And Now…the Rest of the Story
Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Stephen Becker, M.Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, July 15, 2007
How many people here have heard of the story of the Good Samaritan before? It’s a parable that is taught often in Bible studies and for good reason: it teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a real, practical way. One researcher found in a survey that 49% of the people interviewed said they would be able to tell the story of the Good Samaritan if asked to do so, 45% said they would not be able to, and 6% were unsure whether they could tell it or not. Among those who attended religious services every week, the proportion that thought they could tell the story rose to 69% percent. And the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t to tell us a story about how one man helped another, although certainly that is part of the story. No rather, the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan is what we do with it in our lives, how we apply it to our lives, how we ourselves live our lives in Christ. Let’s open with prayer…
The radio commentator Paul Harvey is famous and is known for not only telling interesting stories, but for telling us the “rest of the story…” meaning the truth of the story and how the events of that story impacted lives and changed the course of events, even changing people’s lives. In the parable of the Good Samaritan we without doubt learn the first and greatest commandment, to “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.’” This parable teaches us that we are to do this. But without even telling us whatever happened to the man who had been beaten by robbers, without telling us what happened to this teacher of the Law who asked Jesus these questions and to whom Jesus told this parable, we still nevertheless learn how we are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
The concept of the "Good Samaritan" is familiar enough to everyone. We name hospitals, churches, and institutions in his honor. Most people know a ’Good Samaritan’ when they see one...Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Elk Grove police and fire men, and even that anonymous person that simply stops to change a flat tire for you or helps a blind person cross the street; yes, we have all met one or have heard of one even if we can’t relate the full details of the parable.
In the story of the Good Samaritan here in Luke, we are immediately introduced to an expert of the Law. Although it doesn’t say so, typically these “experts” were Pharisees, Jews who prided themselves in knowing every little detail of Mosaic Law. So this expert poses a question to Jesus as a “test.” He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” To which, Jesus answers this question with a question of His own. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
It’s interesting because the expert in the Law does give Jesus the right answer, at least the right “book” answer. He answers Jesus then by saying, “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.” Yes, good answer. And Jesus agrees. But this expert was still not satisfied with this, and so he asks another question “And who is my neighbor?” In other words, “OK, Jesus, I understand I am supposed to CARE, but what exactly am I supposed to do?” You see, the expert knew the letter of the law. He knew that the Law said we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.” But he didn’t know what that meant. See friends, that’s the vital difference, and that is what Jesus wants us as Christians to understand. It’s one thing to know Who Jesus is with our reasoning; it’s quite another to allow Him to change and mold our hearts into a likeness of His. So knowing that this expert still doesn’t “get it,” Jesus gives us this famous story.
The first person we meet is the poor traveler. He had taken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in 17 miles, running through narrow passes at points. The terrain offered easy hiding for bandits who terrorized travelers. This unfortunate man had been stripped, beaten, and left for dead. Now the people with Jesus, hearing this parable, knew the dangers of that road and could understand how a person could get beat up and left for dead there. For us, it would be no different than hearing about someone getting mugged downtown at night in an alley, or even by us just taking a quick look through the newspapers or watching the news on television. We hear of the evil and violence of the world. We know where it’s especially bad. 2,000 years ago, that road from Jerusalem to Jericho was just such a place. And so this poor traveler is beaten and left to die.
Suddenly who should come along but a priest? If anyone could be expected to stop and help—certainly it would be a priest. But wait. The priest does not come over to help; in fact, he even purposefully crosses over to the other side of the road and passes by. No reason is given. Perhaps it was fear. Maybe he thought that those who had beat the man in the ditch might be lying in wait to beat him as well. The parable really doesn’t tell us why he did this…well at least yet. It is worth noting however that if a priest found a body on their journey they he had a priestly duty to bury it. Next there came a Levite...an “assistant” priest if you will. As the text has it, “he came to the place and saw him, [and] passed by on the other side.” Another expert of the Law at work!
So we meet the third person of the parable: a Samaritan. The GOOD Samaritan! What’s fascinating is that nowhere in the Bible do we find the words "Good" and "Samaritan" next to each other…not even here. For those folks who first heard this story some 2,000 years ago, the phrase "Good Samaritan" would have been an oxymoron—two words or phrases that are really opposite from each other. Anyway, during the time of Jesus, the only GOOD Samaritan would have been a DEAD Samaritan. You see, the Jews absolutely hated the Samaritans and would have nothing to do with them. The hostility between the Jews and Samaritans was hundreds of years old. It went back to the time of the division of Israel into the Northern and Southern kingdoms - Samaria came to be identified with the North and Judea with the South. Following the Northern Kingdom’s fall to Assyria in 721 BC, exiles from many nations settled in Samaria, creating something of a melting pot, but one that was no longer purely Jewish. About a hundred years later, the Southern Kingdom fell—this time the conqueror was Babylon—and, as was the custom of the day, the people were carried off into exile to prevent any uprisings in the occupied territory. The few Jews left in Samaria were considered no threat in that regard, so they were left in Palestine. So after seventy years passed, the exiles were allowed to return. Now the Samaritans who had been left behind were ready to welcome them back, after all they were fellow descendants of Abraham—but the returnees would have nothing to do with them. When God gave Israel the Promised Land in Canaan, He told the Israelites that they were not to inter-marry with any of the natives of the area. But during the years where Judea was gone into exile, the Samaritans had intermarried with the local people. To the returning Jews, the Samaritans had disobeyed God and had perverted the race. In fact, in their view, the Samaritans had also perverted the religion. The time of separation had caused a rift between these descendants of Abraham. And by the time of Jesus, the animosity toward Samaritans was so great that some Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid even walking on Samaritan soil. The hatred between Jew and Samaritan in Jesus’ day was at least as deep as the feeling Jews and Arabs have towards each other today.
So why does Jesus tell a parable about events between Jews and Samaritans? Was he just trying to get all of the descendants of Abraham to like each other again? Or was there more to the story? After all, if Jesus were just trying to say we should help the helpless, supply the needs of the needy, He could have used the example of a Samaritan as the one who ignored the hurt man and the example of a Jew who actually did care enough to help the poor guy. But He didn’t. The beaten man and the first two passers-by were all Jews. But, only the Samaritan—the guy who knew he was despised—helped. The Samaritan sees the man, but instead of distancing himself just as the priest and the Levite had earlier, he comes closer. As the text has it, “when he saw him, he took pity on him.” This Samaritan man went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Oil keeps the wounds soft and wine sterilizes them. Then he put him on his own animal, bought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, which would have been about two days wages for the Samaritan, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’”
Jesus teaches the expert of the Law who had been questioning Him by asking him to evaluate what had happened. He asks him, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” And the answer, “The one who showed him mercy.” Notice, this expert didn’t actually say “Samaritan” because the concept of a GOOD Samaritan was so alien to the Jews of that time. He can’t even bring himself to even speak the name. Nevertheless, Jesus sends him forth and answers the man’s original question of what one must do to be saved by telling him to “Go and do likewise.” Is Jesus telling the expert to go and be compassionate like the Samaritan? The only other person in the story is the man who was robbed. So could it be that Jesus is telling the expert to be like the man who had been robbed?
And now, for the rest of the story… Scripture doesn’t tell us happened to the guy who was beaten and left in a ditch for dead. But considering he had been treated for his wounds and was cared for at the inn, I think it’s likely that he survived. Remember, this guy in the parable who had been robbed was a Jew, and the Jews hated Samaritans. Can you imagine the change of heart this man must have had for Samaritans after his recovery? Or the lesson he learned about being a neighbor?
So I think that when Jesus tells this expert in the Law to “go and do likewise,” he’s not telling him to necessarily be like the Samaritan. No I think he’s telling him to have the same amazing change of heart that the beaten up Jew in the parable had. Friends, the amazing thing about Jesus’ parables is that they are timeless. For us, Jesus may be using the parable to tell us to be more compassionate like the Samaritan. But for others, the parable may be teaching them to have a change of heart. And so, what is the rest of the story? The rest of the story is how Jesus has changed your life into one of living as a compassionate saved child of God, one whose heart has left the ways of this world to embrace the ways of the next. The rest of the story is an eternal Savior that loves you so much that He died for you. Amen.
Now may the true faith…
