This isn’t a part of my text, but it just occurred to me as I was listening to Kasie read. GOAT. You know what GOAT stands for? Greatest Of All Time. Somebody said to me, “Groat, you have to go spend a year on a deserted island. You get to take one passage of scripture with you.” I think it might be this one. I think the Good Samaritan might be the greatest of all time. And I think the Good Samaritan is a parable. It’s incredibly relevant today. Incredibly relevant. Now my text, but I will say something else. By the way, you’re in big trouble because I do keep track of the time and I have lots of time to preach this morning. I create sermons, I don’t write them. But sometimes in order to create a sermon I write them, and I did that this week. So here goes. 

The story of the Good Samaritan is linked to Jesus’ exchange with a lawyer who is trying to test Jesus and trap him in religious quicksand and controversy. The lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” But Jesus responds with a parable that will eventually force the lawyer to answer his question. This is what good rabbis do. The rabbi had a question, and the rabbi responded, “Let me tell you a story.” Parables are stories in the Bible about things that never happened but always are. That’s not original of me, so I can say without self-service that I love that definition. Parables are stories about things that never happened but always are. Like all societies that I know of, first-century Judaism was ordered by boundaries with specific rules regarding how Jews should treat Gentiles or Samaritans, how priests should relate to Israelites, how men should treat women, and so on. And, like all societies that I know of, boundaries allow for certain groups to establish their positions, their power and their privilege. If you are a member of a group with power and privilege, you can use boundaries to maintain social order.

The central character in this story is noticeably undefined. He is not characterized by race, religion or trade. We are told he is merely, quote, a certain man. The point is this – he is identified only by what happened to him. That’s his only identification. His identity is therefore this – he is in dire need. This is the only thing about him that matters, and it’s the only thing about him that should matter.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notoriously dangerous. It descends to this day, of course, nearly 3,300 feet and 17 miles. In 17 miles you go down 3,300 feet. The road in Jesus’ day ran through narrow passes and the terrain offered easy hiding for any bandits to terrorize the travelers. In our story, remember Jesus said, “Let me tell you a story. You want to know your neighbors? Let me tell you a story.” In our story, this certain unfortunate man has been stripped, beaten and left for dead. Ah, but there is hope because we are told that by chance – that’s what the scripture says – by chance another traveler just happens to be coming down the road. Now we have hope. The traveler is a priest, even better, one trained to give help, and thank God, we are told that he sees the man. But the priest makes his choice. He passes by on the other side. No reason is given, but in the end no reason justifies his neglect of the man in need. In fact, one of the rules for priests at that time was that if a priest found a corpse he had a duty to bury it. Now a second religious leader comes by. Our hopes go up again, and again they are dashed. The Levite sees the man and passes by on the other side. In both cases, the priest and the Levite, seeing the man, makes them culpable. Jesus and the construction of this parable made crystal clear they wanted no doubt, look, they did not not see this guy, they saw him. They’re culpable.

The parable now has reached its turning point. By storytelling conventions, the audience – you and me – we can expect that in a series of three, the third character will break the pattern created by the first two. I wonder who the third religious leader is going to be. Who’s that going to be? Because clearly up to this point – and we’ve never heard this parable before, right? Right, today was the first day. So, this clearly is a parable that’s attacking religious leaders who are immigrants. That’s what this is about. I wonder who the third religious leader will be. Shattering all expectations, the third traveler is a Samaritan, a foreigner, the enemy even. By making the hero of the story a Samaritan, Jesus is challenging the longstanding enmity between Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans were regarded as unclean people, descendants of the mixed marriages from the various regions and beyond the Israelites. By depicting a Samaritan as the hero of the story, Jesus is demolishing all boundary expectations. Social position, race, religion or region count for nothing.

The certain man lying half dead in the ditch will not discriminate between potential helpers. That’s funny. No, we’re not laughing. The man in the ditch is not going to discriminate who helps him. Anyone who has compassion and stops to help is his neighbor. That can be you and that can be me. The Samaritan also sees the man and he has compassion for the man. Listen to the detail. This is all in one verse, verse 34. “He went to him. He bandaged his wounds. He poured oil and wine on the wounds. The wine would help cleanse the wound, and the oil would keep it soft. He put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” I wrote a modern-day answer/analogy to the Good Samaritan a long time ago. I thought about using it today, but I decided not to. At this part of the story, I have the Good Samaritan drive in his brand-new BMW, and he stops, and the victim’s bleeding. In the story that I created, he placed the victim in his brand-new leather back seat in his BMW, and it gets bloody. The Samaritan even hung around because we’re told the next day – it’s ambiguous as to where he was overnight. He hung around because the next day he gave money to the innkeeper and told him he would be back, and then he would be paid whatever was needed.

Okay, the parable fade to black. Jesus now turns to the lawyer who was trying to entrap him. Essentially Jesus says, “OK, buddy. You ask me who your neighbor is. Now you tell me, which of these characters in the parable was a neighbor?” The lawyer can’t even say the word “Samaritan.” He can’t even say it. He says instead, quote, “the one who showed him mercy.” Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.”

 In 1963, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became co-pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He was co-pastor with his father, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Sr., and Martin Jr. pastored there until his death in 1968. Years ago, I was in Atlanta attending a national clergy gathering, and me and two of my clergy buddies, we discovered that Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. King’s church, was in walking distance of where we were staying in town. So, we went. It was a beautiful summer day, and we got to the church. I don’t remember why, but my two buddies were out in the street doing something for two or three minutes, and I went in without them. I went into the Ebenezer Baptist Church by myself. It was totally unplanned, and I found myself standing alone in the sanctuary, and they had Dr. King’s sermons on a loop, a bunch of sermons on a loop. I got to sit in the pew for two or three minutes by myself and listen to Dr. King preach in his church. It’s a moment I will not forget.

In 1963 Dr. King preached a sermon entitled, “On Being a Good Neighbor,” using the parable of the Good Samaritan as his text. I read it this week. The sermon begins this way: “This morning I would like to talk with you about a good man. He is a man whose exemplary life will always stand as a flame of light to plague the dozing conscience of mankind.” By the way, Dr. King didn’t create sermons, he wrote them, and he wrote them well. Back to Dr. King: “His goodness was found in the fact he made the love ethic a reality as he journeyed life’s highway. He was good because he was a good neighbor.” Later in the sermon, Dr. King goes on: “Who is my neighbor? He is anyone lying in need on life’s roadside. He is neither Jew nor Gentile” – remember, this is 1963 – “he is neither Jew nor Gentile. He is neither a Russian nor American. He is neither Negro nor white. He is a certain man, any man lying in need on one of the numerous Jericho roads of life.”

Dr. King preached that in 1963. What shall we preach today? Who is my neighbor? He is neither a Republican nor Democrat, neither immigrant nor American. He is any woman, man or child lying in need on one of the numerous Jericho roads of life. In his sermon, Dr. King also said this, “I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the Good Samaritan reversed the question. ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”

OK, just one more thing this morning. In love and respect to the message of the parable of the Good Samaritan, I offer another short parable. It’s quite possible you’ve heard it before. I offer another short parable. It’s got a similar message, not identical, but this short parable has a similar message, and a similar genre. There was a certain man who was walking down the street, and he stumbled and fell into a very deep hole, and he couldn’t get out. He yelled out and said, “Hey, is there anybody up there who can help me? I can’t get out.” By chance his physician, his doctor, happened to be walking by. He looked down and he saw his patient down at the bottom of the hole. He couldn’t get out. The man yelled, “Hey doc, hey, can you help me out here?” The doctor took out his prescription pad, wrote a prescription, and threw it down into the hole. There was a second person who happened to be walking by. The man yelled, “Hey, is there anybody up there who can help me?” It happened to be the man’s minister. The minister looked down into the hole and the man yelled out and said, “Reverend, can you help me? I can’t get out of this hole.” The minister took out a piece of paper and wrote down a prayer, threw it down into the hole. Finally, a third person was walking by. It happened to be one of his friends, and his friend looked down. His friend was named Charlie. The man in the hole said, “Charlie, hey man, can you help me? I can’t get out of this hole.” And Charlie jumped down into the hole. The man was incredulous and said, “Charlie, what are you doing? Now we’re both stuck down here.” Charlie said, “No, I’ve been down here before. I know the way out.” Go and do likewise. Amen? Amen.