The Good Samaritan.......

The Good Samaritan

The parable about the Good Samaritan is only found in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 10:25-37 we read: "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18:18) He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy G-d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind (Deuteronomy 6:5); and thy neighbour as thyself (Leviticus 19:18). And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side (Romans 3:20-24). But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion (Micah 6:8) on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil (Isaiah 1:6) and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee (Matthew 18:23-25). Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy (Isaiah 58:6-7; Hosea 6:6; Luke 6:36) on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

The Road from Jerusalem to Jericho

In the time of Jesus, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its dangers and difficulties, and was known as the "Way of Blood" because "of the blood which is often shed there by robbers." Jerusalem is located along the ridge of coastal mountains running north and south in Palestine. Jericho, on the other hand is located in the plain of the Jordan River in a geological rift zone hundreds of feet below sea level. The winding, meandering 17 mile road that connects these two cities descends some 3,300 feet through desert and rocky country that could easily hide bands of brigands or bandits. Josephus notes that Pompey destroyed a group of brigands here, and Jerome spoke of Arab robbers in his time. Because of their high religious stature, thieves did not usually assault priests and Levites, but everyone else were "fair game." Even so, it is possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that wounded man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around and may have asked: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But when the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
Modern-day city dwellers live in fear of mugging on streets and in subways. The robbers on the Jericho Road were pretty desperate. Even if a man had little of value, they would attack him for the value of his clothing alone. But they didn't just threaten him and take his clothing. They stripped him of his clothing and then beat him, probably with wood staffs. The Greek uses two words to describe the beating: epitithemi, "to lay on, inflict" and plege, "blow, stroke." They beat him so badly that Jesus says that they left him literally "half-dead" (Greek hemithanes).

Samaritans were hated by the Jews (John 8:48-49), to such a degree that the Lawyer's phrase "The one who had mercy on him" indicated his reluctance to even to say the word "Samaritan". The Samaritans lived in an area south of Galilee and north of Judea, part of the old Northern Kingdom of Israel. To the Jews, Gentiles were "unclean"... and not to be associated with, according to the laws of G-d. Their pagan beliefs, customs and traditions were to be avoided like the plague, and any contact with a non-Jew was forbidden. Samaritans were considered Gentiles. Samaria used to be the capital city of the kingdom of Israel. In 721 BCE Israel was conquered by Assyria, and Sargon II conducted a mass deportation of Jews from the entire region, carrying off some 27,270 captives and resettling the area with Gentile colonists from other parts of the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 17:24). Their descendents were looked upon as half-breeds and heretics by the Jews of Jerusalem. Though Samaritans believed in the Torah, they worshipped at Mt. Gerizim rather than Jerusalem (John 4:20-22). At times, relations between the Jews and Samaritans had been civil, but in Jesus' day feelings were definitely hostile. Sometime between 6 and 9 AD at midnight during a Passover some Samaritans had deliberately scattered bones in the Jerusalem Temple in order to desecrate it. The Jews were outraged! What remained now was disdain and hatred, as John observed: "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" (John 4:9b). For Jesus to introduce the Samaritan as the caring person, after a religious priest and a Levite were shown to have neglected mercy, was an especially biting comment on what passed for "mercy" among the religious pillars of Judaism.

Samaritans appear elsewhere in the Gospels. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus heals ten lepers and only the Samaritan among them returns to thank Him (Luke 17:11-19), although Luke 9:51-56 depicts Jesus receiving a hostile reception in Samaria. Luke's favorable treatment of Samaritans is in line with Luke's favorable treatment of the weak and of outcasts generally. In John, Jesus has an extended dialogue with a Samaritan woman, and many Samaritans come to believe in him. In Matthew, however, Jesus instructs his disciples not to preach in pagan or Samaritan cities (Matthew 10:5-8). In the Gospels generally, "though the Jews of Jesus' day had no time for the 'half-breed' people of Samaria," Jesus "never spoke disparagingly about them," and "held a benign view of Samaritans." In 2 Chronicles 28:8-15,we see that the Samaritans treated Judean prisoners well.

Jesus encounters a lawyer, Greek nomikos, "legal expert, jurist, lawyer," - a man skilled in interpreting the Jewish Torah (i.e., the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Pentateuch). It's fascinating to see that Luke places this incident directly following Jesus' rhapsody to his Father, "You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to children...." (10:21) The rabbinical writings of the Talmud are full of carefully reasoned legal distinctions about when a law is in effect, and when it is not.

The Jews typically interpreted the word "neighbor," as meaning "one who is near," in terms of members of the same people and religious community, that is, only their fellow Jews (as in Matthew 5:43-48). The Pharisees tended to exclude "ordinary people" from their definition. The Qumran community excluded "the sons of darkness" from their definition of neighbors. The lawyer agrees that the essence of the Torah is to love one's neighbor as oneself, but then seeks to limit the application of this to fellow Jews only. Love your own race and faith community, he believes, and you have fulfilled the law. Luke tells us that his first motive is to "test" Jesus; his second motive is to "justify himself," to defend his own limited interpretation of the Torah. Here is a scholar struggling with integrity between his beliefs and actions.

Some of us study the Bible, "looking for loopholes" just to get around what the Bible actually means and what G-d wants. They see a need to be met but through their manipulation of theology - they manage to avoid meeting it. Explaining that their refusal to actually do the right thing - is G-d's will in their opinion! If the law is for us to love our neighbor, the "lawyers" among us often try to limit who "our neighbor" is, so as to limit our personal responsibilities. In Jesus' culture, contact with a dead body was understood to defile one (Leviticus 21:11;22:4; Ezekiel 24:25) and both the priest and the Levite were two elite members of Jewish society. Priests were particularly enjoined to avoid uncleanness. But, the Mishnah made an exception for neglected corpses, the priest and the Levite could have used the law either to justify touching a corpse or to simply ignore it. In any case, passing by on the other side of the road, avoided checking whether the man was dead or alive.

The priest would have been returning to Jericho from service in the temple at Jerusalem -- Jericho was known as a principal residence for priests. Levites were an order of cultic officials, inferior to the priests but still a privileged group in society, responsible for the liturgy in the Temple and for policing the Temple. While both priests and Levites were from the tribe of Levi (descendants of Jacob's son Levi), the priests were also descendents of Aaron, the first High Priest. These people were characteristically arrogant and hypocritical, treating others they considered to be of a lower class, such as Samaritans in particular, with contempt. Samaritans although they held some claims on Judaism, they were not pure Jews. They were half-breeds both genetically and theologically, and the Jewish religious elite was quite racist at the time. Characteristic of Jesus, he loved to compare the self-righteous leaders with the most humble people, and thus he used a Samaritan and compared them to the religious "leaders" in His parable.

Only the Samaritan exercised righteous behavior. He saw the need and took pity. The Samaritan's love of his neighbor proved costly. He did not simply cleanse the wounds with water but he used oil and wine - to cleanse and soothe the man's wounds, his own clothing to bandage him, his own animal to carry him while the Samaritan himself walked, his own money to pay for his care, and his own reputation and credit to vouch for any further expenses the man's care would require. Love can be costly. But if we have the means to help, we are to extend ourselves. The Apostle John taught, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of G-d be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18). The Samaritan was sincerely concerned and not simply reluctantly fulfilling his responsibility in obedience to the law. He had a high quality of service, sparing no expense. He made sure to complete the job, meeting all the man's needs, and not just some of them. He wasn't so calculating as to limit his service to just so much and no more. For he even returned to pay any additional expenses. He did not simply drop the wounded man off at the inn with that attitude "I did my part. Now the innkeeper can take over." But rather he stayed with him paying his expenses. The two pence represents two full day's wages to a laborer.

If one is trying to attain the righteousness which is through the law, he must realize that it is not sufficient simply to obey the letter of the law, or simply have the attitude of fulfilling responsibilities. For according to the law, one must love with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Less than this is not living according to the law. In Exodus 23:4-5 we read: "If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. Dear One, you must even help your enemy and even those that hate you!. Think it not strange dear one - Jesus told us to love our enemies!