Racism, prejudice, and discrimination are sins that have been around as long as humanity. Those sins have taken the very good and beautiful design of God in all its diversity and corrupts it into something God never intended and makes it something ugly. Such sin existed down through history and still exists in every corner of the world in some form and to varying degrees. It is evident in both the Old Testament as well as the New.
There is a long and bitter history between the Jews and Samaritans. After the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom, those Jews captured and exiled and returned, intermarried with Assyrians. Their religion became a mixture, some holding to just the first 5 Books of the bible, others incorporating idolatry. Nearly 300 years later, When Ezra returned to start the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian conquest we can see the distain the returning Jews had for the Samaritans. Ezra 4:1-4 reads;
“When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.”
From there, the Samaritans went and built their own Temple. Then it is recorded in their history,
“Manasseh, brother of Jaddua the high priest, was threatened by the Jews with deprivation of his priestly office because of a marriage he had contracted with a foreign woman. His father-in-law, Sanballat, obtained permission from Alexander the Great, then besieging Tyre, to build a temple on Mount Gerizim. Manasseh was its first high priest. It became the refuge of all Jews who had violated the precepts of the Mosaic law. With this account must be compared Neh.13:28, which from the names and circumstances probably relates to the same event…The Samaritans altered their copies of the Pentateuch by substituting Gerizim for Ebal in Deut. 27:4 and by making an interpolation in Ex. 20 and so claimed divine authority for the site of their temple. Antiochus Epiphanes, at the request of the Samaritans, consecrated it to Jupiter, the defender of strangers. John Hyrcanus, a Maccabean and Jewish High Priest, destroyed it (109 B.C.).” However, the Samaritans continued to worship on the Mountain into the New Testament period.
Around 9 AD, while Jesus was a young boy, some Samaritans secretly joined in with Jews going to the Temple in Jerusalem for Passover. Once inside, they desecrated the Temple by spreading human bones around the sanctuary and courts. This was probably the most sacrilegious thing one could do to the Temple aside from destroying it.
Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well notes this tension. In Jn.4: when Jesus asked the woman for a drink she responds in v.9;
“You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)…
“Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”
Elsewhere in Luke we saw that when the Samaritans rejected Jesus, James and John asked;
“Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy them?”
That was during Jesus’ lifetime. But the animosity continued unabated. Again, in 51 AD, about 20 years after Christ ascended, but before Luke wrote his gospel, some Samaritans from the village of Ginae murdered some Jews on their way to Jerusalem for Passover. The Jews appealed to Rome for justice but were ignored. In retaliation, a mob from Jerusalem went to the village of Ginae, massacred all the inhabitants and burned the village to the ground. Then Rome intervened and arrested and executed several of the mobs leaders.
So there existed great tension and animosity between the Jews and Samaritans for thousands of years. Think of any group and then think of the group they hate most and you get the idea, like the Hatfields and McCoys. This hatred could be racial, blacks and white or religious, Jews and Muslims, or social as the Hindu caste system of Brahmans and untouchables, or you and the person you hate, for whatever reason, so this parable is very applicable. This bold parable is so applicable that you can interchange the characters wherever racism and hatred is found and not miss the point of the parable.
It starts with an interchange between a lawyer and Jesus;
“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
A lawyer was not a secular lawyer as we think, but one who was an expert in the Law of Moses. Seems Jesus was teaching a group for the Lawyer stood up to be noticed. Right at the beginning we see that this lawyer’s motives are amiss. He is not truly seeking an answer to his question, but rather hoping to somehow trip Jesus up in the exchange. The lawyer ‘stood up to test Jesus.’ The word “test” can be translated “tempt” and is a challenge, as when Satan challenged Jesus in the wilderness and Jesus responded;
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
The lawyer is also wrong in using the singular “what must I do” as if doing one thing, done once, would earn him salvation.
Jesus, like the good teacher he was, throws the question back to the lawyer;
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
And the lawyer responded stating the ‘Shema,’ written in Deut.6:1-4 and Leviticus 19:18 “Hear of Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
The devout Jews of the day, and especially Priests and lawyers, during prayer, wore ‘phylacteries’ or ‘tefillin’ on their left arm and forehead. Inside these boxes were little scrolls containing the “Shema”
Jesus then responds; “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But this lawyer, wanting to justify himself and seeking to challenge Jesus asks, “Who is my neighbor?” The Greek word means “one who is near.” According to Christ, a neighbor is any other man irrespective of nation or religion with whom we live or whom we chance to meet.
So Jesus tells a parable. It is probably his best known parable or certainly in the top three.
““A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
The path down from Jerusalem to Jericho was know to be dangerous. As it wound through the hills there were many places among the rocks for thieves and bandits to hide, waiting for someone to past by. Such is the fate of this unidentified person. He is severely beaten, nearly to death and left to die.
Now Jesus proceeds to tell how two individuals, a Priest and a Levite, both returning from Jerusalem, most likely from having served in the Temple, pass by the victim without helping him. This victim’s own countrymen ignore him. Worse, they held positions of religious prominence from which the victim should have expected mercy and compassion, but received none.
It is then that Jesus introduces the hero of the story and shocks the crowd.
“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, “The one who showed mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Obviously, Jesus has framed this parable to not just address the need to show compassion. If that was his goal, he could have had any other Jew come to the aid of the victim and show compassion. But Jesus is addressing something bigger and more important. He is addressing the racism of His day that’s why he cast the hated Samaritan as the hero. The Jew was so entrenched with a deep-seated stereotype that no Samaritan was good or could do anything good that to consider otherwise called for a shocking paradigm shift in heart and mind. But that is precisely what the gospel seeks to do. It seeks to transform and shift one’s worldview and the sinful behaviors to acceptable behaviors. It seeks to tear down walls and build bridges.
Theologian, Ben Witherington, made an important connection when he stated;
“When the dominion of God breaks into human lives and situations, old prejudices pass away and a new and shocking pattern of behavior comes to pass. Jesus is commending such a pattern of behavior here.”
And Prof. of Biblical Studies and author, J. Daniel Hays notes;
“The relationship between Whites and Blacks in America, even within the Church, is remarkably similar to that between Jews and Samaritians of the first century: one that has historically been characterized by prejudicial animosity and distrust, with clear boundaries delineating ‘them’ from ‘us.’ The Good Samaritan story, especially placed within the overall theology of Luke-Acts, likewise destabilizes our inherited ‘Black-white’ worldview, and challenges us to move beyond the ‘us-them’ mentality of our culture to an ‘us-us in Christ,’ unity that demolishes the ethnic boundaries of our society.”
Who is my neighbor? It’s anyone in need regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender or difference. What is my obligation towards my neighbor? What did Jesus say here, “Go and do likewise,” go and show compassion and love to all peoples.
Not only was Christ’s concerned about addressing racism, He was also concerned that the Samaritans hear the whole gospel. Look at Acts 1:8;
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus specifically includes, ‘Samaria’ in his charge to the disciples about spreading the gospel. Not only were they to show compassion, but to extend to them the Good News salvation in Christ. Now that’s being “neighborly” for sure!
Jesus quoted the Old Testament when he summarized the the commandments saying in Mt.22:37-40;
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The second greatest commandment is to “Love your neighbor!”
Paul validates this as well in Rom.13:8-10;
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
“Love does no harm to a neighbor.” If you add what we learned last week about bearing the image of God and respecting that image in others so much so that we should not even curse one another, we get a broader picture of just how far neighborly love and compassion should extend.
And James adds in 2:7-9;
“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.”
James calls the love of neighbor the “Royal Law” and he specifically condemns “favoritism” which means to “discriminate” based on externals. Can Scripture make it any clearer? Racism and discrimination not only have no basis in Scripture, but they are condemned by Scripture.
Now there is one thing we need to be careful of when we seek to love our neighbor. We need to avoid doing it from a supposed position of superiority and avoid the “savior complex.” There is but one Savior, Christ Jesus. We must fight the often subtle feeling that I am loving and helping my neighbor with a false sense of pity. We do need compassion, but our love must be extended from a level playing field, from a heart that recognizes that we are equals, made in and bearing the same image, God’s image, and because of Adam and Eve, we are family. Circumstances may have created differences, and love calls us to help the one in need, but not because we are better. No, it’s that we are better off at the moment than our neighbor. So the command, to love our neighbor, must always be seen as equals helping equals in an unequal situation. If we have been blessed enough to extend help, we need to do it a quiet and humble manner that honors the dignity of the other person. Otherwise our actions become hollow. This is what Paul expressed in his famous love chapter, 1 Cor.13:3 reads’
“ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
So when we help another, let us do it from a heart of love, simply because that person is my neighbor in need.
Sunday’s brings our church family together in our sphere of influence, into our neighborhood we might say. And, “What a beautiful day in the neighborhood” is each Sunday as we gather together as equals in our diversity.
The unity and harmony we have here is something we should truly cherish. While we may not be perfect, our “neighborhood” stands as an example of what life together in Christ means. In Jn.17:23 as part of Jesus “high-Priestly” prayer he prays these words;
“so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
As one author noted:
“Now we may think that the world could not care less about whether the Father sent Jesus, but here the Lord is saying that our unity as churches and as Christians locally will be a pointer to who it was who came to Bethlehem and Calvary, and how He changed people.
Unity is its own evangelism.”
Our unity, grounded in Christ, is a powerful and attractive aspect that can speak forcefully to a fractured world suffering from disunity, suspicion and hatred.
So, I encourage you to invite people to your “neighborhood,” you know, ask them, as Mr. Rogers would ask, “Please, Won’t you be my neighbor?”
