Be the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:30 tells us Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho,
when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went
away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and
when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he
came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he
traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He
went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man
on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took
out two denarii [e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I
return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now many of us will recognize this as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It is one of
the most beloved gospel stories for young and old alike. The story is told in Luke 10:29–
37. The story continues to be a popular one for sermons, and it has been interpreted in
numerous diverse ways—ranging from a tale about ritual purity to lessons about
personal safety and even freedom fighters or universal healthcare.
But who were the Samaritans, really? They were not simply outcasts: They were the
despised enemies of the Jews. Yet where listeners would have expected a Jew to be
the hero of this story, instead he made the hero a Samaritan. Only when we understand
this reality does the powerful message of the parable come through:
The parable offers … a vision of life rather than death. It evokes 2 Chronicles 28, which
recounts how the prophet Oded convinced the Samaritans to aid their Judean captives.
It insists that enemies can prove to be neighbors, that compassion has no boundaries,
and that judging people based on their religion or ethnicity will leave us dying in a ditch. But with this parable being so beloved and repeatedly used as the focus points of
numerous sermons why is that we miss the lesson. We do not seem to understand the
importance of charity.
It is a story about a man who allowed his day to be interrupted to help his fellow man
and in this case someone he did not like. He did not see someone he did not like though
he saw someone who needed help. He did not permit the inconvenience or expense to
stop him. Whatever others may say about his investment in a troubled person did not
matter. He gave compassionately and comprehensively. No trite pat on the back here.
He gave time, energy, and resources over an extended period for a man he may never
see again. Giving people are both simple and alert. This story could look a little heroic,
but it is only common courtesy. If you cannot be stopped in your tracks, you will never
be able to give compassionately.