The Good Samaritan

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 There's something about a story that has the ability to capture our heads and our heart like nothing else can. It captivates us, draws us in, makes things real, and maybe is able to challenge us or encourage us. In ways that nothing else can. It's why we devote so much of our life and time to streaming shows and watching movies.

And of course, Jesus often would teach using parables because he knows the power of a story and the that stories can change the way we think and see everything.

This week we're gonna look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and this is a story that we all know very well. And I think sometimes the danger in knowing a story well is how familiar it can become.

So my goal for you is to give you the story in a new way to challenge you and maybe have it hit you in the way that it hit his listeners. So just to catch you up, what happens in this parable as a lawyer, ask Jesus, Hey, what must I do to inherit? Eternal life. And Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy about loving God and neighbor. And the lawyer says, yeah, you know, you answered right, but, then the text says to, in order to justify himself, he asked Jesus, well, who is my neighbor? You know, he don't wanna stand up and ask somebody something if it has no point, and he's trying to trap him and trick him. And so rather than respond to his question, Jesus tells a story.

He says, Hey, so there's this person who's traveling down from Jerusalem and robbers accost this person, beat them and leave them half dead on the side of the road. A little time later, a priest comes by and sees this person in need. Rather than go and serve the person, the priest steps to the other side of the road.

A little bit later, a Levite comes down and likewise does the same thing, but then a Samaritan comes across this person's path, has mercy on him or her, and engages, cares for, serves, bandages this person up, takes them to an end. Gives some money to the innkeeper and says, Hey, I'm going off for a little while. Whatever this person needs, you give it to them and I'll be back, and then I'll pay everything after that.

Rather than answer the lawyer's question. Jesus allows this story to answer and then he asks the question, which one of these people in the story was a neighbor to the person in trouble? And the lawyer, knowing he can't say anything else, says the person who cared for the other person, the one who offered mercy. And so Jesus says, go and do likewise.

You know, to put this story in a modern context, it would be much similar to something like someone is walking along Salina Street. And is attacked and robbed and hurt and left on the side of the road A little bit later, someone like myself, a suburban pastor, is walking down the street, maybe headed to, Oh My Darling, for some lunch. Maybe I'm meeting another parishioner.

And I see this person on the side of the road, but I think to myself, oh, I don't have time. I don't want to get involved. That person's not part of my congregation. I'm sure there'll be someone else who will come and care for them. So I head over to the other side of the street. Likewise, and a little bit, maybe this parishioner of mine that's coming to meet me for lunch, comes upon the same scene and does the same thing.

Oh, that's what I have a pastor for. This isn't really my job. This is above my pay grade, so to speak, and crosses to the other side of the street. Then and this is, this part of the story could finish in a myriad of ways for you, but it all comes down to this. Which people group do you think of as an enemy?

If we were to keep it in the religious context, maybe it's a person of the Islamic faith that actually shows up and serves and cares for this person. Depending upon your political persuasion, maybe for, for you, the one who arrives to care for the other one is a Trump voting truck driving person. Maybe for some of you it's the liberal left-leaning Democrat that shows up and cares for that person, whoever it is that you think of as an enemy in your day. Whoever you think of as the person who is in the wrong, that's the person who serves while you perhaps are the person who goes to the other side of the street.

And so here in the story, what we get from Jesus is that there is no place for position and privilege when it comes to loving our neighbor. And in fact, everyone is our neighbor.

Anyone in need is our neighbor. And so while the Levite, who comes from the right family and the priest who is the mediator to God and the people go to the other side, and the lawyer is just wrestling with the law. It's the person, the Samaritan, the one who is viewed as the outsider, the one who is viewed as in the wrongs, the one who shows up, the enemy shows up to care for the person, and demonstrates what it looks like to show mercy and love our neighbor.

Jesus tells this story because stories have the ability to shock us. They have the ability to challenge us, cause us to wrestle and ultimately have us even take risk. And so let me ask you a few things. What does it look like for you to be challenged by a story like this? The truth is for you and me, our lives are naturally set up in a way that has a lot of privilege.

We have natural position. We don't even have to necessarily go to the sides of town in which these things show up. And so maybe for you and I, we need to get uncomfortable with that. We need to feel that challenge and so we need to go.

Another part of the story when you think about it is it's this warning against putting people in groups and proclaiming that a whole group is of the same.

Kind of being, just because they're in that group, that's a way of creating exclusion. And by creating exclusion, it removes our need to care for them. That person is someone else. Maybe they deserved it. Maybe they're part of a different people group. They're not my people, they're not my neighbor. I don't have to take care of them.

And so Jesus tells this story to get us to wrestle with this idea that if everyone is our neighbor, how do we love our neighbor? And I think for us, it's gonna require us to wrestle a little bit to figure out ways to engage differently. You know, we have connection to places like the Samaritan Center and Young Lives as a way to help us create frameworks to do that because you and I maybe don't naturally get that way.

But there's another option too as we think about our workplace and our neighborhoods that we engage specifically, that we look to embrace all. And that we wrestle with these different ways in which the world creates exclusion. We look to break that down. So what could that look like for you? For me, right now, it's this reminder that the city of Syracuse is a place that there's a lot of brokenness, there's a lot of need.

There's a lot of people that could use help. And so how can I involve myself in a way that extends and offers mercy?

The last part of it is Jesus says, Hey, go and do likewise. Go and be like the Samaritan. Go and be a person who's willing to put yourself at risk in order to extend mercy to others. So again, you think about the Samaritan. What does the Samaritan do? The Samaritan cares for the person in need. And by doing that is putting themselves at risk. Because they're in a place that is dangerous, that is known to have robbers. And so the Samaritan stops and puts themselves in danger to take care of this person, uses resources and then hands this person off. And in handing them off, says to the innkeeper, Hey, here's some money and whatever else you need, I'll settle up when I return.

It's an open check. And so again, Samaritan enters in and puts themselves at risk in order to reflect that kind of mercy. And so let me ask you, what kind of risk are you willing to take to offer mercy to someone else? The risks could be varied. Maybe it's showing up in a part of town that you're not comfortable in.

Maybe it's speaking out in a scene, in a situation that you would normally keep quiet. Maybe you're interested in engaging some of the topics in our country right now, and you're gonna be politically bold, maybe that's the risk you're gonna take.

Maybe for you, you just see a hurting person and while you don't have the time or the bandwidth in your own mind, you say, you know what? This is who I'm called to be. God calls us to be these radical people that love and serve even our enemy, because all humans are the humans that we are called to see as neighbor, and so we take that risk and challenge.

I hope that you are able to hear this story fresh, that it challenges you, that it causes you to wrestle, that it leads you to risk, so that you might experience the love of God and participate in God's kingdom. Hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon.