Priest, Levite or Samaritan? by Rev. Kathy Sides (Preached at Fort Des Moines UMC 7-14-13) Most of us have someone in the family, be it Great Uncle Elmer or Cousin Genevive, who love to tell family stories. And at every family get-together, sooner or later there will come a time when those old familiar stories will begin to be retold yet another time. And as much as we love that one about how Uncle Ed blew up the chicken coup, when Great Uncle Elmer starts telling it for the 17th time, our mind starts to wander. We know all the details, we could tell it ourselves by heart, we no longer need to listen, so we no longer hear the story. I think the same thing happens with familiar Bible stories. We have heard them so many times and know them so well that we may have stopped listening, assuming there is nothing new for us to learn. I think the Good Samaritan is one such story. We know it by heart, we learned the "moral of the story" a long time ago; We should be a "Good Samaritan" and help our neighbors. It seems simple enough, what reason is there for us to listen to the story again? We have heard the story so many times that it seems to hold no surprises for us. But it was full of surprises for those who first heard it that day a man stood and asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?". I'd like you to imagine that you are hearing the story for the first time, as Jesus is telling it. You have heard about this Jesus, and you have come to hear what he has to say. As you are listening to Jesus teach, a man near you stands and says to him; "Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?" Jesus answers him with a question, "What do the Scriptures say? How do you interpret them?" The man answers, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind', and 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.'" You think to yourself, "the man has answered well, he knows the Scriptures well". Jesus confirms this, saying,"you are right, do this and you will live". But you are somehow disappointed in the answer, you have heard that this Jesus is an unusual man, sometimes seeming to speak in riddles, turning people upside down with his strange stories full of twists and surprises. You had hoped for such an answer. The man who asks the question does not seem satisfied, either. He asks another question, this time more difficult, "Who is my neighbor?" You wonder at the question. Is it meant to assure the man that he is loving the right people? Does he really want a definition, or is it meant to challenge Jesus with a more difficult question? All eyes are on Jesus, waiting for his response. He seems to pause only a moment, and then he begins telling a story. Aaah, at last, what you came for, one of those stories you have heard about. You lean forward, intent on every word, hoping that you will not be disappointed, that this will be a really good story. 1
Jesus begins."there was once a man who was gong down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, and beat him up, leaving him half dead." Jesus is not describing an unusual scene. Everyone knows that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is dangerous. It's a steep, winding road, descending over 3,000 feet, surrounded by huge boulders and nearby caves. Ambushes by robbers are common, and travelers know that they should not travel alone. You can't help but think that this is a foolish man, traveling this road alone. And yet you feel sorry for the man, beaten and lying there, and you hope someone will help him. And as you listen, you begin to be relieved, for Jesus is saying; "It so happened that a priest was going down that road" You think to yourself, "the priest is a man of God, he will help this man." But Jesus is saying; "but when he saw the man, he walked on by on the other side." Your initial feeling is one of shock and disappointment, you expected the priest to help. You wonder why he didn't, and then you remind yourself of the Jewish laws. Touching a dead man made one unclean for 7 days. Jesus had said the man was left half-dead, perhaps the priest thought the man was dead, and could not risk being defiled. Maybe he was on his way to the Temple and knew he would be unable to perform his duties there if he touched a dead man. His duties as a priest were important, they were his service to God, he could not risk defilement that would make him unable to act as priest. Surely someone else will help! You listen as Jesus continues the story; "In the same way a Levite also came there, went over and looked at the man". "Surely he will help", you tell yourself, but your hopes are dashed as Jesus continues,"and then walked on by on the other side." And as you did with the priest, you begin to try and rationalize why the Levite went on without helping. Like the priest, the Levite was also a man of God. The Levites assisted the priests in the Temple, and perhaps he, too, was afraid of being defiled and being unable to assist in the Temple for the next seven days. Or perhaps he was afraid that this was a trap. Bandits were known to sometimes use a decoy to get someone to stop. One of them pretended to be wounded and when someone stopped to help, the others overpowered him, beating and robbing him. Perhaps, you tell yourself, the Levite suspected that this was a trap, so he hurried on his way, concerned for his own safety. As with the priest you excuse the Levite for not stopping to help, and you hope that someone else will happen by to help this man, who has been passed by twice. 2
You listen, and Jesus continues, "but a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man". Well, now it seems to you that the story has taken a turn for the worse, for now the fate of the man rests in the hands of a Samaritan. You wonder to yourself what kind of a Samaritan this man is. Technically, Samaritans were residents of the district of Samaria, located between Galilee and Judea. Samaria and Samaritans had a bad reputation, and Jews had no dealings with them. But the term Samaritan was also sometimes used as a kind of insult, it was used to describe someone who was not actually from Samaria, but was a heretic or a breaker of the Jewish ceremonial law. Perhaps this man was a Samaritan in the sense of being one whom all orthodox good people despised. Either way, you know that this man is someone who is your enemy, and you think to yourself that it is too bad that a good Jewish man did not happen by, because you know that this Samaritan will not help an injured Jew. But to your amazement Jesus finishes the story in a most surprising way; "And when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Take care of him,' he told the innkeeper, 'and when I come back this way, I will pay you whatever else you spend on him.'" The crowd has fallen dreadfully silent, taken aback by this strange twist. No one had expected a Samaritan to show up in the story, and the idea that the Samaritan would be the one to help the injured man, when the best Jews did not, was almost too much to take in. And in the midst of that heavy silence, Jesus turns to the man who had asked the question and asks his own question; "in your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor toward the man attacked by the robbers?" And as though it is terribly hard for him to admit, the man slowly answers, as though unwilling to say the word Samaritan ; "The one who was kind to him" And Jesus simply replies; "You go, then, and do the same". As you slowly turn toward home you contemplate what you have heard. You had hoped to hear one of Jesus' stories, but this is more than you had bargained for. You have spent your life trying to be a good Jew and follow all of the laws and commandments, and here is this Jesus, telling a story that turns your world upside down. A story that seems to imply that a despised Samaritan could be closer to the Kingdom of God than you are. This Jesus is indeed a disturbing man. 3
When heard for the first time, the story of the Good Samaritan must have been shocking and more than a little disturbing. Surely not the simple, familiar story we have come to see it as. But what does it have to say to us today? Are we so far removed in time and place from the priest, Levite and Samaritan that we can no longer see ourselves in the story? I suspect that if we look again maybe it still has something to say to us today. First there was the priest, who might have been so concerned with following rules and staying ceremonially clean that he could not risk helping a man in need. No doubt he felt that he was doing what God required of him. He felt called by God to be a priest, and it was his responsibility to perform the priestly duties in the Temple. He took that responsibility so seriously that the Temple and its liturgy meant more to him than the man's pain. To us it may seem that he had his priorities a bit mixed up, but are we so much different? Don't we, too, sometimes get so caught up with what we think is expected of us, what is "proper", that we let rules or responsibilities get in the way of helping others? There may be a man in need of help along the road, but we are in our Sunday clothes. Church starts in 10 minutes and God is expecting us to be there, so we pass him by, telling ourselves that maybe someone else with more time will help. And then there is the Levite, perhaps passing quickly by for fear of the danger there. He was too concerned for his own safety to risk helping anyone else. Aren't we all somewhat guilty of this? It's a dangerous world out there, and we are wise to take precautions to protect ourselves. We would be foolish to disregard our own safety. And yet, where is the line between being wise, and failing to care for our fellow human beings? Are we called to put aside our own safety and care first for those in need of our help? A tough question! The story of the Good Samaritan would seem to say that our first duty is to love others with no thought of ourselves. That is a very hard assignment, and I am the first to confess that I am not entirely sure I am ready for it. Last of all we have the Samaritan. To those listening to the story, a despised man. We may not have anyone we call Samaritans today, but they are all around us, people we label as different than us, as not having the same values, the same beliefs. People who are not like us. In spite of our best intentions not to judge, we do so every day. We make decisions on the worth of a person by how they dress, where they live, how they talk, what they believe. And we believe that we are somehow better, more Christian than they. 4
But in this story Jesus tells the disturbing news that this Samaritan, this outcast who pays no attention to social barriers or expectations and simply sees a man in need, is the one who sets the example we are to follow. It is not the "good" people, the "godly" people who act in love. Those we would see as the righteous pass by, too wrapped up in their righteousness and self-concern to risk reaching out in love. The Good Samaritan was indeed a disturbing parable for the Jews who were listening to Jesus tell it that day. But perhaps we are mistaken if we think we are far enough removed to be safe from its uncomfortable message. Jesus not only redefined "neighbor" to include all in need, he redefined what it means to be a neighbor. And he seems to say that it sometimes means putting aside our fears and our responsibilities and all our rationalizing about why we should not get involved, and to just act in love. He seems to say that when it comes to loving our neighbors, it does not matter how holy or well-intentioned we are, what matters is what we do. The man in need did not experience the love of God from those who were supposed to be God's official representatives, those who had committed their lives to serving God. For their service to God was only the ceremonial service of worshiping God, it did not extend to caring for God's children. God's love and care was experienced instead through the most unlikely character. One who did not care about the rules, or the "proper" way to worship God, but cared instead about reaching out to those in need, with love. It seems that God was not known on that road to Jericho in the form of the most righteous, but was known instead in the form of the one who acted in love. Jesus' words of instruction to that man still apply to us; "Go, then, and do the same". Priest, Levite or Samaritan? Which example will we choose to follow? 5