In Luke 10:25-37, we have one of the most famous stories in human history. It is arguably, along with the parable of the prodigal son, the most famous parable of Jesus. It has been told in innumerable Sunday School classes. And indeed, the phrase “Good Samaritan” is now a label in our culture for anyone who lends a helping hand. There is even a “Good Sam” club for RVers who are dedicated to helping those who need help along the road. In other words, very few of Jesus’ stories are better known and have made a greater impact than this one.
But is that the point of Jesus parable?
Let’s state right up front that if all this story teaches us is that God wants people to help others in need, then this is a fine story, a really appropriate and good story and it is worthy of telling to our children and seeking to live out ourselves. If the point of this parable is that we should be willing to do whatever we can to help others, even at great cost. (The Samaritan not only personally took care of the man who was robbed and beaten, but paid the equivalent of two days salary to do so.) Even if this is nothing more than a story about generous, sacrificial, tangible care for others, it is truly a great parable with an important and challenging point.
But then we’d miss the actual point that Jesus was making here. And it is even more pointed.
Let’s look back at the actual interchange between the religious scholar and Jesus again. The lawyer asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus asks him what he thinks the Bible says.
The Lawyer responds by citing the same words that Jesus is telling people all over the country side: Love God, Love your neighbor.
Jesus tells him, Good, you got it. Do that and you’ll get eternal life.
Then the religious scholar shows his hand. Luke writes, “But wanting to justify himself…”
That is, wanting to win the debate and put Jesus in his place, he asks a follow up question,“And who is my neighbor?"
The lawyer is asking Jesus, “So who do you say I have to care for in order for God to be pleased with me? Who do I love as a believer who has eternal life? Who is in the club, Jesus?
If Jesus answers the way most teachers of his day would have answered, he would have said, “And your neighbor, the true believers, the ones who are right with God and therefore, you must love like yourself are….”
By now, everyone there would have caught the sub-text: What group are you in, Jesus? Who is right? What camp has God’s blessing, in your opinion? Who am I responsible for? And who can I ignore because they are not worthy of my love, they are outside of God’s love, they are wrong, immoral, illegal, irreligious? What do you say?
But this is what we most often miss in this story: Jesus’ parable turns the question on its head. Jesus doesn’t directly answer his question. He reframes the entire question from a different perspective that highlights human solidarity, not ethnic and religious division.
“A man—a Jewish man—a Jewish man who is a lot like you—oh smarty pants lawyer...went up from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers.”
Jesus’ famous parable begins with an interesting twist that most of us fail to see: Jesus puts the scholar in the position of the victim. And doing so, makes Jesus agenda for changing the whole world more clear and more urgent.
Jesus is saying that it is a waste of time and it makes the world a worse place if we spend our time trying to figure out if “they” are part of “us.’ Indeed, if we are to act like Jesus and live out the Kingdom of heaven, then we don’t even think in terms of “us” and “them.” And even more, in a world where at any moment, anyone of us can be in need, we all need a neighbor.
When all it takes is one corrupt CEO to wipe out retirement account, one tractor trailer on a freeway, one bad diagnosis, one act of terrorism, one stray bullet, one wrong turn into a bad part of town to wipe out all we know and love, we all have need and we are all a neighbor.
"Can you recognize the hated Samaritan as your neighbor? If you can't, you just might be left for dead?"? ( N. T. Wright)
(This is from last Sunday's Sermon, which you can listen to or download in its entirety here.)
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