What if we see everyone the same? This question needs clarification. This question does not seek uniformity. Rather it seeks unity which is why the Parable of the Good Samaritan is such a good beginning place for the answer to this question.
October 27, 2024
Love… It Might Just Be Crazy Enough to Change the World
“What if We See Everyone the Same?”
Luke 10: 25-37
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 10: 25-37
A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?” He responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’
What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?” Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
What if We See Everyone the Same? Luke 10: 25-37
What if we see everyone the same? …This question needs clarification. This question does not seek uniformity. Rather it seeks unity which is why the Parable of the Good Samaritan is such a good beginning place to answer this question. Knowing the motive behind the legal expert’s approach, knowing the discrimination inherent in the culture’s system, knowing the stereotypes and labels used to separate and divide, Jesus gets to the heart of this question of “What if we see everyone the same,, Jesus gets to the heart of this question when Jesus asks the legal expert at the end of the parable… “which one was a neighbor to the man attacked by thieves.
We of course know how the legal expert answered. We know this not only because it is such a familiar text in our sacred Scripture. We also know this because it is part of the verbiage of our culture and society. We know what a Good Samaritan is. We know who a Good Samaritan is. We know that Jesus used this parable as a way to push the conversation back then and now, used this parable to push our conversations as his followers beyond our traditional understandings, beyond our traditional viewpoints of just exactly who our neighbor is, beyond just who is accepted fully into our community. We know that Jesus used this particular parable, told this particular parable to challenge the way this world works by inviting us as his followers to open our eyes to see the image of God residing in everyone, inviting us to see everyone as a Beloved child of God, inviting us to see everyone, and I do mean everyone, as our neighbor whom we accept fully into our community, even the ones we disagree with. We know that this parable invites us to see all as someone created in the image of God, to see everyone as Beloved Children of God, to see all as one unified in the Body of Christ. We know all this. That’s why we don’t need another sermon on that point again today…
So I’m not going to give one. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that this is such a familiar text that we gloss over the details. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that we often disparage the priest and Levite and praise the Good Samaritan. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that this parable plays on our assumptions and stereotypes by inviting the legal expert to share his interpretation of the Law. You know the Law which calls us, requires us to love God with all our heart, mind and body and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that it is in our interpretation of the Law where the disagreements happen. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that each one, the priest, the Levite, and the Good Samaritan, all were living out their interpretation of the Law. Each one believed that they were doing what the Law required. I’m not going to give another sermon which points out that some two thousand years later, we as followers of Jesus are still doing the same thing, each one earnestly believing that we are living out what the Law requires of us as the people of God. Like I said…I’m not pointing out that our differences come from our interpretations of that Law. And I’m certainly not going to give a sermon which points out that the reason this is such a Beloved Parable for us as followers of Jesus Christ is because it flips our understanding. It reminds us that God’s love is crazy enough to change this world, that in the end what really matters is that no matter how we interpret the law, at the heart of our faith, we as followers of Jesus Christ are called to live out the love of God in all we do and say, proclaiming that it was never about us as individuals. Rather it has always been and will always be about us as a community, reflecting the love of God which unifies us, which heals us and makes us whole.
So if I’m not going to give another sermon on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, I will simply do this. I will invite us to name the fact that this world still plays on our assumptions. I will invite us to realize that it is a choice we are making each and every day whether to buy into the narrative of assumptions or to get beyond the labels, to dismantle the discrimination inherent in our system, to see everyone the same as Beloved Children of God.
Because here is the Truth…it doesn’t matter how many sermons I preach, how many sermons the wider Church preaches on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, until we as the Body of Christ demonstrates mercy, demonstrates love, demonstrates grace to everyone, and I mean everyone. Yes even the priest and the Levite in this story, even the people we disagree with, even the people who are our enemies. Until we see everyone as the same…not as uniform but unified in love, nothing is going to change. And for me, that is the whole point of this parable of the Good Samaritan. He saw a person, not a label and showed this person compassion.
Now go and do likewise…May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for October 27, 2024 – What if We See Everyone the Same? Luke 10: 25-37.
Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.
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