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The parable of the Good Samaritan. A good and solid teaching, but one we have heard so many times that many of us absent mindedly tune it out, assuming that we already know what it says.
So, why don’t we rephrase and reframe the story, give us a chance to hear a familiar parable in a new context:
A woman was mugged on Higgins some time ago en route to her bus stop.
Left on the sidewalk hurt and bleeding, unable to rise, she watched with shock as a cop car glanced at her and drove by, no doubt thinking she was just one more drunk. A bus stopped at what was her stop and several people got off, studiously avoiding eye contact as she tried to reach out to them.
As she lay there in pain unable to get up… she began to despair, to lose hope, to wonder if she would be left to die, surrounded by people who wouldn’t even look at her.
A panhandler limped by, pushing a shopping cart…the woman unconsciously flinched away. But he saw her…and turned back. He asked if she was ok, he took off his ratty coat and bundled it under her head, then he got a friend and they picked her up, placed her on top of his shopping cart and wheeled her to the Salvation army drop in. There she received first aid, and soon, the paramedics took her to Health Sciences.
Jesus said “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
The lawyer answered, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
The details are different, but this too is a parable…a story that God’s kingdom is found in the most unlikely places and that all people…even those we fear and those we distain… can bear the fruit of the kingdom.
The Samaritans were an ancient foe of Israel and it is no surprise that Jesus picked a Samaritan for his hero…someone who had every reason to laugh at the man who had been attacked. To scoff and say ‘he got what was coming to him’.
Just as the man beaten would see a Samaritan walking by and fear he might get attacked again. It is no different for us. There are many people we have been taught to avoid, taught to fear and a lifetime habit of fears and lessons taught are hard to break.
While I was growing up in Winnipeg’s northend, my family taught me to be friendly, compassionate and quick to help others...I had all the first aid girl guide badges and was often nurse to my little sister when she got banged up. However, I was also taught other lessons
-don’t talk to strangers
-when walking to and from bus stops...especially at night...stay in well lit areas, walk with confidence and purpose and don’t look at those around you.
-if someone needs help go find a police officer
-never touch someone who is bleeding they may have a disease
There were many other rules I learned as well, both verbally and from watching my family and hearing side comments. All these lessons dovetail into our parable today, many people then would have learned the same lessons.
Perhaps they were told that when walking down the road to Jericho...go in a group, because the road is long and infamous for its muggings. If you do have to go alone....walk with purpose and don’t stop...keep out of trouble and you’ll be safe. If you see someone who needs help, do not turn aside, it could be a trick. Never help someone hurt on the road because
- a) they may be infectious
- b) you may violate purity laws
- c) it could land you in a heap of trouble.
It sounds to me like the Levite and the Priest were the ones that followed the teachings I grew up with...and that the Samaritan was going to get quite the lecture from his mother when he got home!
Now, you may be saying to yourself...these rules are fine for kids to protect them as they grow up...now we are adults and can make decisions for ourselves. This is true. However, the lessons we learn in childhood carry through into adulthood and even when we are able to make mature decisions...we’re have the lessons of our youth guiding our adult actions.
What would you do? If you were walking late at night....streetlights burnt out and shadows filling the back alleys. How many of you would go and investigate a body on the ground? Would you assume they were sleeping or drunk? Would you want to touch them and check to see if they were ok? Would you make yourself vulnerable to attack to help an unknown person?
Our victim had seen a priest walk away, a Levite walk away…if they wouldn’t help surely no one would. You can imagine the hope drain away, drain away to fear and despair.
Yet this is a story not of fear but of redemption…
“what must I do to inherit eternal life” that is the question this parable is answering.
“how do I love my neighbour”?
We all know God’s law, just as the lawyer does in Luke, we know we are to ‘love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as ourselves.’
Even so, with God’s word in our very heart it still seems that so often humanity purposely hardens our hearts, trying to enfold God’s loving law in a barrier … trying to cover it up …so that we need not feel the pain of our neighbours, so that we can guard our own safety first.
We, as a society, and as individuals hearten our hearts and allow our fear to speak instead. But this is not the way it was meant to be; nor the way it will be.
God has promised to circumcise our hearts …to cut away the barriers that separate us from knowing the love God gives to all people.
In Colossians we read that the faithful there are known for their love of all the saints.
That is… for all faithful people, not just members of their church, or the people that they know…but all the saints and they do so because of the hope that they have in Christ.
A hope that not only is believed, or recited, or pronounced, but has already born fruit in the world. Fruit that is seen in the kindness and compassion we give others despite what we grew up learning or what we fear. The kindness of the homeless man or the Samaritan of our parables. The fruit of hope where we least expect it.
The hope of a faithful people whose hearts, and minds, and souls and strength are open to the love of God and love of neighbour.
The word of God, the Word made flesh, transforming the world through faith, trust and hope.
St. Augustine said: “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” Godly hope bears fruit, in faith, in word and in action.
This world we live in has need of hope’s beautiful daughters; … and them working together, because this world is full of suffering and full of indifference. There is much we and others must endure while we wait for the fulfilling of God’s kingdom. For the time, when not only is a ‘Good’ Samaritan is no longer considered an exception, but when no one is made a victim in the first place.
There is much to do while we work with righteous anger and good courage to bring about God’s Kingdom. But we have the strength and hope to act with love and courage. While God continues to circumcise the hardened hearts and teach us sinners the law and love that is written within us. And just as Jesus’ parable tells the lawyer to “go and do likewise, We too are also told to pray… to speak God’s truth aloud…that God’s word will bear good fruit in many and various ways.
We are told to have hope… a hope that God’s love will prevail.
A Hope that evil will not overcome.
A Hope that God’s word will bear fruit in this broken world.
A Hope that the hearts and mouths of all Christian people will speak God’s truth and live out God’s love.
Until that time when God’s kingdom does reign on Earth and (as Luke’s parable names them) Laywer, priest, Levite, victim and Samaritan live in peace and love one another.
We live with a certain and holy hope.
A hope that can drive out despair and desperation.
A hope that loves God and neighbour with transforming Spirit.
A hope that in the face of violence dares to speak words of courage and life.
We live a faithful life of audacious hope that sees a time when the brokenness of this world is transformed by love, redeemed by grace, ruled by peace and justice and eternal in God’s glorious and life giving presence.
This is God’s promise, this is God’s covenant. This is God’s truth.
And this is our hope.
amen
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