The Good Samaritan

You know the story of the Good Samaritan, right?  Luke tells us that a "lawyer" stood up to "test" Jesus (sounds like a typical lawyer, HA!) and asked him, "what must a person do to inherit eternal life?"

NOT "go to heaven", mind you, but "inherit eternal life" - live a life of fullness that will last forever and make a lasting impact in this age/life and the next.

Jesus asked the man what was written in the law to which the man responded, "love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus told him that he was correct and that if he did these things then he would "live".

“Hm”, thought the man, “that’s not a very satisfying answer”; and so he pushed it a step further and asked, "who is my neighbor?"

Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan.  

You know the story, right?

A man was going from Jericho to Jerusalem and was beaten up by some robbers - they beat him, stripped him and left him to die.  

As the day went on and the guy was likely screaming in agony ... 

A priest walked by and did nothing.

A Levite walked by and also did nothing.

BUT.

Then a Samaritan walked by and helped him - brought him to a nearby inn, bandaged his wounds, and paid the innkeeper for his stay.

The moral of the story, of course, is to be like the Samaritan.

The story would have hit home because although the JEWISH priests left the JEWISH man to die ...

(NOTE: not because they didn't care about them, but because Jewish law said that if the priests touched a wounded and bloody person they would be unclean and forbidden to perform any rituals in the temple)

... the SAMARITAN man stopped to help.  

NOW.

Samaritans, you need to know, were hated by the Jews and the Jews by the Samaritans and so the fact that a Samaritan man stopped to help his enemy.

Well.

That would have opened the eyes of Jesus' listeners and dropped their jaws.  

In his book "Radical Transformation" Alexander John Shaia says that this story offered Jesus' listeners a POWERFUL teaching - the behavior of a follower of Christ must move "beyond the limitations of ritual or bureaucratic law to benefit all people."  

This is so good, right?

Luke's inclusion of this story in his Gospel is his way of telling his readers that helping others despite their background has the potential to launch something new into the world, into THEIR world that had been full of centuries and centuries of arguments and fights about whose tribe was better and whose nation was stronger.  

Luke's readers, remember, had recently been cast out of Judaism.  They were "Jewish Christians" (Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah) and so the Jewish leaders said that they were no longer welcome in their Mother Faith as "true Jewish people" were still waiting for the Messiah.  

To put it bluntly, they found themselves ...

Cast out.

Excluded.

Shamed.

... And so with this story of the Good Samaritan Luke was telling his readers that it was time to stop letting silly squabbles and arguments about tribes prevent them being Christ to their neighbors.  

"If the fights could end", Luke was saying, "so that we could begin to truly see our neighbor as we see ourselves and see Christ in them just as much as we see Christ in us ... true and lasting change will come into the world."

The same is true today, my friends.  

I spent 30+ years in the church as a member of various congregations, as a student, as a teacher, as a pastor ... and I can't even begin to count the amount of instances where an "us vs. them" conversation erupted where we would either talk about how ...

OUR church was better than another church.

OUR denomination was more theologically sound than another denomination.

OUR faith is better than the other faiths of the world.

OUR beliefs are the right beliefs.

OUR political party is the right political party.

Ugh.

So much energy poured into drawing lines and creating boundaries to declare who is right and who is wrong and who is good and who is bad and who is holy and who is evil and who's going to heaven and who's going to hell all the while Jesus asks us to simply "love our neighbor as ourselves", to put such petty squabbles and arguments aside to create more space at the table for everyone - for those who are like us and for those who are not.  

And so I wonder today, who are the Samaritans in your tradition?  Who are the people that your leaders and teachers and traditions have said to cast out and steer clear of?  

Muslims?

Democrats?

Republicans?

Atheists?

Baptists?

NOW, here me out here: there might be certain individuals in those groups (ie family, friends, etc.) that for mental health reasons we NEED to steer clear of due to their toxicity and abusive actions, language, etc.

You need to.

AND.

You should.

BUT.

Are there people within those groups that ... perhaps ... you could creatively love as you love yourself?  

What might that look like for you?  For me?  For us?

Remember - "If the fights could end", Luke was saying, "so that we could begin to truly see our neighbor as we see ourselves and see Christ in them just as much as we see Christ in us ... true and lasting change will come into the world."

Much love,

Glenn Siepert