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| Stained glass window illustrating the parable of the Good Samaritan Church of St. Eutrope, Clermont-Ferrand, France |
The Greatest
Commandment and the Good Samaritan
Jesus said the Golden Rule “… is the Law and the
Prophets.” He explained this and expanded on it later when He was being
questioned by the Pharisees, Saducees, and lawyers.
35 Then one of them,
which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great
commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.
– Matthew 22:35-40
So we love God and we love others. Love is more than just
saying, it is doing.
15 If a brother or
sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you say
unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give
them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
– James 2:15-16
Just saying, “I love you” isn’t enough to convince people
that you love them. People want to see actions. They want to see that you care.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew
thee my faith by my works.
– James 2:18
Love and faith are expressed in action, not in words.
In the Greatest Commandment, Jesus quotes Leviticus
19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But who is our neighbor? Is it the
person who lives next door to you? Is it the person across the street? Is it
just the people who you think live in your neighborhood? Is it just people you know?
Jesus was asked a very similar question.
25
And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, “Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He
said unto him, “What is written in the law? how readest thou?”
27 And
he answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbour as thyself.”
28 And
he said unto him, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”
29 But
he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
– Luke 10:25-29
Jesus responded with a parable that has become known as
The Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Before we get into that, we need a little background on who the Samaritans were
in relation to the Jews.
The Samaritans are an ethnic and religious group in what
is now north eastern Israel. The Samaritans descend from the remnant of Israel
that were not taken into captivity in Babylon. They do not accept as inspired
anything other than the first five books of the Bible and they believe that the
center of religious worship is not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but Mount
Gerizim.
Samaria was its own region in Christ’s time. The Jews
hated the Samaritans and thought they were lower than dogs. The Jews of
Christ’s time hated the Samaritans so much that they would take a longer route
around Samaria rather than go through it so they wouldn’t be defiled by the
Samaritans. The Samaritans weren’t as legalistic as the Jews and had no problem
going into Israel, but suffice it to say, the feeling of animosity was mutual.
With that context in mind, consider Christ’s parable
about the Good Samaritan.
30 And Jesus answering
said, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain
priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32
And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and
passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34
and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him
on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35
And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the
host, and said unto him, ‘Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more,
when I come again, I will repay thee.’ 36 Which now of these three,
thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?” 37
And he said, “He that shewed mercy on him.” Then said Jesus unto him, “Go, and
do thou likewise.”
– Luke 10:30-37
In the story, the people the Jews most expected to help a fallen Jew were other Jews. Instead, the fallen Jew is rescued by a Samaritan.
There are a lot of allusions to Jewish civil and ceremonial law in this parable, especially the holiness code. If a person were to touch a dead body, they would be considered unclean for the rest of the day. The victim may have looked dead which would explain why the priest avoided him. There were similar issues with handling blood. He didn't want to be prohibited from doing his priestly duties for an entire day. His sense of self-importance combined with his legalism overrode his sense of humanity. But he didn't just ignore the guy, he made a big show of ignoring the guy, passing by on the other side!
In Luke 14, Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and was criticized by the Pharisees. Jesus responded with the question, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?" (Luke 14:15) In other words, our sense of humanity should always outweigh any objection to helping people. Humanity trumps The Law every time.
The next guy was a Levite. Levites had all kinds of temple responsibilities even though they weren't priests. A Levite should have been an expert in The Law and as such should have known Leviticus 19:18 to "Love your neighbor as yourself." The Levite went over and looked at the guy, probably to see if it was someone he knew. He didn't know the victim, so he didn't consider him his neighbor and walked away.
The Samaritan on the other hand saw the victim, probably knew he was a Jew, set his animosity toward Jews aside and helped out, rendering aid and paying for his treatment.
“Go and do thou likewise.”
Because of the lawyer’s animosity toward the Samaritans,
he couldn’t bring himself to say the Samaritan was the neighbor to the man that
was mugged, but the lawyer couldn’t deny the moral of the story: that everybody is our neighbor and the man who helped the most was the most neighborly. People that are intolerant of us are our
neighbors. People that persecute us are our neighbors. Everybody around the
world are our neighbors.
Many cultures have at different times through history
taken this story and updated it for their own time. I heard of a Southern
Preacher in the 1850s who told the story of a free slave who helped a slave
owner. While researching, I found some humerous updates of the story involving fans from rival sports teams (Red Sox/Yankees and Cowboys/Redskins). I even found a politicized version where the victim dies because of regulation and bureaucracy.
Here's an updated version for today.
A Christian woman from a legalistic church went for a walk in the park. While in the park, she was stripped, raped, beaten and left for dead. Not long after, her pastor came by, seeing her naked and not wanting to be caught with a naked woman, completely avoided her.
A little while later, a woman from a different church came by and saw her, but thought, "perhaps God is punishing her for some sin in her life. She probably deserved it," and continued on her way.
Then, an avowed atheist and lesbian seeing the woman laying there called 911, rendered first aid and stayed with her until paramedics came. After giving her statement to the police, the lesbian drove to the hospital and paid for the woman's medical expenses.
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to her that was victimized?
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