By Bob Hulteen
With apologies to those who use the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), I am writing this week’s blog the week after this text (the parable of the “The Good Samaritan”) appears. You can read the text from Luke 10:25-37, the RCL gospel for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, at the end of the blog, especially for those of you sitting in the back pew.
Why am I a week late and a dollar short in reflecting on this text? I recently read a devotional reflection using this story to talk about reparations. But, in a way that troubled me, that piece assumed that the Samaritan rightly paid for the help needed by the victim or robbery and assault. I understand at first blush that response, but I just think that’s a misreading of the story as Jesus told it.
“In all likelihood, the traveler who was leaving Jerusalem for Jericho would have held some bias against the Samaritans he saw hanging out at the street corner.”
To recap, the Samaritan, unlike the hierarchs who had already walked by, not only stopped to help the victim of robbery and assault, he transported the injured person to an inn and offered to pay for his care. Now, remember, it was the Samaritans who were often seen as the “almost-but-not-quite-like-us” group of the scriptures. They were quite normally treated poorly by the powers and principalities, the systems and structures of their day.
In all likelihood, the traveler who was leaving Jerusalem for Jericho would have held some bias against the Samaritans he saw hanging out at the street corner. There might have already been some immediate, maybe even unconscious, concern for safety for the traveler, and it would have been that he’d be attacked by the Samaritan. And, if not that, he likely would have at least assumed that, if the Samaritans were in trouble, they likely deserved to be. They are not like us.
And, now, Jesus tells us, the traveler was saved and cared for – physically and financially – by someone he might have tried to avoid when in polite company.
SO, MY WONDERING about this story is: How was the traveler changed? Did he wonder why the Samaritan helped him? Did he choose to continue to hold on to his prejudices? Did he start to see that solidarity with the Samaritans might make more sense? Did he tell this story to other residents of Jerusalem or Jericho? Did he go searching for the particular Samaritan in order to repay him for his kindness and generosity?
In real conversations about reparations, sometimes people in our current society can have feelings hurt or fears stoked about losing “what is theirs.” In response, we want others to take care of our fragility. We hope that today’s Samaritans will ensure our safety and well-being.
“Did he respond to the ‘neighborliness’ of the Samaritan by redefining himself as a neighbor to the oppressed?”
Back to Jesus’ parable, the traveler may have been changed by this experience. But, we don’t know yet about his commitment for reparations toward Samaritans, given his probable prejudice. Did his experience give him a new angle of vision, to challenge previously-held conscious or unconscious beliefs? Did he respond to the “neighborliness” of the Samaritan by redefining himself as a neighbor to the oppressed?
From the story Jesus told, we can’t answer those questions. But, we can ask them of ourselves.
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 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.”
And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
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. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
“But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 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. 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.’
“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”