There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law?
How do you read it?”
He said in reply,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.”
He replied to him, “You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live.”
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
“And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied,
“A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
The rabbis in Jesus’ time liked to play this game, like lawyers they wanted to understand the law down to the letter, and know exactly what the legally right thing to do was in every situation. It was done both for fun and pride, as an exercise to see who knew the law best. But it was also done to help them all figure out how to best navigate the law that had grown to be so large and unwieldy. God’s law was simple, But the jewish leaders had added many man-made laws on top of it, and it had grown to be so complex and intricate, that it had become very difficult to not transgress it on a daily basis. So they would play this game to see if they could figure out the least thing they needed to to to still make it to heaven.
They would scour the torah and the teachings of the sages, and strive to break down God’s law further, and further, and further, until they finally distilled it to simply this: “love god and love your neighbor as yourself.” The first part “love God” comes from the holiest prayer in Judiasm, “the Shema.” It starts like this: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God.” The second part “love your nieghbor…,” comes from Leviticus 19:18: which reads “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” The jewish leaders clearly knew these prayers and scriptures, and as you can see from their answer they had obviously been working on this for some time.
But this exchange with Jesus was all just a pretext for their ultimate goal in this reading. The Pharisees here are once again trying to trick and trap Him. After they establish the two greatest laws, they lay their trap by asking Jesus “Who then, is my neighbor?” They want to get him on record saying something they can hold against him. If Jesus says “only the jews are His neighbor” then He will upset His disciples and all of the followers, who come from all walks of life to follow Him. If instead, He says the gentile or the samaritan are His neighbor, then He will upset the pharisees, and they will claim that He is not a faithful Jew, teaching heresy, and they can then expell Him from the temple. Jesus responds in the usual way, both answering the question perfectly, while at the same time showing the hypocrisy of the pharisees.
He does this by reciting the good samaritan story, showing clearly what is the right and godly thing to do. There are are some really intersesting things about this story that we should explore a little further. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a rugged and dangerous one, it descended 3200 vertical feet in 17 miles and it was a place that robbers and bandits would target unwitting passers by. The Priest and the Levite were also traveling that route, going from the temple and into the desolate area of jericho. They would not help the man because they were not family and did not want to be made unclean by touching him. The Samaritan on the other hand, did not have attachment to those laws and did what was right in the circumstances. St. Augustine, nicely sums up the entire parable like this: “the parable signifies Christ’s restoration of mankind. Adam is the man attacked by Satan and his legions; he is stripped of his immortality and left dead in sin. The priest and the Levite represent the Old Covenant and its inability to restore man to new life. Jesus Christ comes as the Good Samaritan to rescue man from death and brings him to the inn of the Church for refreshment and healing through the sacraments.” And so it is, the parable reveals the truth about what the law of Leviticus is getting to… and answers the question “who indeed is my neighbor” perfectly.
And as a result of telling this story, Jesus puts the pharisees on the defensive, forcing them to begrudgingly admit that He is right. It also shows the hypocrisy of the pharisees. They are making the same callous calculation about gentiles as the preist and the levite did in the story, by crossing the street from the beaten and robbed man, they show that they were more concerned with their law and their ritual cleanliness, than attending to what God really wants from them, loving kindness…, and ultimately following the teachings of the prophet Hosea: “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.” As such, Jesus once again turns the tables on them. And not only perfectly answers the question, but shows that the pharisees are truly hypocrites, in trying to trap Jesus. And reveals to all that are watching that the pharisees only love and follow their own laws, and ultimately, do not understand god’s law at all.
The message for us today is to not only recognize the hurt and injured and in need of help, amongst us, but to also see them as our neighbor. I often find the first part easier than the second. Offering help is one thing, but treating them like, a brother and a friend, can be much harder. I think we all need to do a better job of the later. But even more, God says you must love those that hate you, equally with those that love you. This is a very high call, and it requires a great deal of humility, but it is what God wants of all of us, and that record of how you best carried out this call in your own life will essentially be your golden ticket into heaven. That is what God really wants from all of His children, and that is what He deserves.
