A certain man - a lawyer - stood up to put Jesus to the test, asking him: " Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answers: What is written in the law? What do you read there?"
The lawyer replies, 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 neighbour as yourself."
Jesus then says: "You have answered rightly, do this and you will live."
Up to this point in the conversation between Jesus and the lawyer everything has gone fine - the questions and the answers exchanged by Jesus and the lawyer have encapsulated the essence not only of Judaism, but indeed of all religions.
Love God - love your neighbour.
But then comes the real question the lawyer wanted to ask, - the question to test the character and the faith of Jesus - a question that indeed tests the character and the faith that each one of has, that question has only five words in it - five words that each of us should try to remember and to answer for ourselves at least once a week, if not once each and every day.
That question is this -- "And who is my neighbour?"
It is a pretty heavy question my friends, - a question upon whose answer depends much of what we say and do - a question upon whose answer may even depend our relationship with God.
And who is my neighbour?
Who is it that I am to love as I love myself? Who is that I am to show favour to? Who is that I am called to work for? To sacrifice for? To pray for?
The scripture states that the lawyer asked Jesus this question as a means of justifying himself - as a means of showing that he - a teacher of the law of God - was doing all that God asked him to do.
It has been suggested - and I think rightly so given some of the teachings of the time and the reality of human nature at all times, that the lawyer is really asking Jesus:
"Who is NOT my neighbour? Who is that I am allowed to ignore or to neglect? Perhaps even to hate? What is the minimal thing that I need to do to keep God's law of love - and what can I safely get away with not doing...
That is a horrifying approach to keeping the law of God isn't it? Who must I love - and who can I get away with not loving...
It is a horrifying approach to keeping the law of God - but it makes sense when you think about it; it makes sense when you look at the world and consider the problems within it.
There are sinners my friends - people so evil that even God surely cannot love them - Rudolph Hitler - Joseph Stalin - Mao Tse Tung - people who have broken God's law in the most horrible ways imaginable.
Surely these people are not our neighbours. Surely we do not need to love them.
Surely there are other folk who are not our neighbours as well - folk who deserve our rebuke, our contempt, our anger, or simply our neglect?
Surely those who live outside the law of God live outside of the law that says we should love them.
Such, I think, was the kind of reasoning that lay behind the lawyer's question, "And who is my neighbour?"
Think about it:
- How often do we write people off because they are beyond the pale?
- How often do we focus our attention, our time, our love, upon particular kinds of people because of where they live and what they do and how they are related to us, and deliberately ignore, neglect, or slight others because of where they live and what they do?
I know that in myself I sometimes feel a tremendous anger toward the lazy, towards the freeloaders and the takers of our society. I recall the words of scripture that state that those who would eat should work - and I allow myself at times to get carried away by my feelings - by my sense of what is right - and to judge those whom I have NEVER MET by whether or not they have a job or are even trying to work.
And I know that in almost every place I have lived in this country there is a resentment towards an entire class of people who happen to come from another land - a resentment that is built upon some true horror stories - but which, in the end, fails to discriminate between persons in that class of people who have done wrong and those who have not.
Refugees, immigrants, boat people, people with AIDS, drug users, welfare bums, criminals, the list of the unworthy at times seems endless, the list of those who are not worthy to be called our neighbours. The list of those who for one reason or another do not deserve our love, or at least not as worthy of as much love as we might give to those we regard as more pure, more deserving, more esteemed by God. Of not love them as much as we might love those who do good.
Yes indeed, the lawyer was seeking to justify himself when he asked Jesus "And who is my neighbour", and perhaps - in a silent way - in an unspoken way - so do we when we hear the commandment of God to love our neighbours as our self.
But wanting to justify himself, the lawyers asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
And Jesus replied: "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. And 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 Pakistani, an Indonesian, a Mexican Mennonite - an East Indian - A Serb - A Croatian - a man who had been on welfare for many years - an unrepentant sinner - while travelling came near the man, and when he saw him, he was moved by pity and he wrapped up his wounds, and took him in his own car, and took care of him, and paid for his lodgings until he was well again.
We know, don't we, the answer to the question that Jesus then asks the lawyer - the question: "which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
We know the answer because we have heard it before. And because deep within us the law of God is indeed written upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We know - and - if we are honest - we, like the lawyer, feel unjustified, unholy - not really as loving as we thought we were at the first.
And so it should be - for each of us has indeed fallen short of the glory of God.
Who was a neighbour to the man?
The lawyer knew the answer - it was written in his heart as well. He knew that the one who showed the man mercy was neighbour to him, and with Jesus' next words, the words, "Go and do likewise" he realized that the really important question concerning loving others was not so much "And who is my neighbour" but rather "What must I do to be a neighbour?" "To whom must I become a neighbour?"
It is not always an easy question to answer. It is not always easy because while we know the answer in our head and our hearts - real life keeps getting in the way.
Quite a few years ago a study was done at a certain University.
The study dealt with people's readiness to help others. Forty students were involved. Half of them were given a manuscript on vocational placements of seminarians of which they were to make a recording. The other half were given the text of today's parable with the same instructions. The recording session was to take place on the other side of the campus from where they were.
One third of the students were told that they had plenty of time to reach the recording session. One third was told that they had to go immediately in order to make it on time. And one third were told that they were already late. Each student was given a designated route to the recording studio. Along that route, although the students did not know it, a man had been placed. He was in one of the longer and darker alleys - and he was to pretend to be in pain and in obvious need of help.
The results are very instructive. First of all the reaction of the students to the man in the alley was not affected in the slightest by the material that they had read and practised before heading for their recording session.
The main factor in whether or not the students stopped to help the man in pain was whether or not they had enough time to get to the recording studio.
Only 16 of the 40 students stopped at all. Of this number the most were from students who had plenty of time - 63% of those students stopped. Only 45% of those with just enough time stopped, and only 10% of those who were told that they were late stopped.
"What must I do to inherit eternal life" is the question the lawyer first asks Jesus.
It was a question meant to test the knowledge and faith of Jesus.
The answer to that question - and to the follow-up question, "Who is my neighbour", test us.
What are your priorities? What keeps you from loving others? From not only recognizing them as your neighbours, but actually helping them, actually loving them?
Perhaps it is time to stop and think about what is important - about what leads to eternal life, and what does not.
Each day God sends people to us - people for us to love - whether those people be clerks in our banks and our stores, panhandlers on our streets, teenagers on our corners, or the people who live a few blocks over from us.
But it isn't always easy to love the folk we meet.
God has also sent to me on different days to people who have hurt me or hurt others - and my natural reaction- which is not always one of kindness or mercy - tries to get in my way - and in the way of Christ's love coming out from within me. I want to turn away from - to ignore - to forget certain people. I want to be angry at certain people and groups of people and to feel good about that anger - to feel righteous in it - and so it is for most of you as well.
There are people out there who do not act like they are our neighbours, or the neighbours of anyone else. People who do not show love to me - or to anyone or anything else I care for.
That is the way it is in the world around us.
But we are not of the world my friends. We are of God - we are born of the Spirit into Christ, and we are called to live differently - to think differently - to do differently.
We are called to be neighbours to those who are not our neighbours - to love those who do not necessarily love us, to give to others who may not ever give back to us.
"Who was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" "What must I do to be a neighbour?" "To whom must I become a neighbour?"
These are all good questions, questions that each of us do well to ponder as we consider the larger question that Jesus responds too in today's gospel
"Teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life?"
And as we ponder his answer:
'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, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'"
May God bless you in your meditation. Amen.
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