After loving God, the greatest command according to the Bible is to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’? But who counts as a ‘neighbour’? That is the question an expert in the Old Testament Law poses to Jesus. Jesus responds with a story and a question.

The Queen: Who was her neighbour?

One of the most important commands in the Bible is; “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

In today’s passage a Jewish Lawyer agrees with that idea, but then asked Jesus a key question: ‘Who is my neighbour?’

In order to obey the command, he seems to be saying, I need to know who ‘the neighbour’ is that the command is referring to. He seems to be suggesting that some people will count as ‘neighbours’ and others won’t.

Tomorrow, we have the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. In her role as head of state she had to meet literally thousands of different people from a vast array of cultures and backgrounds. We could ask, which of those she considered to be her neighbour?

1961 Queen Dances with President of Ghana

It is perhaps hard to believe now, but at the start of the Queen’s reign much of Africa was still ruled as colonies of European powers. Vast areas were still part of the British Empire.

The first country to escape colonial rule was Ghana, which became independent in 1957 and became part of the Commonwealth, a free country, but still associating itself with Britain and particularly the Queen.

In 1961, however, the President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was considering taking the country out of the Commonwealth

Ghana and aligning with the Communist Bloc. It was a move that could have destroyed the whole idea of the Commonwealth.

So, the British government sent the Queen to visit Ghana. This was at a time when Blacks and Whites were still segregated in many American States, there was Apartheid rule in South Africa and many in the West were struggling to let go of a sense of European superiority.

So, what did the Queen do on her visit? She danced with the Ghanaian President! It was an impromptu move that demonstrated that she no longer that the relationship between nations was no longer to be one of a dominant power suppressing another, but of a group of multi-racial independent nations voluntarily associating with one another for mutual support.

In her role the queen often had to relate to people from many different cultures and races to help encourage peace and good relations between cultures. It appears she did so with ease and respect.

2012 Queen Shakes hands with Martin McGuiness

50 years later, the Queen was also involved in another moment of incredible reconciliation that involved crossing cultural barriers. As you probably know for much of the last century and through most of her reign, there were ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland. The country had a big cultural divide between the Nationalists who were culturally more closely connected with the people of the Republic of Ireland and religiously Roman Catholic, who wanted the whole of Ireland to be one country and the Loyalists, who were keen to remain a part of the United Kingdom and religiously tended to be Protestant. The troubles often resulted in violence, sometimes caused by rioting, but often by terrorist organisations on each side. In particular, the Irish Republican Army, committed a number of terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom and were even responsible for blowing up Lord Mount Batten, her husband’s uncle, to whom they were very close.

Yet, in the late 1990s, the Good Friday agreement, brought peace and eventually the Nationalists and Loyalists were able to work together in the Northern Ireland assembly. Martin McGuinness, who had been a leader in the Irish Republican Army, had become the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2007.

When the Queen visited the Assembly, she met with Martin McGuinness and famously shook hands with him. This was seen as a moment that sealed the peace agreement in Northern Ireland and underlined the end of hostilities that had caused so much pain. It demonstrated that the Queen was able to reach across the cultural and religious barriers and even shake hands with someone who had been an enemy, a leader in an organisation that had been responsible for murdering a member of her family.

We may celebrate such behaviour today, but historically it is not normal! Throughout history, people have more often than not treated those from other cultures, races and religion as less important and less to be loved and cared for than those like them.  So, what inspired the Queen to love these neighbours?

The answer, ultimately, is Jesus. The way he answers the Lawyers question powerfully challenges us to consider anyone we meet as our neighbour.

‘Who is my neighbour?’

So, how does Jesus answer the Lawyer’s question: “Who is my neighbour?” He does so with a story about a man who is beaten up by bandits and left for dead, then a question about the story.

I think it is helpful to start with the question about the story. It is a question, that in a sense turns the ‘Who is my neighbour’ question on its head. Jesus asks the lawyer at the end:

“Who was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hand of robbers?” (Luke 10:36)

In other words, Jesus wants us to hear the story he tells and ask ourselves, if I was the man beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road, what answer would I want someone coming across me to give to the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’

Those who walk on by

In the story, the first two people to walk by are a Priest and Levite. They both see the man broken up, they both would know the great command to ‘love your neighbour’, they are both people who would see themselves as those who obey the Law, but they walk on by.

Somehow, it seems they justify to themselves, that this man lying in the road does not count as a neighbour they should love. How they come to that justification, Jesus does not say, but from the perspective of the man in the ditch whatever justification they came up with would have been unacceptable. He needed their love and care and they failed to give it to him.

Samaritans and Jews

Then comes the Samaritan. The fact that he was a Samaritan was deeply significant.

In Jesus’s time where he lived, there was a cultural divide that in many ways was similar to the cultural and religious divide in Northern Ireland in the last century. It was between Jews and Samaritans. Although both groups claimed to follow Moses, the Samaritans rejected much of the rest of the Old Testament and especially the temple in Jerusalem. There was also a long history of violence and antagonism between the two cultures.

A sense of this antagonism comes across even in the preceding chapter of Luke’s gospel:

“[Jesus] sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”” (Luke 9:52-54)

Jesus quickly rebuked the disciples for the suggestion of destroying the Samaritan village, but the incident itself shows that Jews and Samaritans were quite antagonistic to each other. They saw themselves as enemies and certainly not neighbours!

Now Jesus who is talking to a Jewish audience, probably wants them to assume that the man who is half dead, is a Jew. He would probably not naturally count Samaritans as neighbours to be loved, given an excuse he may well have wanted to torch their villages too!

But given his desperate situation he would have been incredibly glad that this Samaritan did count him as his neighbour.

Compassionate Samaritan

Unlike the others, when the Samaritan sees the man in the ditch he has compassion on him.

“Compassion” is the key word at the centre of the story. It is a word that suggests an emotional association with the one in need that leads to action. It sums up the idea of loving your neighbour as yourself, because it implies putting yourself in the others shoes and doing for them what you would want them to do for you!

That is what Jesus is trying to do with this whole story. If we are to love our neighbour as ourself then we need to think ourself into the situation of the neighbour and ask what would we need them to do for us in our moment of need.

The Samaritan certainly does that for the man in the ditch with a generosity and enthusiasm that is almost over the top. He stops, he bandages up the man’s wounds, he pours wine and oil on them to help them heal, he puts the man on a donkey, takes him to an inn and pays what amounts to £100s in today’s money for the man to stay in the inn and even offers to pay more if necessary. This was truly sacrificial care.

Who was neighbour to the man who was beaten up? The Lawyer, who can’t bring himself to say, ‘the Samaritan,’ nonetheless concedes that it is, ‘the one who showed him mercy.’

If you are in desperate need you don’t care who helps you, who treats you as a neighbour, so why should you seek to limit who your neighbour is, when it comes to the command, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The ‘neighbour’ must be anyone you come across, no matter what their culture, race or religion, even your enemy.

Go and do likewise

Jesus finishes by telling the man, ‘Go and do likewise.’ In other words, don’t limit who you show love to when you come across someone in need, show them the same kind of generosity and care that the Compassionate Samaritan showed to the man left for dead. No matter what sacrifice that may entail.

• In fact, ask yourself, who would I not want to be included as a ‘neighbour’ in the command , ‘love your neighbour’? Is there a type of person or a particular person that you would not want to love as yourself? It’s easy to appreciate Jesus’s great ethical teaching, but are we really willing to follow him?

I suspect that the Lawyer, who could not even name the hero of the story as a Samaritan was willing to go and do likewise as Jesus commanded. In fact, when we go back to the start of the story, we discover that the Lawyer does not really want to join in with Jesus’s agenda.

‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

The Lawyer actually starts with a different question. He asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now this is a great question to ask, but Luke tells us that the Lawyer is actually ‘testing Jesus’. He wasn’t really interested in what Jesus thought, but was challenging Jesus.

So, what was he challenging Jesus about?

Jesus’s followers have eternal life:

This passage follows on from a speech Jesus gives to his disciples after they return from travelling around telling people about Jesus.

He celebrates the success of their mission and in particular that they like Jesus seem to have power over demons and says,

“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)

The implication is that those who have joined up with Jesus and are following his agenda for life, trusting that he truly is God’s saviour and king, can be confident of eternal life.

That is a bold statement, especially when you remember that these disciples did not fully measure up to Jesus’s standards – after all they are the ones that wanted to burn down the Samaritan village! Yet, Jesus implies that choosing to join up with him is enough to gain eternal life.

He then in verse 21 says, that these things are hidden from the ‘wise and learned.’

What about the Lawyer?

Now, the Lawyer, who may well have been listening to this speech of Jesus, may well have heard these words and no doubt been upset by them. When we read his question about eternal life in the context, we can see that he is saying something like: 

“You claim that your followers, who are not trained in the Law, can be confident of having eternal life, what about me, how do you think that I an expert on the Law than them, can have eternal life?”

Jesus’s response is to turn the question around:

“You’re an expert in the Law, what do you think the Law actually says.”

The Lawyer responds with the two great commands: Love God and love your neighbour and Jesus says, ‘You have answered correctly.’

But then he says, ‘Do this…’ In other words: you need to take these Laws to heart and live them, not just understand them intellectually.

Yet rather than expressing a desire to do that, the Lawyer asks about a detail of the Laws: “Who is my neighbour?” Luke says the Lawyer was wanting to ‘justify himself’. In other words, show that he was measuring up to the Law. As long as the definition of ‘neighbour’ was limited to the right kind of people, then the Lawyer could be confident he measured up to the Law.

Yet, this desire to ‘measure up’ rather than a desire to join up with Jesus, was still missing the point. Thinking that we can measure up without joining up, is actually to fail to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Will you join up with Jesus?

We still face the same question today. Too many people today, like the Lawyer, think that measuring up is what counts. It may be that they are trying to measure up to the changing standard of the culture around them, or the imagined expectations of someone or some group they respect and want to impress.

It may be that when they think about God and eternal life, they think that they will be alright, because they think they measure up, they’ve lived a better life than most. Yet does anyone really measure up fully with the two great commands to love God and love our neighbour as ourselves – especially when the neighbour could be anyone? I’m not sure even the Queen, despite her dedication and service would fully measure up. However, I do know that the Queen often spoke about her faith and trust in Jesus. She had joined up with Him and God’s mission and purposes.

What matters is not measuring up but joining up. It means committing ourselves to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. Trusting the incredibly Good News, that although in a sense our mortality means that without God, like the man attacked by bandits in the story, we are as good as dead, but that like the Good Samaritan, Jesus has come with compassion and care to sacrifice himself on the cross, so that our sins can be forgiven, we can be reconciled with God and so have eternal life, when we join up with him. Not only that, when we join up with Jesus, we increasingly want to live like Jesus and mirror, the compassion that he shows us in compassion for all we come across, to love our neighbours as ourselves.

So, will you join up with Jesus?

With the death of Queen Elizabeth, feelings of great sadness and grief can emerge as well as a sense of uncertainty and concern as we enter into an unfamiliar new era. How can we respond? The book of Lamentations was written at a time of extreme grief and insecurity for God’s people. Yet, it’s central verses hold out a sense of hope in such circumstances.

How do you feel about the Queen’s death?

How do you feel about the Queen’s death. At the start of his speech on Friday, Charles her son said he had “Feelings of profound sorrow.”

Although, she was not our mother, it may be that for you as well, the loss of the queen as a person brings a deep sense of sorrow and grief.

At the same time, her death brings to the end an era for our nation. For most of us she has been queen for the whole of our lives. 70 years is a very long time and through all the many changes, she has been a great constant. As one columnist wrote: “The one element in our collective life that stayed reliably the same has gone. We enter a new future now.” (Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian)

Such a change of era can leave us with feelings of uncertainty and unease, especially at a time like ours, when our lives are facing so much turmoil: coming out of a pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine.

So, how should we deal with these feelings?

Lamentations

One way is to turn to the Bible and in particular to the book of Lamentation. It is not a ‘How to guide’ of how to live, but a poem, which was written at a time of total and utter catastrophe and despair for the people of God around 2,500 years ago.

They had not just lost a monarch, their whole city had been destroyed, including the temple which stood at the centre of their identity and national life and expressed God’s support and presence for them. Not only that much of the population had been forced to move to a foreign land. This was an unimaginably bad catastrophe and the book of Lamentations expresses the deep sorrow they experienced in profound and moving ways.

Yet in the centre of the book are these verses of hope. As we face a difficult period in our national life, that comes nowhere near the struggles they were facing, let’s see what we can learn about seeking hope in the midst of sorrow and uncertainty.

Acrostic / Mnemonic

The poem is an acrostic, in the original language, each set of three verses starts with the same letter, then in the next three verses it moves on to the next letter.

To help, I am going to use a similar device as we explore what this poem is saying – a mnemonic, where the first letter of each point spells out a word. The word I am going to use is the word, ‘Queen.’

Quest

“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.” (3:25)

We all need a ‘quest’ or to seek something in life. It gives direction and purpose and if it is the right quest, it can help us and others in life.

On the queen’s 21st birthday, before she became Queen, she said what her quest was for life:

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service… God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.” (Princess Elizabeth, 21st April 1947)

It was a commitment rooted in faith and seeking after God.

And it was tested powerfully while she was still young. She became queen at only 25 years old, much sooner than she had hoped and facing the death of her father at only 56. At a moment of deep sadness, she was thrust into a life of demanding service. Yet, she could do it because she also sought God, his help and blessings.

If we are going to cope with the sorrows and challenges of life in ways that are good and flourishing, then the first thing we need to do is to seek God, because only in him do we find our ultimate comfort and security.

Unfailing

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;” (3:22; NRSV)

The word for ‘steadfast love’ is sometimes translated, ‘loyalty’ or ‘devotion’. The queen exhibited this in her role over 70 long years, never failing in her service, even doing her duty to welcome the new Prime Minister a couple of days before she died.

King Charles III:

‘Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss.’

Yet, unfailing as the queen was, no person can be totally unfailing in their love and concern, because we all one day will die. That’s why we need to seek God as our ultimate source of comfort and security. Only he is truly unfailing, he will never let us down, not even by dying.

Eternal

“For the Lord does not reject forever.” (3:31)

God’s love is unfailing, yet at times we may feel that he has rejected us. That was certainly true for the people of God when Jerusalem was destroyed. Yet, the poet sees beyond the temporary to the eternal. The Lord does not reject for ever.

So, we need to take the long view. After all, that is what Jesus did. Even though he faced God’s rejection and judgement on the cross, he knew that in the end the rejection would not last, that God would not reject him forever. God proved the point by raising Jesus from the dead.

When the queen died, many people noticed the rainbows that appeared in our rather stormy weather at the time. In the Bible the rainbow is a reminder that God’s love will always be there. He will not reject forever. He can see us through even the storms of death, if we are willing to seek him.

Emotional

“Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” (3:32)

The queen in many ways was a distant figure, not showing many signs of emotion, but those who were close to her would have seen the more emotional side:

King Charles III: ‘And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people.”

Yet, the queen’s presence and sympathy at moments of great tragedy were an important help to those suffering great loss. The people of Aberfan in particular remember her sympathy and support when she visited them after the landslide that killed so many including many children.

We can often think of God as a distant figure. Yet, this poem portrays him as  a God of compassion, someone who is emotionally moved to act when he sees the suffering of his people.

As Christians we believe Jesus came and lived among us. In Jesus Christ he came and the emotion, most associated with Jesus was compassion, as is the emotion described of God here. When Jesus saw the needs of people he was moved emotionally and acted miraculously. This is what our God is like. This is the God we need to seek, the God who feels our pain with us.

New

“They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (3:23)

And actually, when we seek God, his compassion is experienced every day. Just as the sun rises to bring us a new day, so God’s emotional and loving commitment to us is renewed each and every day – even when we face moments of great sadness, grief or uncertainty.

There is a freshness about God’s support and help, his love for us never grows stale, it is always fresh, whatever we are going through in life.

Queen

We’ve spelt out Queen and we are reminded again of the sadness of losing a much-loved monarch and the uncertainty of a new era without her.

Yet, as we’ve focussed on this poem that looks for hope in the midst of deep despair, we’ve been reminded that in God we have hope. Let’s seek him in all our lives, that like the queen we may have the strength to serve through all the ups and downs of our lives.

When we realise the extent of Jesus’ forgiveness it transforms our lives, for we have been forgiven much.

In our readings this morning God led Jeremiah to a potter where he saw him remould ruined clay and God told him that for those who repent who seek God’s forgiveness they can be remoulded, reshaped too (Jeremiah 18:1-11). Paul in his letter to Philemon gives thanks for the church where Philemon serves because of their love for the Lord and for each other. He desires for them to do their duty, living in obedience in service of God because of Jesus’ love (Philemon 1-21). And in our gospel reading we see an extraordinary offering to Jesus showing acknowledgement of His love and forgiveness. This woman knew the weight of her sin and seemed to know what Jesus would do for her. She knew the seriousness of her sin. And showed her gratitude (Luke 7:36-50).

How do we view sin? 

I have two stories of events in my childhood that might help us think about that. Because how we view sin affects how we view Jesus’ forgiveness – his love for us. 

I came home from school once, I think I was 5 or 6 and said ‘Mummy I’m so ashamed’ …….I don’t remember this, this is one of the stories told round the dinner table at family occasions. But I said – ‘Mummy I’m so ashamed.’ So Mum with her serious and listening face asked me, ‘darling why do you say that?’ – As it turned out I had been playing at school with a friend called Simeon and we’d been pretending to make dinner and we were making grass soup, picking the grass from the bank. A teacher had seen us do this, told us off and probably said words like – you should be ashamed of yourself – this encounter had left me ashamed! Should it?

Another time we were queuing to go out for break a long line of us, people were shoving back and forwards – I gave as good as I was given, except that when I shoved, the girl at the front of the queue had opened the door and fell out. I remember being made to stand in the corner of the cloak room, crying because I hadn’t been the only one shoving, it felt so unfair? Was it unfair? Should I have accepted what I did wasn’t right?

Sometimes we mess up in life and feel sorry for what we’ve done. Sometimes we feel more sorry than we should, other times we might not feel sorry enough. We might not think it was truly our fault and think punishment isn’t fair.

God dislikes sin, but the joy of the Christian faith is that he has provided a way for our sins to be forgiven.

The joy of forgiveness sometimes makes us forget about the seriousness of sin. There are other times when we become obsessed with all the things we do wrong and can feel a sense of hopelessness not fully realising the joy of Jesus’ forgiveness.

God dislikes all sin. Even the small sins come from a place that is not pleasing to God that can be self-seeking. The important thing is that when we do mess up we admit that we messed up and then try and make it right. Whether we think – its not that bad a sin, or whether its something that will drastically affect our lives.

The important thing to note is that there is no sin too big that it can’t be forgiven by our loving God

Today the lady in our gospel reading had sinned. They call her a sinner. It doesn’t say what they were—it’s not important—but we know from her actions that she was very, very sorry. She felt so bad in fact, that she went to see Jesus in someone’s house–when she wasn’t even invited!

Imagine you were in that house. The events unfold. What would have been your feelings and reactions to what happened?

This sinner approaches Jesus – and washes his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair and pours over oil – what made her do this?

In this story we have Jesus, the woman and the pharisee

I wonder What was the woman feeling that made her approach Jesus, anoint his feet with perfumed oil, weep and wipe tears away with her hair?

This was a big social no no – the oil would be an expense, Jewish ladies wouldn’t unbind their hair in public.

One commentator writes: She was completely oblivious of public opinion in the grip of her deep emotion.

The woman reacted to Jesus’ presence in this way because this woman knew who Jesus was – knew what she had done and she understood Jesus love and forgiveness

How about the Pharisee?

Why did he react with grumbling – questioning Jesus for allowing such a thing?

He hadn’t really understood who Jesus was and what he had come to do. 

How about Jesus?

He takes her actions and the Pharisees grumbling and uses the opportunity to teach once more about what he was on earth to do.

He uses this parable…..

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

A denarii was a days pay – so one owed 500 days worth of wages and the other 50 – both unable to repay.

Jesus wanted those present to connect this story of debt with the knowledge of individuals’ sins and the forgiveness he had come to offer through his future death and resurrection. 

He compared the actions of the woman with that of his host. It was usual practise to offer water to honoured guests to wash ones feet – this had not been done. A kiss of welcome might be offered – this was not provided by the host either.

Jesus finishes his teaching moment with this verse:

‘Her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little’

The woman who the world viewed as having great sin was like the person that owed 500 denarii and maybe the pharisee was like the man that owed 50. The woman showed her love in the way she did because she understood how much she had been forgiven, whereas the Pharisee appeared to love Jesus less in comparison because maybe as his sin was less in the world’s eyes he hadn’t fully understood the significance of forgiveness that Jesus was proclaiming he could offer.

What does that mean for us?

It means that we acknowledge the times when we don’t live God’s way – understanding that there is no sin too great that Jesus would not forgive it. So if we need to say sorry to someone, if we need to do something we haven’t done, if we need to say sorry to God – let’s do that

It means living lives of joy and thankfulness because of everything Jesus has done on the cross – the knowledge of our forgiveness through Jesus should be turned into gratitude, love of Jesus, making us people of real joy. Offering our lives, our worship to God – knowing how great God is!

It changes the way we live. Impacts our lives, in how we view Jesus, how we see others through his eyes and with his love and how we care for each other and our friends and neighbours.

Because all of us have been forgiven much we give thanks to Jesus for his love and so live our lives for him.