is Jesus who shows us the true mercy of God. 

Once we embrace that wonderful gift, how can we help but love our neighbor? Not to inherit eternal life. Not because we are commanded to. But because we are filled with a love that seeks nothing else than to be shared. 

May we who have received this love share it faithfully and generously, to the glory of God. Amen.