December 17, 2007 Luke 10:30

12/17/2007

Luke 10:30 - 37 (HCSB)

³⁰Jesus took up the question and said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

³³But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw _ëthe man_û, he had compassion. ³⁴He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

³⁶“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

I’m sure this story is familiar to most of you. This is a common story to teach children about compassion. I have a recording from my childhood of my sister telling the story of “The Good Samerican.” Perhaps I should post the recording on the internet some day.

But let’s take another look at the story. First of all, it was dangerous to venture in the wilderness alone, even on main roads. Bandits were an ever-present danger. In this story, a man (who we can assume is a Jew since He is coming from Jerusalem) falls into the hands of bandits. He essentially looses everything he has and is left for dead. Three other men come along the same road.

First, a Priest: In our day we, of course, see the Priest as one who should have compassion. And the same should have been true in that day. But what would have happened if the priest had stopped to help? Recall that the Priests were held to a strict code of ritual cleanliness – and for this reason, I believe, the Priest decides to pass by the injured man at a distance.

Now from the religious aspect, this may seem somewhat reasonable, but recall that Jesus repeatedly attacked the “Law” for its lack of common sense. Consider Luke 14:5 (HCSB)⁵And to them, He said, “Which of you whose son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” So we can assume from Jesus’ teaching that the Priest should have assisted the injured man despite the letter of the law.

Next was a Levite. Remember, the Levites were of the priestly tribe but not all were priests. We can only assume that this man, like the Priest was more concerned with the ritual cleanliness than with the state of this injured man. Or perhaps he did not want to stop and thus make himself more vulnerable to attack.

Finally, we have a Samaritan. A Samaritan would be a person whose heritage was half Jew and half Syrian (or Assyrian). This Samaritan would have been hated by the Jews because of his mixed heritage and it would have been socially understandable for him to ignore this injured Jew. But, overlooking their differences, he takes compassion on the Jew and attends to his needs. Not only does he attend to the immediate needs, he also sees that the injured man is cared for into the future.

Jesus asks the question “Who, then, was the ‘neighbor’?”

The Love of God calls for us to show compassion on all. If our “religion” comes in the way of compassion, then something is wrong with our religion. If our cultural differences come in the way of our compassion, then we need to abandon those cultural ideas in favor of a more Godlike attitude.

Who is your neighbor? Who have you walked past today?

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