July 10, 2022

 The joy of the parable is that it invites us to think for ourselves, to put ourselves in the position of other people, and to see the full complexity of the world we live in.  One temptation of this particular parable is to make ourselves either the victim or the hero of the story, just like the temptation in life to make ourselves victims or heroes. 

            The tendency to make ourselves the hero in life or in stories means that we want to fix things for other people, rather than admit that they know more about their life and have strength and agency to find their way.  When we make ourselves the hero, we see the strength and good intentions and capabilities that we have and we see and treat other people as less than.  When we make ourselves the hero, we can get really down on ourselves and feel ashamed , overwhelmed and guilty all the times we are unable to save the day or did not do all we could to help a neighbor in need. When we see ourselves as the hero, we make ourselves the Savior and there is only one Lord and only one God.

            The tendency to make ourselves the victim means that we never feel empowered to speak or act for ourselves or to find healing and strength.

            What Jesus offers here, typical of the parables is a third way.  Instead of seeing things in binaries or opposites, such as hero or victim, we are invited to enter the complexity of the story and find other options. This parable is an invitation not to feel self-righteous, not to test God, not to be the hero, not to be the victim, but to join together in community for the love and healing of those who are hurting and in need.

            The lawyer is asking the question to make himself look good and Jesus to look bad.  He wanted to be hero of the story of how to inherit eternal life or how to ask questions that make Jesus look bad.  Maybe he’s playing “Stump the teacher.” 

            Jesus is rejecting the attempt to be tested by inviting the man to answer his own question.  Jesus is taking himself out of the hero and victim equation by inviting the man to use his own brain and experience and tradition.  The man knows his scripture and is tested and tempted by Jesus to show off his knowledge. Of course he can’t resist reciting the scriptures he knows so well.

            The lawyer has made this conversation about eternal life.  But Jesus answers a different question.  Jesus tells him that if he does what he has just recited from scripture, to love God and love neighbor, he will live.  Jesus is way less concerned with eternal life after we die than we are.  Jesus is very much concerned with how we live this life and how abundant life is lived and shared here and now.  Jesus changes the lawyer’s question by answering the question about this life that he would prefer to answer much more than a question about “eternal life.”

            The lawyer isn’t satisfied because he isn’t the hero yet and he hasn’t put Jesus in his place and he probably thinks he knows who is the neighbor based on his traditions.  But Jesus tells him a story asking him to consider who he would consider a neighbor to him, inviting him to take the role, not of the hero, but of the person in the ditch, not living eternal abundant life, but dying and depending on another person’s help.

Jesus is asking him to remember also all the times he’s been in the ditch—all the times he was at a loss, hungry, exhausted, abandoned, afraid, sick and so on.  And he’s asking him to remember all the people who have pulled him out of the ditch and how many times it is someone unexpected.  And that turns out to be very often.  The heroes aren’t often the people with the resources and strength and abilities, but they are the ones with mercy and compassion, people who have been through hard times and recognize someone else in need, whose hearts go out to someone on the margins. 

            The story invites us to remember all the times we’ve been in the gutter, harassed or downsized at work, hearing the news from the doctor that all is not well, the death of a beloved, a car accident, a physical assault or robbery, closing a church or having to give a pastor the boot, we’ve all been in the ditch in need of help.  Jesus has been there, too.  We’re invited to think of him when we read that this person on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is stripped and beaten are robbed.  Jesus has been there, and he knows that ditch well and he doesn’t walk on by but his heart goes out to us and his mercy goes out to us and his love goes out to us exactly because he knows what it’s like.

Jesus invites him also to play the role of the priest and the Levite and relive all the other times he’s walked past someone in need and not been the hero.  It’s at least 2 out of 3 and probably more like 80% or more that he’s walked by. 

            Jesus is well suited for the part of Good Samaritan because Samaritans were mocked and insulted considered less than.  They were of mixed race and not permitted in the Temple, so they created their own places of worship on the mountains.  Jesus, too, tore the curtain of the Temple, cleared it of moneychangers, and talked of his body as God’s Temple.

Jesus is well suited because he stops to help.  Jesus stopped for divorces and children and people with leprosy and blindness who couldn’t walk and hungry people, poor people, all those rejected people in the ditch.  That came at a cost.  It cost time.  It cost effort.  It cost his reputation.  It cost his life.  Mercy and love are inconvenient to say the least, but Jesus paid the cost because he knew what has value above all—healing and relationship make it all worthwhile.

Even Jesus resists the hero position in this story.  He brings in a host of other helpers to build a safety net around this injured man.  He enlists the help of his donkey who bears the burden of the half dead man.  He brings in the innkeeper and puts his trust in him to use the money as he asks.  He brings in healthcare professionals to tend to the wounds. 

In the same way, Jesus enlists us to work by his side.  We don’t have to be victims or heroes.  Jesus asks us to participate in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus asks us to pay attention to the way this world abandons people in the ditch—to be on the lookout for them, to remember all the ditches we’ve been pulled out of, and to listen to that pull on our heartstrings, that mercy, that love, that compassion.

The first reading today talks about prosperity.  We get this idea that God wants us to have money or things.  But God is talking about the prosperity of the whole community.  When someone is suffering and living without basic necessities, that community is not prosperous.  Individuals might be prosperous, but that’s not what God has in mind.  God calls us prosperous and fruit-bearing when we all have what we need to survive and thrive and contribute.  That is abundant life.  That is eternal life.

 When we sing our Kyrie each week, that is our call from the ditch for the unexpected one to notice our need and to pay the cost to help us, to connect us with a community of healing and hope, to give us abundant life, and to enlist us as ditch watchers who are unwilling to turn our backs but instead work together with others in our community to extend mercy and love.  Go and do likewise.