And, Who Is the Good Samaritan?

Luke 10:25-37

Back in 1973, when Linda and I were still in seminary in Washington, D.C., we decided to go to Baltimore to see the sights. We drove our car into downtown Baltimore, parked it, got out and walked. I can remember that as we were walking down one of the streets in the midst of our sightseeing, we passed one particular building that was in pretty bad shape. Going by an open door in the building, a young man came out and called to us, saying, "Hey, come here! I need some help."

Hearing this, we turned our heads and almost stopped to go back. But, thinking that the young man could be tricking us; thinking that he might pull a knife or a gun on us and force us into the building where we would be mugged, or worse, we quickly decided to keep walking down the sidewalk, even hastening our steps a bit. And, as we left, the young man called after us. "Don't be afraid!," he shouted, "I won't hurt you!"

Ever since that day, when ever I have read the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible, I have thought of that encounter in Baltimore. After all, what if that man had really been sincere and had a genuine need? Our quick departure down the sidewalk would have been no different than that of the priest or the Levite who passed by on the other side in Jesus' parable. For in our retreat from that young man in the doorway, we were making a conscious decision. We were deciding, then and there, that we would not be that man's neighbor; nor would he be ours. We didn't want to be vulnerable to that man. But, that is exactly what neighbors must be. That is exactly what being a neighbor means. Neighbors are vulnerable to each other. They take time for each other. Neighbors borrow things from each other, like cups of sugar, and ladders, and wheel barrows. Neighbors talk over the fence with each other, sometimes for hours at a time, while holding rakes and shovels and lawn mower handles.

I'm reminded of the coffee commercials that ran a while back. In the first one a young, attractive woman who is having company over goes to her neighbor's apartment and wants to borrow some coffee from him. The man, presumably single, lets her in and offers her Maxwell House Coffee. Then, a few weeks later the sequel to this commercial has this same man and woman drinking Maxwell Coffee together. And then after a period of time and several commercials later the man and the woman fall in love. It only goes to show you that if persons are really going to be neighbors they must be vulnerable to each other. With neighbors there is a relationship, and the door is left open to many possibilities along the way.

But, most of us don't have as many neighbors as we used to. Even in the days when everybody lived on farms, there were more neighbors than we have, today. For, now, it is possible for persons to almost completely avoid having relationships. While folks used to get together and play cards, or scrabble, or toss horse shoes, or play croquet or shuffle board, now most everyone stays home in the comfort of their air conditioning, apart from everyone else, kept company by a television set, which gives only the illusion of someone else being there. And we choose who are neighbors are going to be. Our affluence has provided many ways for us to close out of our world those who we would like to avoid.

But our scripture lesson for today challenges our whole concept of who our neighbors are. In fact, if read carefully, we will see that today's scripture lesson even ties our very salvation to our willingness to be in community with those in need.

After all, what was the question the man asked Jesus? It was, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Of course, Jesus didn't give the man a pat answer, but asked this expert in the law to tell Jesus what he thought. And the man said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" And Jesus' immediate response to the man's answer should convict us. He said, "Do this and you will live."

As far as Jesus was concerned, the secret to a person's salvation was linked to their willingness to be involved in community. To love God with all of one's heart, soul, strength, and mind; to love one's neighbor as oneself required that persons be open and vulnerable to one another. As far as Jesus was con cerned, loving God was something that had to be played out in relationships. You can't love God and close in upon yourself. You can't love God and exclude the needs of other persons. You can't love God without believing that people, and communities, and organizations, and churches are important. As far as Jesus was concerned, you couldn't say, "I believe in Jesus," without taking an active role in loving others. Believing one meant doing the other. There was no difference between evangelism and social action, between being and doing. With Christ it was both or nothing at all.

And, yet, there is something very important about this story of the Good Samaritan that is very easy to miss. A couple of years ago, I asked the youth group in my church to do a role play of the story of the Good Samaritan. When I asked the kids which character they wanted to play, everyone of them wanted to be the Good Samaritan. Not one of them wanted to be a robber; and not one of them wanted to play the part of the victim.

It's kind of like asking a bunch of kids at a picnic-softball game what position they would like to play. Everyone wants to be the pitcher. And so it is with us when it comes to the story of the Good Samaritan: most of us identifies with the role of the Good Samaritan, even if we often fail to live out that role in real life.

But, when you think about it, most of us are more often the victim in the story of the Good Samaritan than we are the Good Samaritan. Even though we like to think that we're self-sufficient, and strong, and invulnerable to the onslaughts of life, even though we like to believe that we have all the resources we need to be perfect Good Samaritan, we know it's impossible. And, even when we have tried to be the Good Samaritan for someone, how often has it been that it was us who ended up needing the healing of the only perfect Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ?

I remember a time when a friend of mine wanted to be a Good Samaritan. Martha was a minister out in Waterloo, Iowa. One day, while working in her church office, a man came to her door and asked for help. He sat down in the chair in front of Martha's desk and told her how he had lost his job and needed work. He then asked her if she knew of work around the church he could do. Martha thought that perhaps she might help him with some food and shelter for the night. She thought that she might even help the man with getting a job somewhere else. But when she told the man that the church didn't have a job for him, the man pulled a switch blade out of his pocket and began slashing Martha's arms as she used them to protect her face. Running from her office, screaming for help, Martha was rescued in the nick of time and her assailant was caught. But, this is where the Good Samaritan became the victim. For Martha, and for many of us who have tried to love and love, and serve and serve, and help and help, there comes a time when the healing of the only perfect Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ, is required.

What I'm saying is that if we're going to be effective neighbors to others; if we're going to be Good Samaritans, then how important it is for us to avail ourselves to the healing, loving, and caring of the only perfect Good Samaritan! If we're not going to get burned out, worn down, turned off, run down, fizzled out, pooped out, and beat up in the process of loving other people, then we have to admit our own need of the only real Good Samaritan and turn to Christ as the source of all our strength. We can't do it alone. In spite of all the strengths and talents and virtues and resources we may think we have, its simply impossible for us to do. We can't survive what it takes to minister, we can't go on in spite of the pain, without Christ in our midst.

But, there is something else in this story about the Good Samaritan that I want to point out, today. Just as Jesus equated one's participation in the life of others with loving God and being given the gift of salvation, so does Jesus' parable remind us that neighbors can come forth for us when we least expect them. As far as the expert in the law was concerned, a Samaritan would have made a most unexpected neighbor. The Jews and the Samaritans just didn't get along. They chose to live apart. And, yet, in Jesus' story it was a Samaritan who chose to be neighbor to a person in need.

Someone once said that we don't choose our neighbors. But, in a very real sense, I believe we do. When a church, such as this one, decides to collect food and take it to the poor people of Detroit, we choose our neighbors. When we hear of someone who is lonely and send our youth to sing Christmas carols, or find time in our schedule to go over and read to that person from the Bible, we choose our neighbors. When we decide to build a church that will minister to a whole community of diverse people, we choose our neighbors. When a church starts a nursery school, or a food pantry, or sends missionaries to a far off country, we choose our neighbors. And choosing our neighbors, building community, edifying the Body of Christ, loving one another -- that's what being a Christian is all about.

There is the story of two monks who were walking down a road on a bitterly cold winter's day. Neither one of them had warm coats, so both of them were afraid that if it got much colder or windier they could end up freezing to death before they got back to their monastery. So, they hurried as they made their way, on foot, along the road.

As they travelled along, they came to a ravine where they could hear someone crying for help. One monk decided that he had all he could do to get back to the monastery before he froze to death. But the other monk, having compassion, went down into the ravine, picked up the injured stranger, and carried him up the road and on towards the monastery.

As darkness descended it got colder and the wind picked up. The monk, carrying the injured stranger hurried as fast as he could go, even working up a sweat because of the burden he was carrying. But as he went down the road, he almost stumbled over the frozen body of the other monk.

As we carry the burdens that our Lord gives us, will we remember him who ultimately heals us from our brokenness and carries the real burdens of our souls? Amen.