The Good Samaritan

Scripture:

Luke 10:30-35

Quick Summary:

Jesus told a story about a man beaten by the side of the road. Two honorable men pass him by, but then a third man stopped to help. The third man was a Samaritan, which Jews didn’t like. Even though he came from the wrong family and community, he still stopped and helped the hurt man.

The Point:

No matter who is hurt or even what they think of us, Jesus wants us to help them.

Questions for Family Time:

1.Tell me the story you heard today.

        a. (see above)

2.  Who would be hard to stop and help for you? Why

            a. (this is a personal answer. The why should by along the line of “we don’t get a long.”)  

3.Who would you be surprised if they helped you?

        a. (similar answer to above)    

4. What does it mean to “love your neighbor”

       a. To help people when you see they need help, even if they are not people you like.

Deeper:

We throw around the term “Good Samaritan” a lot. It has become short hand in the news for a stranger helping a stranger. But Jesus did not call the Samaritan a stranger. He called him a Samaritan. He also didn’t call him good. For the first hearers of this story, Samaritans were neither strangers nor good.

Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried and chosen to worship God on holy places that were not considered holy to those in Jerusalem. They were living reminders of the sin that Jews felt had caused their national downfall in the Old Testament. Also, in times of national crises, they were unreliable allies. Good Jews often chose to cross the Jordan River into Gentile territory and then cross it again to avoid Samaria. That’s right. The pagans Gentiles with NO belief in God were better to travel by than the Samaritans.

That means our society’s “Good Samaritans” were not like what the readers imagined this Samaritan to be like at all. They would be the ones our society looks down upon. They are the people we expect just by the label we have given them to be unreliable.

And yet, Jesus takes this “Samaritan” and makes him the one who fulfills God’s law. It is this Samaritan who chooses to stop rather than the most respected men of the community. Which makes this parable hard for us to swallow.

First of all, because it makes us confront the fact that even when we try to treat everyone equal, we have biases about people that our society has labeled. It makes us call the person we would rather protect our children from the hero of the story.

Second, it makes us redefine our neighbor. Dearborn County residents are very good at dividing by honor. There are desirable neighborhoods and undesirable neighborhoods. We place ourselves among people like us, just like the Jews did, and avoid neighborhoods that have reputations like Samaria. Like the man who asked Jesus who his neighbor is, we find it easy to love people in our geographical neighborhood because, for the most part, they are like us. But then Jesus comes and says, your neighbor is the person in need, not the person next door. Jesus tells us we aren’t allowed to ignore the needs of others just because it isn’t happening outside of our front door. He says we are to love people in other neighborhoods.

Third, if we are really being asked to love our neighbor like the Samaritan, it means we have to be willing to help those who look down their noses at us. It means we have to love the naysayers and snobs who have torn us down and told us we are not worthy. When our hearts are cheering, “they finally got what they deserved!” Jesus bids us to show them kindness and help them get back up.

It would be easier if the Good Samaritan was just about a nice stranger. Loving your neighbor like Jesus calls us to is much harder. Not complicated. Just Hard. Thankfully, God is there to help us do the hard things he calls us to do.

           

Personal Reflection:

Who are the Samaritans that you avoid? Who are the people who treat you like a Samaritan? How is God calling you to love those neighbors?