15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 30:10–14
Psalm 69:14, 17, 30–31, 33–34, 36, 37
or Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Colossians 1:15–20
Luke 10:25–37
The parable of the Good Samaritan is among the best-known stories of the Gospel. Jesus tells the tale in a way that allows everyone who hears it to find his or her “place” in it. As Luke presents the parable, it is designed to invite “authorities” and “experts” who are apparently indifferent to “real life troubles” of ordinary folks to think again about their priorities.
A few details about the world of the parable might help us understand the context. But it is a parable that has a message for us, just as for those who heard it the first time.
The road down to Jericho from Jerusalem and the direction the traveler is going suggest that he was someone who had done his duty according to the law, coming from the Temple. Falling among robbers was common along that desert road. The fact that he was traveling alone, not with a caravan, might raise questions, but it also shows how vulnerable he was.
The priest and the Levite who passed by were on the same road, but they were going up to fulfill obligations of the law. Their choice to pass by the victim was no doubt motivated by giving priority to fulfilling the dictates of liturgical practice rather than mere indifference. If the traveler was dead, their encounter with his body would mean they would be ritually impure and would not be fit for worship. For that reason, they could not even stop to check out his condition,
Samaritans did not worship in Jerusalem. They did not regularly interact with those who did. We are not told why the Samaritan was on the road. His compassion and his willingness to share his resources with the unfortunate man who fell among thieves are the example Jesus wanted to emphasize.
As the tale is told, no judgment is made on any of the responses. That does not come until Jesus asks the scholar of the law, who wanted to test Jesus and to justify himself, “Which of the three was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
The judgment of the expert came quickly: “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus has no hesitation in offering the invitation: “Go and do likewise.”
The world of today is not so different from the world of the parable. We might have different places of worship and different expectations of folks who pass by one another on their journeys. But the invitation to find the right response is the same. We are to be compassionate, to show mercy. We are not to discriminate against others, deciding who is our neighbor. Rather, we are to be neighbor to whomever we encounter.
In Deuteronomy, Moses tells God’s people that the law they are to practice is written into their very being. It is not something distant to be discovered from the outside. Rather, they are to find it in themselves.
Jesus’ question to the scholar of the law makes this concrete. He is asked to judge a choice of behavior not by putting others into categories of worthiness, but rather by listening to his heart. We know immediately, from the habits of heart that have been formed in us by putting the law into practice what we should do in the face of the needs we discover in front of us. Compassion and mercy are always available. These actions are the true fulfillment of the law. They are what God desires of us.
As we listen to the parable, we might find ourselves in any of the characters. We might directly hear the call to be the Good Samaritan. We might be the priest or Levite or scholar of the law with a readily formed attitude that can miss the needs right in front of us.
We might be the innkeeper asked to assist the Good Samaritan in the care of the stranger. Or we might be the victim in need of compassion, without whom there would be no story to tell. We might pray that we are not the robbers who put others into the role of victim. We are certainly called to be neighbors to all in need.