The Sermon Text — Luke 10: 25 - 37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "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 your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

May grace and peace be yours in abundance, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.

A man set off on a journey. He began in Jerusalem, his destination was Jericho, some 20 miles away. Now, Jerusalem is a city with an elevation of 2,300 feet above sea-level. Jericho, on the other hand, is a city with an elevation of 1,300 feet below sea-level. The road between these two cities is not only steep - dropping 3,600 feet in less than 20 miles - but it is also incredibly narrow, it is full of twists and turns, cracks and crevices - littered with places for thieves to hide in preparation for a sudden ambush.

The man was alone as he walked those many miles. One can imagine the anxiety that he must have felt. With each step, with every twist in the road, his blood pressure must have escalated just a little bit more.

As Jesus set the stage for the telling of this parable - the Parable of the Good Samaritan - those who heard it were well aware of the dangers of that road. Many, I’m sure, had traveled it from time to time and knew the risks that were involved.

A pastor once preached on this parable, speaking of the treacherous nature of this road, and he said that to deal with that reality many people traveled in caravans, thinking that there was some safety in numbers. The pastor went on to say that Jesus may have intentionally used a single traveler in this parable to lift up the foolishness of this man - to suggest that he was almost asking for the trouble that came his way. Or, if not asking for it, the traveler was at least not being very smart in his long-term planning. Looking at the parable from this point of view, of course, only adds to the radical nature of the help that was ultimately given him. What an interesting perspective this pastor provides. What a dangerous perspective.

Dangerous, because if he is right, what does that tell us about our task as disciples when we face such situations?

When I began seminary nearly 20 years ago, I was coming to Chicago from Iowa. Lovely, safe and mostly Caucasian, Iowa. The Lutheran School of Theology is in the south side of Chicago - it is in a neighborhood very different than any neighborhood I had ever been in. It was and continues to be diverse in every way that you could imagine - and I grew to love it. But initially, I was not so sure.

On the second day that I was there a professor was telling my entire class of new students about the city and the many situations that can occur in such a city. She told us about a time when she was driving home from seminary in the evening.

As she drove home she stopped at a red light and noticed off in the distance several men gathered together in a group. When she looked closer, it became clear that it was four men - three of which were horribly beating the fourth.

Now, keep in mind that this was before cell phones were readily available, so the professor did not know what to do. She ended up just sitting in her car watching this beating take place before her very eyes. She wanted to get out of her car, tell those men to stop, but fear took over. So when the light turned green, my professor simply drove away.

But what could she do? What could one woman do - what could one person do - in the face of such dangerous odds. She didn’t know the answer then and as she told us the story some six or seven years after it had happened, she still didn’t know. But the pain in her voice as she talked about it revealed that her shame had not gone away. She said that she did not know what she could have done, but she did know two things - she knew that by simply driving away she let that defenseless man down and she let God down. Those two things she knew. As she ended our conversation, she told us the story that Jesus first told a lawyer - the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Being a Christian disciple is radical stuff. This parable is telling us that discipleship means risking our lives for an unknown someone - even if that someone might have foolishly and willfully walked into an unsafe situation and then gotten what others and maybe even ourselves thinks he deserves. That’s radical! That’s crazy! That’s dangerous!

As I heard my professor tell that story, I was both moved and haunted. I didn’t know if I would have done anything differently. I imagined myself getting out of my car, walking over to those three men and boldly stopping them - but I didn’t really convince myself. I honesty didn’t know what I would have done. I still don’t know what I would do in such a situation - in fact with two children, a wife, a job, a mortgage, many responsibilities and a few pounds heavier - I may be even less certain of my actions now than I was then.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan reveals a person who acts completely out of love - a love that seems to be without fear, preference or partiality. And, on top of all that, he does this amazing thing without expecting anything in return. Not only is that radical, crazy and dangerous, it is also an incredible - incredible - gift.

Allan Emery, in his book, Turtle on a Fencepost, tells a story about his wealthy father. Apparently, when Allan was young, a well-known leader of the community was found dead drunk and in a public place. His father sent a chauffeured limousine to pick the man up and bring him to their elegant house.

Allan noticed with concern that his mother had prepared the big guest room for this drunken man. There were fresh flowers on the dresser. And, to Allan’s horror, he saw that his mother had made up the handsome four-poster bed with real linen hemstitched sheets and monogrammed linen pillowcases. The room was exquisite!

Allan protested to his mother and said that she knew nothing about drunks - that they got sick and that this man would probably throw up all over the bed, the sheets and the antique bedspread.

Looking at her agitated son, his mother said very seriously, "When he wakes up, he will feel sick, lonely and ashamed. It is important for him to see immediately that he is our honored guest and that we gave him our best." She knew this man in his disgrace would need all the encouragement he could get. That is a gift - that is an incredible gift!

I have said that Parable of the Good Samaritan is radical, crazy and dangerous. I have touched on the reasons why I make that claim, now I’ll be specific. I’m going to give you four reasons:

The first. This parable calls upon us to not only act in the way that Allan’s mother and father acted, but it calls upon us to behave in the way they behaved. There was no condemning words spewing forth, no forming of negative opinions - instead they saw this man simply as one in need and they lovingly responded to that need. Allan’s parents and the Good Samaritan did not do a criminal background check before they got involved, they acted without a word of judgement on their lips- that is radical, that is crazy, that is dangerous!

The second reason. This parable reveals that we are to reach out in love, even when there is the risk for personal harm. Few of us could blame my seminary professor for doing what she did - most likely she too would have been hurt if she stopped to help. Yet by driving away and doing nothing, her actions were like that of the priest and the Levite in this parable. The Samaritan stopped, not knowing if this was a trap or if the thieves were still around waiting for more travelers to come by so that they too could be beaten and robbed. He stopped and showed pity, knowing that there was great risk involved.

Reason number three. The Samaritan acted, even though he was helping someone whom he was supposed to despise and who most likely despised him. This is assuming, of course, that the one who feel into the hands of robbers was a Jew, but from all that I have read, I think that is a fairly safe assumption. The Jews and the Samaritans of Jesus time hated one another, so the thought of one helping the other in this way was radical, crazy and dangerous.

I was driving in Chicago recently and I thought of this parable, in particular I thought of this idea of showing kindness to those who you do not really care for. As I was driving on one of the many the interstates in Chicago, I saw that I needed to get in the right lane because I wanted to exit and get onto another highway. So, like a good and safe driver, I got in the right lane in plenty of time. Of course, that lane became very slow and the lane to my left was still going along at a good speed.

As I got closer to the exit, I saw why that was the case. There were all sorts of people coming from that left lane and trying to sneak into my lane, because they too wanted to exit, but they didn’t want to wait at the end of the slow right lane. These people were trying to budge in between us right lane drivers. So what did all of us in the right lane do in response? We got so close to the person in front of us that if someone had hit the last person in line we would have all been stuck together - bumper to bumper. No one was willingly letting anyone in - our dislike for those "left lane cheating budgers" almost literally united us "right lane law-abiding drivers" together. It is not easy to find pity for someone whom you dislike or who dislikes you.

The final reason that this is a radical, crazy and dangerous parable is because the Samaritan acted without concern for the financial cost, "Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend." No bar was set - the Samaritan did not tell the innkeeper to call him if his bill reached $500, his only concern was that the injured man get healthy.

There is a danger in dissecting this parable as much as I have done today - we can walk away feeling rather guilty for our poor attempts at being Christian disciples. None of us acts in the radical, crazy and dangerous way that the Samaritan did, at least not all of the time. We fail, we sin, we fall short of the mark. But hopefully we see that the Samaritan’s actions are actions that we actually admire and want to emulate. So hopefully, when we get back up from our failed attempts, we see that by entering into the life of someone in need - even when they are in need because of their own foolishness - we are truly doing the will of God.

Here is the most radical, crazy and dangerous thing about this whole parable, and actually about the whole Christian faith. If we dare to enter into the life of someone so greatly in need by extending our hand, we do so only with the knowledge that God dared to enter into our lives first by extending His hand.

In the person of Jesus Christ we experience God’s love for us and only by first experiencing that love can we even consider doing the radical, crazy and dangerous acts of compassion that this parable speaks of.

God has gazed upon our lives - lives that have left us either literally or figuratively beaten and in a heap on the side of the road - and God has willingly entered into our lives and warmly received us. It is this radical gift that moves us to action. Amen.