Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
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Our Gospel is taken from the end of Luke chapter 10. In the beginning of this chapter, Jesus sends out seventy disciples two by two. It is a daring adventure that they embark on. Jesus even tells them that he is sending them out as lambs among wolves. They leave without a bag, a wallet, or even sandals. Their purpose is to declare that the kingdom of God is come. In order to show this, Jesus commands them to heal the sick and cast out demons. The kingdom will come with power and authority; they are a surety, a sign, of the kingdom of God.
We do not know how long they were absent, but when they come back, are full of joy. The declaration of the Kingdom of God and the power of Jesus has amazed them. They have cast out demons and healed the sick in His name! Our Gospel text, then opens up with Jesus’ answer to their astonishment. He declares upon them a beatitude: “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see.”The kingdom of God is astonishing — Jesus is not using hyperbole here. He is not exaggerating to make a point. Truly, the kingdom of God has come and blessed are those eyes that see these things. The Seventy disciples have seen the power of God at work in the world in a new way. The works of the prophets and judges has now come among the people through the Person of Jesus. They cannot believe the power of Jesus’ name has authority over spirits and the material world. Only the name of God has that power!
But the kingdom of God is much more than miracles. Luke, the author of the Gospel, arranges the narratives in this chapter so that we do not become focused just on miracles. The arrangement could not be more perfect because while the story of the Seventy lets us see the power and presence of the kingdom, the story of the Good Samaritan helps us see the true nature of the kingdom of God. Luke uses an interaction between a lawyer and Jesus to then explain more fully the kingdom of God. What Luke opens up is that this kingdom does have power, it does have miracles, but the kingdom also transforms the way in which we live and interact in the world. The nature of the kingdom of God is mercy and charity seen in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In Luke’s version of the story, a lawyer asked Jesus what he shall do to inherit eternal life. Jesus turns him straight to the Law, and in Luke’s version, the lawyer himself gives the summary of Law that we are familiar with. These are summaries of Deut 6 and Lev 19, and we do find a few such summaries in Jewish writings around this time period. The question seems a bit simplistic for a lawyer, especially since he already knew the answer. Therefore, he pushes the Rabbi Jesus even more, now wanting more comment on who is considered our neighbor.
The lawyer asks Jesus the question: “Who is my neighbor?,” but Jesus respond with a story that a shows not just Who is our Neighbor, but What is true neighborliness. Through this, Luke is really commenting on the nature of the kingdom. Jesus does answer the Lawyer’s question right off the bat. He says that a certain man is robbed and is in need. A certain man; we don’t know if he is Jewish or Gentile, we don’t know where he is from or what is the color of his skin. What we do know is that he is in need. There is the answer to the Lawyer’s question. Anyone is your neighbor, especially if that person is in need. But the lawyer needs to hear the rest of the story to fully realize that. You see, within the traditional Jewish understanding of the Law which states that we should love our neighbors, neighbor was interpreted to mean fellow Jews. So Jesus continues to the rest of the story and shows the Lawyer just what true neighborliness means.
First, a priest is coming back from Jerusalem. This means that he has just completed his service at the temple. Socially speaking, the priest is probably form a wealthy or prominent family. At this time, the temple was ruled by aristocratic families. He sees this unconscious man, laying at the side of the road. It should be noted that priests took great care to follow the Deut. laws concerning purity. Priests were not to touch a dead persons unless it was one of his family. At the same time, there was general understanding that if even a priest found a corpse with no one to bury him, they should bury him right away. According to the Talmud, which are the Rabbinic commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, “Similarly, if one must choose between the Temple service and tending to a met mitzva, tending to the met mitzva takes precedence, based upon the halakha derived from the term ‘or for his sister'” (Megillah 3b:5).
The point Christ is making is that he does not even stop to see if there was life still in the man. Just like the robbers, the priest left him for dead. And then a Levite comes. The Levites, in contrast to the priest, was probably not of a noble family. He too was coming back from service at the temple, and despite his social situation, he reacts like the priest.
It is the Samaritan who seeks out life. He goes above and beyond — not only does he gives this broken man a new hope for life, he restores to him a full life. This is true neighborliness–it is true love, it is the full interpretation of the Law. And it is shown to us by one of the most hated enemies of the Jews. The Lawyer was surely astonished. When Jesus presses the point and asks him which one was a true neighbor, the Lawyer barely answers and most definitely refuses to say the name Samaritan. Perhaps he has not learned the lesson yet.
The lesson is the same to us. It is just as simple and perhaps still hard for us to hear. God expects that the ones who love Him will love the people around him. Love of God demands us to love our neighbor. Our neighbor is any man–it could be a certain man, a black man, a white women, a child. Our neighbor is any person in need.
But why? Why is the kingdom of God like this? The kingdom of God demands such love, such neighborliness because it is the nature of our God to love. You see, this is much more than a moral lesson. Luke is demanding to look deeper and notice that the nature of the kingdom of God depends upon God Himself.
To help us see this lesson, let us look at the same story allegorically as most of the Church Fathers did. Reading it this way will help us see why we are called to such love. The certain man is taken to be Adam, who fell into the hands of the devils, and was stripped naked of his innocence and immortality. He lies in a ditch wounded and half dead. Indeed, Adam was wounded by the fall, and he is defiled by these wounds, though not completely dead. The priest and the Levite, cannot help the wounded man, just as the Law cannot truly redeem fallen Adam. As the author of Hebrews says:
It was impossible that by the blood of calves and lambs or by the blood of goats, sin should be taken away (Heb. x. 4).
But then the Samaritan comes as a Type of Christ. He is the true neighbor, as the Paul says in his letter to the Philippians:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men (2:7).”
As the Samaritan, he lowers himself to help the man in the ditch. He has mercy on those in need.
First, he binds and heals the wounds of Adam, helping us recover from the Fall, and takes us to a place of rest, the Inn. The Inn stands for the Church, where we are healed during the journey of this life. There, the man can recover and heal. Christ gives the innkeeper two denarii, taken to be the Two Testaments by which God speaks to his people.
But even more, Christ promises to pay anything that is needed to help, signifying the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Christ shows mercy upon the certain man, heals him from his wounds, gives him gifts of life, and promises to return again. No one has been a greater neighbor than he who has shown the ultimate mercy. You were that man in the ditch, wounded and unable to rise from the dead. But by the gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, your wounds are healing. And now that you are at the Inn, the Church, you receive the Word of God and Christ Himself at the Holy Eucharist. So, you, who have been so loved and cared for, Go, love your neighbor. Love Him first who has shown to be the greatest neighbor, Jesus Christ. And then go and love those around you because Christ first loved us and gave himself for us.
And just to be sure we do not abstract this too much, let me end by giving you some ways that you may truly show love to those around you. We already do many of these things and love each other at All Saints. From teaching Agape to serving on the Altar and Flower guilds, to helping those out at church on numerous projects, to caring for all the kids at church, to our Lenten projects. These are aways many of you are already serving and loving your neighbor.
There are other ways as well. First, we have several people who are can not make it church each week. They need to be visited, cared for, and loved. Second, our missions committee has done a good job of finding trustworthy domestic and foreign missions to support. Find one of these to support. Become involved with one of the local ministries or support one abroad with money. Third, there are some in our parish who are going through incredibly hard times. Seek them out, call them during the week, visit them if they want that. And since some of you do this already so well, invite someone to go with you to serve. If you want to help, come talk to me or any other priest, and we will give you those opportunities. These are the works of the kingdom of God. These are the works of true love and neighborliness. Go, and do likewise.
Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
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