Fr. Nicholas Harrelson
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
When a student of the Law of God asked Christ what he
should do to inherit eternal life, our Lord turned the question back to him.
What is written in the scriptures? He asked him. What do you read there? The
man replied by quoting the two great commandments from God's Word, to love God
with one's whole being, and one's neighbor as oneself. We also hear these two
injunctions when we have the Communion service, in the words that begin with
the introduction, "Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith." This use
of these two commandments comes from the Twenty-second chapter of the Gospel
according to Saint Matthew. A lawyer asked Jesus, "Master, which is the
great commandment in the law?" His reply was the same as the lawyer's
reported in today's New Testament lesson, and is a part of the Gospel for the
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.
These two commandments are, to say the least, of
considerable importance. For Jesus praised this lawyer's answer, and said,
"This do, and thou shall live." Obey these commandments, and you will
inherit eternal life.
The first one comes from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy,
and then is repeated several times in that book. The second comes from
Leviticus 19, verse 18. In this verse, it's possible to interpret the
commandment as applying only to one's own people, in this case, fellow Jews.
However, verses 33 and 34 of this chapter include non-Israelites dwelling among
God's chosen people. The first verse says, "If a stranger sojourn with
thee in your land, ye shall not vex him." In a generous outreach of the
divine love, verse 34 adds, "The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be
unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself."
Two reasons are given as a basis for their charity. They
are to remember their own unhappy experience as inhabitants of Egypt, and treat
the foreigners among them better than they were treated: "Ye were
strangers in the land of Egypt." The second reason was the special
relationship which they had with God, and that He was the source of the
commandment: "I am the Lord your God."
After Jesus' praise of the lawyer for his answer, he,
"willing to justify himself," asked, "And who is my
neighbour?" The lawyer seems to have been asking if there were limits on
the commandment, if there were some to whom it didn't apply. Leviticus seems to
restrict its application to other Jews and to foreigners living among them.
But Jesus, in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, teaches
that there are no limits to neighborly love. Anyone in need whom a person can
help is his neighbor. Everyone should follow the example of the Samaritan, who
"was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves;" everyone should
"Go, and do . . . likewise."
A priest and a Levite came to the beaten man before the
Samaritan did. They were official representatives of a religion which
emphasized alms-giving and deeds of mercy. Of all men, they would have been the
most expected to help, but they both "passed by on the other side."
They might have thought that the man was dead, and wanted to avoid the ritual
defilement which contact with a dead person caused, because this defilement
might have inhibited them from carrying out their religious duties.
The needs of the beaten man in the ditch should have been
far more important to them . In this respect, someone has given a clear
statement of what one should do in similar circumstances: "The truly
devout man studies to fulfill perfectly all the duties of his state (his place)
in life, and all his really necessary duties of kindness and courtesy to
society. He is faithful to his devotional exercises, but is not a slave to
them; he interrupts them, he suspends them, he even gives them up for a time,
when any reason of necessity or of simple charity requires it." The needs
of the man lying in the ditch were far more important than any need for a
priest or Levite to avoid ritual defilement.
Perhaps these two men feared for their own safety. But the
Samaritan didn't let such a concern keep him from helping the victim of the
robbers. There had been a long history of hostility between Jews and
Samaritans. Christ and His disciples had recently experienced it, when a
village in Samaria had refused to let them stay there because they were on
their way to Jerusalem.
But the people of Samaria had the two great commandments in
their scriptures, and Jesus knew that some of them had learned their meaning.
The man in the parable demonstrated by the practical help which he gave the
robbery victim that he had learned to love God and his neighbor. As the story
says, he treated the man's injuries, took him to an inn, and provided for his
future care before he left the next morning.
"Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."
Someone has given an illuminating paraphrase of this commandment in these
words: "You should be beneficial or helpful to your neighbor as you would
be to yourself . . . The Bible is not commanding us to feel something – love –
but to do something – to be useful or beneficial to help your neighbor."
The Samaritan clearly showed he knew what the commandment meant.
He and all who do likewise are responding to what God in His
love has done for the forgiveness of the sins of all people and for their
redemption. God's love for mankind was demonstrated supremely in what He did
through Christ. By His love for us. He inspires and sustains our love for Him
and for others, As Saint John wrote in his first epistle, "We love him,
because he first loved us." (1st
John 4:19) In considering the second great commandment, we can hardly do
better than to conclude with some additional verses from Saint John:
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another." This, of course, means that we love the victim
of violent crimes but it also means we love the perpetrator. Christ died for
the sins of all. Christ seeks the repentance of all.
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