The story of the Good Samaritan is so familiar that it has become
the basis for parody. Comics and cartoons refer to the story all the time. Even
people who only use their hotel Gideon Bibles as coasters for their beers know
this story.
The story contrasts the two who did not help with the one who did.
To Jesus’ audience, the most righteous people imaginable pass by the injured
man, but the one we would not touch with a ten-foot stick is the who comes to
help.
Jesus’ story is really focused not on the helper but on those who
avoided helping the wounded man.
We all want to help, right? We want to be like the Samaritan,
right? So let’s hiss and boo the bad guys!
And yet, we often walk on by. I know I’ve done it! I’ve fixed my
gaze straight ahead waiting for the light to turn when I see a homeless man with
a cardboard sign seeking help… and I’m in a hurry. I know, I know! There’s a
time and place for everything… but still!
Today’s Gospel comes along like a spiritual Jethro Gibbs and gives
me a wake-up slap on the back of the head. Jesus’ story forces me to get out of
my own head and think about the victim! You know, the guy who was beaten,
robbed, and left for dead.
You know, I have a hunch. My hunch is that at one time or another
all of us, at some time or another, been the one in need of a Good Samaritan…
the one in desperate need of help.
That might seem a reach. Maybe not.
Once, a long, long time ago, when I was a teenager, I was mugged. For
a suburban kid, who thought he was just going to a car show in a big city with
his friend, this was a shocking experience. There was a guy who saw what
happened, came up and asked us if we were alright, took us to a safe place, called
a police officer and then our parents, then sat with us until they came to
drive us home. To me, he was a Godsend!
Or the time when my college friend and I were travelling in
Germany during the winter break of our junior year abroad and we got lost in
Munich. We needed to get back to the train station, but how? An old man (heck,
he was probably my age now, but he seemed ancient then!) saw our plight, and
while we spoke next to no German and he not a word of English, helped us. We
communicated with hand gestures and by pointing to our tourist map. When the
next streetcar came, he spoke to the conductor, told him what we needed, paid
our fare, and sent us on our way.
I have many more such stories of being helped or even rescued by
total strangers and I am sure that you do too! They all remind us that we are
all, at one time or another, found ourselves in a situation where we were as helpless
as the victim in Jesus’ parable. Even today, we all come to this table with
cupped hands seeking the true bread that gives life and saves us from
desolation and despair.
But Jesus kicks it up a notch… imagine being the person in need
and suddenly finding that the person who helped you was your sworn enemy! That
is the startling starting point of Jesus’ teaching.
Rabbi Jesus frames the Samaritan, the sworn enemy, as the guy who
helps the injured Jew unconditionally, lavishly even, while the demonstrably
good people walked on by.
This is how God’s surprising grace and mercy is shown to all God’s
people.
And that’s why we still tell Jesus’ story after all these generations
because it illustrates the truth of God’s mercy. God’s love is poured out for
us unconditionally, with no strings attached. God meets us at the point of our
deepest need, and we are to embody that in our ethics and relationships.
Compare the Samaritan in Jesus’ story to some of the pop-psych,
pop-philosophy of our day. It is a weak gruel of self-centeredness by comparison.
I am certain that if someone who read or lived something like, for example, The
Four Agreements would come across the injured man and, deciding not to make
assumptions and not to take things personally… would walk on past, because
except for a passing reference to love in the first of Don Miquel Luis’ view of
a perfect life, there is nothing in that… or in many other pop philosophies… that
talk about the kind of compassion that is that the heart of Jesus’ teachings, the
Rabbinic traditions, and the rules of Francis of Assisi and Benedict of Nursia, or the examples of Mother Teresa of Calcutta or Dorothy Day.
Jesus teaches us that loving our neighbor is a radical, self-less way of being.
So, if it is not about “me,” then who is our neighbor?
Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish scholar who teaches about the
Christian scriptures at Vanderbilt University reminds us that Jesus tells the
parable of the good Samaritan in response to that very question: “…who is my
neighbor?” (Lk 10:29).
The
lawyer’s question has legal merit. One needs to know who our neighbors are, and
so under the Law, and who are not. But in the context of love, his question is
not relevant. According to Leviticus, love has to extend beyond the people in
one’s group.
Leviticus
19 insists on loving the stranger as well. For our parable, the lawyer’s
question is [again] misguided. To ask “Who is my neighbor?” is a polite way of
asking, “Who is not my neighbor?” or “Who does not deserve my
love?” or “Whose lack of food or shelter can I ignore?” or “Whom I can hate?”
The answer Jesus gives is, “No one.”
Everyone
deserves that love—local or alien, Jews or gentiles—everyone. Jesus takes us
into the depths of God’s love. He answers the question “Who is my neighbor?” by
giving us an unforgettable example of love in action....
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Here is a link to the bulletin for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost at St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater
Here is a link to the Scripture readings.
Here is a link to a video of the sermon.
Here is a link to a video of the liturgy.
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