July 13, 2007

another expectation I can't live up to

A tip of the hat to my friend Susan, who passed along this link Day1 :: Meeting the Good Samaritan by The Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long Dr. Long uses way too many stories, but the point is clear; Jesus didn't tell the parable of the Good Samaritan exclusively to make a moral rule (one which can't live up to), but instead to call us to recognize ourselves in distress and be humble enough to let even a Samaritan help us.

What I find so interesting as I research for my sermon on Sunday is how the term Samaritan was used liberally to mean a lot more than just and ethnic Samaritan. Jesus himself was called a Samaritan in John 8.48 meaning a heretic; one outside of the law. Jesus is embodied in the role of the Good Samartian, not us. We are the stupid traveler, alone on a very dangerous road, now in dire need of help.

This isn't a story of another expectation we can't live up to, but a reminder that without God we can do nothing.

2 comments:

Peter Carey said...

Yo, Spankey...
could it be both?

I'm thinking that Jesus' audience could identify BOTH with the helpless traveler and also (at least some of them) with the other people who passed by and didn't stop to help?

Perhaps we are to see that we are in dire need of Christ's "Good Samaritan Nature" AND that we are to strive to be a bit more like Jesus than like the priest (!) who did nothing to help...

Anyway, I think your take on this is great...and a helpful corrective to the way this text is usually exegeted and preached where I have worshipped!

Peace, Peter

spankey said...

thanks peter,

re-reading it seems like i started arguing for a both/and and then in typical style rammed my way down your throat. thanks for calling me out.