Luke 10:25-37
I’ve been thinking about this parable all week. I’ve come to a few conclusions, One is that the parable has nothing to do with charitable giving. I know some of our congregation give away money or time to help those in need. At tax time, I learned that my dear wife has given away a lot of our money to charities she deems need our help. At God’s judgement I’m going to claim part of that on my behalf. Charitable giving is good. But I don’t think that is Jesus’ point. The other conclusion I reached is that Jesus is not entering into the controversy going on in our country -- the argument that our national government is responsible for the welfare of countries all over the world, even those that hate us. You can be on one side or another, and arguments can be made supporting both points of view, but that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Another related conclusion is that Jesus is not talking about degrees of charity. Saint Augustine, and our vice president J.D. Vance both argue that we owe charity first and foremost to family, then those close to us, then to the citizens of our town, and so forth. Coming in last is what we owe to people in Bangladesh, or Somalia, or Haiti. It’s interesting that this is not just Saint Augustine and J.D. Vance, but was a well established principle in Jewish circles in Jesus’ time -- you can find it laid out in the book of Leviticus. And in Second Corinthians, Paul makes it clear that those who contribute to the support of the Christians in Jerusalem shouldn’t do so at the expense of their own families. The Bible can support the idea that Charity begins at home.
So why is Jesus telling us this parable? Imagine that you were in his audience. You know about the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It’s best to travel in a group, and do your traveling during daylight hours. To be beaten and robbed on the road is not uncommon. YOu identify with that guy lying in the ditch semi-conscious and bleeding. And Jesuis starts his story kind of like some of our jokes. I’m sure you’ve heard jokes that begin with “A priest, a minister and a rabbi…” IN Jesus’ time the common man was a little bit resentful of the priests, who got paid from temple taxes, and of Levites, who were entitled to a share of the harvest because they were Levites. Priests and Levites, by the way, were hereditary positions. So in the Jewish mind, there are three categories -- Priest, Levite, and Israelite. And the expectation is that after the priest and Levite cross to the other side, an ordinary Israelite will come along and play the hero. As Jesus’ audience listens, they think they know where he is going -- he’s putting those priests and Levites in their place. But the surprise is the Samaritan -- practically a pagan, definitely a heretic, and worst of all, not descended from Jacob.
We don’t know why the priest and Levite cross over to the other side. Jesus didn’t tell us. Some people think it’s about ritual cleanliness. Whatever it was, the question in the minds of the priest and LEvite is “IF I stop to help, what will happen to me?” That’s natural, it rises from our unconscious mind; it says “Don’t get involved”. It makes excuses -- “Maybe the ones who robbed him are hiding and waiting for someone to come along”. It’s very natural.
The Samaritan, of course, is the hero. That’s a big surprise to JEsus’ listeners. But the question in the Samaritan’s mind is “If I don’t stop to help, what will happen to him”. Jesus is always preaching about changing the way you think, or as it’s mistranslated, repentance. The Samaritan is not thinking about what will happen to him. He has a “new mind”.
And maybe some in Jesus' audience ask a third question ""If I don’t stop to help, what will become of me?” And we all know people like that, people who are locked inside themselves, people who believe in a dog-eat-dog world, people who are interested first and foremost in getting what’s coming to them. And most of us don’t want to be like that, but we fail to realize that not stopping to help is a step toward that state of being. If we do something or fail to do something it pushes us in a certain direction. It becomes easier the next time, and soon it’s a habit. It is always safer and easier to make excuses and promise ourselves that maybe next time we’ll do better.
Jesus’ point is that we are all on the Jericho road, and all of us are in danger. We need each other, whether we like it or not. We all need mercy, but to be really human we need to be merciful as well. And Jesus wants us to be fully human, to live as we were created to live -- in the image and likeness of God.
I think it’s interesting that the Samaritan does just enough to change the fate of the man in the ditch. He doesn't bring him home and invite him to live with him; he doesn’t pour oil and wine into his wounds and leave someone else to do the rest. He models true mercy -- to do just enough, no more, no less, to restore the man’s humanity. So who is our neighbor? The one we meet who needs something I can give. In another place Jesus tells us who that is: “the least of our brothers” and at the same time, Jesus himself.
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