Go
and Do Likewise
Go
and do…there is always someone in the Bible
who
is being told to go.
In
Genesis the Lord said to Abram…
“Go
from your country and your kindred
and
your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
Moses
was told by God to go to the Pharaoh…
“I
will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people,
the
Israelites, out of Egypt.”
When
Elijah fled to the wilderness God instructed him to…
“Go,
return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus;”
And
in Luke, chapter 10 begins with the 70 being sent…
“After
this the Lord appointed seventy others and
sent them on
ahead of him in pairs
to
every town and place where he himself intended to go.”
The
scripture we heard today from Luke
has
Jesus being questioned by a lawyer.
Jesus
answers the lawyer and tells him to “go and do likewise”.
Go
and do what?
First
let us look at how the conversation begins…
The
lawyer asks a question…
“what
must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus
answers the question with a question…
“What
is written in the law? What do you read there?”
The
lawyer replies quoting the Shema,
the
great commandment from the Torah…
“You shall
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 your neighbor
as yourself.”
Jesus
agrees with his answer,
however,
the lawyer wants to know more…
“And who is
my neighbor?”
This
is when the parable of the good Samaritan is told.
The
parable is so familiar to us;
the
phrase ‘good Samaritan’
has
become a secular phrase,
a
way of describing someone
who
does good and cares for others.
In
Jesus’ time that was not a phrase used by the Israelites.
Their
opinion of Samaritans was not a favorable one.
Samaritans
were disliked and considered outsiders.
Who
do you and I look at as outsiders today?
Someone
who looks different, thinks differently,
has
a different opinion, who does not fit in,
someone
of a different status, race, religion, or background.
We
do live in a broken world,
where
you and I put people in categories:
blue
collar or white collar,
southerner
or northerner,
republican
or democrat,
unemployed
or retired,
young
or old,
and
it goes on and on…
What
do you and I forget when we categorize others?
You
and I and all are Children of God!
We
are neighbors!
In
Galatians, Paul tells us the whole law is summed up
in
one commandment…
“You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Can
we do that?
Do
we do that?
As
we look at the parable, think about who you identify with?
“A
man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
and fell into
the hands of robbers,
who
stripped him, beat him, and went away,
leaving him
half dead.
Now
by chance a priest was going down that road;
and
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So
likewise a Levite, when he came to the place
and saw him,
passed by on the other side.
But
a Samaritan while traveling came near him;
and
when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
He
went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having
poured oil and wine on them.
Then
he put him on his own animal,
brought
him to an inn, and took care of him.
The
next day he took out two denarii,
gave
them to the innkeeper, and said,
‘Take
care of him; and when I come back,
I
will repay you whatever more you spend.’
There
is a priest and a Levite, who are they?
In
the New Testament commentary on Luke,
New
Testament professor John Carroll describes them as
“both
belong to the large workforce of thousands of priests who maintain
the cultic operation of the temple institution.”1
These
men are looked up to by the people,
they
are respected,
they
are those who have an expected place
in
the Kingdom of God;
they
are not considered outsiders.
So
why did they not stop to help the traveler.
Perhaps
the priest and the Levite thought it was a trap,
if
they stopped, they too may be robbed and beaten.
Or
maybe they were in a rush,
needing
to get where they were expected.
Whatever
the reason, they passed by on the other side.
When
have you or I crossed the street
to
avoid an uncomfortable encounter?
So,
should we judge the priest and the Levite for their actions?
The
Samaritan is the surprise character in the parable.
No
one would expect someone from Samaria to stop and help,
those
from Samaria are the other,
the
one pre-judged as ‘not like us’.
The
Samaritan who is not described in the parable as ‘good’,
only
as a Samaritan who was traveling;
we
have put the ‘good’ description in,
yet
it is not to judge those who did not stop as ‘bad’.
We
do not say the bad priest or the bad Levite.
I
wonder if the ‘good’ description in the past was a slight,
‘well,
this Samaritan was good, but he is the exception’.
Once
again, we may see something like that in our world today.
Jesus
wants to show there should not be boundaries
in
who we perceive as our neighbors.
Jesus
ask the lawyer…
“Which
of these three, do you think, was a neighbor
to
the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
The
answer…
“The
one who showed him mercy.”
The
one who showed mercy.
Mercy,
compassion, simple kindness;
Mercy,
generosity, a selfless response to each other;
Mercy,
hospitality, a giving heart…love.
We
usually think of love as associated with the heart,
yet
think of love as the deep-down feeling,
the
feeling from your gut.
In
verse 33 the verb used to say the Samaritan was
moved
with pity,
moved
with compassion,
moved
by deep emotion is the Greek word:
splank-ne-zo-mi (σπλαγχνίζομαι)
meaning
not heart (cardia) but the inside parts (the gut).
One
character we have not mentioned yet
is
the man who was beaten and robbed.
He
is only described as a traveler and defined by
what
has happened to him.
Nothing
else is known about him:
who
he was -a salesman, a priest, or a drifter,
what
was his reason for traveling -heading home
or to meet someone
in Jericho,
his
status -a man of wealth or a simple tradesman,
a
tax collector or a carpenter,
his
race -Samaritan or Israelite.
This
traveler has no identity.
In
this, there is no pre-judgement, no stereotypes,
just a broken man,
half dead, alone, and suffering.
What
would you or I have done
if
we had been on the road to Jericho?
Truthfully,
I do not know what I would have done.
In
today’s world people hope to embrace
the
qualities of the good Samaritan.
Do
we?
Do
we as individuals,
as
a community of faith,
as
neighbors in this broken world?
The
instruction Jesus gives the lawyer is to go and do likewise.
We
are also being instructed to go and do likewise,
show
mercy, be compassionate,
have
love for our neighbor.
There
is one more thing I want to add
about
the beaten and robbed traveler.
I
see him representing a broken imperfect world
that
existed in Jesus’ time and exists in our time also.
God
calls us to be active and work for
You
and I as Christians are not called to sit still or
to
‘pass by on the other side’:
we
go,
we do,
we act,
we
are disciples.
Go
and do likewise!
1
New Testament Library Luke by John T. Carroll. Page 245.
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