Will the Real Good Samaritan Please Stand Up?
Luke 10:25-37
UCinPgh
 

The old TV game show "To Tell the Truth" is back on the air.

In this game, contestants question several persons, all of whom claim the same idenity.

The contestants are challenged to separate the authentic person from the imposters.

After each contestants offers his/her best guess, then the host will say, "Will the real. . ."whoever". . .please stand up??

Today I wonder, "Will the real Good Samaritan please stand up?"

Even though the word "good" never appears in the text, Luke’s story of the Good Samaritan has infiltrated every dimension of life. ..

The world is full of Good Samaritans. . .Cousar refers to them as "secularized saints" · State Farm insurance "like a good neighbor" is always there. . · "Good Samaritan" laws attempt to clarify the legalities of helping someone in distress. . . · Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter exists for the homeless · Good Samaritan Hospital exists for the physically ill · Good Samaritan Retirement Village exists for the elderly seeking safe secure shelter · We compliment people by calling them Good Samaritans

"Will the real Good Samaritan please stand up?"

I agree with the lawyer in our text—each of us is called to love God and our neighbor. I agree this story of a traveling Samaritan contains important ideas regarding loving God and neighbor.

I agree that it is a wise rule of thumb to always seek the most loving/compassionate response in any situation.

But it can so easily become complicated.

My family went to the Playhouse. As it turned out, my seat was not with my family. I left them, found my seat, and sat down and politely nodded to the lady sitting next to me.

She began to talk. . .in the course of the conversation I learned she was visiting Pgh from Chicago. Her cab driver led her to believe she may have difficulty returning back downtown following the play.

Twenty years ago I would have said immediately, "I’ll give you a ride"—

But this night I found myself stuttering and stumbling around. . . What was the most neighborly response?? --assure her she would be able to obtain a cab?? --teach her how to catch the bus??

I rehearsed in my head how to offer a ride. . . I finally indicated, "Over there are my wife and daughters and their guys. . .so please don’t take this wrong. . .but I would be glad to give you a ride back to the hotel. . . she looked over, thought a moment, and accepted. . .

The simplest situations can cause us to wonder about how to be a good neighbor.

I pull into the crowded hospital parking lot. . . the only empty spaces are far, far, far from the entrance except for one empty clergy space in the front row. . . Now what is the neighborly response?? · Do I save that space for a clergyperson who may not be as able as me to walk the great distance from the back of the lot.? · Or do I take the clergy space, leaving more general parking spaces that may be needed by family members or friends hoping the lot will not be full.

The simplest situations can cause us to wonder about how to be a good neighbor.

The drama presented on the campus of CMU was insightful and challenging both to mind and heart. . . The French Silk pie at the Union Grille was delicious. . . the conversation was engaging… it was a great evening. . .time to go home, wind down, and settle in for a good night’s rest. . .

But strolling from the restaurant to the car, we were greeted by an inebriated gentleman. . .

He wanted money—We said, "No." He got ugly. . . We had some ugly thoughts, but we were silent. . .and unsettled . . What does a good Samaritan do?

Give him money, thus keeping the peace and we can go home calm?. .

Give him money perceiving it will only feed an addiction for we had already completed our anaylsis of this human being? Or do we offer to take him to his home where he may be safe and sleep it off?. . . Or was the most loving choice to walk away??

Will the real good Samaritan please stand up?

I discover myself identifying with other characters in the scene. First of all with the lawyer who asks the question. . . By the time of Jesus it was common to summarize the law in the dual expectation to love God and neighbor. The lawyer went on to ask a question of clarification, "Who is my neighbor?"

He simply wanted the ambivalence to be removed from his life. The lawyer wanted defined boundaries and expectations. . .he wanted assurance that he was fulfilling his responsibilities.

But Jesus did not give him a straight forward answer. Instead Jesus told an offensive story in which Jesus declared the attacked half dead man in the ditch could love the samaritan as himself.

Ultimately neighborly acts will invite us to cross many barriers; Being neighborly is about: --being nice and kind, but it is also about mercy. --setting limits, but it is about giving ourselves away

Possibly if the lawyer had his way, he may have chosen to be the innkeeper in the story. The innkeeper simply had to follow the instructions of the Samaritan—was the innkeeper neighborly? I think so.

I am grateful for those days when I can be the innkeeper. It is simple and defined.

But there is still a robbed, stripped, half-dead human being in the ditch (Jew?, gentile?, samaritan?, who knows)—the man in the ditch is defined only by his need. . . and there are three additional travellers coming down the road.

Was the behavior of the priest and levite truly scandolous?. They were not evil. They were simply doing what was normal. They were fulfilling their duties.

As Fred Craddock cautions us: "While their behavior was not commendable, neither was it without reason. The body on the roadside could have been a plant to trap a traveler. . .(further) contact with a corpse would have defiled the priest and the Levite and disqualified them from their temple responsibilities. When they saw the victim, theirs was a choice between duty and duty."

Or as the old adage declares: "They were caught between a rock and a hard place"

Being a neighbor can be unsettling and ambivalent—I know that experience well—many of you tell me stories what indicate you know that experience well. . . So will the real good Samaritan please stand up??

Could the real Good Samaritan be Jesus Christ?

Arthur McGill tells us that Jesus Christ is the good Samaritan and that the parable is primarily about God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. It calls to our attention the truth that Christ is our neighbor whom we are called to love as we love ourselves.

Christ is our neighbor who saves our lives and draws forth our love.

We may be neighbors to one another because Christ is our neighbor;

We have only a few words about the actions of most characters in the story, but the Samaritan’s actions are described in detail

Jesus is like the samaritan who comes to help—but in a form that is so offensive that he is a persecuted man with nowhere to lay his head.

Jesus is like the samaritan who loves others even while being persecuted by them.

Jesus is like the samaritan whose love is powerful enough not to simply sympathize, but to bind up wounds and to heal. Jesus accepted full responsibility for the wounded man’s future, and he is the one who will come again.

Will the real Good Samaritan please stand up?

Jesus Christ is the real Good Samaritan. . . and by the grace of God he stands in our midst to heal our wounds in the midst of our ambivalence to lift us up and to continue drawing forth love from us that we may miraculously be neighbors

So along with Thomas Merton, we may lift this prayer:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan who embraces each of us.