Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.
As part of the Go Be Jesus series, we’re going to revisit a parable of Jesus that is widely known even among non-religious people. The good news is that since it is so well known, this shouldn’t take long.
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"
He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."
Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"
Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the same." – Luke 10:25-37 (MSG)
Garbage Cans. I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve got this Good Samaritan thing down. Nearly every week after the garbage truck comes and empties our cans, I not only take my 2-3 cans back to my side yard, I also take my neighbors’ cans. Just to be kind. Just like the Good Samaritan.
I know what you’re thinking. “Pete may win ‘Pastor of the Year’ award with that level of selflessness. Maybe even ‘Christian of the Year!” Well, shucks. Thanks. I better sign off and get to work on my acceptance speech. Have a great week.
Wait! I forgot about a couple of notes. Apparently others have done some thinking about the Good Samaritan, including Pope Francis, who talked about the globalization of indifference: “Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades” (Pope Francis, quoted in Christ in Crisis, 43).
Donating Food for the Pantry. Good point, Francis! Gratefully, I’ve got this covered. Every year when the Super Bowl is played, CrossWalkers show support for their team and our Food Pantry by bringing in canned goods and placing them on a table of the team they hope will win. Last year, my two favorites teams were playing each other: the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49’ers. Again, I don’t like to brag, but instead of buying one 12 pack of canned chili and splitting it between the two teams, I bought TWO twelve packs of canned chili, one for each team. Nailed it. Two for two! Back to the speech...
Okay, hold on. Sorry, but I missed a couple of things Pope Francis noted:
“Instead of giving up chocolate or alcohol for Lent, the pope seems to want us to give up our indifference to others. In his apostolic exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium (which means ‘The Joy of the Gospel’), Francis tells us that as a result of indifference, ‘We end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.’ – Pope Francis, quoted in Christ in Crisis, 18
Broken Bleeding Heart. Sometimes being a Good Samaritan requires significant time. I could totally cheat on this one because I’m a pastor. It is my job to at times spend significant time with people during struggle. But I won’t, because I’m the real deal! There have been numerous times in my life when friends have simply needed a listening ear, encouragement, maybe even some advice, and I showed up, even though it cut into my personal time and the food I bought us came out of my own pocket. When people are in that awful space, they need someone to help shoulder them through it. Okeedokee, three for three. On to my acceptance speech...
Shoot! I should really pay more attention to my notes. N. T. Wright, one of the most prolific biblical scholars in the world, observed the following:
“When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, he did so deliberately to shock his audience. Who is my neighbour? asked the lawyer. Jesus turned the question back on him: in this story, who turned out to be neighbour to the man in the ditch? Like so many of Jesus’s brilliant stories, it operates at several levels. At the simplest level, of course, it is a spectacular invitation to a life of self-giving love, love in action, love that’s prepared to roll up its sleeves and help no matter what it takes: yes, precisely the kind of work we associate with the work of this Order. But at the next level down, it’s a story designed to split open the worldview of its hearers and let in a shaft of new and unexpected light. Instead of the closed world of Jesus’s hearers, in which only their own kith and kin were properly to be counted as neighbours, Jesus demands that they recognise that even the hated and feared Samaritan is to be seen as a neighbour.” – N.T. Wright, quoted in Christ in Crisis, 28
Social Media, Division, and Political Foes. When I think of enemies, my thoughts go to what we are easily witnessing on social media. I am seeing really awful things being posted that are really derogatory toward people with differing views. We have known for years that the political climate has only become hotter and more divisive, with permission to speak half-truths and insulting language coming from the highest leaders in our country. It’s really disgusting and depressing. I know of friendships that have ended, and even families broken apart by the tension. It’s hard to love such “enemies” because we feel great temptation to fight fire with fire, insults combined with not-the-full-story commentary of our own. How do we love someone that has essentially called us un-American because of our rendition of patriotism?
Sometimes the enemy shows its face along the lines of political issues. Maybe its Black Lives Matter or immigration of the response to COVID-19. There are opportunities within each of these three (and every other contentious issue) to be Good Samaritans. You may have strong feelings about BLM, but should that keep you from using your voice for greater equality and equity? You may be infuriated by the US immigration policy, but should that, then, limit your generosity toward helping (especially) children who are being detained at the border? Is your disdain for undocumented immigrants stronger than your devotion to the Way of Jesus who said when we clothe and feed such persons, we are clothing and feeding him?
We have a choice in all of this to add to the problem or build the Kingdom. Building the Kingdom of God means we treat everyone we speak to with dignity and respect even if they are spewing out words and overtones of hatred toward us. Sometimes it is literally costly – I lost a job for standing up for equality and equity for the LGBTQ community, I’ve lost church members over gender equality and standing up for peace. Again, the choice comes down to what we are building, more of the Kingdom of God or more of the kingdoms of this world? One of those really is founded on the shalom of God, and the means and ends of that kingdom building reflect it.
Jim Wallis, author of Christ in Crisis, has a few things to add:
Jesus is truly brilliant here. First, the best example of a neighbor is a hated outsider, a Samaritan, who demonstrates in the clearest way what a good neighbor is: someone who crosses boundaries to help someone else in need, risks his own safety and security, takes time out from his routine and certainly the schedule for his day, changes the plan for his whole trip, invests not only his time but also his resources, enlists others in his strategy; and then comes back to check to make sure that the injured man is being taken care of and healed of his wounds—all across rigid ethnic lines and national borders. Now, that is a neighbor, says Jesus. You can imagine the young lawyer’s face when the concept of his neighbor just got expanded more than he ever could have imagined. – Jim Wallis, Christ is Crisis, 29.
Theologian and historian Gustavo Gutiérrez offered insight as well: “Who is my neighbor? The neighbor was the Samaritan who approached the wounded man and made him his neighbor. The neighbor... is not he whom I find in my path, but rather he in whose path I place myself, he whom I approach and actively seek” (quoted in Christ in Crisis, 29). In other words, to follow Jesus’ teaching means to be willing to recognize where the hurting people are and be willing to cross over to them. This reminds me of Jesus’ parable about the good shepherd that leaves the 99 to look for the one lost sheep. Ridiculously impractical, yet absolutely what we see in Jesus as representative of the incarnation of the Spirit of God. The fictional Good Samaritan resembles the historical Jesus and those who follow him closely.
So much for a short teaching... Still time to get a rough draft done on the acceptance speech.
Good grief. I have to offer one last thing.
Shalom is the Answer, Motivation, and Goal. It has dawned on me that we could do all of the above and still miss the most important word which shows up in each of the two greatest commandments: love. All of the above are good and make the world a better place, yet without love, they are missing the most critical ingredient and run the risk of just adding to the noise.
When we have been won over by shalom, however, there is a significant shift. We much more naturally find ourselves acting like the Good Samaritan in our attitude, behavior, tone – everything. We enter into challenging contexts grounded in shalom, fully resourced with shalom, utilizing shalom, and fostering the growth of shalom. Shalom is the fruit of being captivated by love as defined by God. Such love radically reshapes and reorders our lives. When we’re rapt in God’s love, we find ourselves asking different questions than before, other-centered questions more than self-centered ones. This reality was expressed in the last speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the day before he was assassinated, where he talks about the parable of the Good Samaritan and what happened on that road:
In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” – Last speech of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, April 3, 1968
I hope this teaching has given you a lot to think about. Mostly, I hope it has created a craving in your for the love of God. The more you found your life in that Kingdom reality, the more you will live in and foster shalom, which is the hope of the world. The Lord’s prayer flows naturally when we are so aligned with the Spirit in this regard. The words become our words, and our heart easily joins them:
Our Father in heaven, reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best — as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.