Quote from Forum Archives on July 21, 2004, 11:22 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

SERIES: POWER UP VBS #1/3
THE UNLIKELY EMT
July 18, 2004

Text: Luke 10:25-37

A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagonload of wheat on the road.
The farmer who lived nearby came to investigate. "Hey, Willis," he called
out, "forget your troubles for a while and come and have dinner with us.
Then I'll help you overturn the wagon." "That's very nice of you," Willis
answered, "but I don't think Dad would like me to." "Aw, come on, son!"
the farmer insisted. "Well, okay," the boy finally agreed, "but Dad won't
like it." After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked the host. "I feel a lot
better now, but I know Dad's going to be real upset." "Don't be silly!"
said the neighbor. "By the way, where is he?" "Under the wagon," replied
Willis. (“Don’t Drop In,” Homiletics, vol. 16 no. 4, p. 26)

Even showing concern and being friendly can have its unexpected
consequences. But that’s usually not the concern we need to worry about
when it comes to loving our neighbor as Jesus instructed. More often than
not, we need to work at not buying into the attitude of the expert in the
law, who asked Jesus the well-known question, “And who is my neighbor?”
The Bible makes it clear that the lawyer’s question is asked in order to
“justify” himself. Likely, this man has loved a considerable number of
his neighbors, but he knows he hasn’t loved everyone. So if he can get a
handle on who he is to consider a “neighbor,” then maybe he still has a
chance at a pretty good record.

Jesus doesn’t buy into any of that. Jesus has already been pushing the
narrow boundaries prescribed by religious tradition and legalisms. He has
called fishermen and a tax collector as disciples; he has hung out with
sinners; he has forgiven prostitutes. Jesus was making things very
uncomfortable for a lot of people - good, religious people - in his home
country. Every chance they got, they wanted to know how far Jesus would
go. Each time, Jesus took them farther than they wanted to go.

Because of the frequent telling of this story, “The Good Samaritan,” in
Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, devotions, and sermons, we know
that two types of people, a priest and a Levite, came upon the beaten
man, but passed by “on the other side” of the road. If we hear the story
like Jesus’ original audience heard it, we expect that a priest or a
Levite would stop and render assistance. The priest represents a known
religious leader, and the Levite represents a person known as religious.
They know and talk about the laws of God, and God’s known law includes
Leviticus 19:18, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of
your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” It’s
similar to me walking from the parsonage to the study and totally
ignoring someone injured on the side of the road. Or one of you, a known
Christian in your community, totally ignoring someone in distress. The
assumption is that we will render assistance even when no one else will.
That’s what Jesus’ audience expected of the priest and the Levite.

Of course, that’s not the way it works out in Jesus’ telling of the
parable. Without detail, Jesus says they provide no assistance. But then
comes one who does give the wounded man attention, the unlikely EMT.
Jesus drives the point home profoundly by making the compassionate man a
Samaritan. Historically, Samaritans were the remnants of Israel's
northern tribes that remained after all the tribal leaders were exiled
when Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. When the Assyrian settlers moved
in, these remaining Israelites eventually intermarried with the
Assyrians, "diluting" their Jewishness. Samaritans were viewed as a
"mixed race," impure in blood and soul. Hostility simmered between the
Samaritans and the remaining Judean Jews. It came to a violent climax in
109 B.C. when John Hyrcanus, then the Judean king, destroyed the
Samaritans' temple. The relationship between the Jew and the Samaritan
was that of feuding relations. Neither typically had any use, much less
love, for the other. (“What Is a Good Samaritan?,” Commentary: Luke
10:25-37, www.homileticsonline.com, 7/16/1995)

This is the type of person Jesus used in his parable to make the point
stick with this lawyer and with his audience. “The person with whom you
would normally fight, and who would normally fight you, is your neighbor
in this example,” Jesus teaches. Apparently, the lesson stuck with some
because the apostle James later wrote in the book bearing his name, James
2:8-9, “If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism,
you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.”

Still, it can be a difficult lesson to apply. Our responses can be very
human. A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the
Good Samaritan, describing how he was beaten, robbed, and left for dead.
She retold the situation in vivid detail so her students could visualize
the drama. Then she asked the class, "If you saw a person lying on the
roadside all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?" A thoughtful
little girl broke the hushed silence, "I think I'd throw up!" (“Don’t
Drop In,” Homiletics, vol. 16 no. 4, p. 28)

We sometimes have questions, not unlike the expert in the law. Do we have
to love everyone? What about those who are attacking us? Are we just
supposed to sit by and let such atrocities happen with no response or
defense? Do we let countless numbers suffer so that we can say that we
have “loved our neighbor” because we did not use force to intervene? I
have asked myself these questions several times since the beginning of
this current war, and I still cannot say that I have received solid
answers. But I cannot see how standing by and doing nothing while people
suffer at the hands of unchecked evil fits with the ethical teachings of
Jesus.

Even if such questions remain inadequately answered, I must still guard
against being like the expert in the law. All of us must guard against
trying to limit who our neighbor is. Like I told the Thursday morning
Bible study group again: There’s a lot of the Bible I don’t understand
completely, but that doesn’t bother me too much. There’s enough there
that I do understand that will keep me busy for a lifetime! “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.” Don’t you think that applying these simple commands will take
a lifetime?

A point that I believe Jesus makes is that it is not up to us to try to
limit who we love. After all, this is what we will be teaching our
children in Vacation Bible School - God loves us, and we are supposed to
love others. I hope no one here this morning believes that we are
supposed to teach this to our children but not apply it to our lives.

After telling the parable, Jesus asked the expert in the law, “Which of
these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the
hands of robbers?” Of course, the man answered, “The one who had mercy on
him.” When “Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise,’” he was not suggesting
that the expert in the law go find a place where he could be beaten and
robbed and need help. Jesus commanded the expert in the law to be a
neighbor. Specifically, the kind of neighbor about whom he was just
taught.

Although there have been significant low spots in the history of the
Christian Church which are exceptions to Jesus’ teaching, loving the
neighbor is exactly what the Church has been doing throughout its
centuries of existence. In fact, the Christian faith has spread
throughout the entire world because it has loved the neighbor. As changes
happened throughout Europe in the early hundreds A. D., early Christian
missionaries confronted pagan leaders and their tribes. Many kinds of
pagan religions kept the people of ancient Europe in bondage to
superstitions and sin and death. Instead of seeking to destroy them,
Christians sought to witness to them, minister to them, and love them.
Many times, the price they paid was terrible. They had every “right” to
despise these pagans because of the differences of race, culture,
language, and belief. Still, Christians chose to be neighbors like Jesus
taught and ultimately won over significant numbers of pagan believers.

Jesus’ closing remark to the expert in the law is as valid today as it
was when first uttered. “Go and do likewise.” Jesus will smile upon us
when we become an unlikely EMT.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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