The Good Samaritan

Unfailing Compassion

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Luke 10:25-37

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

July 11, 2010

When we read the story of the Good Samaritan we need to look at it as it would have been seen at the time Jesus first gave us the story.  Our mental picture of a Samaritan is completely shaped by the power of this parable.  When I think of the word “Samaritan”, I think of words printed on the side of an ambulance.  In my mind I can’t separate “Samaritan” from “Good Samaritan.”   

So what was a Samaritan? 

When Solomon died in 922 BC his kingdom was already divided.  The northern group held to a faith which was more ancient in that they regarded themselves as being in line with the early, pure and simple covenant God made with Abraham.  Through Abraham these northerners identified with Jacob who would be named Israel. (See Genesis 32:28)  Thus, following the death of Solomon this northern kingdom named itself the Kingdom of Israel.  This northern kingdom believed itself to be more religiously pure followers of the original Covenant with Abram.  They felt that the urban, metropolitan excesses of the tribes of Benjamin, (Think King David and King Solomon), and Judah, (Think Jerusalem), were impure violations of that original covenantal relationship with God.  After the empire of Solomon split, the Northern Kingdom of Israel lasted about two centuries before falling to the Assyrians in 722.  Now, depending on who you talk to, southern Jews of Judah believed that the Samaritans were corrupted by the pagan ways of their Assyrian invaders.   Samaritans, on the other hand, believed that they had brought the northern group in line with the original monotheism of Abraham.  From the Samaritan perspective, the people who became corrupted were the Jews of Judah who let themselves become absorbed by the Greco-Roman House of Hadrian, and its focus on the cash flow of the Jerusalem Temple.  Judah remained a semi-independent state, but only by total submission to the corrupting influences of the Greeks and Romans.  Samaritans believed that they were holding on to the pure covenant teachings in the northern wilderness which later came to be known as the Wilderness of Damascus.  In addition to these historical differences, the Samaritans also had a completely different version of the scriptures called the Samaritan Pentateuch.  They placed much more faith in the first five books of the Bible and did not accept the other portions of scripture as being inspired.  This makes sense because the books of Psalms and Proverbs came directly from the house of David, while Isaiah, Jeremiah, and most of the Minor Prophets were concerned with reforming the temple priesthood at Jerusalem.  The Samaritans had a completely different center of worship, with a temple on Mt. Gerizim near Jacob’s Well, as opposed to Jerusalem.  They were total heretics as viewed by main stream Jews of the time of Jesus.  The bad relationship between Jews and Samaritans had nine centuries to develop before Jesus. 

Jesus gave this parable in response to a question a teacher of the law asked him about what a person must do in order to inherit eternal life.  Given the wording of the parable we can assume that this law teacher was from Jerusalem.  He would have identified with the Pharisaic – Levitical priesthood.  What the law teacher was asking Jesus to do was to distinguish the question of who gets saved and who does not get saved.  Who inherits eternal life, and who dies the second death?  The question revolved around the verse which says; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Many ancient sources linked Deuteronomy 6:4-5 with Leviticus 19:18 into a single formula, giving us the verse which says; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The key to understanding this passage was to understand who was in and who was out of the salvation picture.  It all had to do with who your “neighbor” was, and who your “neighbor” was not.  This was the follow-up question the law teacher asked Jesus.  In response Jesus told this wonderfully powerful parable about compassion and mercy. 

The first lesson we can draw from this scripture is that compassion and mercy are far stronger than any political or religious or theological question.  Love reflects the very nature of God.  As John says; “Whoever loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (I John 4:7)  What matters to God are not the historical, political, theological disputes we make so important.  What God wants is mercy.  You can compare Matthew 9:13 where Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 and says; “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” 

The first lesson of the Good Samaritan is about tolerance.  It is about understanding that people whose specific belief systems may be different from ours are still the beloved children of God.  God is the judge of who gets saved and who does not get saved.  We do not get to make that decision.  No matter how badly we may want to, and no matter how strongly our various belief systems convince us otherwise, we do not get to decide who is saved and who is not saved.  According to the parable, being saved has a lot more to do with love and compassion, and a lot less to do with where, when, and how we worship God. 

The deeper teachings of this scripture are about compassion and mercy and how we are to show compassion and mercy in a complex world where people fall among robbers on the main road between Jerusalem and Jericho.  For us it is nearly impossible for us to pull over and stop to help someone along that way.  We hear all the time about people who suffer terrible consequences whenever they stop and help someone.  Our roads are too busy and our society is too violent for anyone but professionals to stop and help a person who was set upon by robbers.  We are so insecure and the road is so dangerous, how shall we show that mercy and compassion which God requires of us? [1] Our world is so dangerous and the problems associated with helping people so difficult that we end up seeking to justify ourselves by the power of our own fears and insecurities.  We usually can’t help because we are too vulnerable and too insecure.  Common sense dictates that we, with the priest and the Levite, cross to the other side of the street, leaving the man striped and half dead for someone else to tend to.  Common sense dictates one course of action, and Biblical ideals call us to another.  In this conflict our compassion usually fails. 

I have only found one answer to this problem in the scriptures.  That answer is in three words which we can underline in this parable. 

First, in verse 33, underline the words; “he had compassion.” 

Second, in verse 36, underline the words “proved neighbor”, or “was neighbor”, where it says; “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 

Third, underline the words, “showed mercy” in verse 37. 

What we need to do is to remember that God calls us to have compassion, and to act on the basis of our compassion.  Compassion is a message our heart gives us that tells us we need to stop and turn aside and help this one.  Compassion is an automatic, gut message from God.  True compassion will never fail us because compassion itself belongs to our true nature. 

What we need to do is to realize that God may have unexpected blessings for us in the form of people we might not think would be our neighbor.  We need to allow ourselves to follow the compassion of our hearts in order that we may become neighbor, or be neighbor, or prove neighbor to the one who needs us.  Being a neighbor is all about having a commitment to relationship. 

What we need to do is to show mercy.  Mercy is all about relationships with each other and relationships with God.  Mercy happens when we realize that this person who needs our help is offering us the opportunity to improve our relationship with our Lord. 

We can break this scripture down as follows:

Have Compassion = Love your true self

Become Neighbor = Love your neighbor

Have mercy = Love the Lord your God. 

No matter which way you slice it, God calls us to love.  God calls us to love Him, to love our neighbor, and to love ourselves.  This is why we need to have and to find a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  He IS the love of God incarnate.  He IS the love of God given for us all.  A relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the same thing as a relationship directly with God. 

Finally, whenever we encounter that person in need along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, we need to trust God to show us exactly what we need to do.  In the end, our specific actions will be blessed as long as we are fully devoted to showing the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.  We need to resolve that we will inherit eternal life.  We will love the LORD our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength, and we will love even our most surprising and unexpected neighbor.  Love will solve the problems we face.  In Jesus, love and compassion will never fail us.  Amen. 

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[1] The prophet Micah asks the question better than anyone:  “What does the LORD require of you?  Micah answers the question by continuing; to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6:8)