Grace Across The Road
A sermon about Luke 10: 25 – 37, by Mila Linke
Well, as Susie mentioned, I am Mila Linke, your intern and student minister. And once again, I want to thank Pastor Susie and Pastor Dave for letting this novice minister exercise her preaching muscle. And after this week, it feels like the only muscle I might have. So many of you and our two fine pastors have been so good to me, and I’m grateful. Will you pray with me?
Oh, loving God, I am grateful for this church, your people here, and the opportunity for us to learn together and for us to show your love to others. Help me to choose my words and give a message that might both be understood and absorbed in the hopes that I am honoring you and my church family. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight. For you are my rock and my redeemer in Jesus name. Amen.
So, we heard that sermon, I mean that scripture, and the legal expert was kind of trying to trick Jesus up. And he responds, “Well, tell me, what are the things that are going to get me into heaven?” He says, “Well, you tell me.” Jesus goes, “Tell me what they are.” And he responds correctly, just two things.
That’s it. Kind of seems easy enough. It’s only two, right? Love God. The other one, maybe not so easy. Love your neighbor as yourself. So if we had a checklist, we might say, “First one, we’ve already got it. We’re here. We’re loving God. We’re worshiping God.” The other one, it might take a little effort, you know, but then the wise guy, the legal one, he goes, “Okay, well, who is my neighbor?” And then Jesus launches into the story. And it’s a story we all know well from Sunday school, from stories, just plain talking. A good Samaritan is a nice person. It’s a helper. The term has been used not only biblically, but in our own vernacular, a good Samaritan is someone who does good things for other people.
And we see it all the time. We have hospitals named Good Samaritan. We even have a good Sam camping club, an RV club, and we have a good Samaritan law for those who go out and help other people when something’s happened. The laws protect them. It’s an important thing. It’s something we all know well.
But back to the scripture, back to the story. See, there’s this guy and he’s traveling from Jericho to Jerusalem. All right, we’ve heard of those two towns. But some details on this particular road. First, it’s rocky and it’s steep. There’s a 3,000 foot descent in some of the most barren, rocky, dry terrain in the area. So, this walk isn’t easy and it was dangerous. There’s robbers all over and it’s known for being infamous to be ambushed. Travelers were often robbed, assaulted, and people just hearing Jesus tell this story, they would have known it instinctively. Just as if I were say to you, you know, the 405 is a little crowded Friday at 4:00, right? You’d nod your head and that’s what they were doing. They knew the road. Not only that, it takes six to eight hours to do that travel. So, it’s not easy. But Jesus is telling us that this guy is doing a walk and there were robbers who robbed him. They took his clothes. They took everything and then they savagely beat him up and they left him for dead. And it became clear in the story that without some sort of help the man is going to die. No doubt about it.
Now the story goes on that there’s a preach priest walking by and this is the important thing. He sees the man. So, there’s no doubt that this priest looks over and he sees the man. Now, if the man was dead, it would almost make sense that he’d walk by because he’s not allowed to be around an unclean or dead body. But he doesn’t he knows that he’s alive. And then I also thought, well, wait a minute. What is this priest doing walking on such a dangerous place? Well, it’s kind of simple. He’s going to Jerusalem or coming back from Jerusalem because that is his holy place in a sense. That’s where the temple is where he works.
So he walks on by. Then a Levite comes. Now a Levite assisted the priests. He made the whole worship service ready just like we do here. He assisted the priests. So they were kind of like temple assistants, right? So religious people as well. But what does he do? He walks on by. Now you have two religious people seeing someone in need, right? Someone they should have stopped. I mean, that’s part of their teachings, too. And what do they do? They turn the other way and they ignore it. What do you think Jesus is trying to tell us right here? Perhaps do not be mistaken with some of these religious people because they’re not always doing the right thing. Or maybe he’s saying, “You don’t just get to talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk.” And in this case, stop walking and help out.
But candidly, don’t we see this all the time? You know, if you watch TV or go to megachurches or see mega churches, just some of them requiring money, more money, give me more money, give me more money. But the money isn’t going to help people. In the past, you might have heard sometimes it goes to a new jet or air conditioning for a doghouse. It’s true. And it reminds me of that saying of Mahatma Gandhi, I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians, for they are nothing like your Christ.
You see, even back then, it was easy to listen to a message on Sunday and you might even understand the teachings of Jesus if you were listening to Jesus. And but putting it into practice is entirely a different thing. That’s the difficult part. You know, Jesus purposely pointed out in this story that these religious leaders claimed they were following their faith, but they had no intention of really following it. Not if it took a little bit of effort.
You know, right now, our politicians are once again offering up thoughts and prayers. And much like Susie said, our hearts are collectively breaking for what’s going on. people being gunned down, children being gunned down. But here come the words, empty hollow words. You know, just like those religious leaders, it was easier to give a sound bite of thoughts and prayers than to actually do something, take a stand, make a difference, change laws, stand up for what’s right, help the people.
But Jesus goes on to explain there was someone who did something to help. Now, most likely he was nothing like the injured man who most likely was Jewish and maybe the same as those religious priests and the Levites. No. Jesus put in the story a Samaritan. A Samaritan. Now, the injured man would probably have not helped him out. he probably wouldn’t have done what he did because the Samaritans and most likely to this beaten man was lower than low. The very lowest, a coward, an enemy in terms of what they were like at that time. They were not just marginalized or mistrusted.
They were hated. They were despised.
But why? Well, oddly enough, Samaritans were Jewish as well. But I guess you could say Jewish with a twist. A different Jewish. The Samaritans basically considered themselves the true descendants of the ancient Israelites who stayed in the land of Israel and preserved the original faith. But they had differences. There were two different holy places. For the Jews that followed Jesus and were of that area, their holy land was Jerusalem. And the Samaritans had an entirely different city where they worshiped and considered holy. The Samaritans also had the first five books. The Torah was their entire Bible, not the other books. And there were some different versions of it, maybe like our King James versus the ones we like to read. And over time, these differences, which to me seem kind of small, led to a lot of religious and cultural separations to the point where Samaritans were simply dogs to their Jewish brother.
But let’s face facts. It’s 2,000 years later, right? And we have folks in the American Christian denomination or the Christian nationalists that are separating people. Separating them because of their place of origin or their legal immigration status and they are treating them with disdain and ugliness.
Yet many of these marginalized folks are Christians and some quite religious. But see that doesn’t matter because then just like now or now just like then they’re different. They’re different. So Jesus purposely placed this despised Samaritan as the hero. one that actually embodies the core values of compassion and mercy because Jesus wants us to know and this is the underlying part that godliness and goodness can come from unexpected places and unexpected people.
Now, not only that does the good Samaritan do the right thing, he does it in a place that’s dangerous. You know, that could have gotten him attacked, too. And this deepens the meaning of loving your neighbor to one that includes bravery, inconvenience, and crossing social boundaries.
So then Jesus ends the story and asks, “Who was the neighbor?” And the answer of course is the one that shows mercy. Now in the end we are told go out and do the same thing. It’s clear it’s our responsibility to take care of others. But this in the story this Samaritan he went out of his way yes to help. But then he made sure that the man was comfortable, that he was fed, that he was clothed, that he had a nice place to stay, rest, and healed. All of it on his dime. You see, the Samaritan wasn’t only helpful. He was generous. Amazingly generous.
I believe that Jesus is asking us to do the same. to become people who do not see and count the differences in others, but people who love and value their neighbor, no matter their social status, their color, their gender, or even where they came from, their homeland.
We need to be the helper no matter what. So, which one are we? Which one are you? The man or the Samaritan? You know, I had an encounter several weeks ago where I saw and I felt this Jesus required love right in action. Now, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the story or the parable, but nevertheless, I saw God’s love shine deeply, and that love was directed right at me. And at the time, I sure did not deserve it.
I probably should be a little embarrassed even telling this story. I’ve been having a few car issues. My family are playing musical cars with cars. And I was left at my office carless, but I remembered I don’t need to worry. I have that pickup truck. Now, I never drive the truck, but in my mind, it has wheels. It goes forward. It can get me to point A to point home. What do I need to worry about? I’ve got a vehicle, so I was going to drive it home. There was a couple of issues, though. I was having pain in my sciatica. I didn’t even know I had a sciatica, but it hurts. Anybody here have that pain? Felt that pain? Yeah, it hurts like heck. Yes, it was bad. But I thought I could still drive, you know, and I had to get home and I was hot and sticky and tired and very grumpy.
And then I remembered that this particular truck had no air conditioning. Well, I can deal with that. I had a plan. I walked around to the passenger side and I rolled down the window halfway. Yes, I am a cheapskate. I had bought a truck that has those kind of windows. Then I got into my side and I rolled down the other window and I figured I’m going to create this cross breeze that will just give me all the air and cool air that I need and change the mood that I was slowly diving into.
I’m halfway home. My back is throbbing. There is no cross breeze. Not only that, I noticed that well, I hadn’t been taking care of this truck very well cuz it was absolutely filthy. I mean, even the windows were a little shmear, and I thought, what what am I going to do? I’ll turn on the radio. Every preset set to Spanish music, and I don’t know the new radio dials. My mood was getting more heated, like the inside of that cab.
I thought, I need to figure out something. something I can do that would change my attitude because it wasn’t nice. And then I remembered on my way home, there’s a car wash and I have a subscription to that car wash. I’m going to drive in there and at least I’m going home in a clean truck on the outside.
Well, I got in line and that gate didn’t open. And if any of you have had one of these subscriptions, you probably would understand like I did at the moment, the subscription is not with me. It’s with the car I’m driving, which I don’t have.
And now I’m stuck. And I’m really ticked off. And a young man comes up and he worked there. And candidly, he looked just as hot, just as tired, just as sweaty, but not grumpy because he said to me, “How can I help you?” I said, “Well, I just need to get this car washed. How much? What’s your cheapest car washed?” I could have hosed it off if my back hadn’t hurt so bad.
And I’m not proud to say I think I said maybe I said I’m well I said $15. This darn truck isn’t worth $15. And then by then he’s kind of looking at me and I went into it. Don’t you understand? My back is killing me. You know I am hot. I am sweaty. This truck is filthy and it only plays Spanish music. Yeah, I was getting a little out of control, but he looked at me and he said, “You got a truck that only plays Spanish music.”
And I said, “Well, no, I’m sure I could move those dials, but I don’t even know where to move the dials.” You know, I was not being nice. And he looked at me and he said, “Don’t worry, I got you.” I thought, “Oo, I’m going to get a deal here.” And he went over and he started pushing buttons and I went out to get my credit card and and I looked and it said zero. I said zero. Now I’m trying to find his name and he had a name tag that he wrote on. Looked like Jordan, but he made his his J with a little point so it could have been Jordan. I’m not quite sure.
And I looked at him and I said, “You just gave me a car wash.” He goes, “Oh, yes I did.” I said, “Well, you just blessed me.” He goes, “Oh, yes I did.” And I decided that I’m going to do something. So I’m pawing through my purse trying to find a bill, you know. And he goes, “What are you doing?” I said, “Well, I’m going to bless you.” And he looks at me straight up and he said, “You can’t bless me.” Okay, I’m going to take the beat. Why can’t I bless you? And he said, “Because I’m already blessed.”
He didn’t look like a guy that was already blessed. He looked hotter and tired. So, I don’t know why I said it, but I thought, hm, I’m going to get a story here. How are you already blessed?
And he said, “Because today I am 15 months sober.” Yeah. Oh, yeah. Amen.
Well, that just changed my thinking right there. And I said, “Yes, you’re blessed.” So, now we’re high-fiving. I’m excited. The arm goes up. I’m going into the car wash and I hear him go, “Hey, hey, wait a minute.” And I thought, “Wait a minute.” And he starts fist pumping and going, “95.5.” And I’m going, “95.5.” He goes, “Yeah, 95.5.” I go, “Yeah, what’s 95.5?” He said, “Your radio, turn it on to 95.5. You’re going to have some music you can sing to.” I said, “Okay.” I get up to the front. The lady hands me one of those little air fresheners. I turn on 95.5. I roll up my window. I’m going through the car wash. I’m singing loud. And I notice that she’s kind of screaming at me. I don’t know why, but my mood is starting to change. It’s still a little hot in the cab, but there’s a soft mist of water coming. And I know that this is a spiritual moment right now because I’m not only singing and I got a free car wash and I shared that moment with him, but I am cooling down to the point that I am almost wet.
I didn’t care. You see, God was in that moment and I had only wished the car wash was even longer and then the foam hit like little clouds coming in, bigger clouds coming in, hitting me. But friends, these were not regular clouds. They were biblical rainbow clouds because Jordan Varden was generous. My good Samaritan had bought me the deluxe car wash with the rainbow foam cuz he wanted me to have the best.
You know, we can all be good Samaritans and maybe give somebody a hands up. Now, we may not be able to give out free car washes, but sometimes maybe a smile, a comment, a prayer.
I wasn’t dying, and I didn’t get pulled out of a ditch, but I did get pulled out of one very crummy mood. and I shared the triumph of 15 months sobriety. And my good Samaritan was generous to him. I wasn’t some crabby old lady, but I was his neighbor, one that needed a little help. And boy, did that help work. I felt God’s love in that moment.
The kind of love that doesn’t ask who is my neighbor, but the kind of love that asks how can I be one. Amen.