Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 10:25-37) is a very familiar story that everybody knows. But even the best known stories can be hard to understand. So perhaps if we look at the setting that might help us. For example, where were Jesus and His disciples, and why did the lawyer ask Jesus that question? But finally and most importantly, what message does this reading have for us today?
To answer the last question first. Let me be clear that I am simply a guide; just one explorer on the landscape who has followed one path. But there are many other paths to be discovered. May I suggest that you read the text again for yourselves, carefully and prayerfully? Listen to what God is saying to you. Anyway, Luke tells us in the previous chapter of his gospel that Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem. Perhaps it is significant that the first parable told on the journey is about people coming and going on the very road Jesus himself will shortly tread. The road from Galilee to Jerusalem was dangerous – and still is - since it passed through Samaritan territory. Why was that dangerous? Simply because Jews and Samaritans had hated one another for hundreds of years by Jesus time. Both sides claimed to be the true inheritors of God’s promises to Abraham and Moses. Both sides regarded themselves as the rightful possessors of the land. And possession of land was vital in those days. Indeed even today few Israelis will travel from Galilee to Jerusalem by the direct route since it would take them through the Palestinian West Bank with the associated risk violence. In exactly the same way, most first century pilgrims making that journey would prefer, as Jesus himself did, to travel down the Jordan valley to Jericho and then turn west up the 3300 foot hill to Jerusalem. It was much safer. But still not completely safe. The 17 mile long desert road from Jericho to Jerusalem had many twists and turns. Thieves and robbers lay in wait out of sight in the nearby hills and valleys, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. A lonely traveller therefore was an easy target. And, when he was left half-dead, those who went by couldn’t tell whether he was dead or alive. Since Jericho was home for a number of priests the story Jesus tells may well have been based on fact. In any case, the priest and the Levite would, almost certainly have feared defilement since touching a corpse would have made them unclean according to Jewish Law. The Samaritan would have had no such qualms. Perhaps, given the animosity between Jews and Samaritans, it isn’t surprising that the lawyer could not bring himself to say “the Samaritan”. The lawyers question asking what he had to do to inherit eternal life was a standard rabbinical question. A question to which, as he knew perfectly well there were standard answers available. His aim, rather was to put Jesus on the spot. To force him to say something that might appear heretical. When Jesus makes him reveal his own understanding, and then simply agrees with it, the lawyer now needs ‘to win the point’ to justify himself. In other words he had to show that he hadn’t asked a trivial or obvious question’ but needed ‘to come out on top in this public confrontation’. He tried to gain the initiative by demanding a more precise definition of his neighbour. He wants to know who counts as his “neighbour”. For him, God is the God of Israel so that “neighbours” must be Jewish neighbours. Indeed in Jesus’ parable we might have expected to hear how a Jew should show love to anybody, even a Samaritan. But Jesus doesn’t say that. He says rather that the Samaritan may be nearer to God’s kingdom than the pious but merciless Jews. The lawyer asked “Who is my neighbour” but Jesus suggests that the real question is “Do I behave as a neighbour, to everyone?” Do I behave as a neighbour to everyone? For Jesus, Israel’s God is the God of grace FOR THE WHOLE WORLD, and a neighbour is anybody in need. Jesus’ telling question at the end isn’t asking who turned out to be the neighbour of the half dead Jew lying in the road. Underneath the apparently straightforward moral lesson (go and do thou likewise) we find a much sterner challenge. He is asking the lawyer, “Can you recognise the hated Samaritan as your neighbour? If you can’t you might be left for dead.” His challenge to Israel is to see that confrontation with Samaritans, Romans, and pagans of every sort is not the right way of living and showing God’s grace. He is urgently offering the way of peace. It is only the children of peace who will escape the self-inflicted judgement that will befall those bent on violence. So how does this contribute to our living today? First of all we can be grateful that despite all the pain and problems of the world, there are Good Samaritans around today. Think back over the last couple of years. We all know of very ordinary people who were good Samaritans to us during those difficult days. Someone who brought shopping in for us. Someone who rang to check we were ok. Our nurses and doctors. Or do you remember Cpt Sir Tom Moore who raised a vast sum of money for the NHS, but more importantly proved such a morale booster just when it was needed. I’m sure you can think of many more who were good Samaritans to you and your family. On an international scale remember the scenes on TV of hundreds of frightened, displaced and stressed Ukrainian refugees being welcomed at train stations in Poland and in Germany. They were met with food and drink and given SIM cards for their phones. There were medical teams and translators waiting to help. There was a crowd too, hundreds strong, of Polish and German families standing there offering their homes to the refugees. Those Polish and German families beautifully embody Jesus teaching, by welcoming complete strangers into their homes. Likewise, in our own Diocese we are welcoming refugee Ukrainian families into our community What a challenge that is to us the church. How well do we welcome strangers into our churches and our hearts? How open are we to welcoming ‘different’ people? To those not part of our ‘holy huddles’ or those we’re not comfortable around? If we truly remembered Jesus’ simple command to ‘do to others as we would have them do to us’ would we not greet them as friends, with a warm embrace? Would we hold their hands and listen to their story, offer compassion, kindness and comfort?’ Let us take a few moments to think about that. Of course, as individuals we don’t have do great things. A simple kind word or gesture may be sufficient. To sit with those who need comfort. To listen as Uncle Fred tell us the same story he has told us a thousand times before! To care for those in need. To be a good neighbour to everyone, whoever they are. In other words as Jesus instructs us elsewhere: ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’ John 13:34. This morning, and every morning, let us ask ourselves; “To whom can I be a good neighbour, a Good Samaritan today?”
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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