The Message, July 13, 2025: "Being Good," Luke 10:25-37
Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
July 22, 2025
“Being Good”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Luke 10:25-37
Does this sound at all familiar to
any of you? You are about to enter a restaurant with your beautiful children,
or grandchildren, nieces, nephews … or whatever children might be in your care.
But, before you enter, you stop to give them a little pep talk.
“Okay, we are going to enjoy a nice
meal. All I ask is that you please be good. I want everyone to be on their best
behavior. Can you do that?”
And, of course, all of the precious
babies nod ‘yes.’
I am guessing that my mother had
this little chat with my brother and me when we were of a certain age. And I am
pretty certain that I know why. It happened right here in Saco, at the old
restaurant that used to be next to where the Dunkin’ Donuts is now. We were
sitting in our booth and my brother and I were messing with a catsup packet.
And, as you may have guessed, the packet exploded. It exploded in such a way
that a stream of high-pressure catsup burst forth from the package and headed
skyward. In a period of time that likely only lasted two second … but felt like
slow-motion eternity … the arc of catsup shot across the aisle and hit a poor,
innocent women wearing a white sweater. The catsup hit her in the back, so she
had no idea that her white sweater had been desecrated.
This created a moral and ethical
dilemma for my brother and me. Do we say anything? Do we do the right thing?
Mom told us to be good! If we kept our mouths shut, she would never know that
we had let her down.
Now, in our defense, how does a
little kid know what “be good” or “be on your best behavior” means?! Maybe that
was our best behavior!! “Hey mom, we did our best!”
Just out of curiosity, I looked up
the word ‘good’ on Dictionary.com. You may be surprised to learn this, but when
used as an adjective, there are FORTY-TWO definitions for the meaning of good.
And, according to a couple of those definitions, Eric and I were in compliance
with our mother’s instruction! We were cheerful! We were genuine! We
were ample! We did live up to expectations with regard to how two young
boys were likely to behave in a public setting. And ultimately, we did show
good judgement and we went and confessed the error of our ways to the woman.
As we consider our scripture passage
this morning, the question of being “good” depends upon who we are talking
about and the context.
If we were to ask the lawyer if he
was good, it is likely that he would answer in the affirmative. “Of course, I
am good. I am an expert in the Law. I know what it means to live a good and
faithful life.”
The lawyer would have been
knowledgeable with regard to the Law of Moses. He was like those that we call scribes. He would have been well-versed in the practice of the faith. He would have
known teachers … rabbis … would have had a proscribed set of questions that
they used in their teaching that had a proscribed set of acceptable answers.
When the lawyer asked Jesus the first question, he knew what the acceptable
answer was. And as we heard, Jesus had the lawyer respond to his own question.
He said to Jesus:
“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with
all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.”
Perhaps chagrined that Jesus did not
offer a controversial or heretical response to the opening question, the “good”
lawyer proceeded with his follow-up question. “And tell me, who IS my
neighbor?” And as we well know, Jesus replied with the parable followed by a
question of his own.
Now, continuing our exploration of
what it means to “be good,” let us consider the hypothetical characters Jesus
introduced in his parable. We begin with the priest and the Levite. Were they
good?
Before
you ‘boo’ or ‘hiss,’ both the priest and the Levite worked at the Temple in
Jerusalem. Many of the Temple officials lived in and around Jericho because
there was not enough housing available in the city. The priest and the Levite
would have assisted with worship and would likely have had other
responsibilities on the Temple grounds. They would have traveled the Jericho
Road frequently and would have also known how dangerous it could be. The purity
codes of the day would not permit them to come in contact with a dead or bloody
body. Doing so would have made them ritually unclean, and they would have had
to go through the purification process before they would be permitted to
perform their duties at the Temple.
Were
they good? They did what was expected of them because of their positions.
Seeing the man on the side of the road likely created a moral and ethical
conundrum. Do they jeopardize their ritual cleanliness in order to render aid?
According
to the definition of ‘good,’ they were a ‘good’ priest and a ‘good’ Levite
because they did not defile themselves. But, was it the right thing to
do?
Was
it right? Was it righteous? Did God look upon their actions and say, “Good
for you! Yes, that was exactly what I hoped that you would do … leave that man
laying in the gutter half dead. Well done, good and faithful servants.”
So
then, let us now consider that hypothetical Samaritan. According to
conventional thought and behavior of that day, he would have actually been a
BAD Samaritan.
The
animosity between Jews and Samaritans ran deep. Theirs was not the ‘hate du
jour,’ it was centuries old. They had despised one another for generations. It
was a hatred that was passed down from father to son. The Samaritans were
believed to be dirty, impure, ritually unclean. Jews went out of their way to avoid
coming in contact with Samaritans. When traveling between Galilee and the area
around Jerusalem, travelers would take the long way … through Jericho … just to
stay away from Samaria.
And
the feeling was mutual. Samaritans knew that the Jewish people held them in the
lowest regard. They knew that they were called ‘dogs’ and ‘vermin’ and much
worse. The hypothetical Samaritan in the parable would not have wanted anything
to do with a robbed and beaten, half-dead Jew if he was going to be considered
a ‘good’ Samaritan. So, he failed in that regard. He was not ‘good.’ He did not
live up to … or down to … the expectations that culture and tradition had proscribed
for him.
But
… was he right? Was he righteous? We all know that the answer to that question
is ‘yes.’
The lawyer had hoped to test Jesus,
perhaps to even trick Jesus. But Jesus turned the test around on the lawyer. “Which
of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of the robbers?”
When the lawyer had asked Jesus the
question, “And who is my neighbor?” he already had an answer in mind. For the
lawyer, the question referred to his JEWISH neighbors, but Jesus expands the
scope. The God whom we love with all of our heart and soul and strength and
mind is the God of ALL people. Our God of Grace is the God of Grace for ALL
people, and our neighbor is anyone who is in need, or anyone who offers care to
someone in need.
So, the question that Jesus actually
posed to the lawyer was this, “Do you … can you … see the despised Samaritan as
your neighbor?”
The lawyer had hoped that Jesus
would expose himself. He had hoped that Jesus would trap himself by saying
something heretical. Instead, Jesus answered with a response that showed the
far-reaching, expansive grace of God. He showed the lawyer, and through him the
world, the TRUE FULFILLMENT of the commandment. THIS is what it means to love
our God. THIS is what it means to love our neighbor.
The lawyer’s question, “Who is my
neighbor?” implied selectivity. It implied a closed group. It implied that
there are some who are to be loved, and there are some who are not. But Jesus’
answer made it clear, the barriers to love … the confines and restrictions on
love … are yours, not God’s.
So, then, the final character in the
parable as we consider what it means to be “good” is the listener. It is us.
What does this parable say to us today? What does this parable say to us in the
world that we live in today?
It is clear that being ‘good’ and
doing right are not necessarily the same thing. But being good and doing right
are what Jesus calls us to be and DO. Being good and doing right means that we
may times when we have to do what is unpopular. They may mean that we have to
go against the status quo. They mean that we have to do what Jesus did and
challenge the way that things are.
Jesus turned the world upside down.
He broke down the barriers that divided people. He challenged institutions and
social conventions that oppressed and marginalized people.
Incredibly, but not surprisingly,
the teachings of Jesus have become unpopular in our world today. The teachings
of Jesus are suddenly too “woke” for many people in our country. Being kind and
welcoming and loving has become unacceptable behaviors in some circles and in
many churches.
Funding for food assistance is being
taken away from children and low-income families. Is that good? Is that right?
Millions of people will lose their
health care. Is that good? Is that right?
People
cheer and pose for pictures in front of concentrations camps built to “house”
immigrants.
Cruelty and vengeance have become
legislative policy.
Human rights and dignity are being
stripped away and are being replaced by denigration and deprivation. Is that
good? Is that right?
Jesus asks us, “And who is my
neighbor?”
No church … no Christian … no true
follower of Jesus Christ … can remain content with any easy or convenient
definition which allows us to leave most of the world laying half-dead on the
side of the road. The parable continues to instruct us in the Way of God. We do
not get to decide who deserves to be loved.
When Jesus asks, “Who is my
neighbor?” How will we respond?
Amen.
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