Gracious Neighbor
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
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'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins 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.'
"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
Luke 10:25-37
The trouble is not that Christianity is not relevant, but that Christians so often give the impression of irrelevance. The gospel has not failed; we have failed in our presentation—our demonstration. The breakdown is at the level of communication—of action.
This writing is based on the conviction that the historic apostolic faith is relevant to the fundamental need of human nature in this generation, all past generations, and all future generations. That the kerygma, which is the Greek word for the oral tradition—that is the gospel as preached by Peter and Paul, James and John,
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indeed the message of all the apostles, now faithfully recorded in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and implicit in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament—is literally Almighty God's unique, timeless, and completely adequate solution to the root cause of all human woe from the beginning of mankind to its consummation. That the message of the Old and New Testaments is an accurate, trustworthy record of man's perennial need and its remedy. That the Bible is the only infallible rule for faith and life, for all men everywhere, in all generations. That man-made remedies, however wise and clever their source and however relevant they may seem to be at the time, are always transient, always address themselves to the effect, never to the cause of the human dilemma, and therefore not only do not solve but actually compound the problem. That human wisdom, which proliferates these man-made solutions in its effort to improve upon the Bible, only obscures and emasculates the message. That though the remedy is one and changeless because the fundamental need is one and changeless, the communication of that remedy to those in need is as varied as those through whom God the
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Holy Spirit works and witnesses redemptively.
The role of every Christian, every bona fide Christian—his sacred vocation—is to live and act in history redemptively in the power of the Holy Ghost and for the sake of Jesus Christ. He is in fact, if he is truly Christian, an ambassador of Christ, commending Him to a world that is mostly indifferent, disinterested, hostile, and universally in desperate need. In our modern, pragmatic world, conditioned as it is to the empirical method, the acid test for any claim is, Does it work? Demonstration is prerequisite to acceptance in contemporary culture. In this respect, incidentally, modern man is not unlike the Apostle Thomas who refused to believe in the resurrection of Jesus until he had received demonstrable proof. He said to the other disciples who had seen Jesus alive following His resurrection, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Thomas got his satisfaction eight days later and responded to Jesus, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:25,28). Jesus never ignored the honest demand for proof, and
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authentic Christian faith has nothing to fear from the most critical demands of honest pragmatism. Indeed Jesus insisted, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (John 7:17).
In his book, The New Reformation, Bishop John A.T. Robinson quotes a pioneer contemporary missionary, Horace Simanowski, who labors among the working classes of western Germany. Simanowski said, "Previously the basic problem confronting man was how can I find a gracious God? This question drove men to search desperately for an answer. It was the motor for their action in the world. It unleashed crusades and wars. This cry robbed them of sleep. But we no longer ask this question, or we label it antiquated. But a different question haunts us also. It agitates entire nations. It makes us in our turn victims of anxiety and despair. The question is how can I find a gracious neighbor? How can we still somehow live in peace with one another?" Then Robinson continues, "There lies the difference. The Old Reformation revolved around Luther's agonized question and his triumphant, liberating answer, 'by faith alone.' The Old Reformation released to men a gracious God, but the world
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today is not asking 'How can I find a gracious God,' it is asking, 'How can I find a gracious neighbor.' " This is an exceedingly stimulating thought, and it suggests a fundamental aspect of Christian witness in the world which Jesus vividly dramatized in the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. We certainly know that, generally speaking, our modern world is not lying awake at night looking for a gracious God; in general it couldn't care less. But our modern world is languishing for gracious neighbors.
Read the parable again. "Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn,
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and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you' " (Luke 10:30-35). Talk about revolutionary teaching! So revolutionary that we find it very difficult to accept, certainly to live by.
Think about this parable, "A certain man" — Jesus deliberately gave this man in need anonymity. It could have been anyone. There was nothing about the man which elicited aid except his need. He had been beaten and robbed and left in a ditch half dead. His dilemma was all that qualified him. We do not know whether he was a good man or a bad man, a religious or a non-religious man. He was just someone in need. Jesus said, "By chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him." (I wonder what he must have thought as he looked at the suffering man in the ditch.) He "looked on him, and passed by on the other side." A priest and a Levite. Both descendants of Levi, the third son of Jacob. Priests were always
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Levites, but Levites were not necessarily priests. Priests were chosen from among the Levites and consecrated to their holy office. All Levites were purified and were considered gifts to Aaron the high priest and his sons. Jesus' point is very clear. Those who personified the religion of Israel failed completely to communicate the love and mercy and compassion of the God they professed to serve. They were, in fact, a horrible misrepresentation, a tragic caricature of that for which their holy faith stood. They were the epitome of pious irrelevance. They were what Jesus referred to as salt without its savor, therefore good for nothing. They were good men, but they were good for nothing.
What a contrast the Samaritan. When he saw him "he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to the inn and took care of him. The next day, when he departed, he said to the host, as he gave him two pence, now you take care of him, and whatever you spend in his care, I will repay you when I return."
The occasion for this parable is significant. "And behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Jesus, saying, 'Master
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what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' He said unto him, 'What is written in the law? How do you read it?' And he answered, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.' Jesus said unto him, 'You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.' But the lawyer, seeking to justify himself, said unto Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' " By the way, if this incident were lifted out of the New Testament and this encounter between a devoted Christian and a young professional man occurred today—with the professional man asking the devoted Christian—"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" if the Christian were to answer in the very words which Jesus used he would be completely indicted by certain people I know who are very articulate about a conventional witness. If anyone today talked to a man, as Jesus did, who was seeking eternal life, he would be highly criticized by many for his failure. It would be said of him, he did not witness the gospel.
To the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered with a question, as He often did: "What is written
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in the law? How do you read it?" The lawyer replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Jesus responded, "That is the right answer. Do this, and you will live." If this record can be trusted, and I believe it can, this is the way Jesus talked to one man seeking eternal life. What had begun as a neat little trick to discredit Jesus ended up with a trapped lawyer; so this very sophisticated man tried to wiggle out of his dilemma. "He, willing to justify himself . . . " — the New English Bible translates, "wanting to vindicate himself." How human. How contemporary. How clever we have become, with language, at rationalizing in order to vindicate disobedience. We have mastered the art of rationalizing so we can be comfortable Christians instead of revolutionary as Christ was. The lawyer, "wanting to vindicate himself," said unto Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" The way Jesus handled this question is fundamental to Christian witness in this age or in any age.
Observe again the lawyer's question, designed to get himself off the defensive: "And who is my neighbor?" (It is quite
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illuminating that he ignored completely the first commandment.) "Who is my neighbor?" He was asking for a simple formula whereby he would know whom he was supposed to love. As far as he was concerned the burden of proof rested with someone else. It was up to somebody else, somewhere, to prove he merited the lawyer's love. "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus turned the obligation completely around: the man in need was an unknown. The only thing that qualified him for help was his need, and when the story was finished Jesus drove the truth home with penetrating power. "Which of these three do you think was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" He ignored the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Instead He asked, "Which one of these, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan, was neighbor?" The burden of proof does not rest upon the one who is supposed to be loved; the burden of proof rests upon the lover. It was as though Jesus said, "Asking who is my neighbor is utterly irrelevant; you be neighbor to anybody in need, if you are there." Well the lawyer got the point, and Jesus made the final thrust, "Go and do the same."
Think of it. Think of it! All the law and
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the prophets summed up in two commandments: love God; love your neighbor. The whole moral law of God comprehended in two simple precepts. All that God requires of man fulfilled in two uncomplicated duties: love God; love your neighbor. Now, of course, only Jesus Christ fulfilled this moral law, and because of everyone's failure—generation by generation—to love God and love his neighbor, history is filled with woe; humanity suffers indescribable tragedy; the world moves on into ever-increasing and compounded frustration, despite all its sophisticated, scientific, technological intellectual efforts. To resolve this inexorable process in history, Jesus Christ, the perfect man, fulfilled the law to perfection, then laid down His life on the cross, suffering the long-term consequences of human failure and sin, and rose from the dead to bring the transforming power of eternal life to anyone who would receive it by faith.
If this is fulfilling of the law, and Jesus as well as Paul said it is, and if the same Jesus who fulfilled this law now dwells in us who are professed disciples of His, surely there ought to be some evidence of this compassion in us that was in Him.
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Jesus was the gracious neighbor; Jesus was the personification of the Good Samaritan in the parable; Jesus was the incarnation of love for God and neighbor. However empirical and pragmatic our contemporary world, however indifferent or hostile to Jesus Christ and the gospel, the fact remains that the world in which we live is lost in loneliness and lovelessness. It suffers alienation everywhere. Man is losing his identity. He is Mr. Anonymous. He is becoming a cipher in a meaningless world of computer systems. He languishes for a gracious neighbor.
The Incarnate Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father after He finished His earthly mission. He had commanded His disciples to wait for Pentecost, fifty days after His crucifixion. Nothing to do. Wait! No mission. Wait! Wait for the promise. On that unforgettable day of Pentecost, Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit into the world, into history, into the very bodies of believers to inhabit those bodies, that the Spirit of God might continue the incarnate mission of Christ in us, now indwelt by Him! The true church is literally the incarnation of Jesus Christ in the world. Surely, whatever else we demonstrate to the world, we ought to
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manifest His love, His compassion.
John begins his Gospel with a so-called prologue. The first words are, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." But apparently the Word was not enough even for God to communicate with men, because John adds, a few verses later, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us . . . . full of grace and truth" (v.14). The Word was made flesh. That is evangelical relevance! The world is not listening to our words today. It is looking for Love incarnate. Words are necessary; the gospel has to be told, heralded, preached. But words are not enough; our lives must literally be the incarnation of what we profess. That is God's way. That is the way of relevance today and in every age.
You heard the question which the lawyer asked Jesus. You heard Jesus' answer. You heard the lawyer's pathetic effort to get himself off the defensive. You heard the parable which Jesus told to this man who wanted to vindicate himself; and you heard the conclusion which the sacred record gives. This is God's word; this is binding upon you and me. "Go therefore and do thou likewise!"
