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talking to myself

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Helping those in need


markdohle

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(The Good Samaritan)
Helping those in need

33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when
he saw him, he had compassion.
34 He went to him and bound up his wounds,
 pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and
brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 And the next day
he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying,
‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay
you when I come back.’
36 Which of these three, do you think,
proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
37
 
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him,

“You go, and do likewise. “Luke 10:33-37


It can be difficult for a reader to put themselves into a story that was written thousands of years ago.  Cultures change, and I am sure that if I were to suddenly find myself two thousand years in the past, there would a great deal of difficulty in adapting to the mores of such a time. 

Like now, there were back then, animosities between different groups that ran deep and the enmity was passed on from one generation to the next.  It was felt on a visceral level and was considered to be a morally upright position to hold, on both sides.  Such generational hatred was present between the Jews and the Samaritans.  If I lived back then, I have no doubt that I would also carry the burden of this distrust and even hatred of whichever group was other than me.

A man, a Jew, was set upon by robbers and left for dead.  So two good men passed by, both from the Levitical clan, one a priest, the other one of the men who assisted the priest in the temple. Both of whom were most likely on their way to Jerusalem for a Holy Day and perhaps both had duties in the temple and had to remain ritually clean. So they could not help the injured and perhaps dying man on the side of the road.  So I can’t condemn these men, they were doing their duty.  Yet they neglected a higher one.

Then along comes the Samaritan, who no doubt, being a man of his time, had no love for Jews and avoided them whenever possible.  In fact, the thought of helping a Jew would most likely be abhorrent to him.  Yet something interior happened when he saw the man on the side of the road, who was not a brother Samaritan but an enemy.  He experienced something that propelled him over the wall of prejudices and hatred and perhaps for the first time in his life he saw this Jew as just another human being in need of help.  He felt something that both the Levite and the Priest repressed (to their harm I believe), he felt compassion.  He saw a brother, a man, not an enemy.   However, the shocking part of this story for the people of Jesus’ time is that the Jew might have preferred to die instead of being helped by the ‘Good Samaritan”.  Yet compassion was shown to him anyway.  This understanding of seeing another human being as a brother in need allowed for the double wall of prejudices and distrust to be walked through as if they did not exist. 

Even the inn-keeper was brought into this.  Perhaps seeing the act of compassion that the Samaritan had for the Jew, it allowed the inn-keeper to trust this stranger to come back and cover expenses, or maybe even opened the heart of this business man to see this injured man as more than an inconvenience but again, as another fellow human being just as he was in need of help. 

It would be the same thing today if a Christian or Non-radical Muslim saw a soldier of ISIS on the side of the road and showed the man compassion and love, cleaned and anointed his wounds and put him up in a place to heal and promised to come back and pay for anything over what they left.  Outrageous, well yes it is.  Mercy and compassion are not earned, nor does one have to deserve to receive it.  God, as revealed in Jesus Christ does the same for us, all of us, without distinction. 






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That's the message. To love your enemies. To do good to those who would hurt you. 

No one said it was an easy thing. 

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