Today, we celebrate our first worship service in the Lenten season. We continue to read our way through the Gospel of Luke, turning to one of the most familiar stories of the gospel.
Please turn with me to LUke chapter 10. We will read verses 25 through 42:
The Scripture Luke 10:25-42
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “ ‘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 neighbor as yourself.’ ”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,
but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray…Heavenly Father, as we embark on this time of worship and reflection, we seek Your blessings. Pour out Your grace upon us, and may Your favour rest upon this gathering. Bless our minds to comprehend, our hearts to receive, and our lives to be transformed by Your word. Amen.
The Message Good Samaritan
In the Greco-Roman world, mercy was unpopular. Mercy is compassion shown especially to an offender or to a person that you have power over. When we are at someone’s mercy, we have no defense against them. When we are merciful, we treat someone with kindness when it is unmerited….Christianity emphasises mercy – starting when we are little children in the church nursery, we are taught that we should work to be merciful in our treatment of other people. This emphasis is part of our Childhood Sunday School lessons, and is encouraged in our formation and life as Christians together.
Yet, in the part of the ancient world influenced by Greek and Roman philosophy, the Hellenistic world, most intellectual people were opposed to Mercy. Mercy was equated with weakness. According to Hellenistic thought, the best way to live was to adhere to reason 100 percent of the time – emotions, especially compassion, interfered with rational thinking. And, in the ever shifting Hellenistic world, justice was the foundation of Roman society – crime was to be met with punishment, actions led to obvious consequences. So, if a ruler responded to an offence with mercy, the ruler failed to respond correctly. Crimes needed punishment. Emotions were unreasonable and needed to be tapered down. Rationality and reason were the bedrock of society. Everything was very black and white, with no shades of grey allowed.
Jewish law, and Jesus’ teachings, were contradictory to Hellenistic values. Jewish law and Jesus consistently preached a message of love, compassion and mercy. Instead of viewing mercy as a weakness, it was viewed as a Mitzvah – a deed that embodies the living out of God’s commandments.
This morning, our focus for the first Sunday in Lent includes a parable of Jesus that exemplifies the mercy of God and the mercy we are called to embrace as Christians. An expert in the law, a Levite, asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked the expert of the law of God what the law says we must do – to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And, then when the law expert pressed Jesus more and asked who fit under the definition of “neighbor,” Jesus told him the parable that we call the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.”
Christians have told this parable for 2000 years, and we have possibly lost sight of the significance of how the people of 1st century Israel would have felt that “good’ and “Samaritain” were contradictory and incompatible statements. In the first century, Jews and Samaritans were hostile enemies ... .although they shared common ancestry and both shared the Tanakh – the first 5 books of the Bible, the law of God. Jewish religious life is focused on Jerusalem as being the holiest site in the world, where God is to be worshipped, and Samaritan religious life is focused on Mount Gerizim in Gaza as the holiest site in the world, where God is to be worshipped. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylon in the 7th century BC and the Samaritans were the faithful remnant who stayed in Israel. During the exile, their religious and world views followed different paths, different forks in the road. Even though Jewish believers returned to Israel after the exile, the two groups never merged back into one, and by the first century, they were very hostile towards each other.
The victim in Jesus’ parable is Jewish. Jewish people hated Samaritans. Samaritan people hated Jewish people. Yet, the Jewish victim was not helped by a Jewish priest or a Jewish Levite who had dedicated his life to studying the word of God. The person who helped
him, the person who had compassion on him, the person who had mercy on him was his sworn enemy, a Samaritan. Jesus told us to “do likewise” – to be merciful like the Samaritan man was to the Jewish victim. We are compelled to be merciful – even to our enemies – even to people we dislike – even to people who have hurt us – even to people who have disobeyed the law.
In addition to the story of Jesus’ conversation with the scholar and sharing the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we also read the scripture of Martha complaining about Mary helping her be a good hostess to Jesus and his disciples. Jesus reminded Martha that we need to prioritize our relationship with Jesus – listening to Jesus’ teachings, experiencing the Holy Spirit, doing God’s work in the world – over our other responsibilities. When we are doing the work of Jesus, it is ok to de-prioritize everything else.
Lent is upon us. Over the next 40 days (36 days now) we are called to spend time reflecting on how to deepen our faith and enhance our relationship with God. Perhaps we have chosen to give up something meaningful to us – like meat or Facebook or candy – give up something we regularly take comfort in or that entertains us. Many of us commit to extra faithful practices over these 40 days – praying our way through the book of Psalms or creating a daily prayer ritual. This is a season to work on deepening our faith and implementing Christian practices in our lives.
Jesus’ teachings stood in contrast to the Hellenistic world-view that prevailed in the first century. He defied the norms of the Greco-Roman world by emphasizing mercy over rules, love over sticking to the law. We are called to model our behavior on the words of Jesus, not on the norms of our culture or society. Jesus emphasized love over everything else. The 21st century American culture is often at odds with acting with mercy – we are encouraged to put ourselves at an advantage over other people – we are encouraged to accumulate the best “stuff” and to show off materialistic goods – we are encouraged to do what is best for ourselves and our families, even if that means other people get the short end of the stick. Treating other people with mercy and caring for people who have less money or status than ourselves is a requirement of the Christian faith, but is not a requirement of American cultural norms. Jesus encouraged his followers to act with love and mercy even though that was not what the Hellenistic world valued. Jesus encourages us to act with love and mercy, even though that is is not what our 21st century American culture values.
As we consider our walk with Jesus in this Lenten season, we are called to evaluate if we need to make some adjustments in our behavior. Are there things we need to change in our lives in order to be more merciful? Are there behaviors we need to change so that we are more loving? Are we in the position to do more to help other people, people who may not have the talents we have, our the resources we have, our the support we have? How can we make a difference in our community and in the wider world.
As people of faith, we are called to work to transform our world into the world God wants it to become. Even though it is not easy or fun to act in ways that buck the trend of our society or culture, we are called to live out the mandate of our faith – to love our God and to love each other.
Let us endeavor to do so today and all days. Amen.
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