The Good Samaritan

Read Luke 10:25-37

Had there been Cumberland Presbyterians when Jesus walked the earth in the first century, we would have never received the Parable of the Good Samaritan, at least not on the occasion that we have just read.

When this lawyer told Jesus that we should love the Lord with everything we have and love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, and Jesus said, “You’ve got it.  Do this and live;” Cumberland Presbyterians  would have broken into a hug-fest followed by a fellowship meal.

The follow-on question would have been swallowed up in the fellowship of the moment.  But that’s not what happened.  This educated young man had a follow-on question.  The text says that it was selfishly motivated.

Perhaps this man just wanted to confirm his comfort zone.  This Jesus that had made such a stir surely had not directed him to do anything that he wasn’t already doing, would he?  Let’s just find out what love your neighbor really means.  Just who is my neighbor?

Surely, neighbor must be limited to the Jews.  God chose a people for a reason and excluding everyone else from his mercy had to be one of them.

Surely, neighbor must be limited to the educated elite in this case.  Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Teachers of the Law must have formed a neighborhood.  No need to look elsewhere for neighbors.

Surely, Jesus didn’t expect those who were already scoring high on their Law of Moses Compliance Standards to have to do anything extra.

So, Jesus answered the lawyer’s question with a story.  It may or may not technically constitute a parable, but it surely has a lesson or two for all of us. 

A certain man…

Once upon a time, a man…

Jesus starts this story with an unnamed man.  He doesn’t say whether he is Jew or Gentile, slave or free, tall or short.  This man doesn’t even get a name.

Now human nature is that people associate their own beliefs with the unnamed man.  In a crowd of Jews, if he wasn’t named as something else, he was probably a Jew, though surely not one worth of a title.

Now as the story progresses, the crowd might assume that he wasn’t very bright.  Everyone knew not to travel the Road to Jericho by yourself.  Everyone knew this.  Yes, but did you know that you could save 15% by switching to…

Everybody knew not to travel this day’s walk alone.  Well, except his guy.

He is a nameless man who is the victim in this story.  He is left for dead.  That’s storyspeak for I am not going to tell you the specific injuries because they would only distract you.  Today, people would be going to WebMD or Google to see how long the guy had to live based on his wounds.

Here is a man and he is in very bad shape somewhere on the road that runs between Jerusalem and Jericho.  And it just so happened that a priest then a Levite were walking along the same road.  They were not walking together as might have been wise, but one came and then a time later the other.  Both did nothing for the wounded man.

They saw him and they walked on the other side of the road.  The Levite might have come to take a closer look than the priest, but neither did anything to help. 

It would have been interesting to have known the crowd’s reaction to this part of the story.  Did they gasp as each did nothing?  Did they just shrug off what happened in a matter of fact way knowing that the priest and Levite had special rules that applied to them about remaining clean?

Did they think, well if they were leaving Jerusalem, their tour of duty in the temple would have been over?

Did they get cynical?  What do you expect from those sanctimonious, never get their fingernails dirty, know it all priests?

We don’t know.  Again, that is not the main part of the story.  Details distract when they are not essential.

So far, it’s all been pretty much prologue.  Now we come to the Samaritan. 

In that identification comes a whole lot of baggage and hate.  There is history with this hatred, but hatred does not always abide strictly in history.

Almost 800 years before Christ, the Assyrians conquered and deported many of God’s Chosen People from the Northern Kingdom.  They also sent some of their own to colonize the conquered areas.  These colonists brought their own gods. 

Not all of God’s Chosen were removed from the land.  Many remained and married these pagan colonists and worshiped their gods and also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  That’s an easy foul to call and the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah had plenty of yellow flags to thrown.  These Samaritans had made of mess of things.

Besides that, when the Jews later returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem, the Samaritans were part of the resistance.  They didn’t want these Jews back.

As I said, hatred does not always adhere to its historical roots.  Hate is hate and sometimes you just grow up learning to hate a certain group of people.  The Jews hated the Samaritans.

So when Jesus came to the last traveler in this story and noted that he was a Samaritan, there were probably a few hisses in the crowd.  There were probably a few side conversations.

“I’ll bet the Samaritan spits in his face.”

“Just watch, the no-good bum will probably check to see if the robbers left anything.”

But Jesus was telling a different story.  This Samaritan not only stopped but helped.  This wasn’t one of those where he said, “Hey, I’ll pray for you buddy but I’ve got appointments to keep.”

He treated his wounds with what he had, put the wounded man on his own donkey, and brought him to an inn.  We don’t know where the inn was or how long it took to get him there or if the Samaritan had to change directions in his travel.

What we do know is that this man despised by all Jews had mercy on the same man the two very righteous religious leaders did nothing for—and this Samaritan went the extra mile in doing it.

The Samaritan paid the inn keeper and promised him if the expenses were more than what he had provided, he would cover that expense the next time he came by.

Jesus now exits the story and asks the lawyer, “Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied with great enthusiasm, “The Samaritan!”  That’s not exactly correct.  The word Samaritan never crossed this man’s lips.  He said, the one who had mercy on him.  He was surely thinking, just who is this Jesus to make a Samaritan the hero of the story.

Jesus doesn’t push the point about the man who had mercy on him being a Samaritan.  He said, “Go and do likewise.”

Go and do likewise.

So, did this parable answer the lawyer’s question?  Did it answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

This well-educated man wanted some boundaries.  He wanted to define his comfort zone.  He wanted to justify himself.  He probably didn’t want to have to make any changes in his life.

Why couldn’t Jesus just say, “Your neighbor is someone—let’s make that a Jew—who lives within a quarter mile of your dwelling place, is roughly in your socio-economic group, and knows not to bring a BLT to the company picnic. 

Let’s jump to the present day and locale.

Your neighbor is American, middle class, has a job, keeps his yard mowed, scores at least 85% on church attendance and at least 70% in staying awake for the whole sermon, participates in 11 out of 12 of this month’s youth fundraisers, and occasionally makes BLT’s for the fellowship meal.

I could handle that sort of neighbor without ruffling my comfort zone much at all.

But what if our neighbors were of various ethnicities, some unemployed, some hooked on drugs or alcohol, seldom came to the church building except for help, dressed provocatively, had tats all over their bodies, and never made BLTs because their gas had been cut off.

What if there is no cookie cutter model for our neighbor?  What if the intent of this parable is not to answer the question put forth but to direct us to be a neighbor?   The directive from our Lord and Savior is to go and do likewise.  To what does “likewise” refer?

Have mercy on those who need mercy.  Help those who need help.  Be God’s love.  Be a neighbor.

In this local body of believers, we are a neighbor to many in Africa.  We are a neighbor to many in our own communities.  We are a neighbor to many who are not connected to this church family or any church family.  We are a neighbor to the people who live next door and in the next town.

Jesus didn’t say that a good man left Jerusalem for Jericho.  He didn’t say that a rich man went on a trip.  He didn’t say that a Pharisee or a sinner walked alone along a road where it is not wise to do so.  He said, “A certain man.”  Today, we would tell a story saying, some guy…

He was just a person—maybe any person.  He was a human being.  He was someone made in God’s image and not too far into the story, he would need help.

We could focus our exegetical skills on this man, the two men who should have been in right standing with God, the treacherous road that should not have been traveled alone—yet 4 men did just that in the course of this short story; or we can listen to the message delivered upon conclusion of this story.

The story sets the stage for setting aside our comfort zones and preconceptions and gets to the heart of the matter.  We Love God and love one another by being a neighbor—by showing mercy to those who need mercy.

I think we understand this parable, perhaps better than most.  Our church motto is God’s Love in Action not because it sounds good, but because that’s who we are.  It has fidelity to what we do.  I think that we understand what Jesus was saying here.

 I think we do try to live this, but we must be on our guard not to want to justify ourselves as the lawyer did in this parable.  We must be discerning that we don’t try to reinforce our personal comfort zone so as to dismiss the leadings of the Spirit.

I will tell you that it is easy to walk on the other side of the road.  It doesn’t take much.  I fight the old man’s counsel—the old self’s nagging to do this.  Not that I won’t stop and help someone on the side of the road but that when people come into my office needing help with a bill and the smell of cigarette smoke over powers me before the get to my office; I think, there’s six months’ rent in cigarettes.

I look at an arm filled with tats and think there’s a year’s worth of water bills.  Glancing at the other arm I see the cost of several months of gas and electric bills.  It is very tempting to say, “You walked down the road to Jericho by yourself, this is what you get.”

Then the smart phone comes out and it would be all so easy for me to walk on the other side of the road, pick up my pace, and do nothing to help.  But if we look only a few chapters earlier in Luke’s gospel we read these words of Jesus.  Be merciful as your Father is merciful.

Be merciful just as your Father in heaven is merciful.  We enjoy salvation and favor not because of our resume, but because of God’s incredible mercy.  Part of the mercy that we show is helping people who want to live a better life get there through godly wisdom and obedience to God, but mercy most often begins with treating wounds.

Love and mercy not comfort and convenience must govern our lives.  We are the body of Christ in this world and it is through us that people come to know God.

It is through us that people realize there is a God of love.  It is through our mercy and goodness that people see what we do out of love and this brings glory to God.

The religious leaders of the world into which Jesus came put heavy loads on the backs of those who wanted to do right by God, but these leaders wouldn’t do anything to help the people carry those loads.

We should always be ready to profess our faith before others.  We must be ready.  We are commissioned to do just that.  That’s our mission.

But we must not hesitate to show mercy.  We must not get wrapped up in rules and causes and forgo mercy.

We can’t walk on the other side of the road saying, “I’m on a mission from God to take good news to the world.  Good luck buddy.”  What good is it if we take these most precious words to the world as we are commanded, but don’t have love and mercy in our hearts?

Let’s be God’s love.

Let’s be God’s mercy.

Let’s be a neighbor.

Amen.