Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Luke 10:33, ” But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.

Background

By now you’ve probably seen the clever State Farm Insurance commercials on television, from back in the day. In the commercials, a policy holder experiences some kind of damage to his property, and his friends who are with him fear that resolving the problem is going to be a big hassle. But when the client sings the State Farm jingle, ” Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there, ” much to the amazement of his buddies, an agent magically appears on the scene to take care of the situation. And the humor kicks in when the friends recite the jingle and their personal requests appear, like a lovely co-ed, sexy dude, or even Bob Barker and a new car. It’s the kind of commercial that could make us all wish for a magic jingle to sing so that a philanthropic good neighbor would appear to give us what we want. Now, in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is trying to show the lawyer who qualifies to be his neighbor, who is the one that he is expected to love as himself. And so He starts at the top of the people chain.   

Application

But He begins His lesson by initially showing how the priest and the Levite get it all wrong. They see the beaten, helpless stranger on the road and choose to do nothing. And we like to make a big stink about how the religious guys, the ones who supposedly are the closest to God, do nothing to help the man. But what if they had done something to help? What if Jesus told the story slightly differently, and instead of one victim, there were three separate incidents, and the priest, Levite and Samaritan each stopped and offered all the help they could, much like the help of the Samaritan in Jesus’ version? Now what? What is our impression of the Samaritan now? Is he still good, or now only average? Or the priest and Levite? Who is our neighbor in this scenario? Well, the neighbor remains the same. You see, we don’t follow the Samaritan’s example only because two hypocrites were exposed. We don’t help others to elevate ourselves. We love that stranger as if there were two of ourselves, and one of them was dying on the side of the road. And when love becomes the focus, then who the neighbor is truly doesn’t matter.  

Charge

As we seek Him today, realize that you are ” there, ” and you already have the opportunity to love your neighbor as yourself.