{"id":6767,"date":"2020-09-24T13:01:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T03:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6767"},"modified":"2020-09-24T13:01:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T03:01:22","slug":"who-is-my-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/who-is-my-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is my neighbor?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

St Luke’s transcribed sermon by Fr Daniel Fanous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospel today is a well-known gospel\nthat ends with a passage. A passage where a lawyer comes to question our Lord.\nHe comes to the Lord standing up- all details we should pay attention to- and\nasking, \u201cwhat shall I do to inherit eternal life?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, our Lord sensing and knowing that the\nlawyer has come to deceive Him doesn\u2019t answer but instead asks the lawyer a\nquestion; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is your reading of the law?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawyer responds saying \u2018You shall love\nGod with all your mind and all your strength, and you should love your\nneighbour as yourself\u2019. These two that he mentions are known as the 2 tables of\nthe law; the vertical table and horizontal able. The vertical being the love of\nGod and the horizontal being the love for neighbours. So, Christ hearing this\nsays, \u201cdo this and you shall live\u201d<\/em>. A direct response to his question,\nbut it continues further, and we miss what immediately follows this. The lawyer\nthen asks another question wanting to justify himself; \u201cwho is my\nneighbour?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1st<\/sup> century Palestine, as it is\nin the middle east today, a teacher would actually sit while the students would\nstand, opposite to what we have now. So, the lawyer is standing is faking\nhumility, pretending to be a student ready to listen when in fact he isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, who is this neighbour he asks? As a response, Christ gives the story of the Good Samaritan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beaten man in the story is assumed to be a Jew because he is travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. And as he is being beaten, he is left beaten and stripped and a priest passes him by. Most priests at the time would have lived in Jericho, so he would have gone to Jerusalem to pray and go back home. Due to the number of priests, the priests most likely prayed once or twice in the holy of holies throughout their lifetime. So, the priest passes by, most likely not even walking because due to the priests being quite wealthy at the time. Christ is very specific in saying that \u201cwhen the priest had seen the man, he passed by the other side.\u201d<\/em> There was no ignorance, he saw him and then chose to walk on the other side; he saw a man that was beaten, disfigured and stripped. So, looking at him all he knew is that he wasn\u2019t a Jew; he could have been a pagan, Samaritan, Greek, he could have been anything. The priest couldn\u2019t distinguish whether he was a Jew because he was stripped, and blood covered the majority of the man. The priest also couldn\u2019t tell if he was dead or not. Back in those days if someone was dead and you touch them, especially a priest, they would become defiled. Consequently, there would be a 1-week ceremony to cleanse them. During that week there were a lot of restrictions on what he could and couldn\u2019t do. To the priest, all of this was not worth the risk, so the priest walked past, considering the man not to be his neighbour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up was a Levite, who were generally\nknown to be assistants to the priests. The Levite replicating the actions of\nthe priest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Christ continues;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him <\/em>(notice the words that he used, they\u2019re very specific, translating to \u2018he had compassion\u2019), so he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine. And he set him on his own animal, brought him to the inn and took care of him. On the next day when he departed, he took out 2 denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, \u2018take care of him, and whatever more you spend on him when I come again I will repay you.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samaritans were a very unique sort of people. In the old testament, the Assyrian kingdom conquered the northern tribes of Israel, the 10 northern tribes. What they did was very interesting. Their system to break a culture was with the aim to prevent any revolt from happening later on so they would deport Israelites all around and would also bring people from all around the world to settle them in Israel. So, they couldn\u2019t band together for a revolution. There was a hybrid of people living there together in the northern part of Israel. God because their practices and evil it is said in scripture that he sent lions there to kill them. So, they thought that the gods must be against us, and banded together to make a new temple. They formed a new hybrid religion; a mix of Judaism and a mix of Assyrian religion. And so, the people of Israel hated the Samaritans as they are a mixed-race and as far as the Israelites are concerned, they defile the temple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that when Christ mentions a Samaritan everyone would have been shocked and confused. It is the Samaritan that saw the man and had compassion. The priest, Levite and Samaritan all saw the same man, they all had eyes. The Samaritan would have also been unsure if the dying man was his neighbour, and in fact, it is more likely that the man was a Jew, his enemy. Meanwhile, the others would have been more convinced it was their kinsman. And yet the Samaritan saw him, he had compassion upon him. The Samaritan was moved deeply within to help, this isn\u2019t someone who has decided for the first time in his life to do a good deed. But rather this is somebody who has a spirit of goodness, that chooses to give himself to people because he sees himself as their neighbour. He was moved deeply within for someone who may or may not has been his neighbour. Everyone expects Christ to say that a priest passed him by, then a Levite and after that a certain Jew or farmer comes and helps and maybe that the person that was dying on the ground was a Samaritan who would have been their enemy. So, they expected this to be a parable about how good some Jews can be, and yet Christ does the exact opposite. He\u2019s beautifully subversive. Instead of that, He talks about one of their enemies having mercy on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Samaritan helped a man who was passed by\na Priest Levite who both were so concerned about who their neighbour is. Just\nas the lawyer was asking who is my neighbour?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samaritan then uses all that he has to\nhelp the man; <\/p>\n\n\n\n