Optimizing charity

 This week's verses are Luke 10:25-37:

Now an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you understand it?” The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him up, and went off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, but when he saw the injured man he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came up to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling came to where the injured man was, and when he saw him, he felt compassion for him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring olive oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.’ Which of these three do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

 These verses are more than a cry to serve the downtrodden. Jesus is telling us to do that, but at the same time he is exposing the depravity of a religion-based value system. And behind that, he shows how shallow its underlying motives are.

The expert in the religious law is basically a theologian or a Bible school champ. He's read all the commentaries, and he knows all of the things you're supposed to know about them. He knows the arguments and the counter-arguments, and how to own his opponent. He signals his virtue by making a show of living according to scripture. He's rehearsed a lot.

But people are economical beings. An animal will expend just as much energy as it needs to in order to feed and breed, and not an ounce more. Our flesh is the same way. We're not going to do any more than we need to in order to get what we need. If we want to feel like we're good people, we'll do just as much as we need to in order to feel that, and then we'll move on to the next thing, until we want to feel it again.

So the religious scholar is pretty sure he's tuned his life pretty good. If he was living in our modern day, he'd probably tithe, donate to environmental charities, have a black lives matter sign or an American flag in his front yard. He'd recycle, and post all the right things on social media. Maybe he'd volunteer in a soup kitchen once a month, after spending all week telling his friends what he was going to do. He's pretty sure he's kind of a big deal on the righteousness scene.

But now he sees Jesus, and has his chance to enter the bonus round. Maybe he can outsmart Jesus in a discussion about righteousness, and get the religious teacher prize belt. Or maybe he can get Jesus to put his stamp of approval on his religious philosophy, so that he can feel confident he is doing the right thing, and can put it on cruise control for the rest of his life.

But Jesus holds him to account for what the law he quotes says. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself? Great, just do that then." The religious scholar knows he can't honestly say he does all of that, so he tries to figure out what the minimum effective dosage would be so he can conserve his wealth and energy. "OK, um, who specifically is my neighbor then?"

So Jesus ignores his question and gives him three examples of what obedience looks like, starting from the sort of guy who would be the scholar's hero role model, to the sort of guy who would at least be expected to be favored by God, and ends with the sort of guy everybody there would probably agree would not be a good person. He turns the whole thing upside down to prove that what the teacher has been seeking is not how God measures righteousness.

The priest is like the pastor. We assume that a pastor is righteous because he's a pastor. He's credentialed. He wears a nice suit. But does being a pastor make you righteous? There are quite a few high profile stories of pastors who very much were not righteous. But people, when they become religious, often look at a pastoral role as the highest position they can take in life. What would be more righteous than to be a pastor? But the first guy in the parable was a pastor and he was a selfish mess!

The Levite is your typical good person from a good Christian family, born in church, grew up in youth group, went to Bible school, and now plays in the worship band sometimes. He has a Jesus bumper sticker. If you're religious, that guy is a great example. He knows the Bible. He says the right things. He dresses nice. He has a great witness! And yet this guy, in the parable, is also a selfish mess.

The last guy is the last guy you would think of. He's not religious. He believes some heretical stuff. He hates Christians. But he's willing to get his hands dirty and to put his money where his mouth is. Even the religious scholar, who loves religious people first and foremost, has to admit that this guy is the closest follower of the commandment to love our neighbor.

Both times, when the religious scholar acknowledges the path of righteousness, Jesus tells him not, "you're right, young man, you must have studied the Bible for a very long time," but "go and do the same." In other words, "if you know what to do, then go and do it." Righteousness isn't just knowing the right answer to the question, or the right Bible verse to drag out when someone says a keyword that reminds you of it. Righteousness is doing the hard things that God asks of us.

Our animal nature, our flesh, drives us to try to optimize our charitable activity the same as the religious scholar wanted to, the same as the priest and the Levite did in the parable. We're happy to sign a petition, or maybe to write a check, but we don't want to roll our sleeves up, and we definitely don't want to get our hands dirty. We ask "which is the least costly giving tier that still lets me brag to my friends? What is the least I can do, without being accused of doing nothing?" 

This is the behavior Jesus is calling out, both in the religious scholar and his religious community, and in the people listening. We know the Bible. We know the good things we should do. But do we do them? Do we study the scriptures to find out how far we have to go? Or to reassure ourselves of how close we must be? When we see deep need or inconvenient love, do we close our eyes and cross the street?

The priest had a good excuse to leave the man where he was. If he touched the guy, and got blood on himself, he might not be able to do his temple duties that day, because he would be ritually unclean. The same for the Levite. The point Jesus was making in these examples was that their religiosity constrained them from doing the right thing, rather than pushing them on to do it. They were happy to concern themselves with collecting fines from traffic violations if it meant they never had to risk anything by fighting crime.

Most of us have found a comfortable niche in the Christian ecosystem. We sing songs together, listen to a nice message, read the Christian books, and even watch the Christian stuff on YouTube and TV. But how many of us ever go further, to the crime scenes, where people need help? How many of us will drain our bank account to help someone we just met, or take time off of work to make sure someone gets the help they need? Many of us are constantly optimizing our efforts to make sure we have that righteous feeling, but at a much more economical price than the cross typically goes for.

In the same way that the religious scholar's religiosity led him to an encounter with Jesus that showed him twice in a row how far he was from true righteousness, we should have encounters with Jesus where we explore what the Bible is really saying to us. We would probably be just as shocked at who our "neighbors" are, and how much love really costs when you're paying the bill with something other than your mouth.

It's good to read the Bible. It's good to study what others have said about it, and to discuss it in groups. But if we don't want to become ivory tower religious scholars we have to use it to encounter Jesus and be confronted with how to apply it. Talk is easy and gives you most of the same social rewards as actually doing the things. But only doing what is asked of you will give you the rewards in heaven. Optimize your time left for doing that, and not just for impressing other Christians.