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Luke 10:25-37
● I’m convinced that many times when I read the parables Jesus offered, I
have a tendency to identify myself with the most admirable character. In the
parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, I would like to think that I
am tax collector… whose life is characterized by humility and whose faith is
so wonderfully inclusive. In the parable of the two debtors, I would like to
envision myself as the one with the biggest debt… the one who loved most.
In this story, I would obviously be the “Samaritan”… the kindly passer-by
who selflessly attended to the needs of others with no thought for the cost
or level of personal inconvenience.
● What becomes disturbing is when I discover that my responses are better
identified with the legal expert or the Pharisee or the one with the huge
debt who is no longer overwhelmed by grace.
● I’d like to think that as the
church, we have been Jesus’
healing, restorative love to the world, but with all the continued
antagonism, I’m not sure we haven’t, at times, more often been the priest or
the Levite, willing to use our faith as an excuse for our lack of
involvement or as a means of isolating and quarantining ourselves from
Samaria.
We all practice some form of “profiling”, don’t we?
(social, ethnic, religious)
It’s simply the practice of reaching pre-mature conclusions about
individuals or groups of people and then pre-determining our response
without consideration for their particular story.
Why?
Because we’ve heard it all before!
It’s the same old story!
So, we often end up stereo-typing the wounded.
● Every time we are exposed to a person in need, either consciously or
subconsciously, we decide what we believe to be true of that person.
They are either…
…helpless victims---
unwitting product of some unfortunate socio-economic environment or,
…habitual losers---
deserving of the consequences; their addictions were inevitable;
homelessness was their destiny.
● As long as we can speak about the conditions in terms of
“ethnic or social trends”,
then they are simply statistics and that allows us to remain at a
comfortable distance. And, any time that we can create distance, we lose the
personal dimension and find it easier to justify our lack of response [after
all, it’s one thing not to contribute to a telethon, it’s quite another to
walk away from such blatant woundedness].
● So, we conclude that
“those people” are simply
locked into certain irreversible and predictable life-patterns. As we do, we
simply confirm their hopelessness---
it’s just the way it is.
After all, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho will always be littered with
needy people; people who are squandering opportunities or simply looking for
a hand-out [I wish we could finally put to rest this notion that we all have
the same opportunities and that the ones who succeed are just the ones who
have taken advantage].
But---you’ll never risk engaging the wounded until you see yourself as “one
of them”.
Have we forgotten that in the bigger story, we are the wounded and the
broken? In the parables, we are the sick that need a doctor, we are the lost
that need to find our way home.
Why is it that we often seem to possess the capacity to look and then
look away?
I’m convinced that one of the greatest tragedies of the human
existence is to go unnoticed. If
no one notices, then we assume that no one cares. After repeatedly
pretending not to notice, I have decided that even if I have chosen not to
give in a certain situation--- even if my conscience can fend off the “God
bless you” on the cardboard sign, I would, at the very least, dignify the
person with eye-contact.
● Because we are uncomfortable with pain or the wounded, people remain on
the “periphery”---out of the corner of our eye.
Often, our “first glance” reveals just enough to confirm our presumptions
and finish writing the story. It allows us to formulate a scenario which
validates our assumptions.
You’ll know your ‘soul is eroding’ when all you see is “needy people” and
not “people with needs”.
The circumstances always reveal our hearts. Our lack of compassion over the
brokenness of our “near ones” simply confirms that our hearts do not yet
beat in rhythm with God’s.
“Who is my neighbor?”
The original question posed, but Jesus asks,
“Who is being neighborly?” Jesus was
not just looking for accurate doctrine.
Remember, Jesus would never allow us to continue to promote and develop a
faith that revels in being right, but ignores human suffering.
The condition of our heart will always define who becomes our neighbor.
The issue is: we typically avoid these kind of neighborhoods. We don’t
intentionally move our families into neighborhoods where we would be exposed
to such woundedness… we drive through/around them. We choose our neighbors.
We don’t mind “visiting the marginalized”, but have they really found
themselves incorporated into the greater community? I wonder if we will ever
really be able to see it as anything other than the “advantaged” helping the
“dis-advantaged”?
● This, then, is the challenge for all of us as students of Christ:
We see a need, we recognize it is within our power to meet the need, we
choose, at that moment, whether we will shut our eyes and go on our way or
move toward our “near-one” with compassion.
Listen, God is not asking us to meet every need or pick up every
stray, but he does ask us to address the needs we encounter and see them as
filled with God-possibilities.
● It’s really easy for me to hear the stories and be able to pass the
“multiple choice” test that Jesus would give at the end. I have discovered
that life is often “messier” and more “complex” than the seemingly
“hypothetical” scenarios that Jesus paints.
● What distinguishes a neighbor is usually just their willingness to get
involved… no particular qualifications, no outstanding physical or mental
capabilities… just “getting in”.
But, getting in is always a risk
because, most often, you don’t know what you are getting into!
1 John 3:17,18
“But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in
need and refuses to help (closes his heart against him) – how can God's love
be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words, but with
actions and in truth”.
Love never allows us to leave the story feeling good about ourselves while
others are still in distress.
Love is always “self-explanatory”, but even in its purest form, it stills
makes us suspicious (what’s your angle?)
I have discovered that grace is so ‘irresponsible’. It’s always giving when
it should be demanding compensation; it’s always getting involved when it’s
safer to remain at a distance.
vs. 35 “the next time I’m here…”
(“when I return…” NIV)
What the Samaritan was attempting to make possible was not just an
intervention, but reconciliation.
There are wounds that are easily remedied; that can easily be
dressed, and there are wounds that require patient and personal
involvement. It’s the difference between being “healed” and “being made
whole”.
We call it “minding our own
business”, God calls it
“injustice”.
God’s grace, although offered freely and without limits, always demands more
of us; always demands that we recognize that what we are sharing is “God’s
space”; always requires that the other is never abandoned in pursuit of our
own salvation.
Have you ever noticed how Jesus seemed to always measure our progress in
terms of how we were responding to the “least of these”? (naked, hungry,
imprisoned)
Jesus never regarded faith as some “private, personal experience”. He
clearly noted that the quality of our faith is most often characterized by
how the grace at work in us is transforming the way we are “with each
other”.
How do I keep from being used? How can I ensure that I am not being taken
advantage of ? You can’t!
I have decided that it is better to help “some” who are irresponsible in the
process than to let the truly needy suffer from the screening process!
After all, what possible justification could we muster for being aware of
preventable suffering and refusing to get involved?
Our most notable response is that we just don’t want to “enable” them or
“endorse” a counterproductive lifestyle. So, we compromise…we don’t do
anything!
● It’s quite a paradox that God’s grace, being so indiscriminate and
available, we actually view as conditional.
“As soon as we have all the facts, we
can ascertain our response”. Jesus never allowed the facts to deter
grace.
“Go”
and “do”… Jesus final thoughts.
No more debate; no more verbal jousting; no more hiding behind God-speak; no
more using your theology as an excuse to remain irrelevant and disengaged.
The real beauty of the parable: we don’t know the response of the expert…
we’re left only with our own hearts! ● We currently find ourselves right in the middle of a world that God loves and is in the process of rebuilding, renewing and restoring. Such restorative work will require re-naming and re-envisioning our near-ones to include all that God loves and longs to reclaim. “Wanna help?”
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