You can tell from my title that I have taken a pun so to speak from Shakespeare. I really do think that this is the question for Christians around the world today. How much do we risk in truly following what Jesus says and then does? Are we bold enough to act for another, for those whose name we do not even know?  For some who are familiar with this Scripture in Luke, it is commonly called, “The Good Samaritan.” I think that for those whom this is familiar, that it has become a sappy “do-gooder” story that tells us if we help the person whose car has broken down, or we call “9-1-1” for someone whom we do not know and is in trouble, then we might just feel pretty good about being “the good Samaritan.” After all, is that not what Jesus wants us to understand and then to take away as we hear this parable for us in 2010 Chicago or from wherever we live?

In this particular time of Jesus telling this parable to the lawyer and those gathered around, Jesus has already begun his fateful journey towards Jerusalem, and yet he tells the story of an unbelievable message of love that knows no boundaries and offends many listeners. The Jesus that is portrayed in the Gospel of Luke is the Jesus of stories. He teaches what it means to put into action the very loving and perhaps disturbing words the listeners have just heard. The story does not place racial, ethnic, class or origin boundaries on the rescuer or the one rescued. What, though, about religious condemnation of the priest and the Levite, both of whom, quote “passed by on the other side?” Jesus does not provide excuses for these two in the parable. He leaves it to the listeners to infer what motivated the lack of any act of compassion for the one whom they see on the road. I believe that Jesus places the priest and the Levite in the parable to provoke us to see that the choice not to act, is indeed an action that has been intentionally decided up.  We must make the hard choice sometimes whether to act, or to not to act. We must though have to make a choice.

The learned lawyer who prompted Jesus to tell this parable was bound and determined, as we say, to trip up Jesus in his “testimony.” How will Jesus answer, “and who is my neighbor?” Who is the other that is acceptable? In my own interpretation of this parable, I believe that the lawyers’ question is perhaps really asking, “to whom is rightfully due my care, my compassion, my mercy?”

So Jesus tells a story to answer the lawyer’s question. What you need to know as Christians in 2010, and what the hearers’ probably knew without having it spelled out, is that the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. So much so that this antimony began back in the history of ancient Israel, and continued into the times of Jesus. In fact, to travel from the southern area of Judea, to the north to Galilee, the most direct route was to go through Samaria. Jews would usually avoid contact with Samaritans by traveling other, longer routes to avoid contamination through contact with the Samaritans.

In answering the lawyers’ question, “and then who is my neighbor?” Jesus describes the unthinkable. The Samaritan does not just “fix up the half dead man” good enough so the Samaritan can continue on his way. Here is the action packed story that Jesus continues to tell: the Samaritan goes first of  all over to the half-dead man, then pours oil and wine on the wounds, he puts him on his own animal so that the Samaritan would have to walk to an inn, and then the Samaritan continued to take care of the man until the next day. Jesus still does not give any clue as to whom this “half-dead” man is! The Samaritan gave the innkeeper some money for taking care of the “half-dead” man saying that he, the Samaritan, would even return the next day and repay even more what it would cost the innkeeper to bring this robbed, beaten and half-dead mans’ wounds to heal. I wonder, wouldn’t this Samaritan lose at least two days wages? Maybe even taking money from his own pocket of savings.

The choice to act, or not to act, must be grounded in the mercy and compassion that we have been given as gifts from our Savior, Jesus Christ. Action can even be “to pass by on the other side” as did the priest and the Levite. Every day we have to choose our response to the hurting world, even when the “world” means the person living in the next apartment, or the one who sleeps in the alleyway. In this story that answers in a surprising way, Jesus takes us to a level of care beyond what I think many of us would bother to do.

The final question about who is the neighbor redefines “neighbor” from the lawyer’s first assumption about the “neighbor.” The lawyer wonders if the half-dead man qualifies as a neighbor to whom he should give aid, or one from whom he should walk away. Would the lawyer think that the neighbor would be the helper and also the one being helped? Who would think that the one taking risky, over-the-top life saving measures would be the neighbor? The unnamed man beaten on the road is not defined by any measure of identity. We hear the life-threatening action that almost took the unnamed man’s life, and we also hear about the near heroic actions of the Samaritan to save that life.  Dare we take such a risk?

In thinking why the lawyer in the conversation would say that the lawyer wanted to “justify” himself, I wondered what this meant legally. “Justify” is a legal term. In some states, there is such a law that is called, “The Good Samaritan Law.” This grants immunity if the “good Samaritan” causes some kind of physical damage while administering emergency medical care, IF – the aid was given at the scene of the emergency, or no immunity is given if the good deed person really was hoping for some type of reward, probably financial gain. I am sure that there is much more to this law that I cannot even begin to understand. What I find amazing is that this parable of Jesus has so much impacted society for centuries, that we continue to refer to this parable as a statue today in defining motives for helping someone in a time of distress.

Is our neighbor the person lying in the ditch from drugs our neighbor?  Could this be the woman who is abused, the children who are sold for as sex slaves, beating up a homeless person, to name only a few of the injustices humans do to other human beings, all these and more are our neighbor. The question that Jesus desires for us to ask is not, who is deserving of being treated as a human being of worth that the lawyer expected Jesus to answer, the question is instead to ask, can we be that neighbor to humanity  -  no matter whom, or what the individual is or is not? In this parable, Jesus tells the lawyer to do as the hated Samaritan did – “Go and do likewise.”  Can we go and do likewise – no matter the consequences or the inconvenience?  We become the neighbor who has to make a decision of whether or not to offer care, compassion, a listening ear, a trip to the court house across the street, going along to the emergency room and on as we know act of kindness are carried out in the name of Jesus Christ, not because a person wants to feel good.

Even though Jesus does not tell his listeners here, whether they be friend or foe, he has also given another tough command to follow. Just when we think, oh, I can be the kind of neighbor that Jesus wants, in Luke 6:27-28, Jesus says: “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” We also have to ask if we can follow this command to love the one who robs, steals and even kills. What kind of neighbor are we? There is no doubt that our hearts are true in care for one another because Jesus first loved all people. With the energy and the bold nudging of the Holy Spirit, we are the ones who try our hardest each and every day to do what Jesus teaches and does. We seek forgiveness when we fall short. Through the grace and compassion of Jesus we rise again to be the Christian that our faith compels us to be. We stand in the grace of Jesus, in the love of God, and in the communion of the Holy Spirit to guide us in all that we do, in spite of all that stands against a world of love instead of hatred. With all our heart we try to be faithful, through one act of compassion at a time.

May we lean on Jesus to be our guide every day. We are both the neighbor who is the lover of all humankind, and when we are in trouble, we become the one who cries out for someone to see us as a neighbor deserving of care and compassion. With all faithfulness and true and deep abiding love for all people, may we go from here with new abiding care for one another as we try to create a better world that is free from prejudice and hatred in the name of the one who teaches us what love really is, Jesus Christ.

Amen.