THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text:  Luke 10:25-37

Theme:  "Impulse!"

8th Sunday after Pentecost

July 14, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d]”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

There are even laws named after this story.  They're called "Good Samaritan" laws, and they offer legal protection to anyone who gives reasonable assistance to someone in peril.

It really is a great story that Jesus told.  Traditionally, what people seem to learn from it -- the moral of the story, if you will -- is that God wants them to be like the Good Samaritan.   "Be like Jesus, as always, but be like the Good Samaritan too; then God will love you and the world will be a better place."  Get in the game!   Don't be like the priest and the Levite who pass through life, rubber-necking all the way, armchair quarterbacking as they go, never getting involved, never participating.  Thus, the moral of the story goes. As far as morals go, it's not bad at all.

But there is more to this story than just morals.  The Good Samaritan account, if one would dig deeper, could yield valuable insights into such areas as race and racism (Zimmerman trial, anyone?), the involvement of religion in public life, our own mission trip to Haiti, how to define the word neighbor and what it means to be a neighbor.  It could shed light on the legal profession, the healthcare delivery system, and even biomedical ethics.  The man robbed on the Jericho road was, after all, left "half-dead".  In other words, there's only a fifty-fifty chance that he'll survive.  Nowadays, people in that condition are often in intensive care units costing roundabout ten thousand dollars a night.  Does he or she have health insurance or a durable power of attorney for healthcare?  The Good Samaritan, you will recall, either paid for it all or was at least willing to do so.

This time around with the Good Samaritan, my own study kept bringing me to one word:  impulse.  Everyone in the story was  acting on some sort of impulse.  Most of the time, we are told that it is not a good idea to act on impulse.  But stop and think about it:  is not everything we do based on some sort of impulse?  It may be the impulse of habit; it may be the impulse of routine -- or any one of a number of things.  It seems as long as we have a pulse, we have impulse.

At the beginning of the story, the impulse of Jesus is to go to Jerusalem.  He would go there to die.  The lawyer Jesus encountered was not interested in death at all.  His impulse was to inherit life!  "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" he asks.

That's a question we don't ask.  At a time when it's almost politically incorrect to talk about religion in public life, it's not how we would phrase such a question.  For us, the lawyer's impulsive question is more like this:  "Please tell me it will all be okay." 

 

That's the plea that was once made to the famous author Kurt Vonnegut.  His reply to the young American who offered it was this.  The young American says:  "Please tell me it will all be okay."  Vonnegut replies:  "Welcome to Earth, young man.  It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  It's round and wet and crowded.  At the outside, Joe, you've got about a hundred years here.  There's only one rule that I know of:  "Dammit, Joe, you've got to be kind."

There it is:  the impulse to be kind.  As we shall see, it comes from unlikely sources. 

What impulse led the poor man to travel the Jericho road?  Was it business or pleasure?  We don't know.  What impulse motivated the robbers?  Desperation, greed, power, control, things like that come to mind.  And what of the priest and the Levite, the representatives of religion?  They see the traveler left half dead, and their impulse is to keep going and not risk getting involved or getting their hands dirty. 

Then there's the Good Samaritan.  What impulse is operative there?  For most of the folks in Jesus' neck of the woods, there couldn't be any good impulses in a Samaritan at all. There was a saying back then among the Jews:  "The only good Samaritan is a dead Samaritan." Jews looked upon Samaritans as inferior half-breeds. Their ideas about God were wrong; their worship was wrong; their culture was wrong.  On the flipside, the feelings were mutual.  To the Jew of Jesus' day, "Good Samaritan" was a contradiction in terms.  Think about the person that angers you or scares you the most, and then put "Good" in front of it.  What would we call this parable today?  The parable of the "Good Islamic fundamentalist"?

Nevertheless, this Samaritan -- this inferior half-breed whose beliefs and ideas were all wrong -- had within him the impulse to be kind.  He acted on that impulse.  He went to the half-dead traveler, took pity on him, applied the initial first aid, got him to a safe place, and then picked up the tab.  His kindness went the full Monty, as they say.

Our lawyer friend is dumbfounded.  You see, he had another impulse:  to justify himself.  Jesus had helped him answer his own question.  How do you inherit eternal life?  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself," said the lawyer.  Being a good lawyer, he was simply quoting the text, presenting the facts, etc.  Jesus said:  "You're right.  Do that and you will live." 

Yet, at that moment, the hidden agenda came into view; impulse to justify himself kicked in. My friends, that same impulse is -- without doubt -- one of the most powerful impulses known to humanity.  It's like the default position.  Standing under the law of God, we're as guilty as hell.  But we still seek to justify ourselves.

"Who is my neighbor?" asks the lawyer.  The implication here is that we should be vetting who our neighbors are.  Or more simply, we decide who our neighbors are.  I remember that great quote from John Wayne's "Chisum" movie.  Chisum says to Lawrence Murphy, the bad guy:  "We may have to be neighbors, but I don't have to be neighborly.  Neighbors.  Some make the list; others don't.  For that lawyer, a Samaritan would not make the cut.

Who was a "neighbor to the one who fell into the hands of robbers?" asks Jesus.  Stunned to the core, the lawyer replies:  "...the one who had mercy on him."

The impulse to be kind, to have mercy, to be a good neighbor is not defined by religion, or race, or politics, or creeds, or even pending immigration laws.  It comes from the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save it:  the ultimate impulse to be kind.

We Christians seek not to inherit eternal life. In Jesus, we already have it.  With God's help, we seek to act on the impulse of kindness.

 

Let me be a little kinder
Let me be a little blinder
To the faults of those about me
Let me praise a little more

Let me be when I am weary
Just a little bit more cheery
Think a little more of others
And a little less of me

Let me be a little braver
When temptation bids me waver
Let me strive a little harder
To be all that I should be

Let me be a little meeker
With the brother that is weaker
Let me think more of my neighbor
And a little less of me.

Amen.