GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Thirteenth Sunday after TRINITY

6 September, AD 2009

TEXT:  St. Luke 10:(23) 25-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him.  Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”  (St. Luke 10: 36-37).

It is clear by the way in which the Gospel lesson is arranged that we are dealing, this morning, with three distinct sections; one which ends the previous section of the sending forth of the Seventy and another two which, being complete in themselves, make up the larger parable of the Good Samaritan.  Now the parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best loved and best known parables of Holy Scripture.  It is packed to its very brim full of ethical teachings and truths which Jesus wanted to get across to those who heard His voice, but to understand everything in one sitting would not do the parable or the work of the Holy Ghost justice, so we must temper our words and concentrate on one of the many subjects which this parable and, consequently, Jesus, Himself, addresses to us today.

The early Church Fathers saw in this parable a strict allegory with a thoroughly Christological interpretation.  The good Samaritan is Jesus, the oil and wine are the Sacraments, the inn is the Church, the two pence are the two Testaments for preaching, and the inn-keeper is a steward of the mysteries or Sacraments of God.  Likewise, legalists, like the lawyer, can get no understanding out of an encounter with Jesus unless or until they comprehend that they are the man who has been beaten and left for dead; and Jesus, in turn, is the Samaritan who shows mercy and pity upon them in their sinful state or condition.  That’s how Ambrose, Augustine, Origen, and Jerome all interpreted this parable, with some degree of variance or nuance to that basic theme.  Now while that method of interpretation may seem archaic or mundane to us in the twenty-first century, it does open a way into this parable for us to apprehend at least one of the points Jesus has made and is making to us today.

We begin at verse 25 when the lawyer asks Jesus the question, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Knowing that this man is a specialist in civil and religious law, Jesus turns around and asks him, What do you think?  Why don’t you tell me what a man must do to inherit eternal life?”  The lawyer then repeats the SHEMA (Deut. 6:4) and with it Lev. 19:18 both of which summarize the Law, which we hear every Sunday – Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.  Jesus answers, “Very good.  Do this, do what you just said, and you will live.”  That is the bulk of the entire Gospel in two precepts.  Two precepts you hear with your own ears every Sunday.  Yet on so many occasions, we, like the lawyer, wanting to justify our own selves as to why we don’t put those precepts entirely into action within our own lives say, at least internally, what the lawyer asked Jesus outwardly, “But who is my neighbor?”  This lawyer has gone the extra mile to try to entrap Jesus;  to humiliate and/or discredit Him publicly.  Jesus doesn’t launch into a deep theological discourse with the lawyer, but tells a simple parable which all who hear can understand as He responds to the lawyer’s question.  We won’t retell the parable here because you all know it, yet as the story moves along, it begins to dawn on the listeners and the lawyer what Jesus is getting at.  His story “fits the pattern” with other example stories of the day.  The first two men have come by and not helped this half-dead, beaten, naked man in the ditch, so there has got to be a third man who comes by who will and, sure enough, there is and he does, yet this man is not a Jew as most of them expected.  He is a hated Samaritan – those half-breed disrespectful, scum of the earth, worse than Gentile dogs, who stops and cares for the man in need.  He binds the man’s wounds, puts him on his own donkey’s back, and takes him to an inn, whereupon he gives the inn-keeper money for his up-keep and, what’s more, promises to come back on his return trip and check-up on this poor man!  This is more than most of them, the lawyer included, can comprehend.  It is now in their quandary that Jesus turns and asks the lawyer, “Now which of these three thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?”  The lawyer, knowing the answer, cannot even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan”, but says, instead, “He that showed mercy on him.”  And then Jesus makes His point and says, “Go and do thou likewise.”  Just as the lawyer went the extra mile to try to entrap and humiliate Jesus, Jesus has gone the extra mile to show the lawyer that he has no conception of even how to ask the right question, much less arrive at the right answer.  For Jesus has turned the entire issue from object – (who is my neighbor), to one of subject – to whom should I be a neighbor?  And the answer is, To anyone whom you see in need.  Why?  Because of the Summary of the Law at the beginning of this parable:  Love God and Love your neighbor.  Very simply, love is the fulfillment of the Law as St. Paul said in Romans 13:9-10 and which is reflected in many other Scriptural references.  The action of Love “fulfills” or completes the Mosaic Law in at least three different respects.  It goes beyond the Law, between the Law, and under the Law.  Love goes under the Law, as it were, because Love is concerned, not primarily with actions, but with motives (see Matthew 5:43-48).  Love goes between the Law in the sense of filling in the gaps of our behaviour in the wide range of our relationships.  Rules or laws are specific and leave untidy gaps as they regulate human behaviour.  It is said that the Jewish Law contained 613 commandments:  365 – thou shalt nots and only 248 – thou shalts.  But even so many rules were not enough to define every aspect of every human behaviour.  But Love, God’s Love alone can and does meet the need for each and every occasion.  Finally, Love goes beyond the Law, reflecting God’s love for us; not merely in meeting our own needs, but going way beyond them; limitless in its ability to fill us with God’s Presence and then motivating us to share that limitlessness of God’s compassion and Love on all who need it.  This is the very means by which and through which we become neighbors to others in need.  Very simply, one who only obeys the Law or the rules is only trying to save him or herself.  One who Loves, on the other hand, is trying to serve God.  The former is slavery, as we see in the Old Testament – slavery to the Law.  The latter is perfect freedom as we find and experience for ourselves in the New Testament.  

Finally, I want to say a word about duty.  What the Good Samaritan did for that man in need had nothing whatsoever to do with duty.  Love of God and love of neighbor is not to be calculative or restrained in any way, but almost foolishly lavish and extravagant.  Look at the Sermon on the Mount, look at the parable where the employer paid all his laborers a full day’s wages, though some only worked for one hour.  See how a father rewards an unworthy and prodigal son with expensive gifts and a great feast.  So here again in this parable of the Good Samaritan we see this hallmark of Jesus:  a complete stranger acting as neighbor, the extravagance of compassion, oil and wine on his wounds, and so forth and so on.  He could have stopped at any time and his “duty” to a wounded stranger would have been fulfilled.  Yet he did not.  He went on and paid for the man’s care and promised to come back and pay more if necessary.  The point is the Good Samaritan was not aware of any duty at all, but acted out of Love, just as Jesus acted out of Love when He died for you and for me.  Maybe Ambrose, Augustine, Origen, and Jerome weren’t that far off the mark when they said that we are the half-dead man in the ditch in need of mercy and compassion.  Yet for us it is not some stranger who binds our wounds and gives us our life back, but it is Jesus, Himself.  Jesus, who hung on the Cross and died for us, who feeds us with the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, who through the Holy Ghost nourishes our soul through the hearing of Holy Scripture.  And it is God the Father who loves us that we might truly come to love Him and our neighbors, as we love ourselves.  Those are the two greatest commandments and, with them, we are sent out to go the extra mile to Love God and our neighbor.  It’s not enough just to know the right answer, but to put that answer into action and do it!  On this Labor Day weekend and beyond, labor to make loving God and neighbor a reality in your own life!  Do this and ye shall live, eternally!

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever.  World without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+