In the InbetweenIn the InbetweenA group of psychologists performed some experiments that demonstrated the dramatic power of peer pressure. In one experiment they invited groups of ten teens into a room where three charts were displayed on the wall. Each chart had three lines of different lengths. The ten teens were asked to raise their hand when the instructor pointed to the longest line on each chart. In each group that came in the room, one of the teens in the group didn’t know that the other nine had been coached to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second-longest line. The one single teen usually looked confused at first when everyone else raised their hand, but then went ahead and cast a wrong vote with the other nine because he or she did not want to stand out from the others. The study revealed that more than 75% of the teens allowed peer pressure to override their own better judgment. It’s hard to be different than those around us isn’t it?
Look in the Old Testament lesson today. God says there that the Israelites are to live in the in between. They’re not to be like the people they were around in Egypt that they’ve left behind and that they’re not to be like the people in Canaan, the land that the Israelites were moving into. They’re told by God not to act like the people in their past and they’re not to do as the people in the place they are going to live. That makes the Israelites, like that lone teenager, a people who’re going to stand out; they’re going to be different from the rest of the world. God tells them, to live ‘in between’ and not like those either in their past or present.
Look at verse 4 God says to them: “You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God.” The Israelites are to do what God has said they are to do. Sounds simple enough, yes? Well yes it is simple, but it’s not easy, that’s for sure. How the Israelite people act, what it is that they do, is what God is telling them is important today. They are to do according to God's word. They are to act according to the word of God. Now, that sounds like what we as Christians are to do. What we do is supposed to be in accord with God’s word.
Why? Because, like He did with the Israelites bringing them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, so He has done with us, in the cross of Christ. God has taken us out of our bondage in sin and made us His own. We’re the people that God has brought out from the slavery to sin that we were under, by the blood of Jesus.
That’s what we saw happen this morning with Mattie. When she was baptized in the name of the triune God she was marked with the sign of the cross that has freed her from her sin. And she has now been given new spiritual life in Christ through her baptism. God has done that for her like He has done for all who are baptized. We’ve been released from the tyranny of sin. And that’s like what God did for the Israelites when He set them free from their bondage in Egypt.
And we, like these Israelites, also live in the in between. Remember they weren’t to live like those in their past lives and they weren’t to live like those around them in the land they were moving into do. They were to live in the “inbetween”; in between their lives of slavery to the past and to the temptations of the present. That’s us too. We’re to be different than those around us because of what God has done for us. So we’re to do things and to live life differently because God has made us different by freeing us from the guilt of our sin. And in the gospel lesson today, Jesus tells us about what that doing of life is to look like for us.
Now this story that Jesus tells of the Good Samaritan is a favorite one. We have a hero, who’s an underdog, who comes along and upstages the establishment ‘bad guys’ and in so doing he saves the day for the ordinary guy who has been beat up. In this story, the Samaritan is someone who’s not trusted by Jewish society just because of who he is. That’s what makes him the underdog.
At any rate this Samaritan person gives aid, comfort and care to our injured ordinary guy. He takes care of him as a hero should… by the effort of his own hands and with the money from his own pocket. So this Samaritan man is the underdog who stands up for the down-trodden ordinary guy.
Then after telling this story Jesus turns to the expert in the law and asks him in verse 36 this question. Read it with me, please, verse 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” And the expert in the law correctly answers, “The one who had mercy”. The / one / who / had / mercy; that is the neighbor. Notice that ‘the neighbor’ in this story is defined by his actions – by what it is that he does. The neighbor is not the one in need; the neighbor is the hero who does the acts of mercy.
The neighbor does what’s needed for the other person. Now I’m not saying the priest and the Levite, the ‘bad guys’ didn’t have good hearts or that they didn’t have sympathy for the man, but they simply did not do what was needed. They did prove by their lack of action to not be the neighbor to the man in trouble.
Jesus makes the point that the neighbor is not the man who was beat up, but it’s the man who did what the fellow in trouble needed done for him. Then to really drive home the point, after the expert says that the neighbor was the man ‘who had mercy’, Jesus says what? Right, "Go and do likewise".
Go… and… do. That is what those who want to show love to God are to do. After all that’s what this expert in the law had asked Jesus about in the first place. To love your neighbor is to show mercy to those in need. And that, by the way, is what Jesus has done for you and I. He has come and He has done what we needed. He has shown us mercy. We’ve been beaten up and robbed by sin and Jesus takes us in and He cares for us, by His own effort. Jesus is that societal outsider who comes and has pity and acts on the need that we have. He does, from His heart of love, what needed to be done for sinners. He took action on behalf of those who needed it.
We’re that ordinary guy left for dead on the side of the road. Jesus has bound up our wounds, by His wounds. And He has paid for our healing with His own resources, His precious blood. He provided us a place of rest and healing when He carried our sins to the cross. And on that cross He has taken away the guilt of our sin. He did that. And because He did that we are now different and so we are to act differently.
Little baby chicks are among the cutest of God's creatures. Newly hatched these fluffy, little, yellow balls of down are designed to be as alike as possible. Their identical sizes, uniform color, round shape, and quickly learned behaviors make them almost impossible to tell apart. But every now and then some baby chick has the misfortune to "stand out" in some way. Perhaps it has a distinct spot in its feathers. Perhaps it’s smaller than the rest. Perhaps a run-in with a bit of fencing gives it a red scratch or a slight limp. Whatever the distinguishing mark may be, it’s almost always a mark of death. The other chicks, despite their adorable, cuddly appearance; pitilessly peck and persecute any chick in their midst who appears to be somehow different. A tiny scratch will become a beacon attracting the savage pecks of all the others in the flock. The off-colored feathers will be plucked out, and then the bald spot itself will be attacked. The flock mentality declares that anyone different must be driven out or destroyed.
It’s difficult to go against the flock in this world and do what God tells us to do as He did with the Israelites. To be different is to be marked for death. But that’s what Jesus tells the expert in the law today; to be different… by showing mercy. We’re to be a good neighbor and do what those who are hurting and beat up by life need. We’re to do what needs done for them. Rather than be like the other chickens around us and attack, through our own indifference or neglect, those who need our help; let us act with one heart on the call to be different and not like the flock in this world around us.
We as God’s people with one heart are to act differently. We’re told by Christ when He speaks to the law expert today, to go and do likewise. So let’s sort of do what the little chicks do. Find someone in your life who the rest of the crowd picks on, someone who’s being neglected and shoved aside. Be aware of those in work or school or your neighborhood who are avoided by others even though it may be for good reason.
But that’s the person that needs a neighbor. That’s the person who needs mercy shown to them. That’s the little chick that’s being picked on and needs a hero to do for them what Christ has told us we’re to do. We are to do to them what needs done just as that Samaritan did, so we are to 'go and do likewise'.
Perhaps you might even consider asking them to meet you at church some Sunday to hear the same good news that you know that Christ has done for you. Be the neighbor who has received mercy and passes that mercy on to those who are wounded, hurting and overlooked. Invite them so they too can know what you know, that the mercy of God is for them by the blood shed by Christ on the cross.