On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
The legal expert wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. A Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus asked. The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”
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The preacher had chosen an appropriate text this morning, the lawmaker thought. Fruits and vegetables growing on farms across the state were rotting in the fields rather than being picked.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the farmworkers are few; therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out farmworkers into his harvest.”
The lawmaker began to get worried. This was his favorite teacher. He had been looking forward to his twice-yearly message at this Baptist church. Usually the congregation was stirred to renew its faith - the lawmaker included - would find their souls warmed just hearing his voice.
This message struck a bit too close to the bone. The lawmaker wondered if this sermon was meant as a direct criticism of his most recent accomplishment, a work he had authored and pushed. Everyone in that huge sanctuary was wondering the same thing, wondering if that congratulating they had offered was now being called into question.
Finally, the lawmaker could not stand it any longer and interrupted the sermon, hoping to get the preacher back on more comfortable ground, more faithful ground really than this bleeding-heart mess about empty fields and lost workers.
“Teacher, excuse me for interrupting, but this isn’t the kind of message I’m accustomed to hearing. I have my doubts whether it’s really biblical. So - the basics. What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Ah yes. Good morning, senator, you’ve been busy lately.” the preacher replied. “You are a learned man, so why don’t you tell us. What is written in the Bible?.”
The senator answered, “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.
“Exactly,” the preacher said. “Do this and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, the lawmaker pressed the preacher for clarification, “And just who exactly is my neighbor?”
The preacher smiled broadly. “I’m so glad you asked. I’d like to use a story to answer your question.
“There was once an important lawmaker, going down to Montgomery from Gardendale to argue for an important bill he had sponsored because a vote on it was imminent. On his way, he fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. By chance, another lawmaker was going to Montgomery the same way. When he saw the beaten man, he cringed at his condition, and kept going so as not to be late for the vote. He didn’t even recognize his colleague who wrote the bill now up for vote. Next, a pastor came by. He, too, was traveling to Montgomery, where he was honored to be offering an invocation to bless the senators’ deliberations and decisions. The pastor approached the wounded man, offered condolences and promised to pray for him. His thoughts had turned so heavenward that the pastor failed to see that the wounded man was an important senator who had authored the bill up for debate.
Then a Mexican man, filthy from a day picking in the fields, approached. When he saw the beaten man, he was moved with pity. He went and bandaged the man’s wounds, carried him to his old Ford pick-up and took him to a hospital. “Take care of him,” the farmworker told a nurse, handing her his information. “This is where you can find me if he needs anything at all. When I come back, I will repay you whatever more his care costs.”
“You are coming back to pay his medical bills? Don’t you know who this man is?” the nurse replied.
“I know him,” the farmworker said. “Of course, I know him.”
The teacher turned to the lawmaker and asked him, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
The senator replied with confidence, “The one who showed him mercy.”
“Exactly so,” the preacher said. The senator sat down, satisfied. “But my story is not over,” the preacher continued turning to the congregation.
“While the senator was recuperating, his bill passed and was signed into law. After several weeks, the migrant farmworker returned to the hospital with his entire savings - money he had put away to bring his family - wife and three children - to America. He used every last penny to pay the senator’s medical bills. When his receipt had been printed, the farmworker turned to walk out of the hospital.
“As he left the building, two police officers were waiting for him. Under the authority of a new law, he was questioned and detained, for being in the country illegally. From the window of his hospital room, the senator watched, satisfied that he had made justice happen. Within a few weeks, the farmworker was deported to Mexico, penniless.”
“So, we see,” the teacher concluded, “that indeed the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
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The story of the Good Samaritan has become a theological cliche. It is so well know that the notion of a “Good Samaritan” has a cultural cachet even outside of its origins. Yet the story is no less powerful, no less needed today, for behind its simplicity we find a lifetime of wisdom and a shocking upturning of our values. The story of an unlikely helper still rings true.
We usually hear this story as a teaching to help any stranger in need - and of course, part of that is true. Our ability to ignore others is stunning, hence the Good Samaritan remains an anomaly. There’s no question that part of our call is to help.
It’s important, though, to go further and take a look at *why* Jesus tells this story. A legalist theological opponent is trying to show Jesus and the disciples the errors of their ways.
“How do I achieve eternal life?” he asks. Jesus turns the tables, and says “You’re a learned man. You tell us.”
The lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Who counts, for whom am I responsible, who falls into God’s command to care for neighbor. I suspect that rather than assume the lawyer is out to “get” Jesus he is rather, as Luke says, “justifying himself” in the sense that he wants to know precisely what is required for the sake of justice in light of God’s commandment. And, as we’ve already seen, Jesus responds by telling a story that redefines neighbor not in terms of race, religion, or sexuaity, but vulnerability; that is, whoever is in need is your neighbor.
Jesus answers with a story which has a shocking conclusion. The one who helps the man is supposed to be his enemy, the one he has sought to put down and push out, not touching those determined to be “unclean” in body or soul, righteously protecting his own country for the pure Jews.
In recent weeks, a number of controversial and divisive political questions have dominated the news all over the world. Race and voting rights, ethical government, access to safe abortions in Texas, rail companies claiming themselves not responsible for a devastating accident, marriage equality at the Supreme Court, and a renewal of discussion all over the map, of who has rights and who doesn’t, who should and who shouldn’t, mostly based on our prejudices and legalistic readings of both secular and theological positions.
The story also invites us into the narrative in a different way. Imagine yourself as the person beside the road, on the brink of death; a woman in deepest grief, a youth lost in a bewildering culture. Imagine yourself deep in despair, feeling helpless and hopeless. Now imagine that the one who stops to help is the one you dismiss as a bigot or a Wiccan pagan, a racist, a misogynist or a baby-killer, an illegal immigrant or someone you criticise for being on welfare. This story asks us to look at the world through God’s eyes.
This was never meant to be a mushy morality tale. It was and is meant to be a radical and subversive story that we have whitewashed into a fantasy of the privileged, in which we believe Jesus calls us to apply a few bandages, throw some money at the injustice in the world, and consider our job as being done. .
Jesus is NOT asking us to be charitable like the Samaritan. His point is much more subtle. Of course, we are to bind the wounds of the wounded. Of course, we are to take care of the oppressed and the downtrodden. We all know this to be what God asks of us. Works of charity and mercy are a given in the life of faith. Even the lawyer in the story knows this without a second thought.
When Jesus tells the lawyer to go and do likewise, he says to go and understand the one seen as a cultural enemy. He says to this educated but singularly myopic man to see that the people he despises most are the people who hold the key to eternal life.
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” the lawyer asks. “See your enemy as your teacher,” Jesus answers .
Who are the Samaritans in our lives who are those who are seen as “Other”, from whom we can learn? Jesus says we need to learn from the “other”, to see them as *our* teachers. Imagine the impact on this lawyer to have to admit that a person to whom he referred in everyday speech as a “dog” was the answer both to Jesus’ question and to his own question about his own salvation. Yet he cannot even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan, but rather says “the one who showed mercy.”
Now, we all have the “Other” somewhere in our lives. We have slurs based on race, sexuality, class, political preference. We are all guilty of using them. The parable of the Samaritan calls us to confess these cultural enemies - illegal immigrant, gay, poor, Conservative, NDP, Liberal - and then learn from them.
The problem is, if we are willing to learn from these ‘enemies’, if we take the time to listen to them, we can no longer blame them for all that is wrong with today’s culture. Then what happens to the woundedness of the world?
God calls us to more. God created all people in one image - that of God’s self. We claim that Jesus died for all people. Both God’s acts of creation and redemption signal that the heart of our faith is the belief that all people have inherent worth and dignity. All people. Period. No exceptions.
So perhaps in this text we are invited to think about what kind of community we want to be going into the future. Do we want to be only a community that has been formed and nurtured by a shared history and cultural theology, and stop there? Or might we see ourselves as those who are in fact the traveler left in a ditch by the road. Can we now arise to address others in need, but from the position of the one who has been wounded, and been redeemed by the ones we see as “Other”? By God’s grace I believe we can. I believe that in that change, we can also see a new and fuller future in God’s new creation. Thanks be to God.
Sources:
1. Adapted from “The Immigrant Samaritan by David Henson Part 1 of a 3-part series. February 2012
2. Good Samaritans All Around by Eric D. Barreto
3. www.workingpreacher.com Rev. David Lose, Luther Seminary, Minnesota.
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