Today’s Gospel
is probably one of the most familiar stories in scripture. It is a story
familiar to people who have never read the Bible, never darkened the door of a
church, and have no intention of doing so. Yet “a good Samaritan” is an
expression that has become one of the ways we speak of kindness and assistance
in our society. We even have “Good Samaritan” laws that protect people from
being sued if they stop to help someone. We use the phrase to describe someone
who helps another. Most of the descriptions, while they are nice stories about
people helping one another, are really different from the story Jesus tells the
lawyer.
Let’s get one
thing out of the way first. In no translation of the text is the Samaritan
referred to as “good.” That is something others have ascribed to the man. Jesus
didn’t tell the story that way.
Neither are any of the other
characters “bad.” All of the characters are referred to as simply a man, a
priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. But nothing describes any of these people as
“good.” If anything, Jesus’ audience at the time might describe the man who was
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho as a fool. The road from Jerusalem to
Jericho was so dangerous travelers were warned not to travel alone. Bandits
routinely robbed and killed travelers. Danger stalked even those who traveled
in groups. No one was safe.
In addition, in the society in which
Jesus lived, a Samaritan was someone who believed and worshiped differently
than a Jew. A Samaritan was unclean to a Jew because
of his religious observance, he was socially an outcast, and considered a
religious heretic. Jews of Jesus’ time avoided all contact with Samaritans, and
Samaritans avoided all contact with Jews. And each thought the other a heretic
despite drawing their religious roots from the same place and the same God.
Does this sound familiar when we think of how things that happen in our world
today?
There is, however, a reason why we
might call the Samaritan “good,” and it has to do with a different way to think
about the story. It may well
be this story or parable is about God and how God acts toward us. And, in
particular, how God acts in the form of Jesus Christ. This is a story much
greater than the actions of one human being because it is a story of how God
calls us to act.
Think for a moment about how the
Samaritan acts. He was willing to be delayed on his journey. He spent great
energy on someone he doesn’t even know and who doesn’t know him. He spent his
money recklessly, the equivalent of two days pay, knowing he would spend even
more. And finally, he promised to pay the innkeeper more so the innkeeper would
not have any loss. Most of all, the Samaritan demonstrated mercy to someone
without partiality or preference. And, he expected nothing in return.
Who does this sound like to you? How many
people do you know, no matter how “good,” who would willingly do this for a
stranger?
In addition, let’s look again at who the
Samaritan was in the society of Jesus’ time. A Samaritan was unclean to a Jew because
of his religious observance, he was socially an outcast, and considered a
religious heretic. Does this sound like all the things of which God in the form
of Jesus was accused? Jesus became unclean by touching the untouchable: lepers,
a bleeding woman, the blind and the crippled. He became a social outcast for
dining with tax collectors and sinners. He became a religious heretic by
claiming to be God’s only son. I don’t believe any of Jesus’ listeners would
want to be rescued by someone like that. Would I? Would you?
So if this is a story about how God in
Christ Jesus acts towards us. Maybe, instead of being the Good Samaritan, we are
the ones abandoned by the side of the road. And maybe God’s mercy to us, poured
out without expectation of return, without partiality or preference, is what
rescues us from the side of the road. If you are injured and abandoned by the
side of the road then anyone who rescues you is your neighbor.
Such unearned mercy comes to us not
because we have done anything, but simply because we need a neighbor to rescue
us. And God is that neighbor in the form of Jesus Christ.
Mercy is not something we earn but is
what God gives us freely and generously. And God’s mercy calls us to be
merciful when we have no thought of reward but only a heart filled with the
mercy we have received. This means the circle of “Who is my neighbor?” grows wider
each time we offer mercy to those unlike us and those unlike those we love.
To be merciful we must receive God’s
mercy. We must be willing to widen our own circle of “Who is my neighbor?” by
being willing to accept whom God sends as our neighbor. And sometimes we must
be willing to say, “Here I am by the side of the road,” and then accept whatever
unclean outcast socially unacceptable religious heretic God sends to rescue us.
Once we have accepted God’s mercy from
whatever unclean outcast socially unacceptable religious heretic God sends; we
are called to do what Jesus says to the lawyer. The lawyer asked, “Who is my
neighbor?” And Jesus replied, “Go and do likewise.” AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette
Papanek
©2016
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