Sermon for April 23rd, 2017

Luke 10:25-37

25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “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 neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Small Stories, Big Ideas: The Good Samaritan

One day a man discovers a magical lamp, and upon rubbing the lamp, a genie appears offering him three wishes. But there's a catch. Whatever the genie does for the man, he must do twice as much for the man's worst enemy. The man thinks about it for awhile, and (quickly forgetting the catch) wishes for a billion dollars. The genie grants his wish, and the man is now a billionaire. This makes him tremendously happy...until he discovers that his most hated enemy is now a multi-billionaire. Furious and green with envy, the man goes back to the genie, and this time he wishes for great fame. His wish is granted, and the man is happy...until his fame is eclipsed by his greatest enemy, who becomes twice as famous. Finally, he returns to the genie, who informs him that this is his final wish. The man looks the genie in the eye and says, "Genie, I wish to be beaten half to death."

Today's parable is the story of a man who is beaten half to death. Literally. The Greek word describing the traveler in verse 30 is ἡμιθανῆ (hemi-thanos), half-dead. This is actually pretty ironic, because the whole story comes about when a lawyer comes up to Jesus and asks him what he can do in order to have a life that is αἰώνιον (aionion). We usually translate that literally as "eternal" but the sense of this word when it is used elsewhere in ancient Greek is actually "full," "whole," or "complete."

So a man comes up to Jesus and says, tell me how to have a full life, and Jesus proceeds to tell him a story about a man who was found only half alive.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most well known stories of the entire Bible--so much so that we have named laws after it: "Good Samaritan" laws that require drivers to stop and give assistance to those who are injured or in danger. In common, everyday language, "good samaritans" are those who rescue or help others, even when not obligated to, and sometimes even at the risk of their own safety.

I think we're so familiar with this story, with the idea of a "Good Samaritan" that we don't really hear it anymore; we miss the radical and shocking nature of the parable, and especially the message about life and death and being "half alive."

Hopefully, a little historical context can help.

First of all, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in the first century was a dangerous one. It was known as the road of blood. It was known for exactly the sort of violence and robbery that Jesus describes in his fictional story. The idea that a traveler would fall into the hands of robbers wouldn't have surprised anyone in Jesus' audience.

Neither would the next part of the story. In verse 31, we read that a priest comes by, sees the half-dead traveler, and crosses to the other side of the road in order to avoid getting caught up in the incident.

Now, before you judge the priest to harshly, you should know that a Jewish priest, by Biblical law, was forbidden from touching the body of a dead person. What's the difference, in appearance, between someone who is dead and someone who is half-dead? I don't know. Maybe not a lot. Maybe not enough to risk breaking the law. What laws would you be willing to break in a dangerous place, in order to help someone who might already be dead?

And so the priest does exactly what Jesus' audience (the lawyer) would have expected the priest to do. He keeps on going. No surprise there.

The next person to walk by in verse 32, also crossing to the other side of the road to avoid an incident, is a Levite. If this were a Presbyterian story, the pastor would have walked by first, and then one of the church officers. In other words, the most religious, churchy, ethically-minded people. The ones who show up every Sunday. And this, once again, would not have surprised anyone listening to Jesus' story. Think about it. Most of us wouldn't even dare to GO somewhere dangerous...like, maybe Afghanistan, or even Juarez, if we thought our lives would be at risk on the journey.

What if the robbers are still in the vicinity, waiting for their next victim? What if the injured person is really just another robber, faking it in order to prey on some naive, unsuspecting...good samaritan! In the era of television, internet and mass-media, most of us turn a blind eye to pain and suffering in the world every single day, not because we're inherently bad people, but because we just don't really know what to do. Or we think there's not really much we can do. Or we're afraid. Or busy. Or distracted.

Still, no surprise here, in our time or in the time of Jesus. But what happens next IS a surprise, more than I think we realize. We have named this story the "Parable of the Good Samaritan," after the one who actually stops and helps, the man from Samaria. By naming the story after him, we acknowledge that the Samaritan is the real hero of the story, and that he is GOOD. That seems obvious to us, with the benefit of hindsight. But for a Jewish audience in the first century, this would have been a sudden punch to the gut.

Because the person they would have been expecting next was the "good Israelite." That's how all the stories went. Just like we have all these jokes about the Rabbi, the Imam, and the Priest who walk into a bar. Or Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. We know how those stories are supposed to go. We know who the characters are supposed to be. And in first century Israel, the typical story was about the Priest, the Levite, and the Good...Israelite. Who saves the day. And the moral of the story is "be a good Israelite."

But Jesus doesn't do that. Instead he picks someone who would have been universally acknowledged by his audience to be...bad. Imagine if I told you a story about the Good Nazi, or the Good Al-Qaeda Terrorist. Because that's what the Samaritans were to the First Century Jews. They were mortal enemies. They were the embodiment of evil.

What are you saying Jesus? You meant to say "Good Israelite," right? No? Ok, well maybe... maybe the Samaritan first repented of his evil ways, turned to God and had a conversion experience, THEN helped the injured traveler, right? That would make more sense. But Jesus doesn't say that. The Samaritan remains a Samaritan... and the savior in this story.

"I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants"

J. Ellsworth Kalas - parables from the backside (seeker's class). Identify with the Samaritan.