“God’s People Love Their Neighbors”
July 14, 2013
The 8th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
Deuteronomy 30: 9 - 14 /Psalm 25: 4 – 10/Colossians 1: 1 – 14/ Luke 10: 25 – 37
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
We are in the Eight Sunday of Kingdomtide or Ordinary Time. Our gospel today pleaded to God to teach us His law, His ways. Actually, this is what is happening each Sunday, especially of Kingdomtide as we are reminded of all Christ has given to us and all that belongs to us. The reason for this reminder is so that we, as His people, recognize the ability that is ours, the potential that belongs to us.
In Easter, the sin was taken away. At the time of Adam’s failure in the Garden, God had warned him prior to his eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree that the day that he eats of the fruit, the moment that he ate of the fruit, he would die. You and I know that he did not die a physical death because he lived almost 900 years after that period of time. There had to be something that happened to him which perhaps we have not totally understood. Within him, that which God had breathed unto him, the life of God, obviously died so that he was no longer under the dominion or had the control of life. He was being captivated by death.
At Easter, Christ went to the cross. He took upon Himself our sins and He gave to us His righteousness. 2Corinthians 5 says He gave us His righteousness. He restored life to us in His resurrection. We find that we have now been given freedom – no longer under the bondage of sin; no longer under the bondage of death, but now, we have been brought out of that. We have been brought out of the darkness into His marvelous light.
Christ made us worthy. We who are unworthy because of that sin, because of our rebellion, Christ now gave His life to make us worthy. He also tells us, “Now, you are a witness of this new life. You are to proclaim. You are to live out that life which you have been given.” We have been given union with Him. By Christ, by the Father, we now have become one with the Godhead and our son-ship has been brought to reality.
Christ gives us the Holy Spirit in Pentecost. He comes alongside to help us, to guide us, and to strengthen us so that we do not walk just as mere men; but now, He has shared with us His very power that which has empowered Him. Not only are we given the Holy Spirit, but we found out that it included the Holy Trinity as our Helper – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is the power of God’s commitment to us. This is His gifts to us so that we no longer struggle and battle; but now, we are strengthened in Him. We were also then united into one flock by the Eucharist. This is giving us power because in unity, there is power and the ability of power to flow. When we are separated and pulled apart, the flow of that power is hindered. Christ, by the Eucharist, brings us into His body – the unity, the oneness with Him.
Christ also gives us His presence in the bread to say to us that He is with us. He will not leave us and He will not forsake us. He is with us and He will remain with us. He also gave us resurrection life so that we could share that life that He had. It shows the power, the ability, the dominion over death, hell, and the grave. This is the gift that He has provided. We have been forgiven by faith.
All of these are the lessons that we have looked at since Easter. We are to confess that we are sons of God. This is now that which should come forth out of our lives. We are not alone; we have not been deserted; we have not been cast out, but He has brought us in. He has engulfed us in His love, in His compassion, in His grace and His mercy. We are to confess that it is Christ. It is not our ability; it is not our wisdom, but it is Christ at work in us.
We are His workmanship created by Christ Jesus. We are to follow the Lord. Christ is our model. He sets a course and a direction for us so that we can bring forth into this world a light, a change. We can bring hope where there is no hope. We can bring healing and restoration. He has commissioned us to do that.
These are the lessons we have looked at in the last few weeks which empowers and enables us to rise above the turmoil and the stress of life. Knowing what God has given to us is to cause us to be victorious – to be more than conquerors. Not oppressed by the circumstances around us, but lifted up so that we can bring hope into the lives of others.
Today, God speaks to us, through Christ, in a parable about loving our neighbor. Love is actually the power that God uses. It is the power that He has given to us. God is love. The law is powerless unless love is there to empower it, to enable it, and to be what it is supposed to be. The Old Testament law was placed upon man by obligation. Man had to obey the law; but in the New Testament, that requirement was lifted. Now, it is upon us to love and to keep the law. We want to do it because that is the love within us.
In the gospel, a lawyer approaches Jesus and he asked, “How can I make certain that there is my life that which I am supposed to have? That which is coming from You and You alone? How do I know that everything is okay?” Jesus then asked him, “What is your understanding? What is your heart toward what I have taught and what you think is necessary?” He said, “This is what I have. This is how I see it. This is how it reads to me. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’”
Jesus responded to him and said, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” See the instructions of Christ. Not the necessity of believing this, but the necessity of doing. It is one thing to say that we believe but that does not need the requirement of the life of Christ. It comes through us in the doing. The doing comes out of love. It is no longer an obligation but it is because, “I want to. I desire. I am thankful for what has happened to me.”
Typical for a lawyer, he has questions. He wants to know all the details. In our lives today, it is not only the lawyers who would do this. Sometimes, when you give instructions, even before you finish the instruction, somebody would say, “What about this? What about that?” Even before they use their mind to think things through, they have questions. “I don’t think this will work. What about this and that?” The lawyer was asking questions. His questions were perhaps justified. He wanted to know who his neighbor is, “Who do I have this responsibility toward to love?”
Jesus brings forth this parable of the Good Samaritan, which we have all heard many times. I would like to look at it at a little different light. As I was meditating on this, I saw some things which I did not see before. I, then, went to the early Church Fathers and went through a number of their interpretations of this parable so that I would not be off-tracked in what I was saying.
It tells a story about this man who leaves Jerusalem to travel to Jericho. The first thing we have to look at is the identity of Jerusalem and the identity of Jericho. Christ is telling us something. He Himself when questioned by His disciples as to why He used parables, He said, “For those on the outside, they will not understand, but for those in the inside, they will know what I am talking about.”
Jerusalem was a city that was considered the city of God. It was a place of communion, of joy, of security. It was that place where God met His people. Jericho was symbolic of sin. When it talks about this man coming from Jerusalem going to Jericho, it gives us the understanding of the picture that this man, in some way, lost his love, his compassion, his direction toward the things of God and he is moving on this journey towards sin and failing.
As he was in this journey, he is met by robbers – this hostile power. They stripped him; they beat him; they steal all that he has and they leave him dying on the road. Here is the consequence of sin. Here is the result of sin. It is going to destroy us and take away all that we have and leave us dying.
The story tells us that there was a priest that was going down that road. The priest going down the same road very obviously says that he has also wavered from his commitment to God and he is going down the same path. Instead of stopping to help this wounded man, he passes by him, ignoring him, without compassion and concern in his life toward him.
It is like the Old Testament law that set the direction, the course; those things which had to be done; but there was no provision for what would happen if you disobeyed the law. You will have the consequences of that disobedience but there was no healing. There was no restoration.
There was also a Levite who came along this road. This Levite was symbolic of the prophets of old. Both of these men connected to the temple, to religious practices, he also bypasses this man and leaves him on the road dying. He doesn’t pay attention to him – no compassion. He is on the same road. It shows us something that we must understand. The priest and the Levite were not really following fully the principles of God, the power of God, and the teachings of God because they were on a journey much like this man was toward Jericho. Therefore, compassion was not part of their life. Care, concern was not there.
Jesus says that there was a Samaritan. The Samaritan was not of the Jewish religion. He is an outsider. We could call him a Gentile. He comes along this road because he is on a journey. It doesn’t tell us that he is coming from Jerusalem. Probably, he was a businessman, out selling his goods and making known the things that he has available to people. He sees this man lying on the road – his wounds because of his disobedience.
This Samaritan stops. He administers healing to this man. He binds him up with bandages. This is perhaps what we would look as possibly the baptism in water, the cleansing that takes place. He uses oil to bring healing and the wine to give that strength. These are symbolic of the sacraments. Here is a man who is outside of the church, and yet he has more compassion than the leaders of the church toward this man who is hurting, who is in pain because of his turning against the principles of God, of his disobedience.
The Samaritan brings this touch of healing to him. He showed that he was a neighbor. His deeds were more than just words. They were actions. He puts this wounded man on his own beast. The saints of old believed that this beast was symbolic of the life of Christ. How that Christ picks us up, and now, He brings us out of darkness into light. He takes us out of our failures and our rebellion back into the light and into the hope that is ours.
This Samaritan puts the wounded man on his beast, probably a donkey. He takes him to the inn. The symbol of the inn, according to the early Church Fathers, is the Church. The master, person in the inn who is the manager, is symbolic of the priest or the bishop in the Church. The Samaritan gives two denarii to the manager of the inn. This is symbolic of the Old Testament and the New Testament to bring healing and restoration to this man who is wounded and who is dying.
In the morning, after bringing the wounded man to the end, making this agreement with the manager to take care of him, the Samaritan tells the innkeeper, “Take care of him. When I come back, if there is more than what I have given to you as far as cost is concerned, I will repay you.” Very possibly, this Samaritan was not intending to come back originally. He was on a journey. He was out as a businessman, as a salesman, perhaps, selling his goods. He was on this journey toward finding things for himself.
Out of compassion and out of concern for this wounded man, he says to the innkeeper, “I will return.” Why is he coming back? He is coming back to make certain about the progress of this wounded man. He says, “If there is anything that is still to do, I will pay when I come back. I will take care of it.”
Jesus is speaking to us how that in our own lives, there are times when we must sacrifice our own goals, our own provision to bring healing and restoration to others. This is love. We live in a world today that is very self-centered, thinking only of self. The things that we do are for our own good and if it does not bring good to us, we don’t want to be involved in it. We are, in some ways, deceived by the society in which we live. We think that we are doing well, doing good.
For those who are involved in things like Facebook, we say that we have friends. “I have hundreds of friends.” How deceived we are! That is not friendship. Would you give your life for those on that machine that you don’t even have an acquaintance with perhaps? Yet, we call them friends. A friend is someone that is close to us. A friend is someone that we can touch, that we can have face to face have relationship with. But we are now given perhaps this deception to keep us away from personal relationships.
Much of what we see there is not really that which is building friendship. It is building, “Me; my image.” “Look at what I am doing. Look at what I have accomplished. Look at my family. Look, we have done this. We have achieved this.” It may not be even true. We have been pulled away from that personal relationship into something that substitutes and we think we are doing well. We think we are doing great. But where are we?
I have counseled with several young ladies who met men on this social networking. They were leaving to marry someone they have never seen face to face; someone they only met upon a machine. I have one come back and say, “What a failure. What a mistake I made. This man is not what he said he was.” Another has sent me a message, “Pray for me. This is not what I intended it to be. It is not working the way that it should.”
Why is this? We substituted what God gave us. See God’s commitment to us: He sent His Son to deal with us face to face; to show us His love by His actions. Not boasting and bragging of what He has done, but giving His life to restore us; giving His life to bring us out of the darkness into light. Helping us to restore and to come back to that which God has given to us.
1John4:20 says to us, “How can you say that you love God whom you have never seen when you cannot love your brother whom you have seen?" In Kingdomtide, God is showing us the character of the Church; showing us the character of our lives; and how that we are to be givers as Christ gave unto us. As He loved us, so we must love one another. As He has forgiven us, so we reach out to forgive. As He has restored us, so we restore.
This is the lesson that is shown to us today. How that we have a responsibility of living that which He has given to us. Not just believing it, but bringing it to reality into our lives. It is a challenge for us because the society that we live in today is totally contrary to this. But the Church must live out the example of Christ. We must be a witness to what God has given to us because the world is seeking, hungry.
Why do some people have thousands and thousands of friends on their Facebook account? They want attention. They want love. They want someone that cares for them. They don’t realize that the more that they have, the less that is about to happen. Scriptures says a man of many friends comes to failure.
Perhaps, this is something we need to evaluate. There is a good side to all of this, but have we taken it to a point wherein it is destroying us rather than building us? Is it taking away from us what God has given to us? Why are we boasting and bragging? Why are we not giving? Why are we not sharing? Why are we not lifting up others instead of lifting up ourselves?
The challenge that comes because of what God has given to us. When we come into the Kingdom, it is not just the matter that our sins are gone. When we come into the Kingdom, we also change our lifestyle. We are to become like Christ. We are to begin to live out His principles. We are to begin to live out the life that He has given us.
Christ tells this young man, “When you live these things, then, you will be blessed.” This is the challenge that comes to us. The One that has shown mercy says, “Go, and do the same.” To us, I hope this story brought to us with understanding. Allegorically, yes, but yet it brings out the details why Christ was telling the story of this man. Why was He sharing this with us? Because this was the life Christ lived out. He gave of Himself. He died in our behalf. He set us free. He gave us new life. We are to be like him.
Today, we hear that God’s people love their neighbors. Is this the witness of our lives? Do we care? Are we compassionate? Do we reach out to even those we do not know? This Samaritan did not know this man. He saw a need. He met the need at his own expense – two denarii in the beginning plus the bandaging, the oil, and the wine which are the sacraments. He gave these to the man to heal him, to lift him up. He changes perhaps his itinerary to be able to come back and make certain that this man was healed and restored.
May we be like Christ. May our lives reflect that compassion and that love towards others. May we cease being concerned only about ourselves; but may we lift up the lives of others. Being like Christ, showing compassion, concern and love for restoration for those who have stumbled, perhaps, fallen and turned from God; bringing them back into the provision of God’s grace and God’s mercy.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THROUGH
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