Reflection
As we take a moment this morning to reflect upon today’s gospel, we notice it has two distinct movements. The first is the interaction with the scholar of the law, followed by Jesus’ familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. This is all triggered by a man who sees himself as an educated scholar. Luke tells us that this man physically changes his body posture; he stands up. Luke adds, “to test Jesus”. That line is key. This is not a casual conversation, nor is it Jesus standing in an open area teaching a great number of people of his own accord. It begins adversarially from the man who believes he is smarter, even superior to Jesus. He takes the opportunity to initiate a verbal joust with Jesus by asking the first question.
Jesus, of course, gives the man the textbook answer; one that can’t be argued with. So, the man chooses to ask a follow-up question. Pressing on, Luke says that the man wishes to justify himself. This should cause a yellow or even red flag to wave here. Self-justification is a false substitute for a life that failed to love.
Since the term neighbor is not clearly defined, it leaves room for a broad definition. Looking at this from the man’s educated perspective, by hearing Jesus’ explicit definition, he will know where he stands. Think of it this way. To have a clearly defined perimeter fence of who is the neighbor and who is not the neighbor, reveals who I need to love and care about. Those would be the people inside the fence. Then anyone outside of the fence are not my concern. I am free of any responsibility for their well-being.
So, Jesus does what Jesus always does… he switches things up. Talking to a scholar who is comfortable in the well-defined boundaries of Jewish law, Jesus tells a parable. And he flips the issue from a question of classification to a question of action. Instead of defining lines and boundaries and asking, “Who qualifies as my neighbor?” Jesus asks the more direct question,
“Who acted as a neighbor?”
The lawyer wanted the boundary drawn around the object of duty. Jesus draws it around the subject who loves.
Is this applicable to us today. Perhaps more so than ever.
We live in a contentious world. Not only is there enormous divisions between countries, we have divisional chaos in our own country, in our own cities and in our own lives. We define ourselves as for or against groups based on religion, political ideology, gender, sexual orientation, culture, economic status, education, race, all contributing to chaos and division. If you listen carefully, this self-justification always points straight back to ourselves.
I invite you today to think about how much energy you spend making sure your ideology and positions are validated. This is often what drives us to choose the social groups we belong to. We want to feel supported and encouraged in our positions, when really we are merely justifying ourselves.
We live in a fractured world, and the temptation is always to keep refining who is in and who is out. The Gospel today refuses that question. It hands us back only one question: who will you become on the road today?
