" No Boundaries To Gods Love"

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

February 26, 2006

Luke 10:25-37

There were well-defined boundaries in Jesus day. There were Jews, and
then there were Gentiles (anyone who wasnt a Jew.) Contact in between
Jews and Samaritans was uncommon. It wasnt just that Jews didnt like
Samaritans. Samaritans didnt much care for Jews, either. Luke 9 relates
that as Jesus and his disciples were heading toward Jerusalem, a
Samaritan village refused to allow them to pass through. Jesus disciples
wanted to call down fire from heaven to toast the place, but Jesus
rebuked them. A little while later, an expert in the law was testing
Jesus, and asked Who is my neighbor? It was then that Jesus told the
story of the Good Samaritan.

It will be helpful if we look at just who these Samaritans were, and why
they were seen as a people set apart from the Jews. After Saul, David
and then Solomon served as kings of all Israel and Judah, the northern
kingdom of Israel, in the area of Samaria, split off from Judah. When
the Assyrians conquered this northern kingdom in 722 BC, they drug off
many of the leading citizens into captivity, and replaced them with
foreigners. Those living in Samaria continued to a degree to follow the
Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible. When Ezra and Nehemiah
returned from the Babylonian captivity and tried to rebuild Jerusalem,
the Samaritans tried to foil their efforts. The Samaritans built a holy
place at Mount Gerizim, to rival Jerusalem. They considered Moses the
light of the world, and believed Moses existed before the dawn of
creation. Furthermore, Samaritans said their own holy place, Mount
Gerizim, existed before creation, escaped the flood of Noahs day, and
alone would escape the destruction of all things on doomsday. In
summary, the faith of Samaritans was far from orthodox!

Jesus began his story by saying A man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho. Jesus intentionally left the description of the man vague. We
may presume him to be a Jew, but its also possible he was a Greek, a
Roman, or a Samaritan. Back then, it was ones dress and language that
primarily revealed what culture and country one was from. But the victim
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho had been stripped of his clothing
by robbers, and was beaten unconscious, almost dead. Those coming upon
the victim couldnt tell if he was Jewish, or Greek, or Roman, or
Samaritan. As Jesus told the story to his Jewish audience, he related
that a priest came upon the crime victim, and then a Levite, and both
passed by on the other side. A despised Samaritan becomes the hero of
Jesus story! Theres a large hospital in Dayton named Good Samaritan,
and we talk about Good Samaritans today. I know of no hospitals called
The Good Levite or The Good Priest. But the Samaritan was good,
because he didnt worry about what ethnic or cultural background the
victim was. He just saw a person in need, and stopped to lend assistance.

Its not surprising that the priest and Levite placed limitations upon
their benevolence, because we do the same today. It seems exhaustingly
impossible to care for everyone. Materially speaking, we cant. But the
truth of the matter is that most all of us could do far more than we do.
God doesnt draw boundaries the way we are tempted to. God loves us all!
As the childhood song put it Jesus loves the little children, all the
little children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are
precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Jesus loves the adults, too!

Clifton Davis was born in 1946, a poor black kid living with his parents
on Long Island, New York. In 1959, Cliftons 8th grade class was going
on a graduation trip to Washington, D. C., and they would also visit the
Glen Echo Amusement Park in Maryland. When Cliftons mother saw how much
the trip cost, she said they couldnt afford it. But Clifton sold candy
bars, delivered newspapers, and mowed lawns. Three days before the
deadline, hed accumulated enough to go. Clifton was the only nonwhite
to climb on the train and make the trip. Almost 100 children excitedly
visited Arlington National Cemetery, took a cruise down the Potomac, and
went to such sites as the Lincoln Memorial. Clifton and the other 8th
graders were having a great time. And the best was yet to come: the Glen
Echo Amusement park!

But the next morning, a chaperone came to Clifton and asked to see him.
She began Clifton, do you know about the Mason-Dixon line? Clifton
noticed that there were tears in his teachers eyes, and her hands were
shaking. He said No, I dont know what the Mason-Dixon line is. His
teacher shared that before the Civil War, the Mason-Dixon line divided
the slave and free states. And that even though it was almost 100 years
after the Civil War, things were different in Maryland than they were in
Washington. The Glen Echo Amusement Park was in Maryland, and the
management there did not allow blacks to be admitted. Clifton, still
puzzled, asked You mean I cant go to the park, because Im a Negro?
And his teacher said Im sorry, Clifton. Youll have to stay in the
hotel tonight. Why dont you and I watch a movie on television?

Clifton walked in a daze back to his room, and his roommate, Frank,
asked what was wrong. When Clifton told Frank, Frank responded Then I
wont go either. Frank went and told some of the other boys, and his 11
white friends that he hung around with agreed unanimously: they wouldnt
go to Glen Echo, either. A chaperone came in waving an envelope. He
announced Boys, Ive just bought 13 tickets to the Senators-Tigers
[baseball] game. Anybody want to go? The room erupted in cheers. On the
way to the stadium, the driver paused in front of the Lincoln Memorial,
and the boys were reminded of Lincolns words We here highly
resolve...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom. There are no boundaries to Gods love. The kind of love God
makes possible in our hearts can conquer hatred every time! (Readers
Digest, A Mason-Dixon Memory, Clifton Davis, March 1993, pp. 49-53).

Jesus did not tell the story of the Good Samaritan with its purpose
being to declare that Samaritans were morally superior to Jews. In the
previous chapter of Luke, a Samaritan village had been downright
hostile. The Samaritans were not orthodox believers. But we are to
extend grace to those in need, regardless of whether or not we deem them
to be our kind of people. Anyone in need is our neighbor. When Jesus
faced rejection from the self-righteous of his day, he said Those who
are well have no need of a physician. (Luke 5:31) What Jesus was saying
was that those who realize their sin and neediness are the most open to
receiving Gods grace!

Dont you think the man beaten on the road to Jericho may have mumbled a
prayer before he lost consciousness: God, help me! And God sent a
Samaritan! I tend to believe that the man beaten on the road from
Jerusalem to Jericho became a different person following his being
nursed back to health by a Samaritan and an innkeeper. The boundaries of
those he was willing to share grace with were expanded. May the same be
true of us!

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