Meditations: The Good Samaritan

True Love

Once on a very cold February night, I was walking back to my flat from the CSC student office. In front of me, I saw a man swaying from side to side as he crossed the road. In England, it's usually drivers whose cars sway from side to side who are drunk, whereas they joke that in Moldova it's those who drive straight who are drunk (if you see the roads here, you'll understand). In any case, this was definitely an English swaying.

Eventually, the man approached the other side of the road but collapsed before making the pavement. I was tempted to look the other way and carry on, but it was a cold night and the man was lying on the roadside. I reluctantly crossed over to try and help. Fortunately, he managed to get up and I helped him on to the pavement. He started to move on his way but quickly grabbed a lamp post so as not to fall over. He then just stood there clutching the lamppost swaying about.

I tried to talk to him, but he just kept saying to me ‘Italiano'. My Italiano is not too bellissimo so it didn't make for much of a conversation. Wondering what to do, I called a friend from church who advised me to call an ambulance, which I did. I explained the situation to the lady at the ‘skoro pomochi' (emergency help) centre. She asked me whether the man was going to still be there as it would be 20 minutes before an ambulance came. He didn't look like he was going anywhere in a hurry, so I said he would. Then we waited.

I tried to tell the man a little about God, but not in Italiano so it didn't make for much of a discussion. After about 15 minutes all of a sudden, the man built up a burst of energy, let go of the lamppost and headed off down the road. This was a problem because I had promised the lady on the phone that the man would still be here when the ambulance arrived. I thought about going after him and informing that he had to wait for said ambulance, but then I thought it was better to let him get on his way. Besides, I had had enough Italiano for one evening.

So, the man disappeared off and not knowing what to do, so did I. Except that after taking a few paces all of a sudden, an ambulance pulled over and said that they were looking for someone who had called. I was a bit nervous, knowing that he in England you can get in trouble for a false 999 call. However, as the ambulance door opened, I noticed the driver was someone I knew from church. Also, when I said that the drunk man had left they seemed more pleased than annoyed, closed the door and drove off.

In the Bible, Jesus tells in Luke 10:30-35 the story of a man who needs help, although on this occasion not through any fault of his own. He is a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way, he, unfortunately, falls into the hands of robbers who beat him and take what they can.

Two people pass by on the same road, one after the other. Both see him, but, like I was tempted to do in the above example, pass by on the other side of the road. This is not what you would expect as the first was a priest, the people who brought the sacrifices to God at the Jewish temple, so in other words, important and well-respected people in the Jewish religion. The second was a member of the Levites, people who were helpers in the temple, so once again people with a good position in the Jewish religion. Despite their religious status neither did anything to help the fallen man.

After this, a third person passes by. This time a Samaritan. Jesus was a Jew and on the occasion when he told this story, he was speaking to an expert in Jewish law. The Jews looked down on Samaritans because they considered them to have mixed the Jewish religion with other faiths. In 2 Kings 17, the story of how this happened is told. Due to the fact that the people in Israel hadn't been obeying God, he allowed the Assyrian King to conquer them and take them into exile. In Samaria, a large area of land in Israel, he sent other peoples to live in the place of the Israelites. These people also didn't worship the Lord, so He sent lions among them. As a result, the Assyrian King sent a Jewish priest back to teach them how to worship the Lord. However, they only started half-heartedly worshipping the Lord, keeping many of their former, pagan religious practices. Thus, over the years, a Samaritan religion developed that was based on the Jewish religion but that wasn't pure. For this reason, the Jews looked down on Samaritans. They even considered them enemies.

So, getting back to the story, a Samaritan was the last person that a Jewish audience would have expected to help the fallen man, especially as the man was travelling between Jerusalem and Jericho, so was probably a Jew himself. But, surprise, surprise, the Samaritan stops, assists the man in need and even puts him on his donkey, and takes him to an inn where he can rest and recover.

Jesus tells this parable as a response to a teacher of the law asking Him who is our neighbour that, according to Leviticus 18:19, we are supposed to love as ourselves. Thus, it seems like here Jesus is illustrating what it means to love your neighbour.

When I think of the word neighbour, a certain Australian Television show often comes to mind and when we think of love in today’s society, we tend to concentrate just on the emotional side of things as emphasised by, for example, the aforementioned television programme, which generally seems to be about the feelings people in one particular street have for one another.

However, I once heard a wise preacher give an interpretation to this parable that I have never forgotten. In the story, we see three different types of people, with three different attitudes to the traveller.

Firstly, there are the robbers. Their attitude to the man is 'What’s yours is mine if I can take it.' They beat the man and take by force what they want from him. It’s not too hard to see that rather than love, this is simply taking advantage of someone weaker.

Secondly, there are the religious people; the priest and the Levite. Their approach is 'What’s mine is mine if I can keep it.' In other words, instead of sacrificing what they have to help the needy man, they cross over the road and keep what they’ve got. To help the man would have cost them something, and they are obviously not keen on that. Again, not a good example of love.

Finally, there is the enemy, the Samaritan. He takes the position 'What’s mine is yours if I can give it to you.' He stops and gives up time, energy and resources to bandage the man’s wounds, then putting him on his donkey and taking him to an inn, where he can rest. There he also pays money so the man can be looked after. And he does all this, even though he was someone who others looked down on and could even have considered an enemy.

Thus, we understand from this parable that love is sacrificial. It means giving of what we have for the good of others, even if it costs us something, even if we don’t receive anything in return and even if we don’t like those who are in need.

Jesus finishes with a challenge, 'Go and do likewise,' which raises the question of how can we love others in this way. The answer we discover reading the rest of the Bible, where we see that this is exactly what God did for us in the person of Jesus, who sacrificed what He had for our good, even though He didn't have anything to benefit personally, and we humans were His enemies because of our rebellion before God. Indeed, it was humans who Jesus was actually helping by showing them the right way to live, who decided to have Him killed. This sacrificial love is what is known as agape love.

In conclusion, how can we show this sort of love to others? It’s very hard as my example at the beginning illustrates. However, it is possible because Jesus has already shown us such a love and as it says in 1 John 4:19 for example, if we have experienced this love in our lives then we are able, and indeed should show such a love to those around us. It’s not easy and sometimes we will fail, however, it is possible if we truly know Him.

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