Homily for Proper 10 (Year C)
Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Psalm 25:1-9
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37
Today’s Gospel finds Jesus being quizzed by a lawyer. The conversation isn’t going as the lawyer hoped at first. He knows his scriptures all right but when the issue of the identity and definition of “neighbor” arises, he believes he has the young rabbi cornered.
But Jesus responds with a little story, we call it a “parable”.
To start off, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus is a Jew. His hearers are Jews. They share a common history and live under the laws of the Jewish people of that time. Jesus is part of that common culture, even though he sometimes speaks out against some of its deeply ingrained tenets.
We call this little story “The parable of the Good Samaritan.”
The term “Good Samaritan” has entered our common usage. We use it to refer to people who do caring things and even to name hospitals.
We all know the story: An unidentified man is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It’s a journey of less than 20 miles but the change in elevation is dramatic! Jerusalem is at 2500 feet elevation while Jericho is over 800 feet below sea level making it the lowest city on the world The road is notorious. It’s dangerous, especially for lone travelers. Attacks by bandits and robbers are common. One does not undertake this journey lightly.
The traveler is attacked by robbers and beaten severely. His money is stolen and he is unceremoniously dumped, critically wounded and half dead, into a ditch beside the road.
Soon, other travelers, a priest (perhaps going “down” from Jerusalem, after fulfilling his time of service in the Temple) and a Levite, possibly on some errand from temple authorities) come hurrying down the road and, without even investigating to see if the mangled man in the ditch is dead or alive, pass to the other side of the road and continue on their way.
Some have tried to provide “plausible deniability” for the behavior of these two. The road is dangerous. They hurry to reach safety. But even the taboo of touching a dead body which would render them ritually unclean doesn’t provide an excuse since Jewish law requires that aid be given to someone who is injured, even at the risk of ritual defilement. They don’t even check to see if he is alive or dead! Maybe they offer “thoughts and prayers”.
Now the wounded guy in the ditch doesn’t need “thoughts and prayers” from the other side of the road…..he needs somebody to get down in that ditch WITH him and take care of him!
But now a third man comes down the road!
He sees the body in the ditch and stops! He dismounts, climbs down into the ditch and finds the man seriously wounded but alive. He assesses the injuries, comforts the victim, and administers first aid!
Placing him on his own animal they head for the next caravansary where he pays the keeper to look after the victim and assures all that he will return to check on his recovery and pay any accrued costs.
…but…and this is the point upon which the entire story hinges… that third man is a Samaritan!
The Jews hate Samaritans with a passion! They loath and despise them. Even the shadow of a Samaritan was said to require ritual purification.
The Samaritans return the favor!
When Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” the lawyer responds, “The one who showed him mercy.”
He can’t even utter the word “Samaritan”!
But we all know this story. We’ve heard it so many times.
Is there a way to make it come alive for us in our time?
Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. She describes herself as a “Yankee Jewish feminist who teaches in a predominately Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt.” She has written a brilliant book called “Short Stories by Jesus”.[1]
“For a final sense of the profundity of the parable, we need only look from ancient texts to present contexts,” She writes.
Then she tells a parable of her own:
“Samaria today has various names, West Bank, Occupied Palestine, Greater Israel. To hear the parable today, we only need to update the identity of the figures. I am an Israeli Jew on my way from Jerusalem to Jericho, and I am attacked by thieves, beaten, stripped, robbed, and left half dead in a ditch. Two people who should have stopped to help pass me by: the first, a Jewish medic from the Israel Defense Forces; the second, a member of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. But the person who takes compassion on me and shows me mercy is a Palestinian Muslim whose sympathies lie with Hamas, a political party whose charter not only anticipates Israel’s destruction, but also despises Jews as subhuman demons responsible for all the world’s problems.”
“The parable of the “Good Hamas Member” might be difficult for people in support of Israel’s existence. Were Jesus a Samaritan, we’d today have the parable of the “Good Jew”, told in the streets of Ramallah. If people in the Middle East could picture this, we might have a better chance for choosing life.”[2]
In these days when so many are expressing “thoughts and prayers”, are we prone to throw up our hands in dejected resignation, or worse, move over to the other side of the road and continue our journey?
But we are called to “neighborliness”!
No questions asked!
Do you ever feel like you just can’t handle any more? You don’t even want to look into the ditch?
Do you ever mutter some words about having enough problems yourself so move to the opposite side of the road?
The “Good Samaritan” and the “Good Muslim” do what God does!
God dives into the ditch, gets dirty and bloody, in order to bind up wounds and make healing begin. God is already there when we arrive!
God uses all kinds of folks to do that work. Some of them we might not even like!
Can we do anything less for those all around us in this wounded, battered, bleeding world where the binding up of wounds and gentle care are so needed?
I’m afraid “thoughts and prayers” alone just won’t get the job done.
We worship a God who “does stuff”!
God “makes things happen”: creates, preserves, summons, protects, heals, binds up wounds, and yes, instructs and challenges!
Many of those things happen down in one of those ditches beside the road!
But God is always, ALWAYS there in the ditch to meet us!
Thanks be to God!
Amen!
[1] Levine, A J. HarperOne, New York, 2014
[2] Ibid page114,115
