I am again humbled and delighted to have been extended the invitation to be here at First Presbyterian Church as we continue what I believe is an honorable fellowship of pulpit exchange. I only hope and pray that your Pastor is receiving the kind of warmth and hospitality that I have received from you today. What a great subject that we are declaring in our pulpits today as we remember Dr. King’s life and legacy.
The story of the Good Samaritan is more than just a New Testament narrative of a parabolic principle as taught by Christ. If we walk away from this story only impressed with the parable and the presentation of the story, and not be challenged and perhaps be changed by the principles, we may have missed the essence of the story. This story certainly captures for me a larger, deeper, and challenging lesson that goes beyond the Priest, the Levite, the Samaritan, and the injured man on that Jericho Road. This story in many ways challenges the faith of the church and the congregants. The story is initially born out of a theological discussion on eternal life that was asked by a well trained and perhaps wealthy lawyer. And the theological question ends up on a roadside situation of giving first aid. Jesus handled that initial question so well, and rooted it in the very fiber and faith of the questioners faith. The young lawyer offered a rather sarcastic question that centered on the subject, who is my neighbor? The young lawyer clearly knew who is neighbor was, it was anybody that looked like him, anybody who lived like him, anybody who acted like him, anybody who lived in his proximity of life. Jesus takes that question and hurdles it not just back to him, but that question reverberates in the echoes of our hearts, minds, and community. And perhaps it should be raised in the sacred sanctuary of our places of worship. Who is my neighbor? Jesus chose not to give him a definition of a neighbor, but a demonstration of one. There may lay the deficits and stagnation of this church age, we are so busy defining love, justice, peace, and power. We are so busy defining Jesus, God, righteousness, unity, and what we need really are more demonstrations and not definitions. We need demonstrations couched in authentic relationships and not definitions couched in religiosity.
Dr. King in his analogy and application of this story said that the Priest and the Levite saw this man on the road, and the question that was foremost within them was, “if I stop and help this man what would happen to me?”
The Good Samaritan saw this same man on the road in the same condition, but the question was different, “if I do not stop and help this man, what will happen to him?” Jesus in this story in my opinion helps us to really look at the real significance and definition of faith, love, and the community of mankind in the context of both culture and faith. So the greater question of this text perhaps should be, “What gets in your way from being a Good Samaritan?” I would suggest that it would be the same thing that got in the way of the Priest and the Levite.
I. The Priest and the Levite were too busy being Religious.
It’s possible that we can place so much emphasis on being religious that we cease to be relevant. They were busy being representatives of religion that they ultimately misrepresented the religion.
Real religion is not about titles, it’s about a testimony.
Real religion is not about positions, it is about purpose.
Real religion is not about whom people say we are, it’s who we really are.
The church must be careful that we do not become so religious that we cease to be righteous. We must guard against being too spiritually sterile, that we become spiritually stagnate and stoic.
Because the real test is not what the external garments say we are, it’s the internal guidance and attitudes that dictates how we behave.
What got in the Priest and the Levite's way was their sense of being too busy in being religious. And any religion that is always up to God and never down to man is a to busy religion. The Priest and Levite were so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good.
II. The Good Samaritan Saw the Man's Need!
The Samaritan did not allow culture to get in the way of compassion. The Samaritan saw that the man was a Jew and he knew that he was a Samaritan, but his need did not get in the way of their history. We are too often guilty of letting history contaminate our future and rob us of the present.
Compassion has away of over ruling the norm!
Compassion has a way of uniting those who have been at a distance. And compassion freely gives without any reservation.
The Good Samaritan stoops down to pick him up, (never is a man so tall until he stoops down to lift the burden of another) attends to his wounds, he mounts him on his beast, he takes him to the Inn and pays his bill. He then goes over to say, if he owes anything, charge it to his account and he would pay it. The Good Samaritan was a Good Samaritan because he got involved. The story actually attacks the danger of non-involvement.
The Jericho Road is the place where we can get involved. You can not honestly close your eyes to the Jericho Road, and those on it. You may close your eyes, but you still see it, it lives with you. On the Jericho Road people are being robbed every day, people are being robbed of their dignity, robbed of their freedom, robbed by oppression and a system that intentionally keeps the barriers up to divide.
And there are so many Samaritans that are withholding their goods, they are good, but they are afraid to get involved. They can be great Samaritans if they would release their goods and share with those who need them.
You ought to be a Good Samaritan because of the good that is in you!
This world needs to see the good in us!
You ought to be a Good Samaritan because of the testimony it brings to the faith!
The story is told about a test being given at the Harvard Divinity School. It was a very clever test I might add that speaks to this issue. It was a test in a class entitled “Christians and Society”. The professor created a 3 hour test on being a Moral Christian”. It was a tough test, he arranged for a 15 minute break after the first hour and half. The students were told they could leave the room for 15 minutes to get fresh air, stop by the restroom and then assemble in a designated area where there would be refreshments in the courtyard outside the classroom. But they were to return promptly to the room in 15 minutes. What they were unaware of was that this was a part of the test on Being A Moral Christian. When they got to the courtyard where the refreshments were, there just happen to be a man that was lying a distance away over in the bushes and appeared to be hurt, and then there was a young man looking through the garbage for food. But the ten minutes were up, and they needed to finish taking the test On Being a Moral Christian. All the students went back to class to finish the written test, only to be told to immediately turn in their papers and that every one would be given an F by the professor for failing the test. The class was shocked, and they railed against the professor. They said that they could not have an F because the test was not over; there was still an hour and a half to go. The professor reminded them the test was on Being a Moral Christian, and they had a chance to be a Christian in the courtyard with a man lying in a bush and a hungry man looking for food, but they were more concerned with putting answers on a paper. Being a moral Christian is not answers on a paper he said, its action in practice. It’s not how well one acts in the class room, it’s how we act in the courtyard of life. Anybody can act like a Christian in church, the real test is in the parking lot, in another city where you are unknown, on your job, in the halls of city, state, and national offices of leadership.
To often the church gets an F because we are so busy in class between the safe four walls of our churches when the real test is lying at our door step.
I clearly understand why Dr. King admired the words to this old song. It was his mantra, it was his vanguard:
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody, with a word or song,
If I can show somebody, how they're traveling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
Chorus:
My living shall not be in vain,
Then my living shall not be in vain
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
If I can do my duty, as a good man ought,
If I can bring back beauty, to a world up wrought,
If I can spread love's message, as the Master taught,
Then my living shall not be in vain.
