This story that Jesus told has so ingrained itself into our psyche that there is even an organisation that has taken the name. The Samaritans are there to help, to provide a listening ear for the most desperate people who have nowhere else to turn. That's the power of simple stories with a clear point and Jesus was the master story teller, so it is no wonder that his stories stick in our minds.
At the most basic level the story is simply one of compassion. Someone is beaten, robbed and left for dead. Those you might expect to help – in this case a priest and a levite – walk by on the other side of the road to avoid and contact. It is the Samaritan who goes to his aid, and makes the extra effort required to save his life.
I am going to look at the circumstances around the story to try to understand its deeper meanings, but we will look at the story too as there are some important lessons in it for us.
Jesus told the story for a reason. Luke is the only one of the gospel writers who has this story. Both Matthew and Mark make the same points, but the story is not included. It is placed after a private discussion with the returning 72 who had been out on a mission to local villages, so we don't know exactly where the story took place. It must have been in public, and Jesus must have been speaking to many people, because the story starts with the Lawyer standing up to ask a question. We are told that his intention was to 'test' Jesus. It doesn't imply that he was hostile, just that he was trying to assess Jesus' theology. Is he OK, or might he be a heretic? So the question he asks is
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” - What a strange way of phrasing the question! If his question had been “What must I do to inherit great aunt Maud's collection of grand masters?” then perhaps you could understand the use of the word 'inherit'. You only inherit something when it's owner dies. Perhaps without realising it he was on to something! His question though is centred on himself. - “What must I do?”
Jesus is having none of it and turns the question back on to the expert in the law. “What does the law say?” he asks, “How do you interpret it?”. The answer is easy for the expert, indeed it would be easy for any Jew.
The passages he quotes are Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. and Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
Both these verses are use as a regular part of Jewish worship. They are very well known. Jesus has used these quotes before, when he was asked which commandments are the most important.
Mt 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, i tested him with this question:
Mt 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Mt 22:37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 96 j
Mt 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
Mt 22:39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 97 k
Mt 22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” l
So it is no surprise when Jesus says “Correct – Do this and you will live”.
No doubt at this point there were some in the crowd who thought “That was a bit too easy!. You'd have thought he could come up with a better question than that! He's supposed to be an expert” Perhaps there were even murmurings or groans. Maybe it was just the experts own view. He was expecting a debate and he got answered in a couple of short sentences. Perhaps he just wanted to complicate things – as some experts like to do. Whichever is was he felt the need to justify himself, so he asked a supplementary question.
“Who is my neighbour?”
and Jesus tells his story.
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
Lets take a look at the story and try to understand why it has made such an impact.
The first thing to note is that the story is set in a real place – one that was well known to his hearers.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops 3600 feet, the photo is taken about 2/3 of the way down the hill from Jerusalem. As you can see it is a very desolate place. The journey is 17 miles. Travelling from one city to another was always dangerous in the first century. On this road it is especially so, so much so that it was known as "The Way of Blood." .
Although we are not told anything about the traveller, we can assume that he was a Jew. That would have been the assumption of Jesus' audience.
Samaritans claim that they are the true Jews, the one left behind at the Babylonian exile, they retained the original Abrahamic belief that were altered by the Jews who later returned. Jews have hated Samaritans for hundreds of years. The name Samaritan derives from a Hebrew word meaning 'keeper'. Specifically Keeper of the Law. So perhaps that's why Jesus chose to make the hero of his story a Samaritan.
Another assumption of Jesus's audience would have been Jews are good, Samaritans are bad. Imagine the impact the story would have had. Had it been set in the second world war it would have been called “The Good German”, or during the Falklands war “ The good Argentinian”. Various modern interpretations of the story have used different groups of people to get the same impact, one I particularly liked was “The good punk rocker”.
The Samaritan:
- used his own cloths as bandages
- used his own wine as disinfectant
- used his own oil as lotion
- used his own donkey as transport (he then walked)
- used his own money to pay for care and shelter
and promised more!
So if you haven't worked it out yet one answer to the question that our expert asked “Who is my neighbour?” might be “Anyone we come across who's in need”
The story shows us and Jesus' listeners the real requirements of the Law. It is easy to put human limits on such things. It was common in Jesus time to say “Do no harm” - it still is! but that was never enough and never will be.
Are there times when you have fallen short of this standard? If you've never come across someone who has been beaten to within an inch of their life, think of some less critical situation. The Law does not say you can do nothing just because the need is less. Whatever situation we find ourselves in we must respond as completely as the Samaritan did in addressing our neighbours problems.
If you fail to meet this standard on any single occasion you will never achieve eternal life. That ruled out everybody that Jesus was talking to.
For us it's even harder.
Here's some excerpts of a speech that Caroline Spelman gave to The John Ray Initiative (connecting Environment, Science and Christianity) before the Iraq war, when she was in the shadow cabinet.
It is a good and pertinent question for us today. With increasing globalisation people are brought closer together. Images of life in very poor countries are beamed into our homes, and images of our comparative affluence are beamed, well maybe into the old TV set in the street corner café.
As Shadow Secretary of State my job means treating everyone as my neighbour so let me introduce you to a few.
Meet the Tajik widow I got to know in the Jalozii refugee camp on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. She looked ancient crouched beneath a tent made of sacks roughly stitched together. In fact she was my age with 5 children to feed. She rifled through my briefcase looking for food. "What good are you to me?" she said, "You come, you look, you go and I am no better off. She's right and I made sure to bring her food next time. I did not realise till I visited this camp of 60,000 people that there are two types of camp. The official ones set up by UNHCR and serviced by aid agencies, and unofficial camps like this one where supplies of food were intermittent. "The problem", said the widow "is that I do not have a man to fight to the front of the queue for me and by the time I get there there is none left."
Throughout the Bible, we are urged to 'plead the case of the widow' as Isaiah puts it (1:17). With so much conflict there are many female-headed households who struggle to provide for their families.
You can read the remainder of the transcript at http://www.jri.org.uk/resource/whoismyneighbour.htm
For us the question of who is our neighbour is wider than just those we come across in the street, for us it must include those we come across through the media. It is not acceptable for us to see images of the starving and the homeless and take no action to help.
If we fail to meet this standard on any single occasion we will never achieve eternal life.
That rules out everybody here too.
The answer to the expert on the law is, of course, different for us. When that conversation was taking place Jesus had (obviously) not yet given His life for us. Now, as I speak to you today, He has.
We can rely on God's grace, and our belief in Him, to get us to eternal life – the life of the kingdom of God.
As the expert asked “What must I do?”, the answer for us is believe.
Believe that it has already been done for you. Everything that is needed has been done – all of our greed, all of our wilful failures, all of our careless omissions – it has all been dealt with.
That doesn't mean that we have any less responsibility for our neighbour. As James says
Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? n Can such faith save him?
Jas 2:15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. o
Jas 2:16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? p
Jas 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Jas 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, r and I will show you my faith s by what I do.
So the commands still stand
Deuteronomy 6:5 –“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” and Leviticus 19:18 ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
We still need people who behave like the Samaritan.
We still need to be people who behave like the Samaritan.
When Jesus finished his story he asked the expert “Who do you think was a neighbour to the man?” The expert, unable to give Samaritans the credit answers “The one who had mercy on him”.
Jesus then told him “Go and do likewise”. That is His message to us today “Go and do likewise”.
