(Audio recorded live, 13 July 2025)

Readings:

Dt. 30:10-14; Ps. 69; Col. 1:15-20; Lk. 10:25-37

“All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Lk. 10:22). These words taken from the Gospel of Luke are just a few verses before today’s passage. By now, it should be apparent how much I love the Word, and also how much I love the Word in context. Certainly, we could say that today’s readings focus us on the Commandments, and by extension the Natural Law. But, before we can appreciate why Jesus gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan, it helps to provide a bit of background. You see, the Pharisees and Scribes were particularly antagonistic to our Lord, and they were constantly trying to trap him by asking these “gotcha” type questions. So, let us take a closer look at what is really going on in today’s Gospel.

First, we have Jesus asserting that no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. That is to say, the only way anyone can see the Father is through Jesus. As Jesus says in John’s gospel, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). As followers of Jesus, we tend to take this for granted, but for a scholar of the Law in Jesus’ day, that was entirely too simpile. The first hurdle they would have to get over is whether or not to have faith that Jesus is the Son of God, then to deal with the Law of Moses. Remember, there were 613 laws that had to be followed, not just the 10 Commandments. So, the scholar asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He’s not yet willing to accept that all we need is faith in Jesus. So, Jesus asks him how he interprets the Law, and the scholar replies, “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.” Jesus affirms his interpretation is right and tells him to do this and he will live, however, Luke tells us the scholar wanted to justify himself and asks, “Who is my neighbor?”

Why did Luke say the scholar wanted to justify himself? It is hard to know for sure, but it would seem from Jesus’ response that there are certain people who may not be considered neighbors, even though they live in the same towns and travel the same roads. Jesus needed to chip away at the mindset that the Jews are the chosen people, which excludes everyone else. The parable of the Good Samaritan gives us a glimpse into the culture of Jesus’ day and the many societial tensions that were prevalent throughout the region. Not only were the Jews dealing with Roman occupation, they had pagans to contend with, as well as the Samaritans, who John tells us had nothing in common with the Jews. When Jesus highlights how two well respected classes of people choose to pass by the man who was beaten, it was the Samaritan who cared for him—the most unlikely of the bunch. From the perspective of the priest and Levite, they justified their reason not to help; from the perspective of the Samaritan, there was no reason not to help. Why this one-way street? Well, for the priest or the Levite, to help a man so badly beaten would have made them ritually impure. They would have had to sacrifice their ability to worship freely until they fulfilled the law of Moses and the prescriptions for purity. The Samaritan, on the other hand, saw the man was at risk of dying, and does what needed to be done to save his life. Who is acting more priestly?

There is something that stood out to me while meditating on the Gospel. The Samaritan takes the man to the inn and pays two silver coins. There is another building where people would visit and pay two silver coins to enter: the Jerusalem Temple. Could it be that Jesus was portraying himself as the Samaritan? It certainly was not above him to eat with tax collectors and sinners. And if the Samaritan was Jesus, he not only cares for the beat up man, he brings him to a place of comfort. Might the inn be a type of the Temple? Might the inn be a type of the Church? You see, the Church does not discriminate. The Church is where people from all walks of life freely come in and go out. The Church is where we look to one another not as Jew or Gentile, slave or free, woman or man, but as brothers and sisters in Christ. In this sense, the Church is not about exclusivity, but inclusivity.

Our inclusion in the Church does require something of us. As Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7:21). This is all the more reason for us to keep the Lord’s commandments. As Moses says, “For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you…No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.” We are to love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole strength, and our whole mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. As Jesus says, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Mt. 22:40). Let us go and do likewise.