Readings: Deuteronomy 30.9-14; Colossians 1.1-14; Luke 10.25-37
What difficult and uncertain times we are living through … Who will be our Prime Minister, who will be the leader of her Majesty’s Opposition, by the time we get to the autumn? Are we going to cut all our shared agreements with Europe? Or will we remain within the single market having managed to make some compromises with hard-liners on movement of people? What will happen to European nationals already established in the UK? To UK residents who have made their home in Europe? What will happen about those skilled workers vital to our economy -480- and our health service? Our young people see the older generation as having betrayed them. Of course far more of them should have got out there and voted! But that does not excuse us, we who have received a free university education, enjoy good pensions, we are not excused from ensuring, making some sacrifices to ensure, that our young people are equipped to enter society in creative employment, with a sure knowledge they are valued, with hope for their futures.
Walking by on the other side. Can we afford to be walking by on the other side? Not walking by on the other side, is one vital ethic from Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. ‘To love your neighbour as yourself’ was a significant commandment in the Law given in the book of Leviticus, one much debated by the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Our lawyer questioning Jesus knows well this commandment! It is not in doubt. And there is another equally significant and vital dimension to Jesus’ story: the issue of the Samaritan, the priest and the levite. The issue of foreigners and former enemies, and the establishment. How is the ordinary man and woman to think?
In late 8th century Judah Ahaz was king in highly uncertain times. Sadly the divided kingdoms of Israel were often at odds with one another, and not infrequently engaged in violent conflict – and war. Even forming alliances with other states against each other. Thus in the time of the prophet Isaiah, the northern kingdom of Israel, sometimes referred to as Ephraim, has made alliance with Syria, and attacked Judah, looting the countryside and taking many prisoners. The Chronicler recording this history declares this defeat punishment for Ahaz’ worship of other gods – even the sacrifice of his sons. Astonishingly, a brave prophet of the north called Oded, intervenes on behalf of the bedraggled, beaten and naked captives, men, women and children, carried off to Samaria, the northern capital, their captors intent on making them slaves. Oded declares that the Judaites have fallen because of God’s wrath against their idolatrous king, but equally, these people are their Israelite brothers and sisters, and the wrath of God will fall against Ephraim if they enslave their brothers and sisters.
The tribal chiefs of the North respond to Oded’s prophetic word, and instruct the warriors to give up their prisoners.
With booty taken as spoils of war, the officials now ‘clothe the naked, put sandals on their feet, supply them with food and drink, anoint their wounds.’ Then, putting on donkeys those too frail to walk, they take them back to their homes in Jericho – the warriors departing back home to Samaria. Here are the first ‘Good Samaritans’ in this history told in the second book of Chronicles chapter 28.
You won’t have missed that here is the inspiration for Jesus’ parable! Jesus the Jew, steeped in knowledge of Scripture, draws for his teaching, on God’s ancient history with his people. Building on this story he gives it a profound new twist. The Ephramites are not to enslave the Judaites because they are all Israelites!
In Leviticus, the neighbour you are to love is your Israelite neighbour. Blood thicker than water. You may enslave, and of course, it was customary across the nations to do so, you may enslave your defeated enemy – the foreigner. In ancient practice, defeated enemies are your workforce.
The Samaritans were people, the weak and the lame, left behind when Assyria defeated Israel in the year 722 BC, and carried the lost ten tribes of Israel off into oblivion. These remainers have inter-married with peoples from Arabia, sent by the Assyrians to replace those taken into exile. But together they remained rigorously faithful to Yahweh and to their scriptures, the Pentateuch.
Indeed, they regard themselves as more faithful to the faith of ancient Israel than the Judaites returned from exile in Babylon! The Judaites, the Jews, who refuse to allow them to help in the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple on Mount Zion. Rebuffed, they build their own temple, first on Mount Gerizim, and when that temple is destroyed, a new temple at Schechem. They have not been part of the development of Judaism in exile. And hostility builds. As we know, the Samaritans in Jesus’ day are a people the Jews have little if any time for. They are ‘half-breeds’, and as so often those who are close to you yet different, are to be more feared and hated than those truly different. For the Jew, the Samaritans and their land are impure, contaminated, to avoid defilement, they must be rigorously avoided. Thus Jews travelling north from Jerusalem crossed east over the Jordan river to journey the Trans-Jordan. Jesus resolutely travelled Samaria, teaching in their villages. Notably, in the story of the ten lepers Jesus heals it was only the Samaritan who returned to give thanks and praise God.
So what of our parable? What must I do to inherit eternal life? Love my neighbour! Who is my neighbour? Not simply kith and kin. The despised foreigner is also my neighbour. But there is more. Those who imagine Jesus was not political are simply mistaken. This story challenges the Establishment.
The priest and the levite, representing the religious authorities, which is the Establishment of Jesus’ day, fail in their obligation to the Law, to love neighbour as self. They, being scrupulously correct, will not risk the possibility of defiling themselves by touching a potential corpse. Jesus is not commenting on the rights and wrongs of religious practice. It is our priorities he challenges. The letter of the Law or the spirit of the Law. The detested foreign Samaritan is ‘good’ because he puts love of his fellow human being, especially one in need, first. Note, his care is not extravagant or exuberant, it is what is needed. He will pay the innkeeper more if he spends more. Because in the reign of God’s Kingdom, justice means that all have sufficient and reward for their labour. This travelling merchant was simply willing to take the risks, and there were highly significant risks, of stopping to help. The stranger is also our neighbour and this Jewish lawyer must needs learn what love of neighbour is from his enemy.
This story is not saying that we are to ‘earn’ our salvation. Jesus is teaching us how we may find the best in life. We may experience eternal life here and now when we love one another – the stranger, the foreigner as well as colleague, friend and family. Paul writing to the Colossians calls them to live lives worthy of the Lord, pleasing to him and bearing fruit in good work. To be a Christian means we are called into action. Action in care of one another. Action in building the Kingdom of God on earth. We do need to get involved politically. It may be the foreigner is also our ‘saving angel’. “The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” Amen.