This Lenten Road

“A Scandalous Autobiography?”

Luke 10:25-37

Our word, ‘scandalous’, comes from an ancient Greek word, ‘scandalon’, which when translated means, ‘stumbling block’, a person who’s ‘conduct offends propriety’.  It means, ‘to shock’.  Scandalon was used in the Bible to describe Jesus’ teaching.  Jesus’, teaching, particularly when in the presence of the Pharisees and social elite, was ‘scandalon’—a stumbling block, it had to be dealt with.  There was no way around it.  (Image: a fence not so high you couldn’t climb over, but high enough to be reckoned with.)

Jesus told parables to connect his hearers to his message through the use of everyday scenarios.  He wanted them to get it—his message.  He wanted it to be accessible.  Usually.  But Jesus was an excellent teacher who also wanted his students to wrestle a bit with His words.  He often left them hanging, wondering, even, dare I say, scandalized?   

Such was the case the day a lawyer came to Jesus and asked, “Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25)  What must I do to inherit eternal life?  Jesus was often asked this sort of thing—often by people who were less concerned with the answer than with trying to impress Jesus with their knowledge or trick him into saying something that they could use against him.  This may have been the case with the lawyer. 

So Jesus tests him: “You’re a lawyer (you’re a smart guy), what does it say in the law?  How do you read it?”  You know the feeling you get when someone asks a question that you absolutely know the answer to?  You almost jump at the chance to give it?  And when you give it, the information gushes out, and you feel really impressed with yourself?  (Maybe it’s just me!)  Well, listen to the lawyer’s response to Jesus’ question: “’Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind’, and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’” (Luke 10:27). 

This is a guy who knows the law.  Who knows the right answers and can recite them in a heartbeat.  And he’s given the right answer to Jesus’ question (Jesus even says so).  You get the impression, though, that the lawyer’s feeling pretty good about himself.  He knows the right answer and wants to ‘justify’ himself.  He’s just warming up and wants now to dazzle Jesus and everyone else with his knowledge of the law and how righteous he is because of it. 

(Remember, this lawyer was a little different than we know lawyers.  This was an ‘expert in the law’, Jewish Law.  It’s possible that this fellow was more a Pharisee than a courtroom legal mind.  Either way he knew his stuff.  In those days, one’s knowledge of the Law was seen the indicator of righteousness.)

So he asks Jesus, rhetorically, I suspect, “Who’s my neighbour?”  Now the expert in the Law was playing Jesus now.  You see, it was not uncommon for a Rabbi to answer a question with a question.  (Jesus did that already with this guy.)  So the legal expert is anticipating that Jesus would do the same again—answer his question with a question so he’d be able to, once again, show how smart he was. 

But Jesus didn’t answer his second question with another question.  Jesus threw a wrench into the gears, a stumbling block in front of the legal expert. 

Now, there are a few ways to read the story Jesus is about to tell, the parable of the Good Samaritan.      

30In 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. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side (swerve to get out of the way—stumbling block?). 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side (swerve to get out of the way—stumbling block?).

33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He 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. 35The 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.'

36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." Luke 10:25-37

Here’s what I think: I think the Samaritan isn’t the main character in this story.  I know, we’ve always thought that, even named it “The Parable of the Good Samaritan”.  And I’m not suggesting we throw that away.  But I wonder if there isn’t another, more scandalous message Jesus wants us to hear.  What if Jesus is speaking autobiographically?  What if this story is His story?  Listen again:

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.  While he walked the road, he fell into the hands of some robbers who stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him to die there in the ditch.  A priest and a Levite, part of the religious elite, passed by averted their eyes when they saw the bleeding man and 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.     

Here’s the scandalous part: I think Jesus is the one in the ditch.  If Jesus is speaking autobiographically, which I think is possible, what character is he in the story?

The Son of God came down from heaven to earth.  While he was there, he fell into the hands of some robbers who stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him to die there in the ditch.

I think Jesus paints himself as the bloodied, beaten and rejected one in the story because that’s what He had to become in order to ultimately triumph over death and rejection.

And on the road to the cross, he continually confronts those who think they’re righteous because of how much they know of the Law, of how much scripture they can recite—those who swerve around the suffering one.

Want more scandal?  Samaritans were to the Jews as African Americans were in the Southern USA in the 50’s and 60’s—they were hated, to be avoided.  Samaritans were Palestinians in Israel today: people to keep behind fences. 

So when Jesus painted the Jewish religious elite as cold-hearted and callous in the story, while elevating a Samaritan to the position of compassionate care-giver, that alone would have been enough to scandalize his Jewish listeners that day.  How dare a Jew speak so favourably of a Samaritan!

So why did he do this?  I think Jesus used a Samaritan because Samaritans knew what rejection was.  They knew what suffering was.  They knew what it was like to be beaten and left for dead.  It was their story.  And so when a Samaritan passed by the one left in the ditch to die, he had compassion on him and went to him.  Something the religious ones did not do.  (Which, by the way, was Jesus’ experience.)

So Jesus says something really puzzling to the expert in the Law.  First he asks, “Which of the three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

“The one who showed him mercy (the one who responded to him.  The one who recognized suffering and rejection when he saw it).” 

And Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”

Go and recognize that knowledge and education and good works doesn’t make you righteous.  There’s nothing you can do to make yourself righteous. 

You asked what you needed to do to inherit eternal life.  And I say, stop clinging to your religion and your Law because it has blinded you to the fact that you are utterly helpless, completely hopeless, thoroughly rejected, and terminally lost unless you recognize that the one in ditch bleeding and left for dead is your only way out.

(READ ISAIAH 53:4-12)

I think you’re in the story.  I think we’re in the story.  I just don’t know which character’s playing us: the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan.  I know which one I want to be.  I know which one Jesus wants me to be.    

It takes one who knows what it’s like to be rejected to respond to The One Who Was Rejected.

Let’s pray.