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researching
theology . celebrating diversity
The Story of the Good Samaritan:
This is perhaps the most well known of Jesus’ parables. It has entered our popular culture as the story of the good guy, the excellent friend to the needy one, who acts with common decency when others do not. Colloquially, being a good Samaritan means doing the proper thing, being charitable and a uncommonly good towards others. The latter sense captures a degree of the original impact that this story has and is the focus this sermon. Time has tamed this story a little. Strangely, it has lost much of its impact by sentimental focus upon the good Samaritan rather than the implications of the story. Yet, it is far from a tame tale and is hinged upon a subversive scandal. I wish to capture some of its dynamics that uncover both the story and Jesus (the story teller) as subversive and scandalous. For the story is more than a tale of a good guy. It is told in response to questioning by a "lawyer", an interpreter of the Law of Moses (Torah). It carries a powerful reversal of expectation and challenges the hearer (or reader) to rethink the very ground by which moral decisions are made. Let us read the story again.
In these verses we see a typical example of The Way (Halakah) of
Jesus, in that "Torah" is not presented as a legalistic law but
as "instruction". In other words, Jesus is shown presenting Torah
not as an imperative force but as an indicative one. The Halakah
of Jesus is shown to be radically different that what is expected. In fact,
it is a new way of seeing relationships and defining moral behaviour. The parable
does four things:-
How is this done? Firstly, let us look at the questions of the lawyer.
It is clear that the questioner is trying to prove his own right to eternal
life by setting limits to his duty. He knows what is required and answers
the first of his questions. There is nothing unusual in this, for he follows
the essential requirements of the Torah as required by Deuteronomy
6:4ff., where love of God as upheld in the Shema (the confession
of faith), and follows Leviticus 19:17-18, which teaches love of
neighbour as one’s self. It is his second question that tries to push Jesus’
interpretations to the limit, in questioning the concept of "neighbour" as he asks, "And who
is my neighbour?".
There is a deceptive simplicity in asking this question, for it seeks to add qualifications. Is it the person next door, my friends and relatives and those like me, or the very next one that I meet? Does 'neighbour' have a broader cast of concern? The lawyer is attempting to set up barriers to his obligations in his relational world. Hidden in the question is an expectation for Jesus to propose limits or to erect barriers of exclusion by quoting the same sources that the lawyer sets up in his first reply- the Levitical codes. Is the "love of neighbour" to be qualified? This was a poignant question of the time, especially for the lawyers who defined the traditional obligations. Does 'neighbour' include the poor, for example, the common people of the land, the so-called "sinners" who have failed their obligations to the temple through poverty enforced by the tax-farming practices of the day. Does it include Gentiles, the Greeks and Romans and other non-Jewish Palestinian folk, such as Phoenicians or Arabs? How far does one go in loving ones’ "neighbour"? In this story, the Greek word that is translated as ‘neighbour’ is plesion, which literally means ‘the next one’. The lawyer is asking the relational question, "who is the ‘next one’ to me?" Jesus’ parable presents him with a surprise, in that he tells of three ‘next ones’ in relationship to the victim who has fallen among thieves!
The animosity between Jews and Samaritans is legendary! Samaria was the
land between Judaea and Galilee. The Samaritans were regarded by Torah
observing Jews as "half-Jews", as religious apostates (see 2Kings 17:24-34),
outsiders who had compromised their race and culture through mixed marriages
and temple worship outside of control from Jerusalem. The Samaritan temple
was on Mt Gerizim. Without going into too much details of Jewish-Samaritan
hostilities, it is sufficient to say that the Samaritan represents the
one most unlikely to succeed.
Both the priest and the Levite represent Jewish religious leadership of the day. The priest is of the highest order and relates to temple worship and hence to the city. The Levites were lay-associates of the priests and most served in the temple. Both men had cultic reasons for ignoring the injured man and their actions of avoidance derive from concerns for ritual purity. To touch the bleeding and the sick (or even the dead) would have made them unclean. They did nothing out of fear of being tainted. The barriers within their religious life prevented them from taking creative or transforming action (in this case the transforming action of alleviating the suffering of the victim by the side of the road). Their journey allowed no turning aside in compassion. It allowed no recognition of the presence of the religious life in the here and now presence of suffering among the realities of life. They moved on and insulated themselves from being tainted. When the stereotypical "bad guy" enters the scene, a reversal of expectation occurs. It is the Samaritan - the one despised by prejudice - the queer one! - the unlikely ‘next one’- who shows pity and turns aside to help the stricken man. In showing a reversal of expectation Jesus also shows the true hospitality expected of a good Israelite! The mark of hospitality was to help strangers as an obligation, for when the Israelites themselves were sojourners in a strange land, it was divine hospitality that delivered them! The reversal has a nice touch of irony about it! It is the despised non-Jew who shows a mirror of the divine love for Israel in his compassion for the stricken man. It is this Samaritan who carries out the essential elements of Torah. When Jesus rephrases the lawyer’s original question, asking "who of the three was a plesion, a next one," his challenge is to redefine moral action. This is done in terms of action for and with those who are in trouble, marginalised, disadvantaged, or set aside by concerns for purity. In this is radical discipleship in that it uncovers love in new situations. It seeks a commitment to involvement in the transformation of life and society. His injunction, "go and do likewise," reinforces the paradigm shift in the ground for making moral decisions. It is not from strictly legal applications of rules and barriers of distinction, but from selfless application of good will to make right relationships in love that defines what is moral. Those relationships are not made on terms of what is expected or right in terms of maintaining rules of separation or of prejudice, but in terms of discovering love in the unexpected. The love of God and "neighbour" is understood in terms that discover the objects of love rather than in defining them. The call is to re-imagine love in new and empowering ways. It is to show solidarity with all those who suffer in all aspects, to cross boundaries of race and culture to become involved in transforming life in new and creative ways. Who is your ‘next one’ In Jesus’ day religious barriers were made in terms of race and
creed,
separating Jews and foreigners, men and women, clean and unclean.
Social
and political barriers were ones of status, power and privilege, of
wealth
and of poverty that challenged religious observations. What are
the
barriers to overcome today? The barriers of poverty, gender,
sexuality,
ethnicity and race are being removed but still brings us to question,
"who
is my next one?" To put a contemporary spin on it, "With whom may
I share ministry? Who will I allow to minister to me and to
others?" Where barriers of distinction have been raised to preclude participation, including leadership, by defining status in terms of race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality, the example of the Good Samaritan stands calling us to reform. It is the primary relational value of love and not rules that determines what behaviour is right. In love we are called to see the "next one" in our lives as a significant other, no matter how different or difficult that person may be. Our prime concern is for the person and love of the person and not love of rules. Transforming life in new and creative ways is as much before us today as it was when Jesus raised the issue with the lawyer and re-imagined what it was to love. Who is your 'next one'? "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 your neighbour as yourself."Amen
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