This is a true story related by one of my hospice patients. I’ll call him Fred (not his real name). After the war, Fred worked at an airplane plant in southern California. He had a hot convertible sports car that he was quite fond of.

One day it was payday and Fred got permission to leave the plant to deposit his check. Fred was told not to be more than an hour. So Fred got in his hot sports car convertible and went off to the bank. He was stopped at light when a little old lady asked him from the sidewalk, “Are you going to the bank up the road?” Fred said, “Yes.” The little old lady asked Fred if he would take her to the bank. She promised that she wouldn’t be long.

So Fred told her to get in. They got to the bank and the parking lot was full. The little old lady told Fred to park in the no parking zone. Fred said that that was a bad idea. The little old lady assured Fred that it was okay, that she had done it before, and she knows the bank manager.

So Fred parks there and goes into the bank. When Fred comes out of the bank, he is seeing a police officer writing a ticket. Fred explained that the little old lady in the bank said it was okay and she knows the bank manager. The officer said, “You are parked in a no parking zone and for that you get a ticket. And you have pay the ticket now if you want your car back.”

So Fred walked to the city hall and paid the $50 fine – an expensive fine for those days. It took a big chunk out of Fred’s pay check. Having paid the fine, Fred walked back to his car and was able to drive it back to work, way later than one hour. Fred worried if he still had a job.

Fred explained to his boss what happened and why he was late. His boss laughed and let Fred off the hook for his tardiness. Fred was never sure if his boss believed the story.

If we were to ask who was the neighbor in this story, we might say Fred for helping the little old lady. We might say Jesus was disguised a little old lady. I mean, how did the lady know or guess that a random stranger in a hot convertible was going to the same bank she wanted to go to? But I think the neighbor was Fred’s boss for excusing Fred’s tardiness and not potentially firing him.

When we hear the story of the lawyer examining Jesus, we might recall that a Jewish lawyer in Jesus’ time was an expert in the Law of Moses. Jesus is teaching the crowds and the lawyer wants to show the crowd that Jesus is not an expert on the Torah and therefore they should ignore anything that Jesus says.

Jesus is teaching that there is a resurrection. The Jewish authorities are split on the concept of resurrection. The lawyer knows that there is no mention of resurrection in the Torah. The lawyer also assumes Jesus will not be able to justify the resurrection by citing the Law of Moses.

The lawyer asks, “Teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” There is nothing in the Torah that specifies eternal life. The lawyer taunts Jesus to quote the scripture. Jesus will not fall into the trap. Jesus basically says, “You’re the expert in the law. You tell me what the law says.”

The lawyer responds with the Shema. The Shema is to Jews what the Lord’s Prayer is to Christians. Jews are supposed to recite the Shema three times a day. Shema means listen in Hebrew. It begins, “Shema Israel.” The Shema begins in the Torah at Deuteronomy 6:5: “Listen Israel, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.”

Then the lawyer adds Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms that the lawyer spoke correctly. Jesus is teaching the expert. “Do this and you will live.” Jesus affirms that to inherit eternal life one needs to do three things: love God and love your neighbor, as you love yourself.

This interaction pivots not on the Shema, but on that added phrase from Leviticus. The lawyer wants to know how Jesus defines the scriptural reference to the word neighbor. We might say we love God. And we can say we pray to God and we love God, but beyond prayer and worship, how do we demonstrate our love of God?

The hard part is how we demonstrate our love of our neighbor. We can’t show love to a neighbor, let alone love to God, if we do not first love ourselves. The lawyer wants to know the limits of love. How is neighbor defined? So it is really important to know who is our neighbor. And I will submit that how we treat our neighbor is a reflection of how much we love God. After all, we are all made in the image of God.

The Torah lawyers and the Pharisees debated what constitutes a neighbor. Leviticus 19:33-34 says, “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Some said Leviticus means everyone. Some put restrictions on that. In Jesus’ time, all agreed that it does not include those dirty Samaritans.

Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Samaritans were foreigners who were forcibly settled in Israel after the Israelite exile. They brought their own gods and adopted the God of the land, the God of Israel. So the Samaritans perverted the Jewish religion and God. And the Jews hated them for it.

We might picture the lawyer turning to leave after Jesus affirms his answer. The lawyer then stops, turns around, and like Colombo, asks, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus answers the lawyer’s question with the famous parable of the Good Samaritan. The road between Jerusalem and Jericho was well known then for its bandits. Traveling alone on that road was a bad idea. Today, it is a highway dotted with the occasional Bedouin camp. Today’s Bedouins have satellite dishes.

Jerusalem is roughly at 2,000 feet. Jericho is at roughly 850 feet below sea level. The only thing Jesus’ traveler has going for him is that he is walking downhill. The robbers were vicious. It was not enough to rob him. They beat him nearly to death and left him by the roadside.

A priest not only sees him, but goes out of his way to avoid him. A Levite, an assistant to the temple priests, did likewise. In all fairness, speaking of the Law of Moses, if a priest or a Levite touched the man and he was dead, they would be ritually unclean and could not go to the temple. Of course, it could be argued that they should have risked their ritual purity and helped the man.

We are assuming and I assume that Jesus and the lawyer believe the man to be a Jew. After all, who else would count? Another reason I assume that the man is a Jew is that Jesus introduces the next character as a Samaritan. He is not a man. He is a Samaritan.

The Good Samaritan has pity on the victim, gives first aid, and brought him to an inn, likely in Jericho. There is no water along the road. Jericho has a prolific spring.

Jesus gives the lawyer three options as to who was a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves: the righteous, respected, and religious priest, the righteous, respected, and obedient Levite, or the despicable Samaritan. The lawyer can’t even bring himself to say the word, Samaritan. Instead he says, “the one who showed him mercy.”

Jesus could have said, “you answered correctly.” But he didn’t. It is not enough to know the right answer. You must act. The lawyer is to “go and do likewise.” If someone is in need, help them out of love. Even if it is the one you hate the most.

There are times when we hate someone. After all, we are only human. Jesus does not deny hate. Jesus does deny acting out in hate. We can be angry with someone. But we cannot act out in anger. As moms the world over might say, “Use your words.” But even then, words can be mightier than physical blows. Maybe the advice should be, “Use your words after you have cooled off.”

Jesus never advocated violence, even telling Peter that we are to forgive someone 70 times seven. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” (Matthew 5:38-39, NRSV)

When a large number of people congregate, police need to be out in force. Even in the most peaceful protest, there are knuckleheads who think that violence and vandalism are justifiable activities. As we have seen in Oakland and elsewhere, they do not participate in peaceful protest. They just take advantage of a situation.

The Dallas police, on the night of July 7, 2016, were there to keep the peace and make sure a large gathering of people were kept safe. The Dallas police were there for the people. One person decided that he was to use violence for justice. Anyone who does something like that is the anti-Christ, because they do the opposite of what Jesus taught. We are to love our neighbor, not shoot them.

Being a Christian requires us to follow only two commandments, the commandments that Jesus gave us: love God with everything we have and love our neighbor as ourselves. It is hard to express love to anyone, if we first do not love ourselves. And Jesus defines the person who is our neighbor very broadly. It is very simple, but very difficult. Being a Christian is hard.

How we treat another person is a sign of our love of God, even if that person is the one we hate the most.

Text: Luke 10:25–37