Proper 10C 2007 Luke 10:25-37

“Last winter, an astonishing thing happened in New York City. A construction worker named Wesley Autrey was standing on a subway platform with his two young daughters, ages four and six, waiting on a train. Suddenly another man on the platform stumbled and fell off the platform onto the subway tracks. Just as the headlights of a rapidly approaching train appeared in the subway tunnel.

“Acting quickly, and with no thought for himself, Wesley Autrey jumped down onto the tracks to rescue the stricken man. He realized that the train was coming too fast and there wasn't time to pull the man off the tracks. So Wesley pressed the man into the hollowed-out space between the rails as the train passed over the two of them. The train cleared Wesley by mere inches, coming close enough to leave grease marks on his knit cap. When the train came to a halt, Wesley called up to the frightened onlookers on the platform. "There are two little girls up there. Let them know their Daddy is OK."

“Immediately, and for good reason, Wesley Autrey became a national hero. People were deeply moved by his selflessness, and they marveled at his bravery. What Wesley had done was a remarkable deed of concern for another person. He had no obvious reason to help this stranger. He didn't know the man. He had his young daughters to think about. What he did was at severe risk to his own life. But a human being was in desperate need, and Wesley saw it and did what he could to save him. "The Subway Superman"-that's what the press called him, the "Harlem Hero." But one newspaper described Wesley Autrey in biblical terms: "Good Samaritan Saves Man on Subway Tracks." (1)

I think it is really hard for Twentieth Century Americans to understand what a radical story Jesus was telling in this parable of the Good Samaritan. We find it hard to understand how anyone could pass by someone lying by the side of the road, seemingly unconscious, covered with blood, and perhaps even dead.

And yet the people of Jesus' time understood why it would be so. For the devoutly religious people of Jesus' time, the observant Jews, they were simply obeying the Law of Moses laid down in Leviticus about touching dead bodies.

Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer. Jesus asked him, " What does the law say?” And the lawyer answers with the great summary of the Law: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

The lawyer has the right answer. The sticky part, as usual, is defining who is our neighbor. And that's when Jesus tells this lovely parable of the Good Samaritan. And after that parable is told, Jesus asks, "Which of these three was a neighbor to this victim." The lawyer again has the right answer. "The one who showed him mercy."

But note also that the lawyer could not bring himself to mention the word "Samaritan". Samaritans were considered such heretics that they were viewed much as the Untouchable caste in India.

And so it was this outcast Samaritan who wiped off the blood and cleaned the wounds and bandaged them. The Samaritan put the poor man on his own animal, took him to a quiet safe place at an inn, stayed long enough to take care of him and when he had to go on, left a sum of money worth two days pay to see to the victim's continued care. And a promise to return and pay any other costs.

One of the things that Jesus teaches us in this parable is that no one of us who is truly striving to love one's neighbor as one's self can be in any serious doubt as to who that neighbor might be. We are to be neighbors to all of God's creatures and all of Creation. We are to care for the Creation as we care for ourselves. The imperative that we are given to guide our behavior is not concerned with isolated acts or merely feeling sorry for someone but with our lifelong conduct.

Anyone in need is our neighbor, regardless of who they are, how well off they are, what race, creed, gender or orientation they are. They are all God's creatures, God's people, and they are all our neighbors. That is what the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us. And it also teaches us that we are to help them in their need.

AMEN


1. as told by the Rev Dr Thomas G Long, "Meeting the Good Samaritan", Day 1 for Proper 10C 2007.