Luke 10:25-37
A wife remarked to her husband that
the next door neighbor, who was moving, had returned the barbecue
grill he had borrowed eight months ago. The husband replied, “Oh,
no! I just paid thirty dollars for that at their garage sale! How's
that for a neighbor!
We just heard the parable of the Good
Samaritan. I think it is interesting that Jesus specifies that a
priest and a levite pass by the individual who was robbed and beaten.
I don't think Jesus had it in for priests or levites. He was trying
to make a point. If you were to ask the priest why he did this, he
would have a very good reason: he was on his way to Jerusalem to
offer sacrifice, and even to touch a person who might possibly be
dead would make him unclean and unable to offer the sacrifice. For
the priest, aiding the stranger would interfere with his very
important mission. The same is true of the Levite. Levites were
members of the tribe of Levi, an hereditary priesthood separate from
the priesthood of the temple. In the time of Jesus they played a
special role politically and religiously. In the temple they guarded
the sacred vessels and provided music for the services. The other
Israelites were obliged to provide the Levites with a tithe of food
and goods, since the Levites had not been given a hereditary land.
Levites were responsible for distributing the surplus contributions
made to the Temple. This went to the poor, the widows and the
orphans. Our Levite may have been carrying some of this money or
going to Jerusalem to do what he was assigned to do. In any event,
he had a mission that for him was more important than stopping to see
what was going on with the man who was robbed and beaten.
The Samaritan also had a mission; he
was a businessman and was on his way to close a deal, or buy some
goods to bring back to Samaria to sell. But only the Samaritan
attended to the needs of the stranger.
When you think about it, a lot of
Jesus' stories have the same point. The parable of the Rich Man and
Lazarus shows a rich man who as far as we can tell, really didn't do
anything horrible; he ate well and dressed well, but nothing in
Jesus' story suggests that he was any worse a sinner than you or I.
But he never even noticed poor Lazarus who was sitting on the front
steps, and for this reason Jesus says he is condemned.
And when Jesus talks about the sheep
and the goats, the only thing that separates the two groups is that
one group has fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, and so
forth, while the other did not. Neither group knew that the “least
of the brethren” was Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself demonstrates this as he
goes about his ministry. He is approached by the temple official who
begs him to come and heal his daughter who is on the point of death.
As Jesus is going to the daughter, he feels his power going out of
him to heal the woman who touched the tassel of his cloak. Jesus
stops and engages her in a dialogue and compliments her on her faith.
He is fully attentive to her needs at the time she needs him.
I imagine that if you were to ask
Jesus the bare minimum of what was expected of a Christian, it would
not be a prayer life, or the ability to answer questions about
theology or morality. These of course are good and wonderful things.
It might not even be about how generous you are, how much you give
to the missions or to your church. Generosity is of course wonderful
and we couldn't get along without it. But what Jesus seems to expect
of one of his followers is to be aware of the people that come into
his life, see what they need, and fulfill that need as best as they
can. I spoke to some elderly institutionalized people not long ago
about this issue, and pointed out that even they could make a
positive difference in the lives of those who come into contact with
them. A thank you, a compliment, maybe a smile – we all know that
even these little gestures can make our whole day. When someone
tells me that she appreciated something I did, I can snack on that
compliment for the rest of the day.
Not all of us are called to attend the
wounds of the stranger who has been beaten and robbed. Not everyone
has the means to help someone in poverty or someone living on the
street. But we all have something we can give that can make another
person more “whole”.
The basic thing Jesus expects of us is
to make connections with other people that go toward overcoming the
essential loneliness we all have. This connection we make with each
other is no small thing. Jesus said, “where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am”. When we reach out to
each other, even if it is only a smile in a grocery store or a
deserved compliment or a “thank you” something of God enters into
the relationship.
