Go and Do Likewise.

One weekend on holiday in New Zealand we were visiting a small town with the one of the growing quintessential central markets. We were walking all over the town, from shop to shop; late in the morning and unlike me doesn’t always value wandering around markets for the sake of seeing what was there and what people were up to. However, we came back to a space, and there was a person standing there shouting. The type of person I had seen in places like this in various parts of the world I have visited.

They held a Bible high in the air with one hand, and the other hand they had balled into a fist and were punching the air with each phrase. I’d forgotten about this but this week’s gospel reading from scripture bought it back. For a while I watched them, as they pleaded for people to find salvation in Jesus before judgement came and it was too late. From a safe distance I listened to them. Notice that, from a safe distance. I vacillated emotionally between feeling bad for that person, to being angry with them.

I felt bad because they were so obviously being ignored or the odd time heckled and hassled rudely. I was angry because, while they were talking about Jesus, they weren’t speaking like Jesus though – well the Jesus of love and compassion I knew. “Teacher, . . . what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s the question of the lawyer who comes to test Jesus I n this week’s scripture from Luke.

Without punching the air or even a brief shout, Jesus asks the lawyer what he thinks. The lawyer quotes two short verses from Leviticus and Deuteronomy about loving God and loving your neighbour. Jesus says he got the answer right. Love is the answer. Oh, sure, to the rich young ruler who asks the exact same question, he quotes some of the Ten Commandments. To another he says to approach God as a child. He tells a nocturnal Pharisee to be “born again.” To his disciples he says to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. He never answers that question the same way. And he never does it with a shout. Or a punch. But sometimes he does tell a story about mercy. “Go and do likewise,” he says

Go and do likewise in love and with grace. Can any of you name the people who helped you become who you are. There are some who gave us a break, who offered us kindness, mercy, a helping hand. Would you, along with me, take ten seconds to think of people who have helped you become who you are today? Seriously . . . ten seconds. Perhaps remembering when we needed a neighbour will help us understand how to be a neighbour. Will help us understand how to go and do likewise.