Likewise
Luke 10:25-37
July 11, 2010
We once had an adult education group that watched and discussed a series of videos on preaching. We would watch a sermon delivered by a well-known preacher, followed an interview with him or her by the host of the series. Over time the discussion ranged widely over the different styles and approaches to preaching. When it came to Gardner Taylor, the long-recognized dean of African-American preachers, the sermon chosen was an example of how he would focus his entire sermon on the nuances of a single word. I do not remember Gardner Taylor’s word. But I have a word today, and in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan it is not “good,” but it is the literally last word - “likewise.”
Likewise is an older word, an archaic expression not used as much today, but I think even the younger generations catch the drift. “Clock-wise” is another familiar use of the adverbial ending meaning you are doing something in a very similar way or direction to someone else. I am not certain, but it may be derived from an older English expression, “like-ways.” A good word for a lawyer to keep in mind, for this is a lawyer’s parable.
The lawyer was looking for a word a little more precise on that day, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” This is not the usual kind of lawyer we know, so all the lawyers in the congregation can relax, just a little. He is a man steeped in the Jewish Law, the Torah, a gigantic moral to-do list, a person who needed to know exactly what to do, in order to justify himself. It’s all about me.
Eternal life is not something one can do, because no human being comes close to the kind of perfection one would need to fulfill everything. In the end, it is a matter of grace, receiving from God a gift one can never earn. But for the moment, Jesus played along. “How do you read?” This is legal stuff, a kind of oral exam on the spot. Since when is eternal life about how well you have studied the Law? We would have all passed, or all failed, if that were the case.
The lawyer was well schooled and immediately recited the Shema (Deut. 6:5), the Jewish equivalent of the Lord’s Prayer and tacked on the important little addendum of Leviticus 19:18, “and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus had, in fact, cited the same passage when asked which is the most important commandment (Matt 22:37-40), so he affirmed him, “That’s right, just do it and you’ll live.”
There’s always another question with lawyers, always a little nuance that bugs them, for they know that no situation is universal. “Who exactly is my neighbour?” That may sound obvious, but in the ancient as in the modern world most people are cautious about who they call neighbour. He wanted a legal definition, nice neat boundaries and probably ethnic and religious designations. As long as he is “from here,” he’s my neighbour. Jesus responded by changing the game. Instead of citing chapter and verse from the codes, he told a story, a parable, but in reality it was a legal brief and the lawyer was expected to give his interpretation and judgment.
A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Don’t want to make too much of it, but this was from the highest point in Palestine, over 4000 feet in elevation, to the lowest point, well under sea level. A certain man, any man, someone was travelling, Jesus was intentionally vague, although the lawyer surely wanted Jesus to specify who this was. He was robbed, stripped, beaten up badly and left for dead beside the road - doesn’t such an indignity strip all of us of any status we may have? The only thing the fellow lying beside the road had left was his humanity.
This was not an untraveled road, for two others passed by the man. A priest and then a Levite, a member of a hereditary family of priests, both saw the carnage and did not want to be involved. If they could avoid even looking at the still breathing corpse, they would move to the other side of the road.
A third traveler came through, and Jesus stops being vague and specifies that this was a Samaritan - isn’t this detail just what the lawyer wanted? He had compassion, which is more than simply having sympathy. Compassion is the doing of sympathy. He put himself on the robbed man’s side of the road and started to dress his wounds with the best medicinal applications he had. He then placed him on his own donkey and took him to the closest inn. There was room in this inn and while there he took care of him. We do not even know if the beaten up man regained consciousness. After spending the night with this uncertain man, he put down a deposit for the innkeeper to take care of him, and promised to pay any more expenses next time he would pass through the area again.
“Which of these three, do you think,” Jesus put it now to the astonished lawyer, “proved neighbour to the one who fell among the robbers?” Proving oneself a neighbour is a way of saying that one “acts out neighbourliness.” The lawyer wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life; now Jesus declares it is no longer a matter of defining who is a neighbour, but doing neighbour.
The lawyer judges rightly, though as some have pointed out, he does not refer to the rescuer as a Samaritan, for that would have stuck in his craw. To have said Nazi or Taliban might have been equivalent. Nevertheless, he gets the idea, “the one who showed compassion upon him.” After all, it was a matter of doing.
“Go and do likewise” is Jesus’ conclusion and last word.
Likewise is not a lawyer’s word. It is too non-specific, too approximate, to meet the demands of a precise case where there is a clear answer in a clear situation. Likewise is sort of like saying “-ish.” To be properly legal we lawyers would require the name of the victim, where he was attacked, the date and time, how much money and materials he was carrying, what was the colour of the shirt they ripped off of him, the name of the robbers of course, the name of the Good Samaritan and where he was going and for what purpose, and the name of the inn and its innkeeper and what were the expenditures, with receipts for the room, food and medicinal measures. Likewise is not precise at all. It simply implies you do it all in the same general spirit. That means you help any old person who is victimized, no matter whether they are your kind or race or religion, whether they come from your home town and one of the local families. Go and do likewise everywhere, every time, to any old body. You cannot choose who your neighbour is or will be. When you do likewise you create a neighbour, and likewise, if you are the one left by the side of the road, it is your neighbour who comes to help you.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan