Vincent Van Gogh
13/7/25
Trinity 4
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37 – Good Samaritan
The Gospel reading this morning should be rather well known to you! When the familiar is clung on to, the significance can get lost. Many of us might hold a simplistic view of this story. There is more to the Good Samaritan than simply being a good person who helps people.
The idea for the next few minutes is to look at points in the story that often go unnoticed.
Over three weeks we have Luke 10 as the set Gospel. Last week Jesus sent out the 70 to find more labourers for the harvest. They were to cure the sick and proclaim the coming of the kingdom. The disciples returned to Jesus with joy as they told him about all the amazing things they had seen and done. Jesus is overjoyed by their news and rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and prays to God the Father. Jesus blesses them for what they saw and did.
What are the disciples seeing and hearing? The answer is Jesus; they are seeing His works and hearing His words. The disciples had amazing experiences and saw the amazing power they were sent out with at work.
How is our seeing and hearing this morning? Are we missing out because we are blind and deaf to the works and words of Jesus? It happens sometimes; even to the best, most holy of us!
Many of the problems in our world and in our own lives (to some extent) stem from blindness and deafness to those around us. How can we love our neighbours as ourselves if we are blind and deaf? Many people are lonely, have no one to visit them. Some people can go for days or weeks without seeing or speaking to another person. Are we watching and listening out for those people? Are we one of those people? The priest and Levite demonstrated this kind of blindness as they passed by the beaten man. They saw but did not act; moved to the other side of the road.
I say this as much to myself as I say to you: how is our seeing and hearing? Do we need a check-up? Is there someone who this week we could practice on?
What is the Question?!
Immediately following Jesus’ comments the young lawyer stood up to test Him. What is the young lawyer really asking? His question is genuine, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus answers the question with a question, “what is written in the law?” The lawyer (no fool himself) gives Jesus a concise, A+ answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Jesus provides an A++ answer: “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” The young lawyer wants more. Maybe the lawyer really means, “Who is not my neighbour?” As in: how much love are we talking here, Jesus? Can you be specific? Where should I draw the line? Outside my front door? At the edges of my neighbourhood? Along the religious and cultural boundaries I was raised with to keep me pure and holy? I mean, there are lines, aren’t there? There must be lines. We can’t be neighbours with everyone!”
We all have lines but are they in the right place?
The Good Samaritan was not blind or deaf that day on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was likely inconvenienced and out-of-pocket by helping the beaten man. He did it anyway.
The Good Samaritan would have not have been the good guy in the original telling of this story. If we put it in a modern context: An Israeli or Russian soldier is robbed, and a Ukrainian or Palestinian villager saves their life. A racist white cop is robbed, and an African-American teenager saves his life. A transgender woman is robbed, and an anti-LGBTQ activist saves her life. An outspoken atheist is robbed, and a Bible-thumping fundamentalist saves his life.
I am not for a moment trivialising the real and consequential differences that divide us politically, religiously, racially, or ideologically. I dare not do that — not when those differences are costing people their lives this very day.
The enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans in Jesus’s day was not theoretical; it was embodied and real. The differences between them were not easily negotiated; each was fully convinced that the other was wrong. Jesus deeming the Samaritan ‘good’ was radical and risky; it would have stunned his Jewish listeners.
The Beaten Man
The man at the centre of the story does not have a voice. Everything is done to him. His name and what his business was on that particular day is unknown. If he was unconscious he couldn’t have spoken. What might he have thought or felt about his situation?
We can assume that he was Jewish. That is how the people listening to Jesus tell this story. Yes, it is a story – Jesus made it up!
Given the great hatred between Samaritans and Jews, the beaten man may not have wanted to be ‘touched’ by an enemy. Not that he was not in any state to accept or decline help.
The Samaritan man would have had to change all his plans for that day and night as we are told that he spent the night with him. The Samaritan then ensured continued care and left him safely at the inn. His help cost him both time and money; two important resources. The man could not have done anything for himself; he was completely dependent on the Samaritan at that moment.
The final question
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?
The young lawyer answers, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’
Mercy. Helping a neighbour, regardless of who they are or where they are from, shows mercy. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. How is our vision and hearing today? Are we looking for opportunities to show mercy? The obvious and the obscure.
Often those with no voice, like the beaten man, remind us of our own frailty and our burdensomeness. Remind us of our own need for mercy.
The story of the Good Samaritan is ultimately about mercy. Anyone who needs help, needs mercy is our neighbour. Let us not forget the times when we need mercy shown to us.