Holding on for Dear Life
Rev. Lindsay L. Fulmer
Ladera Community Church
July 11, 2010
Luke 10:25-37
A reference to this story made front-page news this week. In the San Jose Mercury the headline read, “San Jose Man Gave Life to Save Two Others.” After hiking Point Lobos, Bill Walker, 48 yr old operations manager, and his girl friend decided to head to Monastery beach near Carmel to watch the sunset. While his girlfriend stretched out and dozed in the late afternoon sun, Bill noticed a grandmother, mother, and daughter struggling against the tide. Immediately he went in, and managed to rescue the grandmother and granddaughter. When he went back out to rescue the mother, he was swept away with her. A good Samaritan, the paper said, helped the late arriving lifeguards pull Bill from the water, and then kept up CPR until paramedics arrived. Friends say they weren’t surprised by Bill’s heroic efforts - It’s the kind of thing Bill would do. The Good Samaritan, who labored to save Bill’s life, goes unnamed.
Such a news story reminds us, it’s best to approach this well-worn parable with caution. Don’t let its familiarity and frequent references fool you. Take this story to heart and there’s real risk involved. Repeated handling over time has not succeeded in wearing its sharp edges smooth.
The first sharp edge shows up about half way through. A lawyer, in lawyerly fashion, has questioned Jesus about eternal life. It’s easy to understand how a lawyer would want to get this whole kingdom-come thing sorted out, verified and clarified. Jesus has been proposing a whole different kind of life eternal. Not life in some heavenly hereafter, not eternal life the way it’s been mapped out before. No, to hear Jesus tell it eternal life is not about life after death at all, but life before death, here and now, a sweetness and truth to life that can be experienced right now this moment. Any moment. Who wouldn’t want that? How do you get it? What must you do to experience it? What must I do to inherit eternal life? the lawyer asks.
In true rabbinical fashion, Jesus doesn’t give him an answer. Instead, he lobs it right back in the lawyer’s court. Jesus doesn’t make the point easy for him, instead makes him reach for it, parrying a question with another question. What does the law say? What do you read there?
The spectator’s heads all turn, and the lawyer scores big with a beautiful return that lands perfectly. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. The crowd looks back to Jesus, who reaches over to extend congratulations on a well-played set. You have given the right answer. Do this and you will live. Match point.
Only the lawyer does what any well-trained lawyer would do. He considers the implications, carefully. So where do those lines fall, exactly? Surely there are clauses and exceptions Jesus hasn’t mentioned. Laws on the books are pretty clear about who can associate with whom, and when, and how. He wants Jesus to help him out here, set some restrictions, get specific, limit his liability. What the lawyer really wants to know, in fact, is who is not my neighbor? See what’s happening here? Seems uncomfortably familiar. Faced with a simple challenge, the lawyer wants to talk about it, argue the fine points, rationalize, consider every angle, discuss whether to give a hand out or a hand up while those who just plain need a hand go wanting. Ouch. Jesus knows the last thing this lawyer, and the same spirit that lives in us, needs is more discussion to whirlpool around.
So what does Jesus do but bring the challenge alive, flesh it out with recognizable characters in a story that packs a punch. A man is beaten and left for dead on the Jericho road – a notoriously dangerous place. The Priest and Levite pass right by him, seemingly more concerned about maintaining the parameters of holiness code and keeping a safe distance then taking compassionate action. And then someone else happens along. A Samaritan, who immediately responds, gives aid and assistance, administering oil and wine. The way Jesus tells it, these are recognizably priestly elements in the hands of this perceived outsider. A Samaritan, the last person the lawyer and those listening would expect to rise to the occasion, to sacrifice, give generously, and act with compassion. Another sharp edge, a provocative eyebrow raising preposition – strip away all the presumptions and prejudices, and it’s a wide and boundless sea we all navigate, there are riptides everywhere, and you never know who might save your life. In the end, it doesn’t matter what we think, understand, know, feel or say about love that matters. It’s what we do about love that brings life.
After the story’s told, Jesus turns the question back to the lawyer. Which of these three, the religious types who deliberately crossed to the other side of the road, or the outcast, which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? There’s only one simple straightforward answer to Jesus’ question, and again, the lawyer answers right. The one who showed him mercy? The one who did something? Go and do likewise, Jesus says to the lawyer in each of us. Do this, and you will live.
Now the wave breaks. The answer Jesus gives is not an answer to the question the lawyer asked. The lawyer asked, Who is my neighbor? The question Jesus answers with is, Whose neighbor are you? The answer? Anyone’s. Everyone’s. Jesus places no limits on the law of love, and lets the lawyer decide how he’ll act on it. One thing for sure – it’s not a leap of faith, or knowledge, or understanding that Jesus asks of him, but a leap of action – show mercy, be a neighbor, do love.
Make no mistake. There are heroes everywhere among us. They, who quietly, while no one else is watching, reach out, bind up, lift and carry and provide life-saving, life-changing merciful care. The one who tutors a single mom who is struggling to help her children by overcoming illiteracy. The one who listens with compassion to stories of young people hungry and desperate for an education, and gives generous scholarships, clearing the way for new life. The ones who cook and work and serve warm meals, for it’s hard to get ahead when you are weak from hunger. There are heroes among us, who have stories of life transforming love to share.
The gift we share in community, is the gift of learning from each other, letting their stories inspire and encourage us. Learning not to confuse the knowing, understanding, thinking, feeling or saying with the doing of love. Love in action; here’s the way to life, life full beyond measure, life everlasting.
We remember the story of Bill Walker, and join those who knew and loved him in mourning for his life, and the life of the mother he tried to save. Because of his brave action, a grandmother can hold her granddaughter close, cry together, and live. His legacy is life; life, to hear his friends and family talk, generously lived. We consider the stranger who stepped up to help, and laid hands on the drowned man’s chest, pressing for life, compression after compression. We don’t know what a difference this story will make in the lives of the ones directly affected, but surely they will never forget. In this story, and so many like it, we are witness to the highest measure of human life, that we love one another with heart, soul and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. This, in life now and life to come, saves us all.
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