The Parable this week is very familiar. It is also one of the longer Parables of Jesus. The Good Samaritan is known by those who study scripture, and in general culture, as the way we are to treat one another.
Scripture
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test
Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He
said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He
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.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer;
do this, and you will live.’ 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus,
‘And who is my neighbor?’
30Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and
went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now
by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by
on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw
him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while travelling came near
him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity 34He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own
animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out
two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when
I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” 36Which of these three,
do you think, was a neighbor to the man
who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37He said, ‘The one who showed him
mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ (Luke 10:25-37)
Conversation starters
The scene starts with a lawyer posing a question to Jesus about
eternal life. Jesus responds by asking what Torah says. The lawyer responds
with the summary of the Law. ‘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.’
Jesus tells the man to follow these instructions “and you
will live.” Not content with the answer, though, the lawyer asks, “Who is my
neighbor?” To which Jesus responds with the parable about the man beaten and avoided
by a priest and a Levite but helped by a Samaritan. Remember, Samaritans were
considered outsiders. Good Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. In some ways
they were considered worse than the Romans because they worshipped ‘wrong’ and
had abandoned the ‘true faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’
However, in the parable, it is the ‘outsider’ who fulfills the mandate of the Law and cares for the wounded man. Even going so far as to tell the innkeeper to keep track of additional costs which he will pay when he returns. I like this image of the story because in the background you can see the priest and Levite continuing on their way while the Samaritan tends to the wounded man.
The Samaritan acts as ‘neighbor’ to the wounded man. The parable itself calls us to consider who we call neighbor and who we name as outsider based on what we think we know about them. Social media and rhetoric might encourage us to say that immigrants or the poor or the unhoused or the foreigner or the one who worships differently are not our neighbor.
Jesus, in this parable, says that we cannot do that. In God’s eyes, all are neighbors and deserving of our love and care. “Love our neighbor as yourself,” says the summary of the Law. If everyone is our neighbor, then we have a lot of work to do to love them as God does.
Who might you substitute for “Samaritan” if you were telling
the story now?
Who do you find hard to call ‘neighbor’?
Action Item
Send an encouraging card, or even a text or email to someone
who is hurting (mind, body, or spirit).
