Pentecost 7

Pentecost 7 (Luke 10:25-37)
What is written in the Law?

There are two fundamental distortions of religion. Both distortions come from the sin nature of separation from God. Both distortions are represented in this parable.
The first distortion is self righteousness. The self righteous form religion into a tight package of very specific and narrowly defined rules and regulations. Their view of God is a transcendent perfection that cannot and will not tolerate even the slightest deviation from the Law. This God is a God of rewards and punishments.

The second distortion is self indulgence. The self indulgent reinterpret and sometimes even rewrite religion to suit their needs and desires. Their view of God is a vast vague nebulous impersonal force that fills the world and encompasses all aspects of the world. This God is a God of individual desire and opinion.

The common element to the self righteous and self indulgent is the word “self”. Both distortions start with the self, proceed from the self, and end with the self. The self is that ego which the soul in separation from God creates and maintains. The false ego always engages the world with the question: “what’s in it for me?”

Jesus understood the distortions of religion very well. The people he encountered in the holy land were mostly trapped in the distortion of self righteousness. The preeminent sin that results from this distortion of relgion is pride.

So it is that the religious lawyer in the story does not seek God. He seeks to justify himself. In response to Jesus’ question he gives the correct answer. But, when he asks Jesus the follow up question: who is my neighbor, he reveals his self obsession.

Law based religion rapidly deteriorates into a system of loop holes and a culture of hypocrisy. It also manifests an attitude of condemnation. It is important to know the minimum requirements. And, it is important to know who is righteous and who is unrighteous. What is not important is a personal relationship with the Living God.
Seeking to justify himself the religious lawyer only needs God to condemn the unrighteous and to reward him for his right belief and right action. Strangely enough, he had the right answer to Jesus’ question: what is written in the law?
The answer is love. Love God fully and completely. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. This is the underlying principle of the entire law, all 613 commandments God gave to Moses.

Sadly, the religious lawyer misses the principle and seeks to find the rigid definition of specific rules. There is not a book large enough to provide all the rules to govern every situation in life. That is why the principle underlying the Law is so important. That is why Jesus seeks to save the religious lawyer from his religion by telling a story, a parable.

In the story the two distortions of religion are represented. But, Jesus turns the tables on the assumptions of his audience by turning the obvious villain in the piece into the hero.

The obvious villain is the Samaritans. Samaritans represent self indulgent religion to the religious lawyer. The Samaritans were Israelites who centuries before had violated some basic laws God gave to Moses. One of these laws related to marriage and the other related to worship.

The Jews hated the Samaritans as traitors and blasphemers. The Samaritans hated the Jews with an equal passion. For the Samaritans, the Jews represented self righteous hypocrisy. Each blamed the other for what they perceived as God’s judgment on Israel in the form of foreign conquest.

The heroes of the parable should have been the priest and the Levite. All Levites were priests, according to the Law of Moses. But, the priestly families who controlled the Temple restricted the ministry of the Levites. A Levite might only have one opportunity in his life to offer the sacrifice in the Temple.

The Book of Leviticus governs the priesthood. In that Law are the rules governing ritual purity. Among those rules are the prohibition from coming into contact with blood and from touching a dead body.

Neither the Temple priest nor the Levite knew if the man on the side of the road was dead or alive. To draw closer to him to discover his condition meant risking their opportunity to offer the sacrifice in the Temple. If they touched him and he was bleeding or dead they would become ritually unclean and unfit to offer the sacrifice. Under the Law of Moses it would take two to four weeks for them to purify themselves.

The Temple priest would lose income. The Levite would lose his only opportunity to offer the sacrifice in the Temple. The choice was difficult, but not impossible. Their self interest led them to choose ritual purity over compassion.

For the Samaritan there was a different problem. He was a hated foreigner traveling among his enemies. The man lying by the side of the road was a Jew. He might be a decoy set there by terrorists who wanted to kill the Samaritan. If the Samaritan touched him and he died the Samaritan might be blamed.

The Samaritan also had a difficult but not impossible choice. He could have chosen safety for himself. Instead, he chose compassion.
Compassion is the middle way between self indulgence and self righteousness. Compassion is also the way of extravagant love in action.

As the story unfolds, the Samaritan not only helped the man, he bound his wounds and administered first aid. He took the man to an inn, cared for him that night, and paid the innkeeper to provide for his needs with a promise to cover all future expenses. The compassion he showed had a practical effect and an immediate cost.
At the end of the story Jesus asks the religious lawyer: who in the story was the neighbor referenced in the Law? Who fulfilled the underlying principle of the Law.
The Lawyer cannot bring himself to acknowledge the Samaritan by name. He grudgingly says: the one who showed mercy.

The point of the parable is that the Law is a manifestation of the divine principle of Love. There is no set of laws that can cover all circumstances in life. The very effort to make life fit into the narrow list of dos and don’ts subverts the very principle on which the Law is built.

The principle underlying the Law challenges the distortions of self righteousness and self indulgence. The principle of divine love and compassion invites us to make a real choice What makes that real choice possible is our ability to set side the false self, the false ego of pride and self will. That is only possible as we enter into the personal relationship of love God offers us in Jesus Christ. As we experience that love we begin to lose the false self our sin nature has constructed. We discover our authentic self in the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls.

There will be a cost. We will have to give something up. What we give up is the unreality of a false self. What we gain is the real presence of the living God in our minds, and hearts and wills.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is the story of how people are trapped in a false self. The false self is the sin nature. The sin nature distorts every aspect of our lives, including our religion. The solution to this problem is not more religion. It is not less religion. The solution is a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

That personal relationship infuses divine love and compassion into our souls. That personal relationship sets us free to make a real choice to practice love. Love does not annul the law. Love fulfills the law.

The way of compassion is the middle way of living amongst various extremes of self preoccupation. It is the way of questioning our own assumptions about life, religion, God.

Jesus asks: what is written in the Law? What is the underlying principle in the law? How can you live your life by that principle? What would you need to change to make that way of living possible?

The way of compassion is the way of love. The way of love is not self righteous adherence to rules and regulations. Neither is it the pride of self indulgence. The way of love is Jesus himself.
What is written in the Law?

What is written in the law is the pattern, plan and purpose of God. What is written in the Law is the principle of divine love and compassion. The relationship is the reality. The reality is Jesus Christ.