Seventh Pentecost

              July 15, 2007

     A man was out for a leisurely drive through the country and noticed a truck pulled over by the side of the road, with its hood up.  Feeling in such a good mood and being the kindly Good Samaritan type anyway, he pulled over and asked the man if he needed any help.

     “Well, my truck just broke down and I don’t know how long it will take before I get it running.  I have a bunch of penguins I’m supposed to take to the zoo,” said the man.  He reached in his pocket and pulled out a $50 bill and handed it to the Good Samaritan.  “I’ll give you fifty dollars if you’ll do that for me.”

     The Good Samaritan said he’d be happy to do that and loaded all the penguins in the back of his SUV and headed for the zoo.  The truck driver heaved a sigh of relief and continued his repairs to the truck.  About two hours later, he saw the Good Samaritan driving back from the zoo.  As he neared the broken-down truck, the man noticed the penguins still in the back of the SUV.  He flagged him down.

     “Hey, man!  I gave you fifty dollars to take those penguins to the zoo.  What’s going on?”

      “Oh,” said the Good Samaritan, “We’re finished with the zoo.  I still have ten dollars left, so we’re going to the Dairy Queen.”

      The question is, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The answer comes, “What is written in the law, what do you read there?”  The response is, “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.”  The response to that is, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”  The question is, “And who is my neighbor?”  The answer is, “The Good Samaritan.”

     In the natural order of things that is not the answer we would expect or give if asked that question.  Neighbors, especially the good ones, are people we can count on, those who will step in the do a favor, someone who will keep an eye on our house when we are away, and be there when an emergency might arise.  We don’t generally think of neighbors as Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, some nationality, or some world view vastly different from our own.  And yet that’s the story the Lord of this life and the life that is to come tells in a question about eternal life. 

     Represented in the story are certain attitudes that one may adopt toward life, relationships, and responsibility.  The first attitude is, “I’ll take from others.”  That’s the attitude of the person who robbed the man along the road.  “I’ll take whatever I want,” is the attitude the robber adopted.  You and I know the robber’s MO.  Some declare in veiled, or not so veiled, ways that taking from others is one way to live.  It doesn’t make any difference how it affects you or how much it hurts you.  You are simply a means to an end.  They will manipulate, abuse, use people, cheat, steal, and lie to take what they feel they want.  Not only do we know people like that, we live in a culture where much of life is based on “I’ll take from others.”

     A second attitude toward life as represented in this parable is, “I’ll ignore others.”  That is the response of the priest and the Levite.  If the priest were traveling toward the temple to do his two-week tour of duty there, he would become defiled if he touched the man lying in need by the side of the road.  If, in fact, the man were dead, the priest would suffer the worst kind of defilement and would have been forever banished from service at the high altar.  He couldn’t take a chance and touch the man.  His sacred duty depended on staying ritually clean.  So, he thought it best to ignore the man and turn a blind eye to this need.

     The Levite and the priest passed by on the other side.  They were too busy, had pressing business, and would have had to rearrange their calendars in order to stop and help.  “I’ll just go on my way,” each said.  “I don’t have time for this.”  They closed their eyes to the problems around them.  They could then say, “I didn’t see you!”  If you don’t see, your conscience is clear, right? 

     The third kind of attitude expressed in the parable is, “I’ll help others.”  Notice the personal involvement of the Samaritan in the situation.  He put himself at some personal risk by going to the side of the injured stranger; almost certainly a Jew.  And yet the Samaritan made personal sacrifices to assist the wounded man. 

     The Samaritan also took the risk of being misunderstood by his Jewish neighbor.  The man and his family, after recovering from his injuries, might think that the Samaritan had defiled him by touching him.  The family of the victim might seek revenge on him.  That most probably would have been the case had this happened in our day, when the only means of security is a big gun and a law degree.  The Samaritan’s act of compassion and kindness could have backfired on him and people would have said, “Well, he should have known better.”

     To ask the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is the wrong question.  That very question attempts to set limits.  We are not allowed by the One who created us to set restriction on who are neighbor is.  To know who our neighbor is moves us beyond geography, country, race, creed, gender, or any other definition we may use to separate ourselves from others.  To know our neighbor cannot be established by physical proximity, but by spiritual connectedness.  Our neighbor is not determined by physical location, but by need.

     Obviously, the Good Samaritan is symbolic of the mission, message, ministry, and person of Jesus the Christ.  That ministry is summarized in the compassion and commitment of the Samaritan.  Jesus spent his life reaching out to persons in need.  The blind, the deaf, the physically challenged, the leper, the outcast, the last, the least, and the lost were the ones unto whom he came to minister.  The amount of money, the number and quality of material possessions, religion, social standing, and nationality did not determine whom he touched.  Need and the desire for a new life were the only requirements for membership in the fellowship of his neighbors.

     Jesus asked the lawyer, “Which of these three (the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan) do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”  And the lawyer said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

     It appears from the record of scripture, from the words attributed to the Lord Jesus, and from two thousand years of church history that we ignore at the very peril of our souls the final sentence of the parable.  Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”  It involves a little more than taking penguins to the zoo.  Amen.              

~The Rev. G. Thomas Mustard