Brown's Daily Word 7-18-07

Good Morning,
One of the readings for last Sunday was taken from Luke 10. This is story of the Good Samaritan. The story of the Good Samaritan was part of the text for my High School English curriculum along with the Parable of the Prodigal son . These texts were in the King James Version.
In the story of the Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37 we are immediately introduced to a lawyer. He poses a question to Jesus as a "test" - "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answers this question with one of His own. "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" The answer comes back, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Good answer. And Jesus agrees. But the lawyer, not satisfied with that, still wishes to be noticed, so he asks another question "And who is my neighbor?" In other words, "OK, Jesus, I understand I am supposed to CARE, but what are the limits of my caring? When can I quit?" And here Jesus tells His famous story.
The first person to which we are introduced is the poor traveler. He had taken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in 17 miles, running through narrow passes at points. The terrain offered easy hiding for the bandits who terrorized travelers. This unfortunate man had been stripped, beaten, and left for dead. Jesus’ audience that day knew how easily it could happen and I would suspect that today we could easily identify by glancing quickly through the newspapers or watching the news on television.
Suddenly who should come along but a priest? If anyone could be expected to stop and help it would be a priest. But wait. The priest does not come over to help; he passes by on the other side. No reason is given. Perhaps it was fear. Those who beat the man in the ditch might be lying in wait to beat him as well. Have you ever come upon someone after an ugly accident? And simply passed by for fear of becoming involved." Next there came a Levite...an "assistant" priest. As the text has it, "he came to the place and saw him, [and] passed by on the other side." Another hero!
Enter character number three - a Samaritan. The GOOD Samaritan! Nowhere in the Bible will we find the words "Good" and "Samaritan" next to each other. For those folks who first heard this story, the phrase "Good Samaritan" would have been an oxymoron, (oxymoron is the putting together of words which seem to contradict each other) anyway - the only GOOD Samaritan would have been a DEAD Samaritan.
Why such depth of feeling? The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was hundreds of years old. By the time of Jesus, the animosity toward Samaritans was so great that some Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid even walking on Samaritan soil The hatred between Jew and Samaritan in Jesus’ day was at least as deep as the feeling Jews and Arabs have towards each other today. After all, if Jesus were just trying to say we should help the helpless, supply the needs of the needy, he could have talked about the first and second men who passed by and the third one who stopped and cared for the half-dead guy in the ditch. If Jesus were also making a gibe against religious establishment, we would expect the third man to be a layman - an ordinary Israelite - in contrast to the professional clergy. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite. Of course, that is NOT the way the story goes. We will deal with, ”WHY A SAMARITAN”? The Samaritan sees the man, but instead of distancing himself just as the priest and the Levite had earlier, he comes closer. As the text has it, "when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them --oil to keep them soft, wine to sterilize. Then he put him on his own animal, bought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii -two days wages, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ’Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend."’ Not an insignificant amount, not lavish either, but enough to do the job. The story is over. Jesus has responded to the lawyer’s question about the limits of neighborliness with his story and now turns the question back to the lawyer: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" And the answer, "The one who showed him mercy." Amazing, isn’t it? The concept of a GOOD Samaritan is so distasteful that the lawyer cannot bring himself to even speak the name. Perhaps the answer to that question we raised earlier, "Why a Samaritan?" is that Jesus did not want his hearers to identify with this generous caregiver. As attractive and winsome is the behavior of this man, as much of a helper/hero as he obviously was, that WOULD be the temptation. But no good Jew could do that. He would not want to be like the Priest or Levite either, so the only character left with which to identity would be the man in the ditch.
Now Jesus concludes, "Go and do likewise." What? Be the guy in the ditch? Perhaps that is not so far-fetched as we might think. We never hear if this poor victim recovers, but my assumption is that he does. That being the case, what would the effect have been on him that a Samaritan had rescued him? One would presume that it would forever color his view of Samaritans. For that matter, one would presume that it would forever color his view of the world’s victims. There would be less callousness, less inclination to lay blame for getting into such a fix in the first place, less temptation to "pass by on the other side." If Jesus’ story had gone on any longer, I would bet that this poor fellow, from that day forward, became a better neighbor to the rest of his world than he would have ever dreamed possible. On several occasions when I have thought about the story of the Good Samaritan, I have wondered about the rest of the story. What effect did the charity have on the man who was robbed and beaten and taken care of...Did he remember the cruelty of the robbers and shape his life with that memory? Or did he remember the nameless generosity of the Samaritan and shape his life with that debt? What did he pass on to the strangers in his life, those in need he met? "Has anyone ever helped you? ---

A Few years ago when our daughters were young, we were in Florida. We are traveling from Daytona Beach, on the highway. Our van ran out of gas . We got stranded there by the highway. We signaled for help. There were many Christians traveling that road that particular day. No one stopped . They all passed by. We kept praying for the Lord intervene. Finally a man stopped and gave us a ride to get gas in a nearby gas station in his gas can. He stopped and gave up his time to care and share. He was a Jehovah witness. The Lord can use strangers who become good neighbors.

Alice and Laureen came home yesterday. They're getting ready for the wedding shower for Sunita on Saturday. Thank you for praying for Janice. She's doing really well. Jeremy's mom is there to help for the next few days. I'll be away for a few days next week, attending a conference in Birmingham, AL at Beeson Divinity School on Samford University's campus. This is my annual summer event. Pastors from around the country attend. One of the main speakers for this event is Dr. Richard Bewes, from Cambridge, England.

Have a wonderful day.

Brown