Pentecost 8

Pentecost 8 (Luke 10:25-37) Do this and you will live.

People in religious cultures ask the question: what must I do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. To those people Moses, the Prophets and Jesus Himself give assurance that God is for us and God is with us.

The word of God is not strange, unusual or difficult. Moses teaches that the word of God is very near. The apostles teach that the word of God is a person: Jesus Christ.

The word of God written is the record of human observation of how people react or respond to the Real Presence of God. The Law exists to restrain evil in human behavior. Obedience to the law is not a condition for God’s love. God is love. Human behavior cannot alter who God is. Human behavior can and does subvert our ability to perceive and receive God’s love.

The Law also acts as a perfect mirror to the human soul. That mirror reveals to us where we are separated from God. The perfect mirror of the Law also reveals to us where our thoughts, words and deeds are in distortion from the original pattern by which God created us.

The lawyer in this passage is doing what most lawyers do most of the time. He is testing the limits of the Law. He is teasing out the meaning of the law through questions and disputations. He has the knowledge of the Law. He lacks the understanding.

Jesus meets the lawyer where he is. He engages the man in a process. The lawyer asks a question with enormous proportions. Jesus helps him narrow the focus so that he can discover the answer. Jesus asks the lawyer to consider the scriptures. What has God already revealed through Moses?

The lawyer has the correct answer. The answer is the principle that underlies the Law of Moses. The answer is the very nature of God. Yet, while the lawyer has the knowledge he lacks the understanding. As with everyone in his generation he is trapped in religious distortions of divine truth. He wants a very precise formula and set of definitions. He wants a check list by which he can justify himself and lay a claim on God.

He asks a question: who is my neighbor? Who do I have to love in order to avoid God’s wrath and earn God’s favor. And, who can I ignore?

All questions are good. All questions keep the mind, hear and will engaged in the unfolding process of grace. Although the lawyer’s question is in grounded in a basic false assumption about God, humanity and himself- nevertheless Jesus uses the question to invite the man to experience a paradigm shift.

Jesus does this by telling a story… a parable. Jesus sets up the elements of the story in such a way that the main characters are archetypes of human behavior and human misunderstanding.

The Levite and priest can only maintain their ritual purity and righteousness under the religious law by ignoring the animating principle of the moral law. They choose to stay pure by choosing to detach themselves from compassion. They maintain the letter of the religious law by not contaminating themselves with the blood of the crime victim.  They used their position in the Temple and in society to remain aloof from a pressing human need.

The Levite and the priest are the righteous who fail to show compassion. The Samaritan is the unrighteous who does show compassion.

By every standard of the Law of Moses the Samaritan cannot claim God’s favor and can only expect God’s wrath. The righteousness the Levite and Priest practice is formed in the categories of right belief and right behavior. According to that standard they are the righteous and the Samaritan is the unrighteous. Yet, Jesus sets up the story to show how adherence to the letter of the Law does not produce righteousness according to the principle of the law.

The principle of the Law is love. The principle defines righteousness as right relationship… right relationship with God, with other people and with the image and likeness of God imprinted on our souls.

The lawyer understands the point Jesus is making. He is still not able to say the word “Samaritan” in answer to Jesus’ question about mercy. But, he understood the point.

When Jesus tells the lawyer: go and do thou likewise- he introduces a new way of faith. It is the Way of wisdom. It is the Way of compassion. It is the Way of Jesus.

The Way is the active dynamic and creative unfolding of the new life in the new relationship our Heavenly Father offers us in Jesus Christ. The Way does not ask the question: what is the minimum I must do to gain God’s favor and avoid God’s wrath. The Way is guided by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit who helps us understand and apply the principle of Divine Love in the ordinary choices of our daily lives.

The Way is the invitation into a new path of living in this world that asks the question: how may I help?

Jesus reminded the lawyer then and Jesus reminds us today; do this, practice compassion in union with the infinite and eternal love of God, and you will live- you will experience eternal life in every act and attitude of compassion.