Go And Do Likewise

Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Luke 10:25-37

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Parents use guilt trips to teach their children a lesson. Grandparents tell stories. God does both. If you've heard anything about Jesus before then you've probably heard of "The Good Samaritan." If you've tuned in today expecting a good message centered around the Good Samaritan then you may be disappointed. I will discuss the Samaritan, but only in the extent that it pertains to the rest of the narrative. The subject of the narrative found in Luke 25 is not the Good Samaritan. The subject is not even Jesus. The subject is a lawyer who had a few questions for Jesus. The predicate, the verb that takes action and interacts with this lawyer is Jesus' response. So the question is how did Jesus fully respond and why did he respond this way?

The lawyer asked Jesus a basic "How-to" question for Jesus: How to inherit eternal life? If Jesus ever authored one of those "For Dummies" instructional books, it probably would have been about inheriting eternal life. So Jesus responds twofold “What is written in the law?" and "What is your reading of it?” By "the Law", he (and most other references to The Law in Scripture) means the Jewish scriptural Law, the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament authored by Moses). This lawyer would have been very familiar with it because he wasn't a scholar of secular Roman Law but of religious Jewish Law. But Christ isn't just concerned about the lawyer reading Scripture but understanding Scripture, so he asks him what his "reading" of it was... or how he understood it. The lawyer's response of quoting a mash up of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 was correct. This is the textual recipe for inheriting eternal life. The problem is that it only works if you know how to act out the meaning of the verses: How do I love God and how do I love my neighbor as myself? The lawyer brings this problem to the forefront when he asks the identity of his neighbor. It appears that he already had an opinion on this matter because it says that he asked this to "justify himself." So to explain who his neighbor was, Jesus goes into grandfather mode and proceeds to tell a story.

Jesus tells the story of a (presumably Jewish) man who while travelling is attacked by robbers, beaten and left for dead. While he lay roadside he passed on two occasions by men who would have been expected to assist him. Both were Jewish and religious clergyman (a temple priest and a Levite...think deacon). The person that stops and helps him is a Samaritan. The Samaritans and Jews were not only seen as different, they were seen as openly hostile. Their relationship is similar to how we currently view Israelis and Palestinians (even though Samaritans still exist). This Samaritan would have been expected to show disdain or at least avoidance for his ethnic enemy, but instead he showed intimate mercy. He did more than treat this Jewish man as a neighbor. He cared for him as a brother. He nursed and provided for him as a son. He loved this man as he loved himself.



Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Why did Jesus give the example of the Samaritan? Because the Samaritan was as different as the lawyer could imagine? Because Jesus wanted to show the lawyer that love for your neighbor means love for your perceived enemy? Yes, but Jesus could have achieved all of that by making the Samaritan the victim and the Jewish man the hero that saves and nurtures him to health. Why did Jesus make the Samaritan the sacrificial hero? Well their appears to be a tradition of Jewish prophets and writers in Scripture showing faithfulness amongst Gentiles (non-Jews) to show the faithlessness of their Jewish listeners. These include the stories of Elijah and the widow, Ruth and Naomi (a whole book about this subject) and Rahab the harlot to name a few. This is the equivalent of a parental guilt trip. Specifically it is the shaming tactic that parents use when they compare you with one of your peers that is outside of the family, "Why don't be more like that Johnson boy." Jesus used this method a few times himself. Like when he encountered the Roman military leader who had unusual faith, greater than Jesus had seen in all of Israel. Jesus was telling this pious Jewish legal scholar that in his years of studying the Torah he had missed the whole point. Jesus was telling him that to inherit eternal life he would have to be like this Samaritan. He would have to be more like this Gentile.

God still gives us real life examples of the Good Samaritan. The photographs at the top of this blog entry are from Palestinian artist and activist Emily Jacir. She was born in Bethlehem (no I didn't make that up) was raised in Saudi Arabia and Italy and pursued under and post grad studies in the U.S. Even though she was part of the Diaspora abroad, Emily still kept abreast of the political struggles of Palestinian people back home. Having an American passport gave her an advantage that many other Palestinians don't have: freedom of movement in Israel. From 2001 to 2003 she contacted 30 Palestinians living abroad and in the occupied territories. She asked them "If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” After collecting these requests she went all over Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories and fulfilled such wishes as:

"Go to Haifa and play soccer with the first Palestinian boy that you see on the street."
"Drink the water in my parents' village."
"Go to Bayt Lahia and bring me a photo of my family, especially my brother's kids."
"Go to the Israeli post office and pay my phone bill."
"Go to my mother's grave in Jerusalem on her birthday and place flowers and pray."
"Do something on a normal day in Haifa, something I might do if I was living there now."

Emily Jacir documented and performed all of these acts as artwork... but it may be a little more. It is the Lord's work. It is what the Samaritan did. It is doing for others when they do not have the ability to do for themselves. It is showing mercy. It is showing love through acts of kindness. It is nursing the stranger on the side of the road when others pass him by. 

Where We Come From, Emily Jacir

Now some of you may respond that Emily Jacir is not a perfect parallel to the Good Samaritan because both she and the people that she aided were all Palestinian. Touche! However she is not the same as me and you, and that is the crux that Jesus' story rest upon. Emily Jacir is a Muslim. You know, one of those people that the TV News tells us that we should be afraid of and our television ministers infer are the farthest from God's grace. Remember the Culture Wars? I mean the ones that aren't surrounding abortion and Gay Rights. The Culture Wars make us think that Christianity and Islam are destined to have unending animosity and that the Crusades were the best thing since sliced bread. They allude that Israelis and Palestinians political struggles are somehow justified in the Bible. They say that the Palestinians (or pick any other Middle Eastern group) are the same folks that the ancient kingdom of Israel fought with in the Old Testament. Now I am not saying that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict isn't messy and that both sides don't have some blood on their hands... and at the end of the day I am neither Palestinian or Israeli, so I cannot speak with full investment. I am a Christian though, and as a follower of Christ I see that our Islamophobia makes us blind to any good from our Muslim neighbors. It also makes us blind to the good that we fail to do. When we see past the fog of war and bigotry God has some interesting things to show us. He may even surprise us by using a Samaritan man to show his hand at work. He may even use a Muslim woman.    

The reason for Jesus' response to the lawyer and the source of eternal life are both wrapped up in Christ's last line to lawyer, "Go and do likewise." What are we called to go and do? In general, be like the Samaritan. In specific, show mercy. The showing of mercy is what made the Samaritan the traveler's neighbor. The showing of mercy is what makes us "holy", if by holy you mean "like God." For it was God who showed mercy to a stranger and enemy when he found him in need. He extended mercy and saved them from death. The stranger was not a Samaritan. The enemy was not a Muslim. That stranger and enemy of God was you and me.

Go and Do likewise.