When the average person is asked
what story best describes the way Jesus wants his
followers to behave, this story from the rich creative mind of the
Gospel of Luke's author is most likely cited. This story is
potentially the most powerful presentation ever of the highest
practical meaning of the Christian religion. What
makes many scholars rightly wonder if Jesus actually told this story
is that it is missing in the two gospels written before Luke. The
thinking is that if it had been around in the older oral traditions
Mark and Matthew would have included it as well. This does not lower the authority of the story as an expression of the kind of teaching Jesus did and the emphasis he surely made.
Most likely as the
writer reflected on what he wanted people to understand most about
Jesus this story was inspired. A tragedìy is the
more often a story is repeated the more likely people begin to hear
it with the attitude, “ O that again. I've heard it a thousand
times. 'Been there done that.' Yet few are so bold to say they
have even come near being the kind of neighbor this story holds up
as a spiritual hero. The story has made many people say how
different the world would be if the majority had the attitude toward
other people that the Good Samaritan is described as having.
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| Amie Morot 1880 |
We can be confident that this story
was not told to seduce people to despise either priests or Levites.
But to note that humans tend to be so focused on their own plans that
we often walk through the world as if with blinders, that keep us
from noticing what is happening to people who are suffering more than
us and in need of a good neighbor's helping hand. Yet it likely does
intentionally warn that it is those who claim to be
religious that are most at risk of this this blatant hypocrisy,
putting one's religious exercises and meetings above the call of a
suffering world.
After Jesus states that the 'greatest command' is to, 'love God
with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself', a listener
asks, “ And who is my neighbor?” Usually we have then focused
on who should I consider the person(s) to go out of my way to
assist and support? We likely don't let this story challenge us well
when we primarily think of our own kindnesses to others. Even the
sourest of persons can give a long list of truly nice things they
have done for others.
Honestly, I no longer think of myself at all
as like this good Samaritan or aspire to it. This example is just too over the top.
I am often stopped and asked directions as I take my walks in our
village. I feel good when I can help the person reorient themselves
and be on their way. It is a good thing I've done.
I find my chaplain work very rewarding. It involves 'helping' people who are
sick to feel better and not worse about their ordeal. I also get paid for the work. I share the
vegetables in my garden with others. Making such lists most of us can
whisper to ourselves, “ Hey this is what that story is about. I'm a
good Samaritan” And maybe to an extent it is. If it at least gets us to want to
be welcoming and helpful to others it has done some good through us.
But have I ever put a bleeding unknown person, of very different
ethnicity and religion and at the point of death, in my car and
taken them to the ER , and told the desk clerk , “ If this person
does not have insurance, I will pay for their bill. Here is my
contact number.”? Now unquestionably there are repeated times of
unique need when persons have literally been the Good Samaritan to a
stranger, maybe in times of war and other survival human situations.
Maybe the Dallas policemen who shielded the citizens who were
protesting, and died as a result. So does this mean we may be a good
Samaritan only at some one heroic moment? Why Just one of these
'taking the homeless person to the hospital and paying the bill'
would bankrupt most any of us. I think our practical question is how
can ordinary persons best be motivated to be a good neighbor as a
ongoing life style? How can we today in a realistic and consistent
way carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan in a natural non heroic
way?
Jesus asks , ' Who is the neighbor to
the man who fell among robbers?” That answer is best answered not
by us but by the man who had been assaulted. He may have never have
learned who Samaritan the was. But we can well imagine he knew he had been
royally treated as a neighbor in the highest meaning of that word.
So we may do well if we would forget for awhile any neighbor we might
have helped and ask ourselves , “ What about my neighbors, those
who have been good neighbors to me?” What or who has helped and
nurtured my life for as far back as I can recall? Who has helped me
when I could not help myself? What or who has opened doors for me
that I could not have opened myself. Who or what has seemed like a
part of a plan to help my life survive and unfold right up this
present moment. ? It is so easy for us to forget who has neighbored
us. And when we do forget we are at high risk of becoming unhappy,
cynical , grudge holding, blaming, spiteful human beings. And the
older I get the more I know I do not want to go out like that...
complaining and angry about my one opportunity to live this
life.
To use the story to ask this question can go a long way
to keep me from being a reasonably cared for angry white man which
there seem to be too many of these days. What a long list of good
neighbors I must confess gratefully I've had. Neighbors who had enough going for themselves that they could also choose to assist me. (Don't forget the Samaritan had some financial resources and clout.) I had parents that
loved and took care of me for a good many years. They gave me some
religious teachings that I would finally at midlife have to explore
and redo but that did not keep them from being excellent neighbors to
me. My mother died when I was ten and that gave me something to work
on most of my life . I had six older brothers who treated me so
well, good neighbors. Then time and again I had needs I could not
meet by myself alone. School teachers, Doctors, lawyers, public
servants were there for me. Good neighbors. Local and national
governments were wonderful neighbors to me. I could not had much of
a life without them.
Everywhere I've lived there has been clean
water, roads and sidewalks, sewers, first responders, farmers,
manufacturers.. on and on...Good neighbors. The national Science
Foundation granted me a fully paid opportunity to study at AZ State
to receive a Masters degree which helped me be a better teacher and
receive more income. My wife and my children have molded the
meaning of my life.. being excellent neighbors. I've had a few most
timely best friends who helped me find my way. Medicare and a
Teachers' Pension make my life economically comfortable now. I,
like so many others, also found the church to be a good neighbor in
supporting my spiritual life and in being a place of mutual
friendships. On and on it goes , only by the
presence and action of good neighbors have I been able to have a life
at all.
You can likely do this very same thing I've done. When we
do it makes us old timers say again and again... neighbors have been
good to me and I so want the younger ones coming up to have good
neighbors also. It naturally leads one to want to give something
back.. or to be in ones own natural personal way an unglamorized
Good Samaritan. To be a good neighbor because you see so clearly and
strongly you have been upheld and sustained yourself by good
neighbors.
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| Civil Rights Legislation 1968 |
That is my sermon. But I feel I
should make something very clear or we could stumble terribly in our
desire to carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan. Life simply does
not always bring good neighbors to people; or if any not enough with
enough power to hold at bay horrendous unmerciful human suffering.
So never should we count our good neighbors as I have done and forget
that some truly can't do that for themselves or their loved ones. I
realize some persons who could better remember the good neighbors
they've had but just don't and so become tragically cynical and
complaining . But some have lived their whole life in war , people
trying to kill them and their families, and dealing with the wounds
and results of war. Some have been in situations where they have been
continuously abused , diminished and discounted.
Sometimes those
without good neighbors are individuals and sometimes they are groups.
Some ethnic groups have been victims of hate and abuse with no Good
Samaritans coming to the rescue. This includes at times and places
Jewish people, Islamic people, Black Americans. It included the
Samaritans in Jesus day. Jesus own people considered them as
unworthy dogs, less than human. It has been women without strong
neighbors for most of the last three thousand years. It has been Gay
and Lesbian people who , even in our land, have been singled out
often for physical and social punishments. It has been poor or neglected children,
single mothers, people who have become addicted to chemicals.
This list of human suffering and woundedness, not attended by a good
neighbor, is real and present and goes on just as our list of good
neighbors did. So to carry the spirit of the Good Samaritan we need to be
consciously aware of the physical and psychological suffering of
fellow human travelers , much of it by the hands and systems of
humans abusing their power, failing to be good neighbors.
There is
only so much that any individual can do. And it seems essential for us
to see that we must act as communities and governments to defy this
undue suffering. We must organize and work together to relieve
hunger, poverty and discrimination. To vote in our land to have
better health care for all our citizens, to vote for policies that
are purposely planned to help all citizens have access to legal
protections, and to receive a fair share of the earth's fruits of
food, clothing and safe shelter. These are nature's gift to all persons. The good Samaritan can't be only a
'me' activity but in our day it must be a “we” if the effects of
this story are to be realized in our world
So Jesus says 'go and do likewise' . He
is saying to us , “ Always be recalling those persons and institutions
that have been good neighbors to you and cultivate in
yourself that desire, that longing, that all humans , even all
creatures of the earth, also have also good neighbors so they can thrive and
fulfill the image of God that slumbers in each one.” From
remembering our own neighbors and yearning for others to a have good
neighbors it becomes possible that the story of the Good Samaritan
can become the story of the nation and world.
