Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Last week, we talked about the command of discipleship - Go on your way - go - do it - Go out and tell the people of the towns and villages that the kingdom of God has come near - go out and let people know that Jesus Christ is alive and well in the world, that his spirit is active in love and that he will come again - we are awaiting his return.

We know that Christ has commanded us to go on our way as his messengers - but how do we do that? How do we live out the good news that Christ is alive - in our towns and villages - in our homes and in the homes of the people we meet along the way, and in the highways and byways? How do we let people know what it means that "the kingdom of God has come near?" How do we live out our lives as followers of Christ?

We're a little bit in the same situation as the lawyer who stands up to test Jesus in the gospel for this morning - asking - What must I do? - What is to be the way that I am to live? - How am I to go about being a disciple, and living my life as if it made a difference that Jesus has gone to the cross for me?

Well, the lawyer has the answer to his own question, and we know the answer, too. In response to his own question, "What must I do?” Jesus in turn asks the lawyer a question - after all, lawyers must know the law, so Jesus asks him, "What is written in the law?  What do you read there?" And the lawyer answers plainly - "You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself"

And Jesus congratulates the lawyer - he has given the right answer. And Jesus instructs him - "Do this, and you will live". Do it. Just like before - do it, live it.

But the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, wanting to find a point on which he could trip Jesus up - wanting to find some ambiguity - some confusion - in what God's word says, asks another question - "who is my neighbor" - The part that says "You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind" seems pretty clear. Love God with all of yourself - not just part of yourself - not holding back any part of yourself, including your mind, your wits, and your reason - Just love God totally. Pretty clear. but, the part about the neighbor - a lawyer could find some wiggle room in that one if he wanted to - and this lawyer did - Who is my neighbor, he asks - whom do I have to love? Some of us might ask the same question - who is my neighbor? Is it just people who live in my block? Is it people who are like me? Is it just other Christians? Who is my neighbor? Whom do I have to love - in order to inherit eternal life?

Is it a trick question? What did the lawyer expect to hear, do you think? Maybe he expected Jesus to say - your neighbor is anyone who lives within a two mile radius of your house, or - your neighbors are good, upstanding Israelite Jews like you - people who share your values and your beliefs - people like you, who you can recognize as being like you - Maybe that's who the lawyer expected Jesus to say was his neighbor - people it would be easy to love…people it would be natural to love…people it would be no challenge to love.

But Jesus has a surprise in store for our lawyer friend - Instead of giving him an easy list of who his neighbors are, Jesus give the man - and us - a story, a parable - the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus says, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Well - what a way to start a story about love! Here was this man - and the journey he is making tells Jesus' listeners that he was a faithful Jew, returning to his home in Jericho from worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. A pious and faithful man, attacked by robbers, beaten, left naked and bleeding and half dead.

So, what happens?

Well, a priest - another pious and faithful man, like the one lying there half dead - walks by. But does he stop? No. there's somebody lying there by the roadside, bleeding and probably unconscious, a pious and faithful man like himself, but the priest walks by on the other side of the road. He doesn't want to be soiled by this bleeding man, or he doesn't want to get involved. Whatever his reasons, he walks on by.

Then, a Levite, another pious and faithful man, maybe one who had also been worshiping in Jerusalem, comes along. And what does he do?  The same - walks on by on the other side of the road - He's not getting involved, either.

And then, along comes a Samaritan - not even a Jew - not even believing the same things that pious and faithful Jews believe, not even one who worships in Jerusalem. Not even one who shared values and experiences with the beaten man. But the Samaritan saw the man and was moved with pity. The Samaritan was moved enough to go over to the man and help him - even though he was a stranger - even though this was clearly a bad part of town, and who knew if the robbers might still be around somewhere. The Samaritan stopped anyway and bandaged the man's wounds after cleaning them. He put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, and paid the innkeeper in advance to take care of this poor beaten man, and promised the innkeeper that he'd pay whatever more was spent in getting this man back on his feet. He risked his own skin, and his own health - you could get sick from other people's blood back then, too - and his own money - to take care of a stranger, somebody who wasn't like him, somebody who had a different faith and a different way of life. He went above and beyond what anyone else had done - because he was moved with pity at the sight of another human being in need.

When Jesus finishes his story, he asks the lawyer what he thinks - Who was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? And the lawyer answered - the one who showed him mercy. It didn't matter after all who the people were, where they came from or what they had in common. Jesus' parable shows us that when we show mercy, we are fulfilling the command to love our neighbors. It isn’t' who we love but how we love that counts. Everyone is to be touched by our love, everyone is to be the object of our mercy and compassion - The kind of love that Jesus is talking about - self giving, self sacrificing love, is not to be held back and only given to people we like or even people we know - our families or our friends. It's to be poured out for everyone in need, no matter where they come from or what color their skin is or what their background is.

After all, isn't that how Christ loved us? Didn't Christ pour himself out in love for us, not holding back anything, but giving his life for the love of us poor miserable sinners? Christ loved us fully, has mercy on us fully, forgives and heals us fully. That is the grace of God poured out in Jesus Christ - the grace of God that saves us from certain death.

And so we are called to love as Christ loved - with mercy and compassion on anyone who is in need of mercy and compassion - anyone - It's not who we love but how we love - our love is to be poured out as the Good Samaritan's was - regardless of cost to us, regardless of risk to us - regardless of whether we know or like the person we're helping. Simply loving with mercy and compassion.

Jesus had one more thing to say to the lawyer that day - after the lawyer told him who the neighbor was - Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise”.

Now you know the answer to the question, what must I do - So go, and do likewise, empowered by Christ through the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

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