Welcome to our new series on Justice! Throughout this series, we will be exploring what it looks like to show biblical justice. Today's focus is on how Jesus interprets the biblical mandate found in Micah 6:8 to "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." To do this, let's reexamine a familiar parable found in Luke 10:25-37, the Good Samaritan.
25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”
29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
In the beginning of this passage, we see a legal expert stand up to "test" Jesus by asking him a question. This is more than likely not a friendly interaction; the expert was probably trying to trap Jesus in his words. Jesus, like any good teacher would do, asks the question back to him: "What does the law of Moses say?" And Jesus even praises his response, which is to love God and love your neighbor.
The Torah expert does not leave it there, though. He asks another question: "Who is my neighbor?" The text says that he wanted to "justify" himself. The expert is probably expecting Jesus to tell him who he is responsible for: his family, his fellow Jews, maybe just other very observant Jews?
How often have all of us attempted to justify our lack of action when we feel the Spirit prompting us to do something? To be generous to those who have less than us, to pray for someone who needs prayer, to open our homes to someone who needs a place to stay, or whatever it might be. The Spirit often asks us to be uncomfortable, and we often make excuses to remain in our comfort zone.
We all have excuses and justifications for why we don’t do the right thing.
It is normal for humans to try to justify our actions, especially when we are ignoring the voice of the Spirit. In the context of the passage, the religious leaders are probably even using their religion as an excuse to not do the right thing! Maybe you have experienced that too—feeling uncomfortable with what the Spirit is asking of you because you don’t want to be associated with some “other” group. It is often Christians, in our exclusionary attitudes and behaviors, that drive people away from the church.
Our focus is often not on true holiness as Jesus describes it here, but rather on being perceived as holiness. Maybe we are kind and gracious and compassionate and generous, but only to people who are similar to us. Only to our circle. Only to those that we like or that we know will pay us back somehow. But Jesus is suggesting that this is not enough.
Jesus takes the legal expert’s expectations and turns them upside down. The lawyer asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” and is likely expecting an answer that is limited to a people group or geographical location. Think, other Christians, maybe. Other people in Kankakee. Other people from my racial or ethnic group. My family. The people I hang out with at church or in some other social circle. But I think Jesus is saying that this is the wrong question to ask.
Jesus is telling this expert, and those around him, that following Him does not stop at the rules of the Torah on ritual purity. Following Jesus is not simply a “confess and be saved” gospel. There are new rules for us now, and those new rules are about compassion and justice and love.
The legal expert had interpreted the Law correctly. But Jesus offered him, and by extension us, a true understanding of loving your neighbor. And he does this in a shocking way—the hero is a Samaritan! If you did not know, the Samaritans and the Jews hated each other; each thought that the other was incorrectly interpreting the Scriptures and thought that their own way was the way of the people of God. And this was who Jesus chose to be the example of showing love.
Jesus often pulled people into His community that would have otherwise been rejected. Tax collectors (Matthew himself!), extremist Jews (Simon the Zealot), women who had been possessed by demons (Mary Magdalene and others). He healed people who could not repay him and interacted with the outcasts, like the Samaritan woman (John 4:5-30) or the Roman centurion (Matt 8:5-13). Jesus was not afraid of the mess; He moved toward people who were suffering and invited them into His family.
When we show people Jesus' love, we become their neighbors and invite them into Jesus' community. After all, Jesus has called us to be holy and to “go and do likewise.”
Justice is not the act of people getting what they deserve. It is not upholding tradition and Law at the expense of caring for others. It is the act of seeing those in need that the Lord has placed in our path and responding. It is moving toward those who are in pain rather than distancing ourselves from them.
Compassion and mercy are the heartbeat of justice. So let us, the people of God, go and do likewise.
Original sermon by Pastor Alexander Freytes
Blog post summary by Allison Freytes
Comments