Sermon thoughts and other musings

Aside from Christmas, Easter, and Adam & Eve, there is probably no Bible story more well-known in the secular world than that of the Good Samaritan. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the term "Good Samaritan" is known, without people knowing the story all that well.

We forget how derisive the term "Samaritan" was to Jews in the time of Jesus. Imagine the worst epithets of modern English, put them all together, and we have the equivalent of "Samaritan." We don't hear the word with the same force today (try yelling "you Samaritan!" at someone who cuts you off in traffic - it won't be very effective) - with the result that we don't understand the story. Samaritans were hated by Jews.

This isn't just a story about compassion. If compassion was the point, then the injured person could have been a Samaritan, and Jesus would have taught the Jewish law expert to care for the person, even if he was a Samaritan. But to put the Samaritan in the position of caregiver, not care-recipient, changes the story.

Imagine seeing a story from the 1850s that went like this: a plantation owner was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. A minister came by, but walked past him. An escaped slave then came upon him, and tended to his wounds.

Would that be a story about compassion? Not really. We would understand that story as being about the humanity of the slave. So likewise, this is a story about the humanity of the Samaritan - and about all Samaritans (the word "good" never appears in the story.)

Who are the Samaritans of our society today? Undocumented immigrants? Homosexuals? The call of Jesus is to understand everyone as fully human, no less than we are.