How many sermons have you heard preached on the parable of the good Samaritan? More than your fingers can count. Maybe more than fingers and toes. You know the parable forwards and backwards. You can recite it in your sleep. What more could any of us possible learn from it?
The parable is multi-layered. It is more than a variation on “Be helpful when you come across people in trouble.” Jesus wasn’t planting a little conscience thought-bomb to make us feel guilty when we ignore a homeless person or a panhandler.
James Wallace says that the parable “not only lays down a big challenge but makes an even bigger offering of gospel or good news.” He goes on to claim that this is “a story for people who recognize that they are on a journey—not just a journey from womb to tomb, but from birth to rebirth, from partial life to abundant life. The gospel proclaims what God pours into the hearts of all those who journey in a dangerous world.”(1)
Unfortunately the events of the past week – the shootings by law enforcement officers of African-American men in Louisiana and Minnesota and the ambush of Dallas police officers resulting in five of them dying – reinforce just how dangerous our world is. And that doesn’t even include all the people killed in robberies, bad drug deals, and domestic violence, not to mention the still to be solved murders two months ago of the Rhoden family here in Pike County.
Jesus was not unaware of the dangers that his world presented. The threat of over-policing by the occupying Roman forces was always present. That’s why he told his followers early on in his ministry, “When they force you to go one mile, go with them two” (Matthew 5:41). And it wasn’t just the military. People behaved badly. Jesus said, “If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt let them have you coat too” (Matthew 5:39-40).
Jesus was on a journey. He was determined to go to Jerusalem. He was going to his death. There he would, in effect, be passed by. Priests, Levites, and legal experts like the one who accosted him will steer clear of him, except to rob him of his personhood and leave him for dead in the hands of the Roman authorities. Little did they know that he would recover victoriously.
The legal expert’s story arc is similar. He too was also on a journey. He was seeking life or perhaps a greater intimacy with God. He asked an honest question, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” When Jesus probed his understanding of what he was asking, the man rightly cited the applicable teachings from the Torah. Jesus commended him and told him that if he did what he has said, he will gain life.
But the legal expert, true to his training, wanted to prove that he was right. So he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” This is a question of distance or boundaries. Remember when Peter was talking with Jesus about forgiving and suggested that it would be generous to forgive someone seven times. To which Jesus responded, “seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22). Peter was trying to find the limit beyond which he didn’t have to go. The legal expert was trying the same tactic. Where’s the boundary? Who’s in? Who’s out?
Jesus won’t go down that road.
So Jesus tells a story. In various sermons heard in our lifetimes, we have been excoriated for living like the priest and Levite, that is, crossing the road to go around the victim, not wanting to get involved. And we have been urged to be like the Samaritan, generous, caring, disregarding the fact that the victim was a Jew, a persona non grata for a Samaritan. If we pay attention to details, we would have to ask what a Samaritan was doing on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. That is clearly Judean territory and not near Samaria.
I made an illusion earlier which could be taken to suggest that if we were handing out parts in this little play, Jesus would be cast as the victim. I have heard a sermon taken that way. I want to offer a different casting. What if the Jesus were the Samaritan? After all, increasingly he was becoming a pariah to the religious establishment which ultimately engineered his arrest, trial, and execution.
You and I have been beaten up and robbed. That’s the upshot of sin in our lives. If it weren’t for Jesus, we would have been left for dead on the roadside of life. But Jesus came along, risked his life to bind our wounds, and bring us to the inn of redemption, and pay for our care. We were in no state to argue or refuse. He did it. Imagine the surprise of the innkeeper when the Samaritan brought a half-dead Jew to his hostelry and paid in advance for the man’s care. And he promised to pay any additional expenses that might arise. Tell me you know a health insurance company that will do that! But Jesus does. Jesus will do whatever is necessary to bring us to wholeness and health.
I wish Paul Harvey were still around. I would like to know the rest of the story. What happened to the man so graciously deposited at the inn? Did the event change his life? I am sure that the innkeeper told him about the Samaritan who brought him to the healing shelter of the inn. What road did the man leave on from the inn?
You know Robert Frost’s poem:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.(2)
Did the recovered Jew take the less traveled road of life away from that inn and make a difference in his life?
In the May issue of The Atlantic, Robert H. Frank wrote that luck matters more than we think. The more prosperous a person is, the more likely the person will credit her or his own skills rather than a certain ordering of events or conjunction of people that resulted in their being in the right place at the right time. Academic studies have shown that people who recognize luck as a force in their lives are 25% more generous that self-made individuals.
The traveler in Jesus’ parable started out with bad luck, being beset by thugs who robbed him and beat him near to death. And the fact that two important, respectable people failed to minister to him didn’t help his luck factor. But then his luck changed. The Samaritan came along and the whole story changed.
According to Frank, social scientists have found that luck “produces a remarkable array of physical, psychological, and social changes.” In one study, a portion of the respondents diaried for thirty weeks things that made them grateful. “The newly grateful had less frequent and less severe aches and pains and improved sleep quality. They reported greater happiness and alertness. They described themselves as more outgoing and compassionate, and less likely to feel lonely and isolated.”(3)
Did the patched-up and healed victim feel gratitude because of the care the Samaritan had given him? Do we feel gratitude for what Jesus has done for, taking us from the ditches of our lives and restoring us to wholeness and spiritual health? Did the man have a new understanding of “neighbor” as a result of his bad luck and greater good luck? Did he see Samaritans – today’s immigrants, people of color, people from different economic classes, people with different educational backgrounds, people who understand their sexuality in different ways – did the man see all people differently? Would he pass by on the other side of the road if he ever came across someone in the same condition he had been in? Would all lives matter to him when he takes the road away from the inn? Will he be neutral or will he take action?
In the aftermath of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and before the Dallas shootings, Dan Rather posted this reflection on Facebook:
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”(4)The Samaritan took the side of the victim, the one tormented. He interfered in the way of the world. He stood up for human dignity. Jesus takes the side of all victims, all who tormented, even when good churchly people do the tormenting. Wherever that happens, Jesus is there, kneeling at the side of the road, binding wounds. There is the center of the universe, the heart of God’s own self.
Jesus concluded his parable and asked his hearer: “‘What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?’ Then the legal expert said, ‘The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you, Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
(1) James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R, “Luke 10:25-37 – Homiletical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), Year C, vol. 3, 239.
(2) From The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1916, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1939, 1947, 1949, © 1969 by Holt Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Copyright 1936, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1953, 1954, © 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1962, 1967, 1970 by Leslie Frost Ballantine.
(3) Robert H. Frank, “Why Luck Matters–Much More Than You Think,” The Atlantic, vol. 317, no. 4, (May 2016), 22.
(4) Dan Rather, Facebook, July 7, 2016, 2:17 p.m. EDT.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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