Loading...The story known as the “Good Samaritan” may be one of the best known stories from Christian Scripture. Lots of folks know the story of Jesus’ birth but they often conflate the two different accounts from Luke and from Matthew into one story.
Many people know the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death – but those who know it are mostly Christian. But, the Good Samaritan, and another story from Luke – the “Prodigal Son”, are known widely, even amongst non-Christian groups of people. Indeed, when someone acts to help a stranger, they’re often called a “good Samaritan”, after this story; and many municipalities have “good Samaritan” laws on the books.
Our story from Jesus today is often heard as a “morality story”.
In other words, a story that tells us how you’re “supposed to” act.
There is great value in that way of hearing the story:
•A man is beaten up and left for dead on the main, but out of the way, road from Jerusalem to Jericho. This is a long, winding road through desert land. It’s a difficult road and it is not all that well travelled.
•Three men are also going along that same road and are faced with the fact of this man on the side of the road, beaten up and in the ditch. What. Do. They. Do?
•The priest sidles by on the other side of the road. The Levite (also a Jewish religious leader) passes by on the other side of the road. These two see the man, but intentionally ignore him.
•The Samaritan man (read: not Jewish) stops, helps the man, and uses his own animal to carry him to the next town or village that has an inn. Clearly the Samaritan has some wealth: he has a beast of burden (donkey, probably), he has oil and wine with him, and he has money to leave with the inn-keeper (with the assurance of more if needed) for the care of the wounded man.
•So, Jesus says, after it’s clear that the Samaritan man was the one who did the right thing, “Go, and do likewise!” Go do what the Samaritan man did!!
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Do what the Samaritan man did:
See the wounded man! Really see him.
See him as a person in need, not as a burden or a threat.
See the person in need:
refugees and immigrants,
Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and numerous other folks whose names we don’t necessarily know.
See! Yesterday I went to the Black Lives Matter rally at the courthouse. One of the speakers was Sandy Williams who said, “See my color! If you cannot see my color, you cannot see me!”
Draw near! Come closer to the one that you’ve seen to be in need.
It’s true that by drawing near, you make yourself vulnerable.
This could be a trap, the robbers may still be nearby or the wounded man by the side of the road could be in on the trap.
And, it’s also true that by drawing near, it will take time from your busy-ness to understand what’s going on.
But, don’t cross to the other side!
It’s also true that drawing near makes you vulnerable because you really see the pain, misery, and need that the injured person is experiencing. And, that can be hard to witness.
Drawing near in our day may mean that we really see the pain and misery of racism that is real in this country.
When you draw near, you get uncomfortable about your own position, privilege and complicity – at least, that’s been true for me as a white person.
Have compassion! Compassion is “sympathy in action”.
Having compassion and acting is not about “trying to justify [your]self” like the lawyer in the Gospel story.
Compassion is action centered on being with and caring about others –
in order to recognize the presence of God in others,
in order to witness the grace of God in our neighbor, in a stranger, and even in an enemy,
in order to be a part of the Incarnation of God in the world.
Compassion is about getting off your donkey and helping the one in need.
So, yes, the Good Samaritan story is an excellent story helping us to viscerally understand morality as God gives it to us:
not a checklist of things that are “right” or “wrong” so that we can be “good” Christians;
but as a way of being and acting in the world that reflects and continues God’s activity of mercy and love.
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There’s a fascinating twist, however, that Jesus puts in this story about following him:
The one who does what Jesus is doing (eating with the outcasts, healing the sick, hanging out with the outsiders, forgiving those seen as “sinners”) is one of those from the group that is HATED and rejected by the very group that Jesus is reaching out to and teaching. The one who does what Jesus is doing (and what Jesus is asking his followers to do) is part of the group that, just a few chapters before in Luke’s Gospel, has rejected Jesus’ disciples as they go to prepare the way for Jesus on his way to Jerusalem.
The one that Jesus casts as the moral hero of the story – the guy to emulate – is a Samaritan. One of the, as far as Jewish society is concerned, least moral groups out there!
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You and I live in a time of history where there is great and significant fear.
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit this week. It’s been a hard couple of weeks for us all and people of hope may wonder what hope there is:
• Unending civil war in Syria with hundreds of thousands of people in refugee camps or trying to escape;
• Continuing acts of terrorism in the world, most recently in Turkey, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq;
• All of that the week after a mass shooting in Florida which had followed a week focused on sexual assaults;
• And this week, two shooting deaths in two days of two black men by police officers, and a single sniper killing five police officers and wounding at least nine more people.
My question: Where is the closest rock under which I may hide?!?
The grief, the anger, and the exhaustion!
And, I’m not even part of one of the groups of folks experiencing this violence directly.
The grief, the anger, the fear, the division, the violence.
And then the worry and anxiety about the fact that all of those feelings and descriptors are REAL!
What will happen to us? What is happening to us?
Where is the trust, the camaraderie, the connection?
This has been an easy summer to either fall into despair, “check out”, or be overwhelmed with “compassion fatigue.”
The truth is, this is not the only time in history, long term or short, when there has been so much bad going on!
Summer of riots
World wars (including the war that was supposed to end all wars)
the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe, and of internment camps in the US
the Dust Bowl, hunger, unemployment known as the Great Depression
Civil Wars near and far
Genocide in Rwanda and Armenia
Apartheid in South Africa
military occupation in Palestine,
and I could go on...
So, what do we do in the face of such an overwhelming MESS?
See your neighbor for all that she or he is.
Not just because he or she is “in the ditch at the side of the road”,
but see the reality of his or her situation.
See what life is really like for your neighbor, stranger, or enemy.
Draw near and take the risk to step outside your comfort zone, your perspective and what you know. Intentionally make yourself vulnerable.
Have compassion.
Act.
Do something, but not just any random thing, or the thing that makes you more comfortable or at ease.
Act for and with your neighbor, stranger, enemy in need.
What helps them?
What puts salve and balm on their wounds?
What brings healing for them?
Keep in mind that what that person needs is for you to sit and listen to their very real pain and anger, even as it makes you uneasy, uncomfortable, or annoyed.
See. Draw near. Have compassion.
Not just as “the right thing to do”
but because this is exactly where God is.
This is the place – the grief, the pain, the anger – where God shows up.
“When we fail to see, to draw near, and to help those whom we mistrust or fear, or just want to ignore, then we risk missing the saving presence of God in our lives and in the world.” (David Lose, “...In The Meantime”)
Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on this story of the Good Samaritan. In his last sermon on this text, he posits this truth:
The question to ask ourselves [if we put ourselves in the role of the Samaritan travelling the road who sees the man beaten and in the ditch] is not the Levite’s or priest’s question: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”
Rather, the question to ask is the Samaritan’s question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
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Let us pray,
Good and gracious God, help us to see all your beloved children beaten up by life circumstances, by violence, by racism, by a system that is unjust, by ignorance, by robbers on the wilderness road. Help us to see Alton, Philando and many others whose names we may not know. Help us to risk our own comfort and our own sense of safety in order to draw near, even to the unknown or the enemy. Help us to love in service, to show your grace and compassion, and to see your saving love already present bring hope and life in our world. Amen
