“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Today’s gospel raises the most fundamental question about salvation. The question of how we are saved is one that should be uppermost in everyone’s mind. If we believe that the function of the church is to ensure that we are prepared as best as we can be to meet our Creator, as each one of us must surely do, then we need to pay special attention to this gospel reading.

We are told that a lawyer wanted to test Christ. Lawyers were also known as scribes and had great influence. Their responsibility was to apply mosaic law to the changing times. As the law of God required all areas of life to be controlled so as not to transgress the law, not only theological questions but also legal questions were determined by them. The scribe was part lawyer, part scholar, part preacher, and part magistrate.

The interests of the scribe lay in ensuring that the law was maintained. Christ is asked “teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Christ responds to the question posed by saying, “what is written in the law? How do you read?” The scribe’s answer is predictable. The first part of his answer he takes from Deuteronomy 6:5 where it states “you shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might, and with all your mind”. The second part of his answer he refers to Leviticus 19:18 and adds that you must “love your neighbour as yourself”. Yes this scribe knew the law.

But it doesn’t end there, the scribe asks “and who is my neighbour?”. It is in answer to this point that Christ narrates the parable of the good Samaritan. Imagine the shock of the scribe! How could a Samaritan be the exemplar of the good neighbour? It is well known at that time that Jews and Samaritans despised each other. It is well known that to a Jew the Samaritan was a foreigner and as such unclean. Christ himself when he charged the 12 Apostles to minister says “go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans”. How on earth can such a gentile be used by Christ as a example to explain mercy and love?

Let us pause to reflect upon this. What is Christ really saying? I would suggest that by the very choice of  the Samaritan as the good neighbour Christ is in effect telling each one of us that being a Christian is not a birthright and no-one should assume that as a Christian they will be saved. Salvation is not about entitlement. It is about the mercy of God and about how we respond to that mercy in what we do for our fellow human beings.

Let us look at that a little further. Christ states that two people pass this grievously injured person who gave the appearance of being dead. It is the very law of the Jews that is laid down in the old Testament that preclude contact between the living and the dead. The people who walked past this apparently dead person were a priest and a Levite. Both Levites and priests were set apart as men of God and both were responsible for the sanctuary of God. Their concern was for themselves. They were more concerned about how of their involvement would affect them. Would contact with this person cause them to become ritually impure and incapable of rendering service to God as they saw it? What a bother! What a nuisance! It was far easier to ignore this seriously injured person and act as if they didn’t see him. So they crossed to the other side of the road and continued on their way.

And isn’t that what we all seem to do? If our sensibilities are challenged we begin to think of ourselves and not the other. Instead of seeing the other as a neighbour to be helped we treat them with suspicion, we shun them and we find 1,000,001 ways to differentiate ourselves from and condemn the other. That dispossessed person, that drug addict, that prostitute, that thief, that murderer, that adulterer, how can they be a neighbour? No, no, no we say, we do not associate with those people. Those people have themselves to blame, and why should we take responsibility for their failings? If they want to be a neighbour let them walk towards us and will meet them halfway. After all, the good Lord helps those that help themselves, so let them demonstrate they want to be helped.

All this is self-serving justification. Listen to what Christ says: the Samaritan had compassion; he bound up the injured man’s wounds; he went out of his way to find him shelter; he took money from his own purse to provide to the material needs and promised to return to make good any other cost of the innkeeper. This person was a stranger. This person was in need. This person was helpless. It is by recognising those characteristics that the Samaritan responded in love to this man. He did not concern himself as to whether or not he would break mosaic law – he was interested in helping a fellow human being made in the image and likeness of God. The Samaritan could have said this is not my business. I have my own affairs to attend to. I didn’t cause his misfortune. Indeed he could have made up a myriad of excuses as to why he should not involve himself – but involve himself he did.

The actions of this Samaritan remind me of the actions of Christ. Christ did not concern himself as to the rights and wrongs of a situation. Christ saw the sinner, the blind, the lame, the injured and the dispossessed and loved them all equally. Indeed, he gave his own life for people such as these. Christ came to be a physician to those in need of a doctor. Christ did not come to tell us about the law – he came to fulfil the law and leave us a new law about loving one another in his name. He came to demonstrate to us that we need to prove ourselves as neighbour to everyone that we come into contact with – no matter how uncomfortable that makes us feel. After all, Christ tells us to go and show mercy. If we show no mercy to our neighbour then how can we expect mercy to be shown to us? Let us therefore go forward and look upon everyone who is in need with compassion and kindness. After all, Christ would expect no less from us. Amen.