Thursday, April 7, 2016

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus,  “And who is my neighbor?”  In reply Jesus said:  “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.  ‘Look after him,’ he said,  ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  The expert in the law replied,  “The one who had mercy on him.”  Jesus told him,  “Go and do likewise.” - Luke 10:29-37

This parable of the Good Samaritan may be one of the best known and best loved (along with the parable of the Prodigal Son) in all of the Bible.  However, while it is one of the best known, it may also be one of the least lived parables by those who claim to be Christians.  

Keep in mind that this entire parable is told in response to a question that was asked of Jesus.  An expert in the law was questioning Jesus about who really qualified as his neighbor. This story is Jesus’ brilliant and powerful answer.

When Jesus begins His story by saying, “a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho”, he is referring to an actual road between the two cities; it was about 17 miles long and it really did go “down”.  The road from Jerusalem to Jericho dropped nearly 2,500 ft over those 17 miles!  It was also a notoriously dangerous road where robberies and ambushes of travelers was not uncommon.

We aren’t told anything about this poor fellow who gets attacked and left for dead.  We don’t know anything about his ethnicity, his religion, his occupation, or his family.  He is just a person in desperate need of help, which is kind of the point Jesus is making.  But we do know something about the other three characters in the story: a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan.  Everybody knows the story from here right?  The priest and the Levite ignore the guy, but the Samaritan has compassion on this fellow and helps him.  

It is easy to be harsh and judgmental about the actions of the priest.  But the truth is that it would not have been easy for the priest to help this guy.  First of all, it could have been a trick or a trap.  Perhaps those robbers who attacked this guy were still nearby.  Perhaps they were waiting in ambush to attack him.  Secondly, he doesn’t know if this man is dead or alive.  If the guy turns out to be dead, or if he dies while he is trying to help him, then the priest would be defiled (ceremonially unclean) from touching a dead body (Lev. 21) and would not be able to carry out his priestly duties.  He would have had to go back to Jerusalem and carry out the complicated cleansing rituals in the temple in order to have another priest pronounce him clean again.  This would have taken at least a week and would have involved considerable expense for the priest and for his family.  In other words, it would not have been an easy thing for this priest to decide to stop and help; he would have been taking a pretty big risk.  To help this guy was probably going to cost him a good deal of time and money.

I think it is a bitter irony that it was the priest’s own religion that kept him from stopping to help this man.  Remember that Jesus had just said that the two most important commands in all of Scripture are to love God and to love others; He does not say that the most important commands are the OT laws about staying “clean”!

Who is your neighbor?  Anyone in need of compassion (this means everyone).
What holds you back from extending compassion to others?
Does your “religion” ever get in the way of your compassion? 

Pastor Jeff Frazier