Luke 10:25-37

Whenever I read this most famous of parables – the Good Samaritan my mind is drawn back to the journey to Entebbe Airport, the main international airport in Uganda which is situated on a peninsular into Lake Victoria about 45 minutes out of Kampala. It sounds like a lovely setting and in a way it is but most flights back to London leave at night or in the early hours of the morning and the only reason any vehicle driving that road at that time would be to get to the airport to fly out of Uganda and the probability someone white and wealthy might be in that vehicle is more than sufficient to tempt bandits to hold up your vehicle and take what they can. So, the safer option is to book into an airport hotel the night before and book a driver to drop you safely off at the airport ready for your flight.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was just as dangerous, situated in a gulley with steep hills rising on either side offering opportunities for bandits to hide and leap out and attack anyone who looked good for the money seemed like open season for the bandits and that his the fate the befell the man in this parable told by Jesus in response to the question the lawyer asks Jesus “who is my neighbour” when the law says love your neighbour as yourself. It is also the question Lord Atkin had to consider in probably the most famous English court case from 1932 when Miss Donoghue drank an opaque bottle of ginger beer that had been bought for her and in which was a decomposing snail. Mr Stevenson was the provider of these bottles of ginger beer. He didn’t know Miss Donoghue and had no contractual with her since Miss Donoghue did not buy or pay for that bottle of beer. So, the Judge had to ask himself “Who, then, in law is my neighbour?” and his answer was persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected.” And yes, this is word for word what Lord Atkin said and so a link was created between Miss Donoghue and Mr Stevenson that made the producer liable because Miss Donoghue was his neighbour.

Jesus answers this question in a slightly different way by recounting the reaction of the 3 different characters to the plight of this injured and now penniless man. No one knew this man but all saw his condition but only the third passer-by offered any assistance to this unfortunate man and I think it is fair to say, he went the extra mile; taking him to a nearby inn and pays for all his care and returns on his way back up to Jerusalem to settle any outstanding debts.

Now, I should say something about the comparison between Jews and Samarians. ~Both believe in the same God but Samaritans only relied on the first 5 books of the Bible as the word of God and so like the Jewish Sadducees did not believe in life after death. Samaritans also believed that Holy of Holies was on Mount Gerazim, not Jerusalem. But because of these differences Jews hated Samaritans and vice versa. The very suggestion of a good Samaritan to a loyal Jew like this lawyer was hard to take and so when Jesus asks the lawyer which of the 3 people who encountered this man turned out to be his neighbour, he cannot quite bring himself to say the Samaritan but rather “the one who showed mercy to the injured man” was his reply and Jesus tells this lawyer to go and do what a Samaritan had done in that parable, to identify with him and that would be a hard pill to swallow for the lawyer.

For us it carries none of the same impact but the practice of identifying with Biblical characters is a good spiritual discipline going back to Ignatius of Loyola and beyond. Are their equivalent people to a Samaritan in our own society that we can substitute? Or do we identify with someone else? In reading up for this I discovered that a survey had been done in America and Africa – sadly they did not say where in either continent on who you identify with. Americans tended to go for the 3 passers-by - the Samaritan, pries and Scribe. I was not surprised from conversations I have had about this passage that most Africans asked, identified with the injured man. How you read a Biblical passage like this can and should affect how you should act and respond. Mr Stevenson in that court case tried to argue that he had no responsibility for Miss Donoghue after she drank that ginger beer. She did not purchase it from him and he did not even know her and yet the Court held they were neighbours. He produced it, she drank it. Jesus says whoever you encounter or become aware of is your neighbour who you should love as you love yourself. Why? because it forms part of the law of God in the summary of the commandments but equally because it reflects the world wide reaching extent of the grace of God that should be reflected in the lives we lead however challenging that might sometimes be for us. Amen