“Who Is My Neighbor?”
The Story of the Good Samaritan is arguably Jesus’ best known parable.
It’s so well-known that it has become a cliché’.
A Good Samaritan is pretty much universally recognized as anyone who comes to the aid of another person.
And while the parable is about that, it goes much, much deeper.
At the heart of this parable is a lesson about the relationship between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Old Testament or Jewish Law.
And the first hint of this can be found in the very first verse:
“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus…”
An expert in the Law.
This guy had graduated from Law School but the Law he was an expert in was Mosaic Law—the Law of the Old Testament.
And he’s openly challenging the Authority and Insite of Jesus: this uncredentialed Galilean Who is causing such a stir.
“Teacher,” the lawyer asks, “what must I do to inherit eternal life.”
Jesus asks him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
And it appears that they both find common ground based on words written in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18:
“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.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replies, “Do this and you will live.”
They are on the same page until the lawyer gives a follow-up question: “And who is my neighbor?”
And this is where the relationship between the law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ comes into play.
We are told that he asked this because “he wanted to justify himself.”
In this context, “to justify” means to limit the scope of who qualifies as a neighbor…
…to put a limit on the number of people he must love.
In the story of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain in 1884, Huck is telling a woman about an explosion that Huck had observed.
The woman is afraid that someone might have gotten hurt.
Huck replies, “an N-Word died but that’s all.”
To which the woman replies, “Oh, thank goodness.
I was worried someone might have been hurt.”
In other words, the black slave was not considered important, was not even considered to be “a somebody.”
Apparently many white slave owners thought like that back then.
In Jesus’ day, Huck’s answer to the woman might have gone something like this, “A Canaanite got killed, but no one was hurt…” or “A Samaritan was killed but no one got hurt.”
The only people that mattered were people from their own race, their own tribe.
The only people that mattered to the Jewish people—the only people who really were fully human, in their minds, were other Jewish people.
So, the lawyer thinks he might catch Jesus in a trap if Jesus says that this man’s neighbor is anyone other than another Jew.
That’s why Jesus uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to get His point across.
It was the only way for the man to see the Samaritan as a neighbor.
For the lawyer, the law of “love God and love neighbor” was love God and love other Jews.
Another way to put this is, that was his Gospel.
That was his entry into eternal life.
And you can’t really blame him.
That’s what he had been taught since he was feeding from his mother’s breast.
That’s what was ingrained into his mind.
That’s what his university professors had taught him.
That’s the answer that enabled him to pass the bar.
The Law was the end all and be all.
That’s what he believed.
And so did Jesus, right?
Well, yes and no.
What Jesus taught was that the law is a means to understand the ways of God.
But it must be put into context.
It must not be limited.
It must not leave anyone out.
We are told in John 3 that “God so love the world that God sent” Jesus to save all who will believe.
It doesn’t say that Jesus only came to save part of the world or one particular race.
When Christians seek to live as if the law is the gospel, we set off down a road that begins to look very little like the Christ of the New Testament.
And we are all susceptible to living as if the law is the gospel.
There is a bit of the lawyer me, how about you?
Taking the law as gospel means that we seek to take refuge in rules, glorify in boundaries, to quantify norms and put a litmus test on discipleship.
The lawyer’s question to Jesus: “Who is my neighbor” seeks to set a limit on who the man must love.
When the law is gospel our interpretation of the law is humanly, not divinely defined.
That is why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus continually said, “You have heard it said…but I tell you…”
Or why Jesus said that the Sabbath was created for humankind not humankind for the Sabbath…
…therefore, to heal on the Sabbath was the only right thing to do.
It’s also why He repeatedly instructed people to “go learn what this means: I desire mercy not sacrifice.”
And so, the story of the Good Samaritan is a story of the gospel as law—not the other way around.
It puts everything in its correct perspective and blows this lawyer’s entire way of thinking right out of the water.
It’s been suggested that for this parable to achieve its full shock value in 21st Century Christian America we ought to try substituting the word “Samaritan” with words such as “Muslim,” “Buddhist,” and yes, even “member of al Qaeda” or “Hamas” or, or, you name it.
Biblical Scholar Amy-Jill Levine says this: “To hear this parable in contemporary terms, we should think of ourselves as the person in the ditch, and then ask ourselves, ‘Is there anyone, from any group of people, about whom we’d rather die than acknowledge?
Or is there any group whose members might rather die than help us?
If so, then we know how to find the modern equivalent for the Samaritan.’”
Who is the Samaritan for you?
Does anyone come to mind?
What about the dirty homeless person on the side of the road talking to himself and spitting out curse words?
What about the rapist, the child molester or even Adolph Hitler?
I know this is radical and practically impossible but Christianity is radical and practically impossible.
That’s why we all must rely completely on the grace of Jesus Christ.
As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians: “We preach Christ crucified” which is foolishness by human standards but it is actually “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
As one scholar has so aptly put it: The message of Christ is meant to “move an individual from the condition of ‘natural’ preoccupation with self to one of profound concern for others.
And in order for this to work the whole gospel—with the cross at its center—is required.”
Amazing isn’t it?
The message of the parable of the Good Samaritan is stunningly simple—though it is far from simplistic!
The late Kurt Vonnegut grasped the essence of Christianity when he was asked by a young American, “Please tell me it will be okay” which is basically the 21st Century American equivalent to “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Welcome to earth, young man,” Vonnegut said.
“It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
It’s round and wet and crowded.
At best, you’ve got about a hundred years here.
There’s only one rule that I know of: you’ve got to be kind.”
What Vonnegut didn’t say is that human kindness, when it is real, is only our poor response to the kindness of the One Who made us, died for us and Who tries to keep us human.
Think about it.
Think about how radical this parable is.
Who is my neighbor?
Who am I to be kind to?
Who am I to love?
Isn’t it kindness that is so blatantly missing from the life of our world—a world driven by competition, greed, and individualism, but also a world whose most ethically minded people are often more concerned with rights than forgiveness, for justice rather than mercy, and for equality rather than compassion.
I know this is tough.
I’m stepping on my toes here.
A person is stripped, beaten and left for dead on the side of a road.
A priest, a leader of the man’s own religion and race, sees him and passes on the other side.
A Levite, which is another religious leader of the man’s faith and heritage does the same thing.
Then, a hated Samaritan.
A person who has been raised to hate the man in the ditch just as much as the man in the ditch has been raised to hate him “took pity on him” bandaged his wounds while deciding this was much more important than missing the meeting he was headed for…
…he put the man on his own donkey…
…he paid for the man’s hotel room and asked the innkeeper to help take care of him and then he says, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
The lawyer listening to Jesus’ story is shocked.
He’s never heard of anything like this.
He’s never even dreamt of this type of extreme kindness being caried out—especially by an enemy of his people.
Jesus asks him: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law, who had been taught that the law is the gospel and that Samaritans aren’t neighbors replied, “The one who had mercy on him” –even though he couldn’t bring himself to utter the word “Samaritan” he got the point.
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Will you?
Will I?
Will we?
