Background on The Good Samaritan
Potential Avenues for Discussion:
Thinking about what love truly means.
While most of us aspire to show love to our neighbors in the form of general kindness, this parable asks us to stretch our concept of love just a bit further. There’s nothing wrong with kindness, of course, but true love means loving those that don’t love us back and going beyond what we might even be comfortable with for the sake of others. When this Samaritan man cares for the man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, he not only helps him in the moment – he goes the extra mile by bandaging his wounds, bringing him to an inn, and paying for his care/needs. Assuming the injured man in the story was Jewish, we as listeners are meant to expect that this Samaritan man would want nothing to do with him (for more on the history of the Jewish-Samaritan divide, see below). But without asking for anything in return, the Samaritan man shows true, unconditional love – and it is that type of self-giving love that we aspire to every time we read or hear this passage.
Seeing ourselves in the priest and Levite walking by.
We’d all love to identify ourselves with the Good Samaritan in this passage, but I’d imagine that all of us – kids and adults – can think of times when we might have “passed by” someone in need, whether figuratively or literally. There are sometimes valid reasons for doing so – but it should be noted that there were likely valid reasons for why the priest and the Levite walked by too! Jewish law prohibited physical contact with corpses (you don’t need to get into this point with the kids!) so they may have been assuming that the man had passed away. They may have also been worried about physical danger to themselves. But regardless of their reasons, the Samaritan man certainly would have had his reasons for walking by as well – but he chose to stop. It’s a challenge to all of us to stop and notice those in need – but also to intervene in whatever way that we can.
“Who is my neighbor?”
Though Jesus’ reference to the Samaritans spoke to those in his context, the question of “Who is my neighbor?” has persisted throughout the years (for the record, there are still around 1,000 Samaritans today). So, who is our neighbor? Who is the person or group viewed with suspicion in our country today, who we must love as we love ourselves? There are numerous ways that we can answer this question. The most frequent parallel drawn today is about how Muslims are viewed with suspicion in many places after 9/11, but given our church’s historic commitment to interfaith work, I think it’s important to push ourselves further. Is there a group with whom we are personally uncomfortable that we can apply to this parable? Is it fundamentalist Christianity? Is it aggressive atheism? Some other group? It doesn’t matter who we pick – everyone is our neighbor. Everyone. No exceptions. This parable was meant to challenge us… find a way for it to challenge you!
Digging Deeper:
What are the roots of the Jewish-Samaritan dispute?
Most of us probably remember learning in Sunday School that Jews and Samaritans hated one another, but not very much about why. Here’s the Cliffs Notes version:
After King Solomon’s death, Israel split into two distinct kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom (confusingly known as Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (known as Judah). In 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire essentially wiped out the Northern Kingdom after making an alliance with the Southern Kingdom, but a small remnant of the Northern Kingdom remained. This remnant would go on to become known as the Samaritans, who viewed the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) as the authoritative word of God – not the additional Prophets and Writings that comprise the Hebrew Bible (most of which were written post 722 BCE). Samaritans view themselves as maintaining true ancient Israelite practices, as well as disputing Jerusalem’s central role in religious practice.
Although they would peacefully co-exist for a few centuries, the books of Ezra-Nehemiah seem to suggest a fraying relationship towards the end of the 5th century BCE. The true breaking point, however, seems to have been the Samaritan partnership with the hated Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes in the mid-2nd century. After an uprising in 164 BCE led to an independent Jewish kingdom (the Hasmonean dynasty), subsequent Jewish rulers began to double-down on the separation from the Samaritans – culminating in the Jewish leader John Hyrcanus destroying the Samaritan temple in Samaria in 113 BCE. When Rome entered the picture, though, they grouped Jewish and Samaritan lands together when they formed the province of “Judea”, meaning these historic rivals were forced into closer contact with one another… and tensions continued.
Thinking about what love truly means.
While most of us aspire to show love to our neighbors in the form of general kindness, this parable asks us to stretch our concept of love just a bit further. There’s nothing wrong with kindness, of course, but true love means loving those that don’t love us back and going beyond what we might even be comfortable with for the sake of others. When this Samaritan man cares for the man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, he not only helps him in the moment – he goes the extra mile by bandaging his wounds, bringing him to an inn, and paying for his care/needs. Assuming the injured man in the story was Jewish, we as listeners are meant to expect that this Samaritan man would want nothing to do with him (for more on the history of the Jewish-Samaritan divide, see below). But without asking for anything in return, the Samaritan man shows true, unconditional love – and it is that type of self-giving love that we aspire to every time we read or hear this passage.
Seeing ourselves in the priest and Levite walking by.
We’d all love to identify ourselves with the Good Samaritan in this passage, but I’d imagine that all of us – kids and adults – can think of times when we might have “passed by” someone in need, whether figuratively or literally. There are sometimes valid reasons for doing so – but it should be noted that there were likely valid reasons for why the priest and the Levite walked by too! Jewish law prohibited physical contact with corpses (you don’t need to get into this point with the kids!) so they may have been assuming that the man had passed away. They may have also been worried about physical danger to themselves. But regardless of their reasons, the Samaritan man certainly would have had his reasons for walking by as well – but he chose to stop. It’s a challenge to all of us to stop and notice those in need – but also to intervene in whatever way that we can.
“Who is my neighbor?”
Though Jesus’ reference to the Samaritans spoke to those in his context, the question of “Who is my neighbor?” has persisted throughout the years (for the record, there are still around 1,000 Samaritans today). So, who is our neighbor? Who is the person or group viewed with suspicion in our country today, who we must love as we love ourselves? There are numerous ways that we can answer this question. The most frequent parallel drawn today is about how Muslims are viewed with suspicion in many places after 9/11, but given our church’s historic commitment to interfaith work, I think it’s important to push ourselves further. Is there a group with whom we are personally uncomfortable that we can apply to this parable? Is it fundamentalist Christianity? Is it aggressive atheism? Some other group? It doesn’t matter who we pick – everyone is our neighbor. Everyone. No exceptions. This parable was meant to challenge us… find a way for it to challenge you!
Digging Deeper:
What are the roots of the Jewish-Samaritan dispute?
Most of us probably remember learning in Sunday School that Jews and Samaritans hated one another, but not very much about why. Here’s the Cliffs Notes version:
After King Solomon’s death, Israel split into two distinct kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom (confusingly known as Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (known as Judah). In 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire essentially wiped out the Northern Kingdom after making an alliance with the Southern Kingdom, but a small remnant of the Northern Kingdom remained. This remnant would go on to become known as the Samaritans, who viewed the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) as the authoritative word of God – not the additional Prophets and Writings that comprise the Hebrew Bible (most of which were written post 722 BCE). Samaritans view themselves as maintaining true ancient Israelite practices, as well as disputing Jerusalem’s central role in religious practice.
Although they would peacefully co-exist for a few centuries, the books of Ezra-Nehemiah seem to suggest a fraying relationship towards the end of the 5th century BCE. The true breaking point, however, seems to have been the Samaritan partnership with the hated Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes in the mid-2nd century. After an uprising in 164 BCE led to an independent Jewish kingdom (the Hasmonean dynasty), subsequent Jewish rulers began to double-down on the separation from the Samaritans – culminating in the Jewish leader John Hyrcanus destroying the Samaritan temple in Samaria in 113 BCE. When Rome entered the picture, though, they grouped Jewish and Samaritan lands together when they formed the province of “Judea”, meaning these historic rivals were forced into closer contact with one another… and tensions continued.