Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity, August 25, 2024
Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity, August 25, 2024
Understanding the dramatic impact of this “good” Samaritan response to the lawyer’s challenge escapes us who do not live under an oppressive caste system. The peasants, those usual members of the crowd surrounding Jesus, had little or no social status and were considered deplorables by the members of the religious establishment, the political establishment, and the Roman occupiers. This lawyer, as an expert in the Torah, challenging Jesus would have been a member of the privileged religious caste. Jesus’ responses to the challenge turned it back upon the challenger, no doubt, delighting the crowd.
Jesus’ first response tests the lawyer’s knowledge regarding the letter of the law. The lawyer’s answer receives commendation from Jesus, “You have answered correctly…” (vs. 28). But the lawyer, who just has to justify himself (as do all those who are under the law), continues to test Jesus, “Who is my neighbor” (vs. 29)? Jesus sets forth a situation that absolutely mocks the members of the religious establishment. They, who would have been the cleanest of the clean, the most pious of all the pious, are exposed as unmerciful. The priest and the Levite would not give up their piety to help the “untouchable” naked and perhaps dead man. They, like the lawyer, may have known and followed the letter of the law but there was no mercy in them. In contrast, the Samaritan (most likely a trader of sorts) was not even on the map of social status, no better than a dog. This one, who would have had little knowledge of the law’s content, certainly knew the spirit of the law: have mercy. Jesus forces the lawyer to acknowledge that practicing the spirit of the law means more than merely knowing the content of the law. Who was the victim’s neighbor? “The one who showed him mercy…” (vs. 3 7).
You, who have been the lowest of the low, sinners all… you have been delivered into the hands of a good neighbor… a neighbor who shows you mercy, Jesus Christ who binds up your wounds, forgives your sins, and puts you into the care of the metaphorical equivalent of the innkeeper… he sets you under the care of your preacher.
Table Talk: Discuss mercy as the spirit of the law and why simply obeying the law’s content is insufficient.
Pray: Heavenly Father, keep me merciful toward my neighbors even if it proves me impious under the content of the law. Amen
Luke 10:23-37
23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said to him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? 27 And he answered, 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. 28 And he said to him, You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 30 Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? 37 He said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You go, and do likewise.