Reading 17
The one who stopped
The reading
Luke 10:25-37
Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."
But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.'
"Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?" He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
The companions
Psalm 82:3-4
Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
Isaiah 58:6-10 (selected)
Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you; and the LORD's glory will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
A word for the week
You have crossed a street to avoid someone. Everyone has. A person slumped on the sidewalk, or someone you would rather not deal with up ahead, and you find a reason, you are busy, it is not safe, someone else will help, and you angle to the other side. Hold that small, honest moment, because Jesus builds his most famous parable out of exactly it, and out of the question we all use to wriggle free: who, really, is my neighbor?
A lawyer asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, and Jesus turns it back: what does the law say? The man answers well, love God with everything, and love your neighbor as yourself. Right, says Jesus, do that and you will live. But the man, wanting to justify himself, asks the question we all secretly want answered: and who is my neighbor? Meaning, where is the line? Who counts, so I know who I can decently ignore? And instead of drawing a line, Jesus tells a story that erases the line entirely.
A man is beaten by robbers on the road to Jericho and left half dead in the ditch. A priest comes along, sees him, and passes by on the other side. Then a Levite, a temple official, the same: sees him, crosses over, walks on. These are the religious professionals, the ones you would most expect to help, and they do not. Jesus is not subtle about it. Being religious, being respectable, knowing the law, none of it made them stop. They saw a bleeding man and calculated their way around him.
And then the one who stops is a Samaritan. You have to feel how much that word stung the people listening. Samaritans were the despised outsiders, the wrong race, the wrong religion, the people a good Jew crossed the street to avoid. Jesus makes the hero the very kind of person his audience would have wanted to walk past. And this Samaritan does not just feel a pang and move on. He is moved with compassion, and then he acts, at cost. He bandages the wounds, pours on his own oil and wine, puts the man on his own animal, walks him to an inn, pays the innkeeper, and promises to cover whatever more it costs. Compassion that spends itself. Compassion with its wallet out.
Then Jesus turns the lawyer's question inside out. The man had asked, who is my neighbor, wanting to know the limits of his duty. Jesus asks instead: which of these three was a neighbor to the man in the ditch? He does not answer who deserves my help. He answers what kind of person will I be. Neighbor is not a category of people you are required to love. It is something you become, by stopping. The lawyer cannot even say the word Samaritan; he answers, the one who showed mercy. And Jesus says: go and do likewise.
So the question is no longer who counts as my neighbor. The question is whether you will be a neighbor to whoever is bleeding in front of you, regardless of what they are, whether they are your kind, whether they would ever help you. The priest and the Levite asked, if I stop, what will it cost me? The Samaritan asked, if I do not stop, what will happen to him? That is the whole difference, and it is the difference between religion that passes by and love that stops. Go and do likewise.
At the table
Who is the person in the ditch you have been crossing the street to avoid? What would stopping actually cost you this week, and can you pay it?
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered "the LORD" in the prophet reading.