Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Deut 30:10-14; Col 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37]There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" [Luke]
The dialogue between Jesus and "the scholar of the law" is the prologue to the parable of the Good Samaritan. There are two questions asked, which form a pattern any good lawyer [among whom I have to include myself because I have a civil law degree] could recognize: "What is the law?" and "Where are the loopholes?" The loophole question is "And who is my neighbor?" It is the kind of "What if...." question that many people ask when confronted with some of Jesus' more challenging teachings. The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us there are no "What if...." questions when it comes to mercy and compassion.
Antagonism between Jews and Samaritans was a "given" in Jesus' day. The Samaritan in the parable transcended this antagonism to show mercy to the robbers' victim, whereas the priest and Levite (temple worker) "passed by on the opposite side." The loophole question might concern the possibility that the priest or Levite might be made unclean by touching a body that appeared to be dead and thereby be unable to perform temple duties until going through a thorough "cleansing." Does that excuse them in the light of the "law?"
Jesus' answer to the scribe's question, to which all Christians are presumably bound, is that "everyone" is our "neighbor." Failure to recognize and live out Jesus' teaching in this regard is at the root of all violence. The priest and Levite could cite precepts from the "law" to justify ignoring the robbers' victim. Jesus points to a higher precept in the "law" that places ceremonial precepts in a lesser light.
When all is said and done, we are left with the behavior of the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan traveler. Which of these three do we resemble? Do we -individually or collectively - respond with compassion? Or do we "pass by on the opposite side." We know whom Jesus commends in the story and we have his command: "Go and do likewise." Who do we resemble? AMEN