A Positively Preposterous Parable

I love to watch movies. It is one of my favorite things to do. It never fails. Where there are movies, there are always bound to be previews. Do you ever pay much attention to movie previews? They are designed to capture your interest and to get you to come out again and see more movies. There are different styles and types of previews, but often you will see a little quote from movie critiques.

So here you are, sitting in your seat with your giant popcorn, and 4 gallon cup of pop that you paid $25 for, and the previews come on and you see things like, "outstanding," "superb," "the best movie of the year," "two thumbs up." This list goes on and on. The words are almost always preceded by or followed by an ellipsis. You do not even know if it is a positive or negative review. So if the critic wrote that the movie was "this movie was not outstanding," then the preview would show "… outstanding."

Well if there had been parable critics in the time when Jesus told this parable about the Good Samaritan. I imagine that no amount of ellipses would help the previews. The critics would not have many positive things to say at all. You would probably see something like, "offensive," "shocking," "insulting." They might even go as far as to say that it was a "Positively Preposterous Parable."

Now this might be a little difficult for us to understand. This is a parable that we are fairly familiar with. Most people have at least heard of the Good Samaritan. In fact, in our world when someone does something nice for another person we say that they are a Good Samaritan. It is not uncommon to hear an anchor on the evening news use the phrase when they are telling a story about people helping people.

I mean it is a good story, who could really have issue with someone helping out another person in need? Well, for the Jewish people who first heard this, they had a huge problem with it. It is not that they took issue with helping another person. That was not the case at all. For them the issue really was the identities of the characters. I mean, come on, that a Jew would be helped by a Samaritan. Really? That is crazy. It is positively preposterous.

Jews and Samaritans did not get along very well. They just did not ever have anything to do with one another. And there was a long history behind it. If you go back about a thousand years from Jesus, you will find yourself in the neighborhood of King David; slayer of giant, writer of psalms, king of Israel. David's son Solomon was the wise guy who succeeded him on the throne. And it was Solomon's son Rehoboam, who had a pretty major role in the split of the kingdom from one to two.

Now you have the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south. In the year 722 B.C. the Assyrians come in and they wipe out the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. The Assyrians come and they take the people from the Northern kingdom and they relocate them throughout their very big empire. And the Assyrians bring in new, foreign people from across their empire to live in the land that once belonged to Israel.

As marriages took place, and children were born, the people that lived in this land were seen as half-breeds. They were not nearly as good as the full-blooded children of Abraham. These are the people who became known as Samaritans. At one point they even tired to build their own temple. A very offensive act to any Jew. It was terrible. It was worse than anything you might find between a Spartan and a Wolverine. So to talk about a Samaritan is to talk about a person who has rejected God's law, who is not a full-blooded child of Abraham, and who is someone that a good God-fearing Jew would want nothing to do with. Anything beyond this would be positively preposterous.

Last week we saw a picture of Jesus and mission. He sends out a group of disciples they come back rejoicing that the demons are subject to them in Jesus' name. And Jesus tells them to rejoice not that the demons are subject to them, but that their names are written in heaven. And while the lesson ended there, the story does not. From that point Jesus offers up a prayer of thanks to God because he has hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

He then turns to the disciples and says, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear; and did not hear it."

And behold. A lawyer stands up so that he could test Jesus and asks him a question. "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" It is not a bad question that he asks. Neither was it an uncommon question to be asked. For this conversation was one that had been debated by the rabbis for many, many years. The issue here is that this lawyer is not asking the question because he is seeking the answer, he is asking it in order to show-up Jesus.

By the way, this is not a lawyer in the secular sense. This is one who studies and specializes in the Law of Moses, in Scripture. This is a religious kind of a guy. So Jesus answers his question with another question. "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" And the man correctly answers, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus tells him that he answered correctly. That's one point for Jesus. But the lawyer is not ready to give up. So he asks another question. Again, he is not asking it because he wants to know the answer. Now he is trying to justify himself. So he asks, "Who is my neighbor?"

And Jesus responds with a positively preposterous parable. A man, most likely a Jew, is on a journey and is encountered by robbers. They beat him up and leave him for dead. A priest, another Jew, comes along the way and sees the man, and passes by the other side of the street. Then comes a Levite, another Jew. He does the same thing.

What is going on here is that you have religious kinds of guys, Jews, people who would be familiar with the love the lord your God and love your neighbor thing, and what do they do? What do they do when they see their fellow brother lying there on the road? Nothing. They do nothing. They pass right on by. They walk right on by. Then comes a Samaritan and he has compassion on the injured man.

Now it is bad enough that the injured man was ignored by the priest and Levite. But the fact that he was helped by a Samaritan, a no-good, half-breed, law-disregarding Samaritan, that is positively preposterous.

Not only that, but this Samaritan goes beyond merely helping the man. He binds up his wounds. He transports him to a place of safety. And they he gives a large sum of money, two days worth of wages, enough to keep him there for a couple of months, and promises to pick up the tab on any other expenses. Not only does he help, but his help is lavish. It is help that is given out of mercy and compassion. It is help that comes from a neighbor.

You see in that day, a Jew would call another Jew his or her neighbor. But not an outsider, and certainly not a Samaritan. So when the lawyer is asking Jesus about who his neighbor is, he is expecting to be in safe territory. And yet Jesus turns things around on him. And he tells this parable that is positively preposterous. Your neighbor is not just the people like you. Your neighbor is anyone who is in need. Jesus asks which of the three men was the neighbor. The lawyer cannot even bring himself to say it was the Samaritan, he says, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus tells him to go and do likewise.

Wow. Do you see it? Do you get it? What is happening here is positively preposterous. But not because Jews and Samaritans don't get along too well. By the way, the Jews in Jesus' day would be like the members of the church today. We often act just like they do, and so have no right to look down our noses at them, and often will have a difficult time learning the same lesson. I believe that the reason the Holy Spirit has preserved these stories for the church is because the church needs to hear and learn from them. So here is that lesson.

Love the lord your God with all your, heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Go and do. Is this a little preposterous? OK Pastor, you are getting into some dangerous territory. Sounds like some works righteousness stuff going on here. No. That is not the case but what we are talking about is a little preposterous.

You and I are sinful human beings. We know that we are to love God and neighbor, but that it is too difficult to do. It is easy to put other things before God. It is easy to drive by that person with the sign asking for help. It is easy to let the phone ring and pretend that we are not home. And then we read and hear something like this, and we feel, well guilty. Good ol, Lutheran guilt. I know I should do those things, I even want to do those things, and yet…

But here is the thing to remember; in spite of our sinfulness the love that our God has for us is preposterous. It is beyond reason or understanding. His love is lavish. His forgiveness is real and certain and for the sake of Jesus. It is not based on the amount or the quality of love that we show. This preposterous love from our God is never in short supply. It is always constant. In Jesus we are loved and forgiven by God. We are freed from sin and death and the devil. We are free from having to earn our salvation. So that we can be free to love and serve both God and neighbor. We don't have to focus on ourselves all the time, it is not that much fun anyway, but we can love and serve and experience life in a great and preposterous abundance.

Luther said that God is able to help everyone, but he does not want to do it alone. Our God wants us to work with him, and so he works with us and through us. God does not need our acts of love, but our neighbors sure do. Now let's begin to imagine. What if we as a congregation challenge ourselves to be known for preposterous acts of love? What would that look like? How would we gain that reputation? What would we need to do in order to become the preposterous people of Port Huron? Think about it. Pray about it. Does it give you goose bumps? Is it exciting?

God's preposterous love fills our lives, so that we can go and share it with others. So that we can help those in need. So that we can share with the world the awesome grace mercy and forgiveness of our God in Jesus.

God's preposterous love is for you. May it always be joy and strength for you, especially in service. Now and Always. Amen.