Sermon - Proper 10, Year C, 2024 - Luke 10:25-37

The Good Samaritan, Rembrandt, late 17th century

Love your neighbor

1. To love is to devote yourself to another

2. My neighbor is whomever God has placed near to me

3. The Lord Jesus selflessly devotes Himself to us and our salvation

4. We must devote ourselves to our neighbors

How do you receive eternal life? That’s not a difficult question posed to Jesus, and in fact it’s a question any average Israelite would’ve been able to answer. The lawyer simply recites the Shema from Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The reason any Israelite could’ve recited this is because the Shema continues: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” So obviously, when God tells us to put these words on our heart, we do that, we learn His word by heart. 

The second part about loving your neighbor is from Leviticus 19: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” So clearly, one of the things one must do to receive eternal life is to love God and love your neighbor. Now the lawyer asks about the definition of neighbor, but before we get to that, we really ought to define love.

Typically, we think of love in terms of affection, or a feeling towards another. That’s not entirely wrong, since feelings of affection usually should accompany love, but love is more than an emotion, but it also entails actions. We see this in the story of the Samaritan. When the Samaritan came upon the man, “he had compassion.” This is a great word, very graphic, splanknizomai, meaning that feeling you get in your stomach when you care for someone. As such, love does entail an emotional feeling you get in your guts for another.

But love moves beyond that feeling in your guts, and moves to action. So the Samaritan: “He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.” In humility, love devotes oneself to another in concrete ways. As such, love gives of oneself, sacrifices oneself, for the sake of another. It’s easy enough to have feelings for someone, that part usually just comes naturally and cannot be helped. But the actions of taking your own time and wealth for the sake of another, does not just happen automatically like it does with feelings, but it requires intention and sacrifice.

Because love requires some level of sacrifice, the question of who is my neighbor must arise. So the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” He does this because he’s “desiring to justify himself.” If you can narrowly classify your neighbor to only be those whom it’s convenient to love, then it makes the commandment to love much easier to attain, and then the lawyer would be able to conclude that he has kept all of the commandments.

Among the Jews they had, and largely still do have, the notion that commandments to love the neighbor only pertains to other Jews, others of their own kind. Additionally, there were laws regarding cleanliness and service in the temple. Thus, the man lying half-dead on the side of the road is nameless, and perhaps it’s questionable to the priest and levite whether they’re obligated to love him. Additionally, he’s half-dead, on the precipice of death, and to touch a corpse would make them unclean for seven days. They therefore conclude he must not be a neighbor to them, and they safely pass by on the other side of the road.

But the story Jesus tells proves otherwise, to the lawyer's shame. The Samaritan was not an Israelite, although he likely shared ancestry back to the patriarch Abraham. He was on a journey, away from home, and he didn’t share much in common with the half-dead man who was probably from either Jerusalem or Jericho. But what made the Samaritan a neighbor to the half-dead man is his nearness to him. God has placed this half-dead man on the road in front of him, and therefore God has made this man his neighbor.

This is a very important lesson for us. If my neighbor is whomever God has placed near to me, then I can’t choose to only love those who are convenient or who will love me in return. As Americans we like to “love” anonymous people who are far away from us by just giving them money which we can write off or donating our used stuff we’d otherwise throw away. 

Now that’s probably fine to donate to trusted charities to help people. But the trouble is that we begin to think like the lawyer, and we end up only loving when it’s most convenient and assuming that fulfills our obligation to love others, and we justify ourselves thereby. What often ends up happening is we then fail to love those whom God has actually placed near us, and we become no different than the priest and levite who ignore our flesh and blood neighbors right in front of us. 

Remember, love requires sacrificing oneself for the sake of another. Choosing to only love when it requires a convenient sacrifice so that I can feel good about myself or get the admiration of others is barely loving, especially if it means I end up neglecting those closest to me who are in need of help. To illustrate, in Dickens’ Bleak House, Mrs. Jellyby is so absorbed in her charity work for Africa, that her own family lives in squalor. It’s not loving to sacrifice your actual neighbors, like your family, for the sake of those far away.

In the most perfect manner, Jesus fulfills this commandment to love your neighbor, and He is the ultimate fulfillment of the Good Samaritan. He is like us in respect to our humanity, but He is unlike us in respect to sin, and is therefore like a man on a journey from far away (heaven) who comes upon us poor miserable sinners, lying half-dead on the side of the road, on the precipice of eternal damnation. In love He looks upon us with compassion and mercy, instead of disgust and horror.  He does more than bind up our wounds, but He heals our greatest illness: sin and death. Instead of pouring on oil and wine, He pours His blood upon us in the waters of Baptism and the wine of Communion. He sets us not just on some animal to carry us to a guest room, but He brings us into the hospital of the church to be cared for by pastors and other Christians. Then He even orders the angels to carry us to heaven where we shall be cared for until His return at the resurrection of the dead. Isn’t that ending part great! In the end He’s going to return!

The Lord Jesus spared no expense for you, His dearly beloved people. In love He sacrificed not merely of Himself, but He sacrificed Himself, His own literal blood, sweat, and tears were shed in order to atone for your sins. He gave His life so that He may redeem your life from the grave. Although He is perfectly divine and holy and righteous, He humbled Himself to be a servant in order to serve you with His divinity and holiness and righteousness. The filthiness of your sins don’t scare Him away, but in loving you, He takes your filthy sins upon Himself and bears that burden upon the tree.

Remember, dear Christians, that in the eyes of the Lord we’re no better off than the half-dead naked man on the side of the road, and the Lord gladly suffers all for us. Because of His great love for us, let us learn from Him, and so love one another. “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”” This parable teaches us about God’s great love for us, and it subsequently teaches us about our love for our neighbors. 

Brothers and sisters, let us learn to humble ourselves and love our neighbors as ourselves, devoting ourselves to them and their good. Let us also learn to love those who are near us, even if it’s difficult and brings with it no prestige or praise. As a congregation, let us find ways to provide for all of our neighbors, and especially those who are of the household of faith. As individuals, let us love our families and the people in our immediate vicinity, even if no one ever notices our love. Because He first loved us, let us love like Him.