Wanting to Justify Himself (Sermon)

Luke 10:25-40

Over the course of my life, I have watched the focus of today’s gospel story shift. As a child, I received the most common interpretation- that the goal of our life as followers of Jesus was to be like the merciful Samaritan. We are called and equipped to stop and help. How could we do any less, given that our Savior stopped and helped us? 

Good Samaritan laws and a variety of organizations are named after this interpretation. Looked at from this view, the story draws us all toward opportunities of mercy and generosity. Those are certainly two things the world could use more of- mercy and generosity. They can come from unexpected sources but should certainly come from people who claim to be following Jesus. 

 

Then came the reflections on why the priest and the Levite did not stop. I have read and listened to countless explanations of why these two people rushed past a man in need. Sometimes the reasons seem to make sense; sometimes they are difficult to understand in light of human suffering. Looking at this story from the angle of the folks who did not stop is a reminder that we always have reasons for not stopping that make sense to us. Whether those reasons are acceptable to God is a different story.

 

There are other potential ways of looking at the story. One such inflection point is considering from whom we would accept help. Are we open to anyone who might help us or are we only willing to accept help from certain people in certain circumstances?

 

Currently, many people are thinking about the narrative from the perspective of the innkeeper. Through interpretation, he can help think about the people who take on the task of on-going care after a crisis. He is a person who takes on the long-term work after the disaster- tasked with rebuilding, trauma relief, and rehabilitation. This is actually an important role on which to reflect as we often forget the toll of cleaning up and starting over after a catastrophe. 

 

Additionally, many people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., have pointed out that a major aspect of the story is the need to make the Jericho Road safer. Should we take it as given that a dangerous road must remain dangerous? Should we accept it as inevitable that some people will be harmed? The story lifts up the ones who show mercy in a bad situation, but perhaps part of the response is also to make a bad situation stop by creating different and more optimal conditions. 

 

All of these are valid and important ways of considering this familiar story. I’d like to draw back, to zoom out a little and consider the framework of the story. Jesus tells this parable, a story with an indirect point, in the context of being questioned by an expert in legal interpretation. In the scene, it’s not totally clear where Jesus is, but he is in a place where people can ask him questions. This doesn’t seem to be a trap, but a question from a man who both wants to impress Jesus and to be sure he is exactly following the letter of the expectations that will keep him in good relationship with God. 

 

The key phrase that draws my attention is this, “wanting to vindicate himself”. Sometimes we hear, “wanting to justify himself”. One Bible paraphrase says the man was “looking for a loophole”. No matter how you look at it, though, the man isn’t looking for a way to generously interpret how to live in relationship with God and others. He’s looking for the narrow interpretation that would mean he’s done exactly what was required and nothing more. 

 

After all, why ask “who is my neighbor” unless I want to clarify who is NOT my neighbor? When I drive up the Boulder, which license plate numbers or locations should I stop to help if they’re pulled over? That’s only necessary if I assume there are some people I should not stop to help. Wanting to be right in front of Jesus, the man with the question assumes that there are people Jesus would expect him not to help? He believes there are children of God who do not have to be loved as he loves himself. 

 

While we might speak of him derisively, we do exactly the same thing all the time. The hamster wheel of self-justification is always turning in all of us. Even more than the priest and the Levite who hurried past, our reasons for ignoring pain, suffering, trauma, human need, or historical issues that contribute to modern problems fall more into the category of “wanting to justify ourselves”. Our desire to be right in our own eyes steals God's intended peace from us and from others.

 

Repair of the Jericho Road would cost too much and take money from other problems. 

The man should have known better than to be on that road. And what was he wearing when he was attacked? 

The Samaritan probably wasn’t going to come back and cover the bill, so it was left to the innkeeper. Samaritans always take advantage. 

 

“Wanting to justify himself…” 

 

Some of the most common phrases I hear regarding Bible interpretation go like this: 

• Well, the early church life happened a long time ago and things are different now. 
• Jesus didn’t tell us exactly how to respond to this thing or that thing, so we’re doing the best we can. 
• I can always ask for forgiveness if it turns out badly. 

 

Every single one of those statements is an attempt to justify oneself, to make oneself right before God by the letter of discipleship, but not the spirit. If we want to get off the hamster wheel of self-justification, if we want to stop scrambling and be still and know the presence of God, the grace of God, the peace of God, then we have to believe Jesus meant exactly what he said. 

 

A neighbor is one who shows mercy… go and do likewise. 

A neighbor is one who shows mercy… 

 

What is mercy? Mercy is the compassion one shows when one has the power and opportunity to cause harm. Mercy is not the absence of justice or a casual forgiveness or ignoring the law. To be merciful is to seize the chance to exhibit kindness and generosity instead creating unnecessary pain. 

 

When we look at situations around us, whether close at hand, nationally, or internationally, and we begin to make noises about why mercy “won’t work”, we have begun to spin on the wheel of self-justification, self-vindication, self-righteousness. 

 

All that will do is keep us all turning and turning, but never moving forward, never seeing the will of God accomplished through us, never seeing our neighbors as fellow children of God, never realizing that they could see us that way as well. 

 

We are people who sing about amazing grace. We are people who know that God so loves. We are people who believe in the inclusive fire and power of the Holy Spirit. We are people who have been marked by the cross of Christ and given instruction on what it means to follow him. 

 

As long as I stay in the looping dizziness of self-justification, I cannot experience the joy and the hope of any of that. But, with the help of the Spirit, if I lean and trust on the everlasting arms of Christ’s mercy, I can stop trying to justify myself. We can stop trying to vindicate ourselves. We can do what we know Christ has called and equipped us to do. We can be who our baptisms have equipped us to be. 

 

We can be neighbors. We can show mercy. We can love and be loved. We can, indeed, go and do likewise. 

 

Amen.