The Gospel reading for this Sunday, from the Revised Common Lectionary, is Luke 10:25-37. It is one of the most well known parables that Jesus told, often called The Good Samaritan.

I’d like to do two things in this post.

First, put this story in the context of The Gospel of Luke.

Second, offer a simple reflection on how we desperately need this story today. jump there now>>

This story is the first parable that Jesus tells during the section of Luke that we call the Travel Narratives. Jesus’ active ministry is divided into two major sections in Luke’s Gospel. He spends most of his time in the northern region of Galilee in chapters 3-9. Then the story shifts at the Mount of Transfiguration and Jesus warns his disciples that they must take up their own cross in order to follow him.

The Gospel of Luke is unique in the fact that Luke spends ten chapters telling us about what Jesus did and said while walking from Galilee to Jerusalem to face his death.

These “travel narratives” contain, in my opinion, the quintessential teachings of Jesus according to the Gospel of Luke.

It is important to notice what happens in the story between the transfiguration and the parable of the Good Samaritan. You can see the story in my pages from A Cartoonist’s Guide to Luke.

Notice the sequence of events:

• The disciples struggle to heal a boy.
• They argue over who is greatest among them.
• They are jealous of others doing their work and getting credit.
• They want to bring destruction on a Samaritan city because the Jews and Samaritans hate each other.
• Many people are distracted and not willing to follow Jesus.
• Jesus sends 70 of his disciples into the towns ahead of him to proclaim the Good News and bringing healing.

Now we come to our text.

He already knew the right answer. This has ALWAYS been the answer. Jesus isn’t changing the heart of God or the playbook.

hmmm….

What do you think is going on in the lawyers’ mind? It seems that he is trying to find a loophole in the law so that he doesn’t have to love every kind of neighbor.

So, Jesus, in typical, non-direct fashion, tells a story…

A man (assumed to be Jewish, because we always place ourself in the center of the stories we hear) has been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. This is a horrible situation of vulnerability and need.

These two characters are the holy men of Judah. They are the spiritual leaders of the people. If the body is dead, it will make them unclean and unable to enter the Temple. Touching blood would also make them unclean. They have to go be holy. They don’t have time for this.

It was common to group the priests, levites, and lawyers together. It was also common to tell stories like this in sets of three, where the third character “gets it right.” It is fairly safe to assume that the lawyer expected his kind to show up next, hopefully as the hero, because the Law always saves the day.

PLOT TWIST!

The Jews hated the Samaritans. They were descendants of the rebellious Northern Kingdom of Israel who turned away from the Temple and were later destroyed and diluted by the Assyrian Empire. Now, they were nothing more than half-blood, mongrel, heretics.

The hatred flowed both directions.

The phrase “he was moved with pity” is unfortunate, in my opinion. The English word pity denotes condescension, in today’s usage. The phrase translates a single Greek word splangnizomai which is translated elsewhere as compassion. It literally means feeling something in your gut. It is the same word Jesus felt toward the widow in Luke 7:13.

It is a gut-level response in which the observer suffers with the suffering person.

And true compassion always moves us to action. The Samaritan gave of himself to insure the best possible care for…his enemy.

That must have been hard to admit.

Loving God and Loving Neighbor are not separate enterprises. To love God is to love neighbor, and to love neighbor is to love God, because God is the action of love.

My Simple Reflection

Tribalism and hatred is on the rise in the USA. It has always been here, to be sure. We’ve made great strides over the past century to find equality for marginalized groups. 

Here’s my take on what is happening. Powerful white men, holding an American flag in one hand and a cross in the other, are fighting back against what they perceive as a threat on their power monopoly. The irrational violence that is flowing from our government seems to be the dangerous and irradic thrashing of a drowning person.

We need Jesus’ message from this parable now more than ever. This parable teaches us three important things:

First, the Gospel is about having compassion on the weak. We need less hatred and more splangnizomai in our world.

Second, EVERYONE is capable of compassion, even a “Samaritan.”

Third, peace–shalom–will only happen when compassion reaches across previous boundaries of hatred and fear.

Oh God, grant us compassion and shalom today.