The Good Samaritan 1 - Luke 10:25-30

It’s unclear whether or not the lawyer who speaks to Jesus next is among the returning seventy or if this is another place and time away from the testimony meeting like gathering we considered yesterday. I assumed that the lawyer who poses this question is doing so with malicious intent, trying to trick the Savior, but rereading it here, it seems possible that the lawyer was asking the question genuinely wanting to know the answer. A “certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” I guess with the term “tempted” in there, it speaks to the negative nature of his intentions. Jesus answers, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” This is an interesting question because at this point I would think that clearly the ten commandments would have been the first to anyone’s mind, being the governing law of the times. But then again, the Pharisees had enacted over 600+ smaller laws that could have been the answer here too. But the lawyer gives an answer that I didn’t expect, and that honestly I thought was only given by the Savior to his followers and afterward. I didn’t realize these commandments that the man gave in answer had been taught in ancient Israel. The lawyer answers, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and withal thy strength, and with all thy mind; and they neighbor as thyself.” Maybe he thought that by giving this non-standard answer that it would trip up Jesus more, but nope, Jesus took it and ran, giving us one of the greatest parables of all time.

Jesus answers, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.” This is the part where I guess that we can assume the guy is just trying to mess with Jesus because he follows up with, “And who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answers, “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.” Some background on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the American Bible Society tells us that according to Josephus, the road between the two cities was about 18 miles long at the time of Christ. The website says, “A traveler descended from Jerusalem’s height, approximately twenty-five hundred feet above sea level, to Jericho’s depth, some eight hundred twenty-fixe feet below sea level. In that short geographical space, the descent was approximately sex-tenths of a mile. Travelers, merchants, pilgrims, and soldiers have for centuries gone down to go up (traveling north to Jericho) and gone up to go down (traveling south to Jerusalem). Such a dramatic change in height brought with it a startling rapid shift in environmental conditions that must have proven exhausting for anyone making the journey… While Jerusalem received about twenty inches of rainfall a year and experienced a Mediterranean climate, Jericho received only eight inches of rain a year and was more African in its climatic orientation… The climatic changes produced unique environmental markers. After the point along the journey where rainfall amounted to sixteen inches annually, there were no more trees. After the twelve-inch rainfall line, vegetation was reduced to a cover of steppe shrubs, and finally, at the eight-inch line and beyond, only desert plants found enough moisture to survive.”

I know that this was a long description, but honestly I’ve never even known that there was an actual road from Jerusalem to Jericho and I feel that with more information and understanding the reference makes Jesus’ parable more personal, like I can nod my head and say, “yup, I can see that happening, that is a dangerous place.” We empathize more with the characters, and we relate more to the moral of the story, we personalize it more. It’s like if Jesus was trying to tell me a story and said, “a certain man was walking from the Target in West Covina to the Walmart in Baldwin Park.” I would know exactly where that is and I would be able to internalize the story more because I can see that person, I can understand the circumstances. It becomes more personal for me and I’m more invested. I was trying to find a sketch of the dramatic landscape of the road along with the vegetation, but maybe I’ll just have to draw it out, I find it very interesting.

Looking for some spiritual insight on this parable I came across an article posted on the Vatican’s website, meaning this is from the Catholics. The article gives some excellent perspective saying, “Jerusalem was the holy city where the Temple was located, where Yahweah had chosen to make His dwelling place. It was thus a symbol of the divine and the sacred. In contrast, in scripture we often find Jericho standing for the world. As Origen put it, ‘… the man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho falling among thieves, represents Adam driven from paradise into the exile of this world. And when Jesus went to Jericho and restored the sight of the blind men, they represented all those who in this world suffer from the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of Come comes.’ Jericho is in a sense a symbol of secular culture. And that man who was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho represents the whole of humanity, as a matter of fact all of us. Like him, are we not too on a journey? For are we not all pilgrims travelling together? Somewhere along the path, we are waylaid and robbed, deprived and stripped of what is best in us, the spark of the divine and the sacred!” I found this to be an incredible parallel that I had never before heard nor considered. Truly, as we left our sacred home in the pre-mortal world, we found this life to be unforgiving, brutal, and savage. So many of us lay by the wayside spiritually, almost dead, and I can totally understand that perspective because I’ve been there and I was just there the other day. Physically I was alive but emotionally and spiritually I was without movement, it was very painful.

This man going from Jerusalem to Jericho can be assumed to be a Jew because why else would he be in Jerusalem, but this article asks, “Have we ever stopped to reflect that this man has no name or nationality, no particular culture or community, no race or religion? He was just a man. Yes, any man, and person in need. Every person in need is my neighbor.” I feel like there was a reason why Jesus did not elaborate on the details of who this man was because ultimately it doesn’t matter. It’s like the saying, “the question isn’t can they think or can they reason, but can they suffer.” Our obligation to others doesn’t stop when we find out who they are or what their background is, our obligation to others stops when we have done what we can to alleviate their suffering. It’s difficult to know exactly what to do sometimes, like take a homeless person for example. I personally don’t give money to people who appear homeless when they ask, but I will give food. I feel that giving money will enable a possible addiction that they might have, and if I can’t buy drugs with my money, then they can’t by drugs with my money. I’ve thought a lot about what my response to that situation should be, especially with my kids, because I want to teach them compassion but also about enabling, I’ve calculated my response and I feel good about the conclusion that I’ve come to.

I think it’s important to note also that the man was robbed and beaten, things that were out of his control. In this life we are beaten down many times by circumstances that are out of our control. We don’t get to choose the family or situation that we are born into, we are hurt as children, we are targeted and harassed by people and disappointed in our condition, these are all things we can’t control. Yes, we as mortals are sinners, and that is something that we bring on ourselves, but so much of what we have to overcome is not anything that we do. This parable would make sense even if the man was injured because he was being stupid and hurt himself, he would still need and be worthy of help, and it would still be our obligation to do that for him. This seems so doom and gloom, but I really liked what this article said about our circumstances, saying, “The world we live in is an ocean of suffering… Suffering is our common heritage. Has suffering a meaning?... Jesus did not eliminate suffering; He elevated it… It is strange but true that suffering unites. It brings us closer to those who suffer and perhaps even closer to ourselves! For when we are laid low and rendered weak and helpless, we sense more acutely not only our creatureliness before God, but also our solidarity with the rest of humanity. We might forget those with whom we have laughed; but we never forget those with whom we have cried!” To give meaning to suffering is a true gift and a victory.