Meditation for July 2009

Judith reads:

Over the next few months, I will be meditating with you on the parables of Jesus that appear only in the Gospel of Saint Luke. Though all the Gospels have parables attributed to Jesus in common with one another, each Gospel has parables that are unique to that particular Gospel.

This is the second month that we are meditating on the parables of Jesus that appear only in the Gospel of Saint Luke. This month we will be looking at the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25 – 37), which Jesus tells in response to a question from an expert in religious law. He asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life and Jesus turned the question back to him by asking what the Law of Moses said about it. He replied that we must love God whole-heartedly and love our neighbour as ourselves. Jesus said that he was correct and that if he fulfilled this law he would live.

The religious expert wanted to justify his original question and so asked further, Who is my neighbour? Jesus gave him the answer to this by telling the parable of The Good Samaritan. In this parable, we have the scene of a traveller being attacked by bandits and left for dead at the side of the road. Subsequently, three other people come upon the scene and the parable tells of the way in which each one reacts to the situation.

First, a priest arrives at the mugging scene but he doesn’t want to get involved in the frightening situation and so crosses to the other side of the road. Next, a Temple assistant comes along the road but he also walks away, declining to give any assistance to the victim. Then a Samaritan comes along this same road and he stops to help him.

Perhaps the victim, left half dead by his attackers, would have preferred to be helped by the Priest, or second best, would have gladly received help from the Temple assistant. However, these two religious people both pretended that they had not seen him. Though they served God outwardly in the Temple and were rewarded by the Jewish people by means of tithes and offerings for their services, inwardly, they had no mercy for their Jewish brethren but were more concerned with their own safety.

By the time the third traveller showed up, the victim would have lost all hope of receiving help and, under normal circumstances, would not even have allowed a despised Samaritan to touch him. But, as the parable tells us, [The Samaritan] felt compassion for him…soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, “Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.” N.L.T.

Having told this parable, Jesus asked the religious expert to which one of the three travellers he would give the title of neighbour. He replied that the one who showed mercy should be called neighbour. Jesus agreed with him and told him that he should go and do the same thing. We sometimes see on nightly TV news, incidents of people doing good deeds for others—incidents such as rescuing someone from drowning or saving a person from a burning house. These people are called heroes and those in need of help are called neighbours. In the parable of The Good Samaritan, it is the hero who is given the title of neighbour.

It is not always easy to show mercy, love, or kindness to others. If we find ourselves in a dangerous situation we may think it would be more prudent to keep out of the thick of things. But there is always something we can do to help. We can call an ambulance, alert the occupants of a burning house of the fire danger, or comfort a child until a relative comes; these simple acts would count as neighbourly.

Jesus doesn’t necessarily ask us to put ourselves in danger but he reminds us that to be called a neighbour requires more than membership in a religious group.

 © Judith Lawrence July 2009