“The one who showed mercy” (Luke 10:25-37)

Luke 10:25-37

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Pastor Tom Johnson, July 10, 2016

In his book, Radical: My Journey Out Of Islamist Extremism, Maajid Nawaz tells his story. He was born in England. But because his parents were both from Pakistan, he often felt he did not fit in. He looked different. And was relentlessly bullied and even almost killed in a few run-ins with white gangs. Maajid started to become more radical as he saw his family mistreated. He became even more radical when he saw Muslims suffer and killed by Christians around the world—especially in Bosnia. Maajid felt like an unwelcome foreigner in his own home country. And his hatred began to grow toward the West. And soon he was spreading his message of hatred and extremism in Saudi Arabia. And it was there he was arrested and imprisoned.

When we think about the so-called “Good Samaritan,” it might be helpful to think about the same kind of recipe for conflict, resentment, and violence. The Samaritan is in foreign country—Israel. Israelites do not welcome Samaritans. The Samaritan is in the heart of the mountain wilderness too—right between Jerusalem and Jericho. He must have some wealth to do business there and to be able to pay for the care of the fallen Israelite. He of all people needs to watch his back traveling through the countryside as a foreigner. Maybe that is why he is the one person to stop and take care of this Israelite who was mugged, beaten, and left for dead. Maybe it happened to him. Where else does this compassion come from? The Samaritan has a different religion, different nation, different ethnicity, and different language. Yet what he sees on the roadside is a fellow human being in need.

The Samaritan is the one who shows mercy. He, Jesus tells us, is the one who fulfills the spirit of the law: Love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself. The foreigner loves the native as he would want to be loved and taken care of himself. This is the law gracefully turned upside down. It was the Israelites who were reminded by the Law to treat the foreigner with dignity and respect. When God delivers them from captivity in Egypt, he immediately commands them, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exod 22:21). “You should know what it is like to be unwelcome, discriminated against, persecuted, threatened, enslaved, and crying out for God’s mercy.” Look into your own story, the Law asks. Search the archives of your own soul. What do you find?

We find in ourselves a human being with struggles—both a person who was loved and accepted and a child who hungered for love and longed for acceptance. Like a Samaritan in the hill country of Israel, we sometimes do not feel like we belong. We find faults in ourselves. We fail to be the people of God he calls us to be. There are times that we cannot extend mercy to our neighbor because we are too self-absorbed to notice what is happening in the lives around us.

The question that begins this whole conversation is “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus’ answer is to turn the question on its head. It is not about our doing anything to earn God’s love and acceptance. It is about the miracle of God’s mercy—seeing God’s love extended to the most unlikely people and seeing God’s love extended by the most unlikely people. That is the beautiful and miraculous part of Jesus’ story—a human being freely taking interest in, caring for, and loving another human being despite their differences.

Amnesty international member John Cornwall began work to free Maajid Nawaz as a prisoner of conscience. John went beyond his work and even wrote letters of friendship to Maajid. Maajid describes John as “a frail Christian man in his eighties [who] campaigned…with a passion not seen in most twenty-year-olds.” The story of their friendship was aired on TV. And it was out of that relationship and kindness that Maajid started to be free of his resentment, anger, and hatred. He now works tirelessly to educate young Muslims throughout the world. He also helps Christians in West understand where the violence comes from and how it may be stopped. He is a frequent guest on CNN to offer his expertise.

This week it seems that we have seen both extremes of good and evil in our nation: the same kind of palpable distrust, disregard for life, and hatred between Israelites and Samaritans on the one hand and Good Samaritan behavior on the other. There were the police officers in Dallas shielding demonstrators from gunfire with their own bodies and laying their lives down to serve and protect. And community members throughout our nation gave officers hugs, thanks, and their prayers. One reporter said two Caucasian men approached an African American police officer to say they were sorry for his fallen brothers. That is what it means to be a neighbor—to connect across man-made boundaries and differences. Jesus says to the lawyer after his story of the Good Samaritan, “Go and do likewise.”
Be the one to show mercy. As Christians, we of all people know what mercy looks like. God sent his only Son to cross the boundaries of space, time, and matter itself. Mercy is Jesus dying for the whole world to free them from evil, death, and sin. Mercy is his rising from the dead to assure us of acceptance, adoption, and life. We get the privilege of going and doing likewise. We get to be the ones who show mercy.