07092022 – Luke 10. 25-37
The accounts of people “finding reasons” NOT TO COME TO SOMEONE’S AID are “just as common” as “PEOPLE IN NEED.”
Both are PLENTEOUS.
People fear INVOLVEMENT.
People fear ENTRAPMENT.
People fear LITIGATION.
People fear the UNKNOWN. Heck, we even fear each other. ( A kind of anthropro-phobia, fearing other people.)
People fear BEING DELAYED and thrown off their own busy all important life schedule.
There are many reasons TODAY NOT TO HELP someone in need and to become involved, and rather, TO GO our own separate way.
Some people like and appreciate “a safe distance” between them and others.
This is my space.
That is your space. You stay there, I stay here. Boundaries are good.
I don’t enter your space and you do not enter mine.
And yet, you SEE all these people crankling their necks (“RUBBER NECKING IT” as it were) to SEE just what has happened…from a safe distance, of course.
They WANT to know.
They DON’T want to know.
They want to LOOK.
They DON’T want to make EYE CONTACT.
We rationalize away everything and anything.
“The kids are the car.”
“It’s not my problem.”
“Someone else will surely stop.”
“Law enforcement will be along soon.”
“They probably have a cell phone and have already called for help.”
I think I saw blood. Yuck!
“MYOB – JUST mind your own bees wax!”
Today, for whatever reason, we have what’s become known as “CLAN or HERD MENTALITY” going on…
They say it is human narcissim in its rawest, most unadulterated form. THAT WHICH IS LIKE ME – is an extension of me – and therefore “safe and good.”
So, you only stop and render aid for someone who looks like you, votes like you, dresses like you, drives a vehicle like yours, and makes a salary comparable to yours.
We usually hear this parable as “an exhortation to do good,” to help the STRANGER in need with some kind of reckless abandon.
This is true and necessary, especially in a world so often characterized by our NEGLECT and our FEAR of one another.
Our INABILITY to CARE for one another is mind-boggling.
And likewise, our ABILITY to ignore the plight of others is breath-taking.
The Good Samaritan remains “an anomaly, an oddity, an aberration, and an exception” in our midst.
Our world needs MORE good Samaritans, more caring, more concern, more involvement on the part of others, NOT LESS.
…MORE PEOPLE willing to sacrifice their “oh-so precious time,” for someone else, in need…not less…
So, Jesus tells of a guy who was traveling on a road. Beset by thieves and beat within an inch of his life, this “unnamed traveler” CAN ONLY SURVIVE if someone, a stranger, will offer aid and comfort.
Jesus recounts that both “a priest” and “a Levite” pass by without assisting the victim.
In contrast to these “holy, righteous, well-regarded individuals” who nonetheless pass by, a SAMARITAN saves the man’s life and is even willing to pay – all the costs for his care.
A “despised” and “hated foreigner,” “a Samaritan dog,” shatters the expectations of WHO can WE expect to do “the RIGHT thing.”
He “acts COMPASSIONATELY and RECKLESSLY” when “others” chose a “different path,” a “safer path,” a “path of non-involvement.”
He alone does – that which is RIGHT.
Is it RIGHT to ignore the cries of someone IN NEED?
Is it RIGHT to pass on by on the otherside of the road?
Is it RIGHT to do only that which is expedient for we ourselves?
Is it RIGHT to NOT cross sacred boundaries for the sake of the other?
Is it RIGHT to be so self-absorbed that only you and your people matter?
Is it RIGHT to justify ourselves and our actions, at the expense of “others?”
Is it RIGHT to always have our excuses at the ready?
Will it be alright, when ONE DAY we stand before God Almighty and have to give an account of ourself and our actions?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Amen.