Who Is the Samaritan?

On the way to church today I saw a woman on the side of the road walking. It was still early in the day so the heat of the day was only about 81 degrees. She was carrying a bag of groceries and some clothes that she had gotten from the cleaners. They were still in plastic. My first thought was to stop and ask her if she wanted a ride to wherever she was going. I immediately thought if I did ask I might miss church or the other hundreds of things I have to do today. I kept on going.

Two questions and two answers. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and “Who is my neighbor?”

Who is our neighbor? What if Jesus was the one who was hurt and lying by the road? Would we stop to help him.

In the parable today from the Gospel of Luke, both the religious leaders and the Samaritan "see" the man in the ditch, but who really "sees" him?

I have lived on my same street since 1985 or so. Who are my neighbors? I sadly say that with the exception of maybe three or four persons living in and around me, I do not know my neighbors at all. However, one summer night several years ago, I really saw my neighbor when he suffered a major heart attack and was lying in a comma at Emory Adventist Hospital. Not knowing him very well, I felt called by God to visit him in the ICU. “I put my hand on his chest and said “God loves you. God loves you” The only words I could muster up to repeat. I was truly his neighbor that night.

In our text today, Jesus is described as telling this parable as a response to a question which someone has asked him “who is my neighbor?” In the Levitical law is says that one should love their neighbor. In Leviticus 19:18 it says “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” Is the Lord our neighbor then??

We have a lawyer, a priest, a Levite and a man in a ditch. Like my incident this morning, each and every day, I can really see myself in all of these roles. The lawyer- judging the Samaritan “well how did he get in this place?” “He should have been more careful” or “maybe he did something wrong against our laws. I judge him against the laws of the land and against my own law of justice.

Or maybe, I am the Levite in my priestly role, I say “he must not be a church goer”. “I read the Bible everyday he must not”. I am the pious one. “Maybe he is not Christian at all”. “I have no patient or tolerance towards people who don't profess Christ as their Savior”.

There are of course those days when I am the man in the ditch myself. Torn and battered down weary from the battles of life. At my wits end. I have been beaten down by society, the jobless market, the economies of life. I can go no further.

Perhaps even rarely, I am the Good Samaritan. I stop and care for those who need me. I help, hold out a hand and raise the person out of the ditch. It is the Samaritan that really "sees" and "has compassion" on the needy man in the ditch. He "cares" for the man in the ditch. He also asks the innkeeper to "care". The Samaritan doesn't provide all of the direct aid to the needy man. He is the one "doing mercy".

As Christians we are called to have compassion to others; to come (near) to others; to care for others; to do mercy to others. It is not enough just to talk about "what one believes," but "what difference does it make in my life that I believe."

Some of us in our Parent's Morning Out Program recently received our first aid and CPR training. We were taught what to do, and what not to do and even to not respond or help an injured person if we were not certified to do so (beyond calling 911). The main thing that we are instructed is to get help. Help the person who is unable to help themselves. Jesus asks us as His followers to be good Samaritans to your neighbor.

“Go and do this kind of mercy to even the last person you can ever imagine as being a neighbor to you.” Go and help all those you can!