July 8, 2009 + Who Is Your Neighbor? (Luke 10:25-37) + Hayward Fong

Samuel gave such a stirring sermon last Sunday, I’m glad I had skipped the Lectionary assignment and spoke instead about Independence Day and Christian Freedom. Immanuel is in the Second Year cycle, so as to avoid any duplication of thoughts, I’m using one of the other two years for our Wednesday worship. The familiar selection, which I just read for the 15th Sunday is commonly called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

A few years ago, one researcher found in a survey that 49% of the people interviewed said they would be able to tell the story of the Good Samaritan if asked to do so, 45% said they would not be able to, and 6% were unsure whether they could or not. Among those who attended religious services every week, the proportion that thought they could tell the story rose to 69%.

But whether or not one could accurately retell this parable, the concept of the “Good Samaritan” is familiar enough to most everyone. We name hospitals, churches, and institutions in his honor. Most people know a ‘Good Samaritan’ when they see one…Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, that anonymous person who simply stops to change a flat tire for you or helps a blind person across the street. Yes, we have all met one or have heard of one even if we can’t relate to the details of the parable.

In the story, we are immediately introduced to a lawyer, who poses a question to Jesus as a test, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” When I was teaching in the Army, I would often encounter someone in the class who would “sharp shoot”, put me to the test. I wish I had the ability to turn the tables as Jesus in those situations. Jesus answers the lawyer’s question with one of his own, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

The answer comes back, “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Good answer. And Jesus agrees. But the lawyer, not satisfied with that, still wishes to be noticed, so he asks another question, “And who is my neighbor?” In other words, “OK, Jesus, I understand that I’m suppose to CARE, but what are the limits of my caring? When can I quit? And here Jesus tells this famous story.

The first person to whom we are introduced is the poor traveler. He had taken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in 17 miles, running through narrow passes at various points. The terrain offered easy hiding places for the bandits who terrorized travelers. This unfortunate man had been stripped, beaten and left for dead. Jesus’ audience that day knew how easily it could happen and I suspect that we as Jesus’ audience today could easily identify by glancing quickly through the newspapers or watching the TV news of the violence taking place on a daily basis.

Suddenly who should come along but a Priest? If anyone could be expected to stop and help it would be a Priest. But wait! The Priest doesn’t come over to help; on the contrary, he passes by on the other side. No reason is given. Perhaps it was fear? The Priest may be thinking, those who beat the man in the ditch might be lying in wait to beat him as well. Have you ever come upon someone after an ugly accident, and simply passed by for fear of becoming involved? You didn’t want to be a hero! As a note, if a Priest found a body on their journey they had a duty to bury it. Maybe that was what was going through his mind. For whatever reason, he went on his way.

Next, along comes the Levite…an “assistant” Priest. As Luke records it, “…he came to the place and saw him, (and) passed by on the other side.” He wasn’t going to be a hero either!
Now the final character comes along – a Samaritan. The GOOD Samaritan! Nowhere in the Bible will we find the words “Good” and “Samaritan” next to each other. For those folks who first heard this story, the phrase “Good Samaritan” would have been an oxymoron, (oxymoron is the putting together of words which seem to contradict each other) – the only GOOD Samaritan would have been a DEAD Samaritan.

Why such a depth of feeling? A little Jewish history! The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was hundreds of years old. It went back to the time of the division of the nation into the Northern and Southern kingdoms – Samaria came to be identified with the North and Judea with the south. Following the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 721 B.C., exiles from many nations settled in Samaria, creating something if a melting pot, no longer was it purely Jewish. Move forward a hundred years or so. Now it is the turn for the Southern Kingdom to fall – this time the conqueror was Babylon, and, as was the custom of the day, the people were carried off into exile to prevent any uprising in the occupied territory. The few Jews left in Samaria were considered no threat in that regard, so they were left in Palestine. Seventy years passed and the exiles were allowed to return. The Samaritans were ready to welcome them back, but the returnees would have none of it – Samaritans had intermarried with gentiles making them “half-breeds.” They had perverted the race. The Samaritans had also perverted the religion. They looked to Mt. Gerizim in their own land as the place to worship God, not Jerusalem. The interpreted the Torah differently that the Southern Jews.

By the time of Jesus, the animosity toward Samaritans was so great that some Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid walking on Samaritan soil. The hatred between Jew and Samaritan in Jesus’ day was as least as deep as the feeling Jews and Arabs have towards each other today. So much of this necessary historical background; let’s get on with the story
If Jesus were just trying to say we should help the helpless, supply the need of the needy, he could have talked about the first two men who passed by and the third one who stopped and cared for the half-dead guy in the ditch, without any identity. If Jesus were also making a gibe against the religious establishment, we would expect the third person to be a layman – some ordinary Israelite – in contrast to the two professional clergy. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite. But that’s NOT the way the story goes. I’ll get into the question “Why a Samaritan?” in a few moments. Let’s get back to the story and try to see why Jesus cast these roles as He did?

The Samaritan sees the man, but instead of distancing himself just as the Priest and Levite had earlier, he comes closer. As Luke states, “…when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them (oil to keep them soft, wine to sterilize). 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 denarii (two days wages), gave them to the innkeeper. And said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’” Not an insignificant amount, not lavish either, but enough to do the job. End of story!

Jesus has responded to the lawyer’s question about the neighborliness with this story and now turns the question back to the lawyer. “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” His answer, “The one who showed him mercy.” Amazing isn’t it? The concept of the GOOD Samaritan is so distasteful that the lawyer cannot bring himself to even speak the name. Perhaps the answer to that question I raised a few moments ago, “Why a Samaritan?” is that Jesus did not want his hearers to identify with this generous caregiver. It would be a temptation to identify with the charitably attractive and winsome behavior of this man, the helper/hero that he obviously was, but no good Jew could do that. He would not want to be like the Priest or the Levite either, so the only character left with which to identify would be the man in the ditch.

Now Jesus concludes, “Go and do likewise.” What? Be the guy in the ditch? Perhaps that is not so far-fetched as we might think. We never hear if this poor victim recovers, but my assumption is that he does. That being the case, what would the effect have been on him that a Samaritan had rescued him? One would presume that it would forever color his view of Samaritans. For that matter, one would presume that it would forever color his view of the world’s victims. There would be less callousness, less inclination to lay blame for getting into such fixes in the first place, less temptation to “pass by on the other side.”

If Jesus’ story had gone on any longer, I would bet that this poor fellow, from that day forward, became a better neighbor to the rest of the world than he would have ever dreamed possible. On occasions, when thinking of this parable, I’ve wondered about the rest of the story. What effect did the charity have on the man who was robbed and beaten and taken care of? Did he remember the cruelty of the robbers and shape his life with that memory? Or did he remember the nameless generosity of the Samaritan and shape his life with that debt? What did he pass on to the strangers in his life, those in need he met? Has anyone ever helped you?

“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” Amen.