From Legalism to Compassion

What's the point of having rules if we don't follow them exactly? Christians have been fighting for years over following the rules. Do we or don't we? And which rules are we supposed to follow? A legal expert asked that question of Jesus, and didn't expect the answer that he received!

Let’s take a look at the exchange between Jesus and an expert in the law. (Luke 10:25-37) What’s going on there, anyway? “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” is the first question that the legal expert asks. Now, that’s a very good question. There are 613 separate commandments in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible that Jews consider to be authoritative. As a legal expert, the man who asked Jesus that question may not have been trying to trap Jesus (even though it’s Luke’s opinion that he was). He may have really wanted to know Jesus’ opinion! “In all those laws, Jesus, which one is the most important one?” Jesus, being the good teacher that he was, turned the question right back on him. “What do you say, sir? Which law is the most important?” And the legal expert answered very well. The most important law is “Love God more than anything else, and your neighbor as yourself.”

So far, so good. But then, he asked Jesus another question: “So, who exactly is my neighbor?” When we hear his question, we tend to roll our eyes and think, “What a jerk!” Luke tells us that he asked that question “to justify himself.” With all due respect to Luke, I wonder whether he really knew what the motivation of that legal expert was. Experts in any discipline want precision. They want to know what each word means in any discussion of their area of expertise. For example, if I tell my tax advisor that I live in Piqua, I could mean a couple of things. I could mean that I live within the legal limits of the city of Piqua; or I could mean that I live in the Piqua area but outside the city limits. He would be a very sloppy tax advisor if he didn’t ask me to clarify that statement; because my tax liability depends on what my answer was. So let’s give that legal expert the benefit of the doubt, and let’s assume that he really did want to know what the legal definition of a “neighbor” was. “Who are we talking about, Jesus? The people who live next door, the people who live in my town, or the people who live in the immediate area? How far away can you live and still be my neighbor?” That legal expert wanted a precise answer; but Jesus gave him an answer that wasn’t precise at all. Jesus told him the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Let me give you some background into the relationship between Samaritans and Jews in Jesus’ time. Samaritans were the descendants of Jewish peasants who had been left behind when all the educated people in the northern kingdom had been dragged into exile by the Assyrians. Because those peasants had intermarried with the Canaanites who still lived in the area, the Jews of Jesus’ day considered Samaritans to be half-breeds. Worse than that, they didn’t worship at the Temple in Jerusalem; they worshiped at sanctuaries in their own area; so they were not only half-breeds, they were heretics! Because Jews looked down on them, Samaritans hated Jews; and the feeling was mutual! The Jews and Samaritans looked at one another the way that Ohio State fans and Michigan fans do: they couldn’t stand each other!

But the hero in Jesus’ little story is a Samaritan! Jesus’ parable blows apart the legal expert’s hopes for a tidy definition of who a “neighbor” is. A “neighbor,” according to Jesus, is anyone who is in need, regardless of where they live, who their parents were, or what football team they root for. A “neighbor,” says Jesus, is… well, practically anybody. And that’s exactly the point. God’s law is meant to guide our behavior, not put limits on it. Peter learned the same thing when he asked Jesus, “How many times should I forgive someone? As many as seven times?” Do you remember what Jesus answered? “You should forgive him seventy times seven times!” Well, heck, Jesus – by then we will have lost count! And that’s exactly the point. We should lose count of the number of times that we forgive someone; and we shouldn’t worry about whether someone in need is someone that we like, or someone that we can’t stand.

You see, Jesus knows that we tend to use the law to our own advantage. When we do that, we become like little kids playing, “But you said…!” Do you know how that game works? Let’s say that Mom promised that little Johnny could have ice cream after he finished his dinner. But – alas! – when Johnny finishes his dinner, Mom finds out that the ice cream container is empty. She apologizes to Johnny, who protests, “But you said that I could have ice cream after dinner! You said…!” When we use the law to split hairs to gain an advantage over other people, we are just like little Johnny. If Jesus had told that legal expert that he should help “anybody you run into who is needy,” then pretty soon, that legal expert would have been claiming that he didn’t have to help anybody if he didn’t “run into” them. “After all, Jesus, you said that I only had to help people if I run into them! You said…!”

But if we try to stay true to the spirit of the law, it’s a lot harder to use it to our own advantage. In fact, if we try to follow the spirit of the law, a funny thing happens. First, it turns our attention away from the law itself to the reason that the law is there in the first place. We stop worrying about whether we have fulfilled the letter of the law, and start worrying about the people it is supposed to help. As we do that, it gets easier and easier to do what God wants of us. Pretty soon, our behaviors have become habits; and before we know it, we are compassionate, feeling and showing concern for others. We’re understanding, caring, and merciful. And the last time I checked, that’s exactly what Jesus asks of us – to be understanding, caring, and merciful. God’s law is meant to help us become the people that God means for us to be! God doesn’t want us to hide behind the law, or use it to get the jump on other people. God wants to use it to transform us into people who act like Jesus.

It’s too bad that we don’t know the ending of the story of the legal expert who asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” I wish that we knew what happened to him. Did he start looking at all kinds of other people – even Samaritans – as his neighbors? Or did he turn on his heel and head off in the other direction, shaking his head at this fool Jesus who expected him to treat even his enemies with compassion? We’ll never know. And the jury is still out on us, too. Do we take Jesus seriously; or have we decided that being a neighbor to everyone is impractical? You’ll have to make that decision for yourself. But I can tell you one thing. If God had not treated us as his neighbors with love and compassion, there would have been no cross and no resurrection. Who is God’s neighbor? Thank God, it’s all of us! Now, it’s up to us to go and do likewise with our own neighbors – all of them!