Surprising the Lawyer

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Where on earth did this lawyer come from?

We see our Lord receiving back the seventy disciples from a highly successful mission in which the words of love have been backed up with signs and wonders from Almighty God.

We hear Him telling them how blessed they are at what has happened at their hands.

And then, from nowhere, up pops a lawyer to tempt Our Lord on matters of law.

Who is he? Where has he come from?

Either he is one of the disciples, or he is a gatecrasher.

Which is it?

Time to do some detective work!

[PAUSE]

What do we know about this lawyer?

We know first that he is described as a "certain lawyer". This might suggest that he is known.

Second, we know that he knows the two most important commandments to love God and neighbour because Our Lord tells him that he has got that right.

Third, we know that it is important for him to appear to be right in the eyes of men. He wants to tempt Our Lord and wishes to justify himself before the disciples. 

The result is one of the most well-known parables about who our neighbour is.

So who is this lawyer?

[PAUSE]

He is clearly known to the disciples and has clearly been listening to Our Lord's teaching, but it is also apparent that he has only done so in order to trap Our Lord. He is a hanger-on with apparently less than honourable motives. What we see here is another attempt to undermine Our Lord's authority.

"Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

As we watch we notice that Our Lord doesn't answer the question - at least not immediately. Rather than give an answer, He seeks to establish the legal basis on which this lawyer is asking his question. To do so means that the lawyer must answer or show that he doesn't know his own career.

As a result, he answers his own question.

What must we do to inherit eternal life? Love God with every fibre and faculty of our being and love our neighbour as ourself, as one of our family, as one with whom we share a God-given and God-loved nature.

He can't argue any more. The lawyer has answered his own question.

And now, he feels foolish for even asking. So, just to save face, he tries a technicality.

"Who is my neighbour?"

The lawyer asks to try and force Our Lord into a tricky situation.

For the Lawyer, "neighbour" means Israelite. If Our Lord affirms this, then He undoes all His work in showing His love for the Samaritans, the Romans, the Greeks and the Syro-Phoenicians and all mankind.

But if Our Lord says that "neighbour" means anyone including Samaritans, Romans, Greeksvand Syro-Phoenicians, then he can denounce Our Lord as denying what the Law explicitly says.

How can Our Lord escape this trap?

He gives us His parable.

[PAUSE]

In this parable that Our Lord is telling us it is the Samaritan that shows love. Not the priest, not the Levite, not the representatives of the best of Israelite society. It is the Samaritan who is obeying the commandment. The lawyer can't quibble over that. The law is being obeyed.

Neighbourhood can't go one way. If Tom is near to you, then you are near to Tom. So if Tom is your neighbour, then you are his. If you deserved to be loved, then so does Tom.

If Samaritans are capable of loving their neighbour, then they are capable of being loved because they can be neighbours.

A masterstroke and God be praised in Our Lord Jesus Christ!

[PAUSE]

The Law of the Old Testament is not denied nor criticised nor disobeyed, but it is cherished and obeyed to the full. The laws of Jewish rituals and ceremonies may no longer apply to us who live in the New Covenant, but the Law of Love was written for everyone for all time!

The law to love goes deeper than any law written on scrolls and parchment because it is written in our very beings.

If we are capable of being loved, then we are capable of loving. 

If we are capable of loving, then we are capable of being loved.

No exceptions.

Our Lord has created us because He loves us from Eternity and it is in Eternity that He means for us to live.

For that to happen we must choose to grow in love and thus bring ourselves to fruition in Him, for God is Love, and Love does not insist on its own way. 

In using the Law to thwart those who ask questions in bad faith, Our Lord shows us that it has always been His intention for Him to be our neighbour and we His.