You know the expression, “a world of hurt.” That is where we live, often surrounded by suffering and pain, deprivation and injustice. And thanks to global media and inter-connectedness, we are confronted daily by the immediacy of suffering the world over, images of maimed – or drowned - refugees as urgent to us as the indigent person panhandling on the corner. Don’t we have to pass some of it by?
Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity."
The priest and the Levite are clearly the bad guys in this story (after the robbers, of course…). We expect more of religious leaders than we do of ordinary folk, and so their indifference to the man’s suffering looks even worse in our eyes. Let’s give them some credit: as religious leaders dedicated to temple worship, they both had a duty to maintain ritual purity, which would have been violated by coming into contact with a dead person. For all they knew, this man was beyond help. And perhaps they had schedules to keep and tasks to maintain, which is so often what keeps us from stopping and responding.
What is most radical in Jesus’ story is who he places in the role of hero: a Samaritan, the wrong sort of person from the perspective of Jesus’ Jewish listeners. And why does the Samaritan man stop to check out the situation? He was moved with pity.
We live our days within the tension of competing claims, conflicting responses. Needs may often stir our compassion, yet we are also caught by the often delightful demands of our work and family, and the need to maintain some balance in life. People who stop and give all the time often burn out or cheat their loved ones of their best selves. So when do we stop, and when do we walk on?
I suggest we stay attentive to when we are moved by pity or compassion or a desire to help. When you feel those things in response to a need, offer that reaction in prayer and ask the Spirit: are you inviting me to offer myself in this situation? Are you up to something that you’d like my participation in? What shall I offer? What shall I hold back? Make it a prayer conversation, not a decision you make alone.
If we approach this parable only from the standpoint of ethics, only as ones who might help, forgetting that we are also ones who'd spiritually been left for dead, for whom Jesus gave everything to reclaim, restore and renew us to wholeness, we miss the point. When we remember how much we have received, it helps us discern when and how to give.
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