Why are we so pleased
with the Samaritan?
Why are we not so pleased
with the priest and Levite?
We know that
the Samaritan acts
as a neighbour
to the man
more than either
the priest and Levite
but is our condensation
of those two who didn't help
justified?
[PAUSE]
Notice that Our Lord
does not condemn
anyone.
He simply states that
it is the Samaritan
who is doing the work
of Eternal life.
It is the Samaritan
who is the example
of loving the neighbour.
It is the Samaritan
who realises that
he is a neighbour to the man.
It doesn't matter to him
whether this victim of highway robbery
is Jew, Gentile or Samaritan.
At this very moment,
one man is naked and bleeding
and the other is there,
right next to him.
At this moment,
the Samaritan ceases
to be a Samaritan
and becomes
a willing helper.
[PAUSE]
Maybe
the Priest could not cease
to be a priest at that moment.
But the man does not need
a sacrifice offered for him
at this moment.
Maybe
the Levite could not cease
to be a Levite at that moment.
But if the man does not
need a priest,
then he certainly does not need
a priest's assistant
to help him offer the sacrifice.
The man needs a neighbour.
The Samaritan is willing
to lay aside his identity
as a Samaritan to help this man.
The Samaritan is willing
to lay aside
all the cultural assumptions,
all the bad blood with the Jews,
all the expectations
of insult and injury
in order to see another human being
in need.
[PAUSE]
If the priest stops
trying to be a priest,
if the Levite stops
trying to be a Levite,
and concentrate
on being a neighbour
- concentrate on the fact
that they are right next to -
a man needing help
then they would be
better examples of
people who love their neighbour
and
people who love God.
[PAUSE]
Often,
we try to narrow what we can do
by clinging to the person
we believe ourselves to be.
The opportunity
that God gives us
to be a good neighbour
is an opportunity to see ourselves
as the people He wants us to be.
Any Christian bishop
knows that he is still a priest,
and any priest
knows that he is still a deacon,
and any deacon
knows that he is still a layman
with all the duties that being
a Christian entails.
No Christian clergyman
is exempt
from being a good neighbour.
But then
neither are you!
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