Some Thoughts on "The Good Samaritan"

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I usually don’t finish my sermon until late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning. But yesterday afternoon I started working on my message for next Sunday, especially as concerns the Good Samaritan. Here are some of the notes I jotted down, mostly mine, but a few from other sources. I hope the stream of consciousness format isn’t too irritating. Please use whatever you want.

——
Maybe he was sincere.
Maybe the lawyer really wanted to know what he could do to inherit eternal life.
Maybe he meant the words he said.
Maybe, but I doubt it.
Show me a sincere lawyer and I will show you . . .
It is likely, however,
far more likely, that the lawyer came to Jesus with an agenda and wasn’t interested at all in true dialogue.
——
The Problem with the parable:
The lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor”
Jesus answers with a story and his own question, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
We want a simple, straightforward answer to our questions.
Jesus wants more, much more, from us.
He wants our undivided attention,
our minds, our hearts, our lives . . .
——
But wanting to justify himself . . .
Justify – ???????dikaioo dik-ah-yo’-o
From to render (that is, show or regard as) just or innocent: - free, justify (-ier), be righteous.
The lawyer wants to be right more than he wants eternal life.
Being right is the most important thing in his mind.
To win the argument,
to win the case.
To show everyone how bright and brilliant he is.
This is all that matters.
“If you were right, I would agree with you.”
——
Just be the neighbor
Reminds me of the story of how King Arthur was taught by Merlin when Arthur was a child. Merlin would change Arthur into different animals, a fish and a bird, so that Arthur sees thing from their perspective..
Jesus does the same thing in the parable. He gives the lawyer a chance to change his perspective,
his way of seeing things.
——
It is not a matter of being right.
It is not about winning.
It is not about setting limits on love.
It is all about what you are willing to do.
Go and do likewise
Go and be that man, that woman, that child, that youth.
Don’t ask “Who shall I love.”
Just love, period.
Not commas, no semi-colons, no dashes, no parenthesis, no ifs, ands or buts,
just love the one “near” (near - another definition for the word translated as neighbor) to you.
just love the ones you see.
Do this and you will live,
do this and you will have life,
do this and you will have a life,
the only kind of life worth living.
——
In Vol 26, No 3 issue of Pulpit Resource
July 15, 2001 - 6th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10), 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Anything New in the Good Samaritan?
by Anthony B. Robinson
Robinson states:
“Do this and you will live.” Act on the truth you know. The lawyer had the right answers, but perhaps lacked the will to put them into effect. He did not need information, but formation. Not new thoughts, but a new being. Not knowledge, but motivation.”
——
Ambiguity
The story directly addresses the destructive possibility inherent in living . . .but [it] does not offer the cold comfort that death is logical, nor offer any reassurances that everything will turn out alright. (James Breech, The Silence of Jesus, page 179)
So what happens?
Does the man live?
Does the Samaritan return?
Do the actions of the Levite and Priest haunt them?
Does the Innkeeper do what the Samaritan asks?
Does the lawyer actually listen to Jesus and take his words to heart?
We don’t know, do we?
This reminds me of all the controversy over the ending of The Sopranos. The family is eating at a restaurant and there is all this tension building. We wonder if Tony is about to be arrested, or maybe even killed, when suddenly the screen goes black and the series ends. Many people hated the way it ended. More than a few actually called their cable companies to complain, thinking that their reception had went out. Part of the problem was the ambiguity about what actually happened.
There is a lot of ambiguity in Jesus’ parables, including this one. How does it end? The answer is up to us.
All we know, is that Jesus has struck us deep in our hearts, our bowels with his words.
And now, the only thing we can know is what we will do about that in our own lives.
Maybe this will tie into the plumb line imagery that Amos uses.
——
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
“Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
The man is a lawyer,
so how does Jesus try to get through to him?
By using the man’s own area of expertise . . . the law.
——
And who is my neighbor?
Who is it that I am to love as I love myself?
Who is that I am to show favor to?
Who is that I am called to work for?
To sacrifice for?
To pray for?
The scripture states that the lawyer asked Jesus this question as a means
of justifying himself - as a means of showing that he - a teacher of the
law of God - was doing all that God asked him to do.
It has been suggested - and I think rightly so given some of the teachings
of the time and the reality of human nature at all times, that the lawyer
is really asking Jesus:
“Who is NOT my neighbor? Who is that I am allowed to ignore or to
neglect? Perhaps even to hate? What is the minimal thing that I
need to do to keep God’s law of love - and what can I safely get
away with not doing…
That is a horrifying approach to keeping the law of God isn’t it?
Who must I love - and who can I get away with not loving…
It is a horrifying approach to keeping the law of God - but it makes sense
when you think about it; it makes sense when you look at the world and
consider the problems within it.
There are sinners my friends -
people so evil that even God surely cannot love them . . .
people who have broken God’s law in the most horrible ways imaginable.
Surely these folk are not our neighbors.
Surely we do not need to love them.
Surely there are other folk who are not our neighbors as well - folk who
deserve our rebuke, our contempt, our anger, or simply our neglect?
Surely those who live outside the law of God
live outside of the law that says we should love them.
Such, I think, was the kind of reasoning that lay behind the lawyer’s
question, “And who is my neighbor?”
- Richard J. Fairchild, “What Must I Do?” http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/c-or15smsu.php
——
A Journey Interrupted
By John R. Donahue | JULY 2, 2001
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=1497
The good Samaritan parable also reminds me of the novel and movie “Girl, Interrupted”
Our lives interrupted by the things we see and experience and are moved to do something about.
——
I Just Love…
By Dianne Bergant | JULY 5, 2004
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=3662
In this Gospel reading, love of God and love of neighbor seem to be two sides of the same coin. Love of God expresses itself in love of others. Both the Gospel and the first reading suggest that love of God and of others is the law of God. The Hebrew word torah (law) might be better translated “instruction.” We are instructed to love. But Moses tells his listeners that such instruction or law is not foreign to us. “It is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”