Luke 10: 25-37
During this Lenten sojourn we have
been looking at some of the valuable, but often confusing parables of
Jesus. Confusing because we hear
one message and then, in the end understand it in another way. Parables are tricky that way. This Lent we’ve heard about the sower
who went out to the field to sow seed and where it fell was anyone’s guess but
to be sure, our sowing God was plentiful and did not withhold one iota of seed
to the mostly unforgiving soil.
Then we heard about a pearl and a
mustard seed and Elliott talked
about the pearl parable that encourages us to give it all that we have, and the
parable of the mustard sees encourages us to give it all up or rather how the
Christian life requires a balance between active and passive courage. Today we
will hear another old chestnut that Jesus tells his followers from the Gospel
of Luke. Let’s see what meaning
that we can squeeze out of this often-told parable.
Scripture
An individual in today’s religious
and secular society would be hard pressed if they did not know this parable or
at least what a ‘good Samaritan’ is. The term ‘Good Samaritan’ has been used to
describe someone who comes to the aid of another. And, well let’s face it, that’s a good thing. Right? Can’t argue with that.
It’s the name of a roadside
assistance group who rescues stranded motorists, several hospitals and social
service agencies are named after it and a few years ago now a law was made
called the Good Samaritan Act that protects a person for giving emergency,
volunteer aid to someone in dire need, just in case they do something wrong and
get sued. This is the antithesis,
of course, to this beloved parable but I guess we ‘gotta’ protect ourselves in
the litigious world in which we live.
Now indulge me for a minute, when I
hear this parable what sometimes goes through my mind is a joke formula like, “a
priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar”. Are you with me?
Three clergy persons all of similar callings with similar expectations
in their work performance. Three
of a kind.
But Jesus’ version was, “Did you
hear the one about a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan?” A priest, a Levite and
a Samaritan were not three of a kind. His followers would have expected to
hear, “Did you hear the one about a priest, a Levite, and an fellow Jew”, now that’s
three of a kind! But Jesus
upends them, their jaws probably dropped, he turns their expectations and their
world upside down. The Samaritan
was not a Jew, similar yes, but they didn’t qualify.
Now this was not a slam against the
Jews. There is a certain
orderliness to ALL cultures and religious in defining who they are, and there
are assumptions that are made about who’s on the inside and who’s on the
outside. Jesus challenges them to
think about their stereotypical thinking.
He challenges them to think about the “other” being nice, the “other”
giving aid, the “other” being the one to reach out to an almost dead man.
The first two men flub up
completely. The priest does not
bother to help the beaten man.
Sad. Wrong, unacceptable.
The priest passes on by. In
fact not only does he pass on by he crosses to the other side of the road. That’s akin to you walking down Chapel
Street in New Haven and averting your eyes away from the beggar who will be
approaching you soon. Are you with
me on this one? The priest would
have been expected to help him because life trumps all, and he would have been
expected to bury the man had he been dead.
And the Levite – same thing. Descended from the tribe of Levi, the
Levites assisted in the Temple. He
would have known the law, he would have known what to do with the man if he
were dead. But nope, like the
priest, the Levite passed by the man in the ditch on the other side of the
road, too preoccupied or maybe just didn’t want to be bothered.
He Qi
So its here that Jesus would have
launched into what the good Jew did had the ‘typical first century’ scenario
been told by Jesus – a priest, a Levite, and a Jew. But no! It’s a
Samaritan that was the good guy.
It was the Samaritan who was a good neighbor. A Samaritan who interpreted Torah differently, who
worshipped up north rather than coming to the temple in Jerusalem, a man of
mixed racial lineage, an enemy, it was a Samaritan who was hero. He was a good, ethical man who saw that
there was another human being in need.
He broke the boundaries, crossed the picket-line, and risked his life,
his limb, his social status to help another. It was not a quid pro quo, this for that kind of conditional
help. He gave all, expected
nothing – this outsider. This is
the story we know. We get this
story.
Where would you place yourself in
this parable? Would you walk by
like the priest and the Levite?
Would you be the Samaritan man who stops? Or would you be the person in the ditch in dire need of
assistance.
Well, probably some days you would
be the priest or the Levite or we feel as if you’ve been beaten up and left for
dead. But often we place ourselves
in the dusty sandals of the Samaritan.
And that’s really great when it happens doesn’t it? The Samaritan was practicing
philanthropy and who doesn’t like to think of themselves as a philanthropist
showing love and mercy for others.
But then that is all about us.
I’d like for us to think about this
parable they way in which the Christians of the first century would probably
have understood it because I think over the years, the millennia we have
glossed over the poignancy of the message of this parable. In context the
Greco-Roman listeners understood Jesus’ parables as allegory about God: one
character in the story represented God and events in the story pointed toward
our rebellion, divine judgment, or God’s forgiveness.[i] Jesus always wanted them to know about
God all of the time. He never
pointed to himself but to God.
In the Lukan narrative, showing
mercy and compassion is a divine privilege and so the Samaritan, who showed
mercy for the man in the ditch, is acting in God’s capacity or as God’s agent. So if God is the fine Samaritan then
this is a parable about God and God’s compassionate acts of love. And for us it is a call from Jesus to
be Godly compassionate in our actions.
Not because it just feels good to be doing nice things for others but
because we are acting on God’s behalf which is serious business, not our
own. Because it’s just what God
would do.
So when Jesus says, ‘Go and do
likewise’, he is challenging them, and us, to be agents of love and compassion
for God in all situations, because that’s what God would do in ALL
circumstances. Acting on God’s
behalf is weighty and mighty work and we will be and are called to do something
that might just turn our stomachs or minister to someone whom we deem ‘untasteful’.
Would you still choose to be the
good Samaritan? Would you still
choose to act on God’s behalf? This
is what it is to be a Christ follower.
So there are choices to make and
this ancient story becomes a mighty call upon our lives.
May we be granted the grace to
fulfill all that we are called to do in our lifetimes.
Amen.
[i] “Hearing
Parables with the Early Church” in The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor
University. 2006. Kruschwitz, Robert
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