There’s a phrase we all know and invoke in times of gratitude.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if that Good Samaritan hadn’t come along.”
Everyone’s had experiences where we’re left alone and in trouble. We were lost in a new city or stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. We were sucked into the abyss of loneliness and a stranger offered a smile, completely changing our day.
We thank God when Good Samaritans come along—and rightfully so.
Yet our familiarity with this phrase has diminished its’ shock value.
What’s good about a Samaritan?
“Good Samaritan” was not in the vocabulary of Jesus’ audience in Luke 10.
In fact, this was an oxymoron. Akin to saying “good Republican” or “good Democrat” today if you're in the opposite political tribe.
These phrases don't go together because they ascribe "good" to categories of people who we believe aren't just "not good," but perhaps are incapable of being good.
How can someone who voted for that candidate be good?
Don't they understand how destructive his policies are?
What they'll do to this country?
Phrases like these are tossed around without a second thought, creating a barrier between us and our neighbors. But like the Samaritan of Jesus’ story, our opponents are the ones whom Christ calls us to look on with love, to serve, and see as our neighbor.
Letting the shock sink in
If you are shocked by this then you are in good company.
The lawyer whose questions led to the Good Samaritan story was shocked too. So shocked, in fact, he could hardly give credence to the notion that a Samaritan had done right.
When asked by Jesus "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" His only response was, "The one who showed him mercy."
The words the "good Samaritan" couldn't be found on his lips.
A question for us all
Ask yourself, what kinds of people do you struggle to think of as good?
It could be an ethnic group, nationality, political or theological tribe, or your actual next door neighbor. No one is immune from having a distaste for a certain group. All of us have people whom we struggle to thing well of.
Yet Jesus’ story is a challenge.
A challenge to push through our mental barriers to see those we dislike—we disdain—as capable of amazing acts of mercy. Capable of lovingly inconveniencing themselves for a man dying on the side of the road, binding up his wounds, and paying for safe lodging to rest and heal.
Capable, it turns out, of acting toward others in the same manner Jesus has acted toward us.
Loved this one!