Who Is My Neighbor?

Today's Application of the "Good Samaritan" story

Copyright The Bible Texts.com 

www.bibletexts.com/texts/parables.htm#good-samaritan

A message from Sister Angela:

     I invite you to take the time to consider this familiar old story once again.  Yet, perhaps for the first time, consider it in a new light, as it is presented here.  I believe Christ's original message is as timely for today as it was more than 2000 years ago.  The religious leaders of Jesus' day misunderstood His teachings.  I believe God is prompting us to ask ourselves, "Do 

we really understand today?"

 

TEXTS

• Luke 10:30-35 [+ 25-29, 36-37]

  [25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 He answered, "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." 28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"]

  30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

  [36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."]

  What was Jesus really saying, in today's words?

REFERENCES

• Luke 10:27 - love your neighbor as yourself
  • To explore additional references in the Bible and other writings, browse "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF" at http://www.bibletexts.com/topics/l.htm#love-neighbor.
• Luke 10:31,32
  • No 8:19-28 ["pass by"]
• Luke 10:37
  • My 149:3

COMMENTARY

• Luke 10:30-35 - Samaritan hero - a shocking story to Jesus' Jewish audience

  • See Hear Then the Parable: A Commentary on the Parables of Jesus (by Bernard Brandon Scott), pages 189-202.

    The Samaritan is a mortal enemy, not the model of good comportment... What commentators have failed to notice is that the Israelite is excluded from being the parable's hero. To remain in the story the hearer cannot play hero but must become a victim... The hearer's only possible course is to identify with the half-dead and be saved by a mortal enemy... (pages 200,201)

    As parable the story subverts the effort to order reality into the known hierarchy of priest, Levite, and Israelite. Utterly rejected is any notion that the kingdom can be marked off as religious: the map no longer has boundaries. The kingdom does not separate insiders and outsiders on the basis of religious categories. In the parable the Samaritan is not the enemy but the savior, and the hearer does not play hero but victim... Here the Samaritan is not converted. Gone is the apocalyptic vision of ultimate triumph over one's enemies. The world with its sure arrangement of insiders and outsiders is no longer an adequate model for predicting the kingdom. (pages 201,202)

  • See In Parables: The Challenge of the Historical Jesus (by John Dominic Crossan), pages 55-64,84.

  • See The Parables of Jesus: Red Letter Edition (by The Jesus Seminar), page 30,31.

    Since there was a deep and longstanding hostility between Jews and Samaritans rooted in political and religious rivalry, a story with a Samaritan hero would have shocked a Jewish audience. The Samaritan breaks down social and ethnic barriers by serving as a friend and savior of the anonymous Jew who was waylaid on a dangerous road... (page 31)

  • See A Credible Jesus: Fragments of a Vision (by Robert W. Funk), pages 167-171, "The Samaritan."

    The Parable of the Good Samaritan is commonly understood as an example story... I believe Jesus formulated it as a parable and specifically as a parable of grace... The listeners are simply incensed that Jesus would award the hero's role to the Samaritan... One thinks immediately of "love your enemies." ... The injunction would have to be turned around: "Let your enemies love you." In either form, the admonition is unthinkable in a tribal, honor/shame culture. Love was reserved for tribal members. Hate was the order of the day for aliens and members of other tribes. The story simply subverts the lived world of the peasants in Jesus' audience... (pages 167, 170, 171)

    Scholars are sometimes asked why Jesus was killed. Very complex political, social, and theological answers have been given to this question, any or all of which have some degree of validity. But a simple rejoinder may be quite adequate: The parable of the Samaritan could easily have gotten Jesus killed. (page 171)

• Luke 10:30-35 - Samaritan hero - a shocking story to Jesus' Jewish audience

  Some real "food for thought" in today's world...

  • To comprehend the shock this story would have produced to Jesus' Jewish audiences, please consider any one of the following three scenarios:

    • 1. You are a 1950's era white Anglo-Saxon protestant from Georgia . At a whites-only Sunday church service in Georgia, you are challenged by a guest preacher at the pulpit to answer the question, "Who is your neighbor?" This question came after he had just quoted the Old Testament (Lev 19:18) passage, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

      The guest preacher then told you a story of a fellow-Georgian white guy who was traveling through Mississippi in 1952. This white Georgian was brutally beaten up inside a white bar he had visited for the first time. (In the bar he had been bragging about how Georgia Tech had beaten MSU in a recent football bowl game.) Even though the man appeared dead, the police were not called. The local preacher was in the bar at the time of the beating, but the guys who beat up the Georgian man were from the preacher's congregation and from prominent families, so he left immediately after the beating. A church deacon was there, too, but he also left immediately. Several of the guys in the bar carried the Georgian man out to a nearby black part of town to frame black folks for the supposed death.

      Note: In the period between post-Civil-War Reconstruction and the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's, it was not uncommon for blacks to be framed for a variety of violent crimes that actually were committed by whites. During that period many lynchings of innocent blacks were based upon completely fabricated allegations. Also during this period blacks also were systematically demonized by white racist groups (and even in a very popular, patriotic silent film), which were greatly influenced the American public and many politicians. Sadly men, women, and children in the racist group were portrayed in propaganda and political speeches as being true patriots and the heroic defenders of Christian values, which was the exact opposite of the truth. To explore authentic Christian values of the earliest Christians, see http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/genuine-christianity.htm.)

      In the same way during the US conquest of what is now the American West, Native Americans often were demonized as savage heathens and falsely framed for violent crimes that actually had been committed or orchestrated by whites. Violent actions against Native Americans were also justified by the argument that the Native American's were obstacles to the development, expansion, and prosperity of the US.

      An hour later a black man, who was coming home from working the evening shift at a local factory came upon the beaten-up white man and found that he was alive and now slightly conscious. No one in the black community had a phone to call a white doctor or white hospital, so the black man borrowed a neighbor's truck and carefully drove the man to the emergency room of a white hospital that was nearby, but not too close -- a hospital that he believed would also protect the man from the white men at the bar, whom he suspected had done the near fatal beating. At the hospital the black man offered to help the white man in any other way he could. The white man thanked the black man for saving his life.

      The guest preacher at the pulpit then asks his white Georgian congregation, "Which of the three acted like a neighbor? The preacher, the deacon, or the black man?"

    2. You are a contributor to and participant in the Conservative Family Values movement. You have come to a certain American city to attend a big Conservatives Family Values event announces, among other things, that the killing of US soldiers in Iraq is God's judgment against America's moral decay, especially tolerance of gays. (This description is based on an actual newspaper account.) On Sunday morning you happen to attend a nearby church before heading home. You are challenged by the guest preacher at the pulpit to answer the question, "Who is your neighbor?" This question came after the preacher had just quoted from Old Testament (Lev 19:18) passage, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

    The guest preacher then tells you a story of another Conservatives for Family Values event attendee. He got lost while in that city. While walking through a run-down part of the city, he became ill, fell to the side-walk, and passed-out next to a homeless woman who was on top of a sidewalk grate, from which warm air was coming up to keep her -- and now both of them -- warm on that cold winter day. Soon another homeless man came by, took the man's watch and wallet, and swapped his own beat-up coat, hat, and shoes, for the man's very nice ones.

    An hour later a small group of Conservative Family Values event people -- a preacher, a deacon, and some children -- also happen to be passing by there. They saw the unconscious man -- whom they thought was a homeless man sleeping next to his woman partner. As the woman began to stir, the preacher of the group spoke to the deacon and to the children saying what a sinful sight this was and how it illustrated the need for their Conservative Family Values movement. And they continued walking.

    A few minutes later a well-dressed gay couple came by, arm-in-arm. They recognized the homeless woman, to whom they offered a bottle of water and a granola bar that one of the men had in a bag. When they tried to stir the man, they realized that he was ill and needed professional attention. He was barely conscious at first. The couple immediately dialed 911 to send for Emergency Medical Services. They took off their coats to cushion his head and to keep him warm until the EMS professionals arrived. The man thanked the gay couple as they told him to let them know if they could be of any further help.

    The guest preacher at the pulpit then asks you, "Which of the three acted like a neighbor? The preacher, the deacon, or the gay couple?"

    • 3. Soon after 9-11 you are enthusiastically attending a big evangelical event at a packed football stadium. A famous evangelical preacher has been blaming the 9-11attacks on the decline in moral values in America and also has been condemning Islam as an evil and violent religion and its adherents as under satanic control. (This description is based on an actual newspaper account.) On Sunday morning you happen to attend a nearby church service before heading home. You are are challenged by the guest preacher at the pulpit to answer the question, "Who is your neighbor?" This question came after he had quoted from Old Testament (Lev 19:18) passage, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

      The guest preacher then told a story of another evangelical man -- a big man of Latino descent -- who was also in town to attend the same big evangelical event that you just attended. The night before the rally, after doing some shopping at a large suburban mall, when this man got to his car, he was harassed and then beaten up badly by some local rednecks who had mistaken the Latino man for being of Middle Eastern descent -- like the hijackers on the 9-11 airliners. These redneck guys had been following the man at the mall and had even told two friends at the mall what they were planning. The two friends also had thought he was Middle Eastern. After the attackers left, the two friends -- one the son of a preacher and other the son of a deacon -- drove slowly past the scene where the man was lying motionless on the ground. Then they drove off.

      In a few minutes an Iranian man -- a Muslim -- was driving with his family past the Latino man's car and the man's little daughter, speaking in her Persian language, pointed out the injured man to her father. The Iranian man stopped the car and went to the injured man's side. He put a blanket under the injured man's head and another blanket over him, while his wife used the family's cell-phone to call 911. The wife instructed a son to take a water bottle to the injured man, while they all waited for the EMS team to arrive.

      After the EMS team had put the Latino man on a stretcher, he thanked the Iranian family for their kindness, as the father told him and the EMS people to let them know if they could be of any further help.

      The guest preacher at the pulpit then asks you, "Which of the three acted like a neighbor? The preacher's son, the deacon's son, or the Islamic family?"