Am I a Preist, Levite, or Good Samaritan? The Answer May Surprise You...

Yesterday at church our congregation watched a 12 minute modern day interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan. In it, a deacon and a youth worker pass by a beaten and bloodied elderly gentleman on the streets of a non-descript American city and do nothing to save him while a (presumably) Arab taxi driver cleans the man's wounds, drives him to the hospital, and nurses him back to health.

Seeing it portrayed in a modern context catches some of the grittier details of the story that we are wont to forget. Recall that in v. 29 of Luke 10 that the lawyer questioning Jesus is really just attempting to "justify himself" against the requirements of the law. Jesus had just told him that the law was to love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself. Obviously, if the lawyer had any sense (and he did), he quickly recognized that he hadn't lived up to that standard, so he attempted to narrow the group of people which he was responsible to love, in the hopes of maintaining his self-righteousness.

Yes, this story is about helping others in need. Yes, this story is about loving God and loving people. Yes, this story is racial equality and reaching out to those who may be foreigners in our country. But it's also about something else. Watching the film, I realized what a pain it would have been for the Samaritan to stop and help the man on the road to Jericho. In the film, the taxi driver had to halt his shift (which meant losing a considerable sum of money). He had to go help an unknown old man (which was awkward and uncomfortable). He had to clean the man's wounds (which was gross, bloody, unsanitary, and dangerous). He had to drive the man to the hospital (which incurred more financial cost). Then he had to wait overnight in the hospital (which put everything else on hold). In the original parable, the Samaritan paid for the man's healthcare costs (imagine doing that today!). Overall, it was a tall order to fill.

The final impression to be taken away, however, is that I would never end up doing what the Samaritan did. Most of us would just have called 911 and left it at that. Maybe we would have cleaned his wounds, but we probably would have looked for someone else to take responsibility. Maybe we would have even taken him to the hospital, but we wouldn't have stayed overnight, and we certainly wouldn't have put him on our insurance!

The answer to the Jesus's question "who was the neighbor" is so obvious (even the lawyer knew it) that we usually just assume that, given the situation, we'd do exactly what the Samaritan did. But if we assume that, we are telling ourselves lies and missing the point. Remember that the lawyer was trying to justify himself. He thought he had been loving to his neighbors. But then the Lord told the story of the Samaritan, which deflated the lawyer's pride and self-righteousness. In a sense, the story is ridiculous. What normal person would go to such heights of love? Yet this is what is required of us! When we realize that, we also begin to realize that there's no way that we can ever fulfill the law! In reality, we should identify with the priest and the Levite, and not the Samaritan. Once we see that Christ has done so much to secure our salvation despite our own failings, we begin to love God and love people more. And then and only then do we find the power to become little Samaritans in our own world. We would do well to remember that.