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"But he willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, and who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said,
a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell
among thieves who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded
him leaving him half dead." Luke 10: 25-37.
And so began the story that of all those that Jesus told
is more often spoken about than any other. "The Parable
of the Good Samaritan." It was intended to give weight
to the answer to the question which was asked of Him.
It says:
"True neighbourliness is seeing someone in trouble and helping
them."
The story is set in the notoriously dangerous road with its
narrow twisty turns, gradient of 3600 feet and 20 miles length,
but more because of the thievery and thuggery on it and the
many victims of such attacks. It seems that even in the 19th
century travellers had to pay safety money to local shieks
whey they used it. And in the 1930s when H.V. Morton, the
author, thought to go on his journey by that road he was advised
to finish the journey before nightfall.
As was always the case with the stories Jesus told the locale
was well known to His hearers. It was of an injured traveller,
a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan, of the two who refused
to go to the man's aid and the one who did, to be described
for ever as the "good Samaritan." The priest and
the Levite had their religious duties to attend to, and they
regarded them as of more importance than attending to someone
in dire distress. The Samaritan had a different valuation
on life.
Jesus taught that charity, kindness, thoughtfulness were
the qualities most recognisable in a person with faith in
God, not creed but character and conduct. They were evident
in everything He said and did. He valued people, one at a
time and in numbers, for He recognised their potential to
be good and to do good and equally to be manipulated by leaders
unscrupulous in their use and abuse of them. His experiences
were to be proof of that then and later.
It mattered to Jesus how people treated one another, for
life is about relationships - God and people, people with
people.
We have every reason to be thankful for good relations in
family and with friends. We are mindful that bad human relationships
have always been the cause of evils, wars and wanton destruction,
indescribable horrors, for man's inhumanity to man makes countless
millions mourn. And the domestic violence that has blighted
the lives of so many, and which continues its destructiveness
in this society. Selfishness, insensitivity and intolerance
belittle people, separate them from God and erect barriers
among them.
The story of the good Samaritan reminds us that when people
rise above their selfish desires to serve others, humanity
is seen at it's best. Acts of compassion, generous responses
to human need raise human kind to the level of Godlikeness,
Christlikeness to the Christian.
While there are those who do great things so that we are
deeply impressed by what they accomplish and how very much
they benefit others here and everywhere in the world, we recognise
that most of us have neither the capacity nor experience to
enable us to emulate them. What we can do are simple things
which makes life easier and better for others. It is in little
kindnesses that we help them and they help us. Jesus spoke
of just a drink of cold water to quench a thirst.
"To do good and to distribute forget not for with
such sacrifice God is well pleased."
St. Paul told the Christians at Corinth:
"You will be made rich in every way so that you can
be generous on every occasion." 2 Cor 9:11.
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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