The Good Samaritan–now here’s a Bible story anyone can understand! Jesus’ story of the stranger who does the right thing is so well-known, there are even Good Samaritan laws to assist such behavior. But as with anything Biblical, simple doesn’t necessarily mean right. This old story has a life-changing something more to say.
What about the Bad Samaritan?
Jesus didn’t choose a Samaritan as the story’s hero simply for diversity’s sake. To Jesus’ disciples and audience, the Samaritans were their enemy, and God’s as well. Close in religious practice, and yet so far away, Samaritans were the “almost” Jews–claiming to worship the one God, but doing it all wrong–they were worse than pagans! Scripture commanded Jews to stay away from these neighbors, and had for over 700 years. Just a few Biblical stories earlier, our Gospel writer records an encounter with
real live Samaritans and Jesus that does not go well. Jesus is traveling, wants to enter a Samaritan town, but the inhabitants refuse him. Apparently overreacting to this rude behavior, James and John suggest calling down fire from heaven and destroying the whole town! They are quite certain that God would want the same. What other response could God possibly have? No way Samaritans can do what God wants–they’re just rebellious and willful, and thus it has always been. The only good Samaritan is a dead Samaritan!
What shocks Jesus’ audience is the idea that there is such a thing as a Good Samaritan. The lawyer who started the conversation can’t even name the hero as a Samaritan, referring to him instead as “the one who showed mercy.” How could the member of such a backward, rebellious and evil tribe as the Samaritans be the one doing the right thing?
Samaritans of our own:
With this ancient feud as background, Jesus has more than good neighbors on his mind, and for us to be. If we are following 
Jesus, then this story demands that we set aside our prejudices and judgments. God wants more from us than that. To serve the Gospel purpose of reconciliation, we, like Jesus, must see the outsider as a potential insider and then reach out in love. To their credit, Jesus’ first disciples did just that, going out and preaching the Gospel to Samaritans and pagan outsiders, creating a community of faith that transcended the previous divisions. Do we dare to respond in the same faithful way?
If we were going to follow Jesus’ path of reconciliation, there are a few steps we could take.
- First, we could pray for our enemies. Jesus actually tells us to do that. Praying for enemies doesn’t mean we pray that God will destroy them–that’s too easy to do. We don’t pretend that our enemies have done nothing to harm us, or are just misunderstood, or in any other way aren’t deserving of being called enemy. Prayer simply invites God into the situation. Through prayer, attitudes may change: We may see the enemy in a different light, and grow in understanding. That may happen from the enemy’s perspective as well. Prayer reminds us that God’s agenda is much bigger than ours, and invites us to be part of that purpose.
- Second, we can look for the Good Samaritan. Normally we look for the news articles, sources and spins that will confirm the opinions we already hold: our side is right and their side is wrong. Rarely is life as simple as our chosen news makes it out to be. If we discovered the astonishing truth Jesus shared with his disciples about the possible existence of Good Samaritans, that might change us as much as it changed those first disciples.
- Then comes the hard part of learning to connect with Samaritans. We might need to talk, to listen, empathize, share, challenge–the job here is to be what we are: Christ’s people. That means sacrificing other identities, purposes, judgments and loyalties for the one identity that matters: Being God’s beloved people, redeemed through Christ, inspired by the Spirit.
In the end, we will find the life we are meant to have only as we sacrifice these lesser attempts at living.
The Samaritan will change your life
No doubt the victim in Jesus’ story saw Samaritans in a different way after his life was saved by one. We whose lives are saved by Jesus now learn to see all God’s creation in a different way, through God’s eyes. Anything less is simply that.
How have your prejudices and opinions been changed by the Gospel? How might Christians serve as reconcilers and community builders now? What can Trinity do?