"You Want Me to Say WHAT????" (ponderings on Luke 10:25-37)

My Grandmother Lazenby never said the word 'Vinegar'.  At least my mother can’t remember her ever saying the word.  As grandchildren, we would try to teach her how to say it.  "Say the name RENEGAR, Grandmommy", we would say (knowing that she knew how to say that surname).   "Renegar", she would say, just as pretty as you please.  "Say the name VERNIE", we giggled. "Vernie", she said.   "Now say the word VINEGAR.  Her lips shut tightly and she would look at us. Then she would say, "Sour Stuff" and walk away.  I thought for sure she would say the word 'Vinegar' if I asked.  But noooooo.  She refused, never admitting she couldn't (or wouldn't) and never telling us why.  She just couldn't choke out the word 'Vinegar'.

As I read the interchange between Jesus and the lawyer (with the story of the Good Samaritan thrown into the middle), I feel as if this lawyer is doing what my grandmother did except for a different reason.  The way that Jesus draws the lawyer into answering his own question is masterful.  Then the lawyer tries to put parameters around the word 'neighbor' hoping that Jesus' response would be a comfortable definition of 'neighbor'.

The story of the Good Samaritan, to me, is secondary.  Jesus tells the story and then asks the lawyer another question.  "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"

And here is where I can almost hear my grandmother clam up when asked to say 'Vinegar' ... and then says, "Sour Stuff."  Can't you just hear the lawyer answering Jesus? "The Smmmm.  The Sammmmm.  The, the, the ... the one who showed him mercy."  He couldn't even say 'Samaritan'. So why do we think that this lawyer could love a Samaritan if a Samaritan proved to be his 'neighbor'?   Hmmmmmm.

Grandmommy never said 'Vinegar'.  She refused.  I hope that our friend, the lawyer, at least tried to say the word 'Samaritan', tried to look the way of such a neighbor, tried to move toward loving his neighbors.   We don't know beyond Jesus' words of "Go and do likewise".  We can only hope ... for we are more like this lawyer than we would care to admit at times.