Andrew Kinoti Vermilion/Mannville July 14, 2019

Checking on your neighbor!

Luke 10:25–37

Our todays reading from the Gospel of Luke is one of the most known stories in the Bible. It’s about the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is such a popular parable that out of it we have added in English language a phrase, “good Samaritan, when referring to somebody who helps another person they probably don’t know when in need. I hear that there are even laws called the Good Samaritan laws. Well, I first heard of the Good Samaritan laws from the comedy show, Jerry . In their last episode the Seinfeld gang is found guilty of breaking the “good Samaritan law” when they watched amusingly as a person is carjacked without them trying to help him.

I don’t know what you make of this parable. I have read and heard this parable so many times in my life. I have preached on how we need to be like the good Samaritan and not like the Priest or the Levite who did nothing to help the man who was attacked by the robbers. Throughout this week I have been thinking about the less talked about characters in this parable- the robbers! I therefore ask you to indulge me as we explore these villain characters in this parable- the robbers and their robbery.

As I was thinking through this parable, on Friday, one of my Facebook sent this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. It goes like this, "Here was the weakness of the good Samaritan. He was concerned with temporary relief, not with thorough reconstruction. He sought to sooth the effects of evil, without going back to uproot the causes.”

This quote came to me at the right time when I was wondering about these robbers. I was wondering how regular was the act of robbery on that road from Jerusalem to Jericho? Robbery here could have been so common that Jesus found it good to give this parable and apparently the inquisitive lawyer understood it easily. Was there something that the people involved in this parable, and also the people in real life, could have done to address the issues of insecurity on that road?

As we ponder these questions let us look at the man who asked Jesus that question that lead to this parable. We read he was a lawyer. He was a man with privileges in the society. He had a standing in his community. He was an opinion leader who could influence the way things were done. Actually, that is what he is doing with Jesus. He is testing if Jesus is smart enough to warrant his respect. I guess, if it was today, he would be somebody like an MP or a person in legal profession with power to influence the systems of governance. It is somebody who could have the power to address and eliminate insecurity in the society by setting up good legislation. But I guess he has a problem. This lawyer is egotistic. His question is a self-centered question.

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“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Though a valid question, there is problem with it. It is all about the lawyer.

I guess it is this individualism that Jesus is challenging with this parable. With the answer that you love God and love your neighbor the lawyer finds “loving your neighbor” challenging. So, he wants to justify himself by asking Jesus who is his neighbor. It is after this question that Jesus tells him this parable which begins like this,

“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.

What follows are three people who come across this attacked man. The first two passersby, the priest and the Levite, are people of influence just like the lawyer. But they don’t help. It is a Samaritan, a person of another race, another tribe who helps. Probably he had his influence among the Samaritans considering that he had enough money to pay for the motel and the treatment of the attacked man? I guess this is where Martin Luther King is trying to lead us by noting the Samaritan’s failure to address the root cause of the attack. I also guess that Martin Luther King Jr is not saying that the Good Samaritan should not have helped too. He is challenging the good people to go an extra mile to address the root cause of social evils.

I wondered how it could have been had the Levite, the Priest, and the Samaritan called an emergency meeting in their community to set a security agency to patrol that road? I wonder how it could have been had they formed a delegation to go to the government to raise this issue of insecurity. I wonder how it could have turned had the Samaritan, the Levite, the Priest and the Motel Owner mobilized other privileged people and the whole community to set a security fund in the region? I think these and many other ideas could have reduced the acts of robbery along that road. Or is it that that the level of poverty was so high that some people had turned into robbery? I wonder!

I am sure this is parable is as valid to us today as it was during Jesus’ time. Who is my neighbor? How do we check on them? How do we make sure that we set good laws to make sure that our neighbor’s children don’t turn into robbery? Even as we do the good Samaritan’s acts of kindness, we are also called to go beyond paying the bill for the motel and medicine. It is good and very important to save a life in immediate danger but it is even greater to make sure that no more life will fall in this danger again- no more people will fall into the hands of robbers.

Checking on our neighbor is a holistic call. May we pray that God give us wisdom to be good neighbors who look at the bigger picture to create a good community that is guided by the love of God.

In the name of God, the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

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