Sermon Notes

El Beun Samaritano

July 15, 2007

 

What do we have here?

We have a man that comes upon robbers. He is naked, beaten, and half dead. What does a beaten man look like? We have a man that we could not tell by his clothes if he is Jewish, or what tribe or customs he honors.  We could not tell from his Jewry because it was stolen too--what economic status he has.  We can not tell from his position—face down—whether he was Jewish or not—we could not see his circumcision. We have a body that we can not identify and we can not tell if we have anything in common with this person.  We take a risk in helping him.

 

So we think someone will come by hand help the poor guy. That the point is to care for the needy.  But that help never comes.  Something else happens. For those of you that think Jesus didn’t rock the boat, the rest of the parable is for you.

 

But then the priest comes by.  He is an honorable man. The priest can’t tell if the man is dead or alive, Jewish or not, or he doesn’t even try to help. The priest chooses his ritual purity over helping this unidentified man. Before we get too judgmental, this is from Numbers 19:10b-11

This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them. ¹¹Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean for seven days. The Priest does not want to be unclean, even for 7 days.  Why take the chance. So he walks on. The Levite, does the same thing--so he passes too for fear of ritual retribution or un-cleanliness. We could easily identify with the priorties of the Priest and Levite.

 

Then Jesus says a Samaritan comes by.  A hated Samaritan.  A lawless Samaritan—they are impure—they intermarried—they abandoned Jerusalem. They are haft breads—un-loyal to the Law of Moses. Who are these self proclaimed renegades anyway—just who they think that are!  Better then us—making up their own rules—not following the laws of our fathers.

 

With no one around—no show to put on, the Samaritan was moved to compassion. It wasn’t that he could identify with the victim as a fellow Jew, or as being in the same economic class, or that he was an Orioles fan, or even a fellow Samaritan. It was because he had compassion for the person as a person in pain--he shared the same humanity. But not only was the Samaritan compassionate, he was generous.  He was using his God given wealth for the good of some one else—a complete strange in need.

 

“Go and do likewise,” Jesus said. What exactly does that mean? Showing compassion was the point of the story long before the priest showed up. The point is more then that.

 

Does it mean that the Priest and the Levite should have helped the victim?  That helping people is more important then rituals, laws, or rules.

Does it mean that we should not have pre-conceived ideas or judgments about races and groups of people?

Does it mean that we should show compassion for strangers?  That we should help others because and only because we have the share humanity with them?

Does it mean that we should help people even when they we have nothing in common?

That is a tough message for the Lawyer and us. I think Jesus is saying all these things in this parable.

 

This morning, I titled this sermon El Beun Samaritano (Sa/mar/e/tan/o), Spanish-- because the people from Latin American are our modern day Samaritans along with Arabs or African Americans, or maybe Asians, or if you are in Europe, the French seem to be viewed as an inferior people.

 

Whatever, we each have our own Samaritano. Face it.  Think about it. Deal with it.

 

Because Jesus tells us, go and do likewise.  He tells us to share in our common humanity—share in the brotherhood and sisterhood of Christ and put all the judgments behind us. He calls us to think with our hearts and love with our hearts.

 

For me, this is both the law—what we should do --and the gospel—the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ-- that we receive and share with others.