(Luke 10:25-37)

“And who is my neighbor?”  The lawyer’s question in Luke 10

“The longest and most difficult journey we’ll ever take is the distance between our head and our heart.”

I know, I’m supposed to be writing about the next obstacle to contemplation.  That’s what was on my mind.  But God put something else in my heart, namely this story that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke.  And actually, the fact that I’m following my heart to write this and not my mind is itself an illustration of contemplation:  It is heart, not head driven.

So, to begin I’d like to invite you first of all to read the story in the Gospel of Luke.  And when you have, consider this questions: “Which character do you most relate to?”

Let’s begin with the lawyer.  Actually, he wasn’t a lawyer in the way that we understand the term.  Rather, he was an expert in the Law of Moses.  He knew the commandments, down to the most minute details.  This is illustrated by the fact that he adds “and love your neighbor as yourself” to the commandment about loving God.  This mandate is not part of the Ten Commandments proper (also called the decalogue), but rather is one of the additional explanations found in Leviticus 19:18.  The lawyer’s challenge isn’t merely that he’s living in slavery to the knowledge of the law, but that he believes he has to justify himself before God and others, a truth reflected by his follow-up question, “Who is my neighbor”? 

Are you like the lawyer?  Are you living under the demands of the law, believing that God desires you to do or to be something or someone that you’re not?  I can fully relate to the lawyer, because I’ve been there and done that, thinking that if I try to be a little more religious, a bit better with my believing, a lot more dedicated and pure with my living, then somehow God would love me more.  It’s an impossibly difficult burden to bear, and results in one either having too high, or too low of an opinion of oneself.  It turns us in on ourselves (curvatus en se), which Augustine considers the source of all sin, and in the process we lose site of the love of God and others.

Next there’s the traveler who is set upon by the robbers.  He is half dead.  I believe that this is a symbol for what the law, and life, and life under the law does to us.  It breaks us and beats us down and leaves us broken.  Have you experienced this?  Again, I have.  When we’re in that place we’re helpless, desperate for divine intervention.  Though painful, it’s not a bad place to be in the economy of God’s grace, for it’s then that God often-times showers us with an abundance of grace which sometimes in the form of a Good Samaritan.

Remember, Samaritans were looked down upon during the time of Jesus.  They were considered to be impure and unclean and a good religious person would have nothing to do with them. That’s why the Priest and the Levite, representing the people who think that checking the boxes of going to church, praying, or giving money to beggars, cross the road and avoid having any personal contact with the unfortunate traveler.  Is that you?  Have you avoided contact with those whom you consider to be “less than” yourself, or undeserving of your time, love, or attention?  I’ve done that before, thinking that my status or spirituality makes me better, or more deserving of God’s grace, and looking down and avoiding contact with the outcast.

But that wasn’t the case with the Samaritan.  The Samaritan goes to the man and touches him and takes care of him and provides for his healing.  Note, the Samaritan doesn’t SAY anything!  He doesn’t advise the traveler, or “share the Gospel”, or invite the person to church.  He just loves him and provides for him.  Have you been the Samaritan?  That is certainly the person that we want to be, or perhaps in our pride think that we are.  And maybe sometimes that’s true.

I believe that we have played the part of each of the people in this story.  Each one of them fits us at different times and faced with different challenges in our lives.  But here’s the thing, ultimately, I believe this story is about Jesus.  Here’s how I understand it.

Jesus is the expert in the law.  Not that He is merely knows the demands of the law, but that He placed Himself under those laws.  The life of Jesus was one of perfect law-keeping.  In fact, even unto His death He was fulfilling the law.  Why?  So that we can be freed from the terrors of it.

Jesus is also the Priest.  Not in the sense that He crosses the road to avoid the traveler, but rather that He provided the priestly duties, namely offering the sacrifice of Himself on the cross.  The book of Hebrews talks about this.

Jesus is also the traumatized traveler.  He was beaten and robbed. He was rejected and crucified and killed. He wasn’t left for half-dead, He was ALL dead.  He placed Himself in that position not merely to deliver us from death or from sin, but to fully empathize with the tragedies and traumas in life that we have to face.  How comforting it is to have Someone in our lives who has been where we’re at—who truly cares and has compassion. And thus we see the identity of the Good Samaritan:  Jesus.  Who comes to us in the form of other Good Samaritans.  In the words of Jesus:  “Go and do likewise”.