24th Sunday after Pentecost

(Luke 10:25-37)

The Gospel reading appointed for this Sunday is the familiar tale of the Good Samaritan. A certain lawyer was testing Christ, saying: ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Our Lord responded to him: ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’ The young man replied: ‘You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ To this, our Lord said: ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’

But the young man wished to justify himself, and said to Jesus: ‘And who is my neighbor?’ To this question, our Lord responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan, wherein a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves who robbed him, stripped him of his clothing, beat him, and left him for dead. First a priest comes along but passes by him on the other side of the road. Then a Levite comes by, but he does the same. Finally, a Samaritan (one who was an outcast in society) came by and when he saw the beaten man, he had compassion on him. He bandaged his wounds, poured oil and wine upon him, and set him upon his animal and brought him to an inn. He gave the innkeeper some money to take care of him until he was well, promising to repay anything additional required for the man’s recuperation.

Which of these, Christ asks, was a neighbor to the one who fell among thieves? And the young man replied: ‘He who showed mercy on him.’ Then Jesus said to him: ‘Go and do likewise.’

Elsewhere in the Gospels, our Lord quotes from Deuteronomy - ‘You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.’ – saying this is the first and great commandment. ‘And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Christ then proclaims that ‘on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’.

It is abundantly evident throughout the Gospels that Christ’s greatest sorrow and greatest frustration was the disconnect demonstrated by the most religious people: the priests, the Levites, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees… who over and over again missed the forest for the trees. They were so scrupulous about the laws of Moses and yet they lost the point of what these laws were given them for. The laws were given to bring the remembrance and the presence of God into every action of the people: from the way they washed their hands, to the way they dressed, to the things they could and could not eat. All of this was to bring the remembrance and reverence for God into the details of their lives. But rather than softening their hearts toward God and their neighbor, too often their scrupulousness about the law hardened their hearts and inflated their pride.

What a shame that the priest and the Levite from this Gospel parable passed by the beaten man. It took the compassionate heart of a Samaritan to fulfill the law and the prophets by showing love and caring for the one in need.   

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I sometimes hear complaints from Orthodox Christians about all the rules the Church places upon us. This most often comes up in reference to the rules of fasting prescribed by the Church. Tomorrow we will enter into the 40 day Nativity Fast which prepares us for the blessed feast of the Nativity of our Lord. How should we think about these fasting rules and how can we draw the greatest good from the coming fast?

Prayer, fasting, and the other spiritual disciplines that are prescribed by the Church are precisely that… ‘prescriptions for our spiritual infirmities’. They are a form of spiritual therapy prescribed to make us healthier, to build our spiritual strength, to soften our hearts, to raise up our minds.

By way of illustration, a couple months ago I tore the meniscus in my knee, and I have been experiencing quite a bit of pain from it. Surgery was scheduled for this coming week, but I was prescribed some exercises to try to stretch and strengthen the knee. The more carefully I adhere to these exercises, the healthier and stronger my knee is becoming. At this point, I’m happy to report that I have canceled the surgery because my knee is doing so much better. The physical therapy is a means to an end… my goal is to become healthy again so I can walk and hike the way I used to. As long as I keep that goal in mind, I am motivated to do the exercises designed to help me get there.

It is the same with our fasting, our prayers, our Church services, and all the other disciplines of the Church. These are our means of therapy to restore health to our souls and draw us closer to Christ our God. And that is the whole point of our Christian life… to unite ourselves Christ.

St Seraphim of Sarov said: ‘Fasting, prayer, alms, and every other good Christian deed is good in itself, but the purpose of the Christian life consists not only in the fulfillment of one or another of them. The true purpose of our Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. But fasting, prayer, alms and every good deed done for the sake of Christ is a means to the attainment of the Holy Spirit.’

As we go into these blessed days of the Nativity Fast, let us recognize and appreciate what the fast is all about… the call to prayer and fasting is a call to the take up the tools which strengthen us in our love for God. May our desire to draw closer to Christ motivate us to pray and to fast. And may the fruit of our prayer and fasting draw us closer to Christ.

In today’s Gospel we have all the law and prophets, all the rules and regulations of the disciplines of the Church distilled down into a simple and understandable prescription for the healing of our soul – let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and let us love our neighbor as our self. May God grant it!