The story of the Good Samaritan is perhaps the most popular parable that Jesus told. Even today when a passerby performs bravely in a crisis, newspaper headlines read: “Good Samaritan Rescues Victim”.

There is even a recreational vehicle club called the “Good Sam” Club—it has over a million members nationwide.

I have a friend in California who is a member of the Good Sam Club. On the rear window of his motor home is the logo for the Good Sam Club. The logo is a cartoon character with a big grin and a halo over his head: Good Sam.

I asked him once: “Tell me about your Good Sam Club. He responded enthusiastically, “It’s great! If you belong to the Good Sam Club you are entitled to discounts at many Campgrounds, you save money on your insurance premiums, you get to attend big gatherings of RV owners called “Samborees”. I said: “Is that it? What about helping people?”

“Oh, that’s a big part of it too. If you’re driving along and you see someone with the “Good Sam” logo in the window of their RV and their vehicle is broken down by the side of the road, you stop and help them.” “Say that again,” I said.

He said, “Yeah, if you see the Good Sam logo, you treat ‘em like family.”

Bill’s comment brings us to the very heart of our gospel. What if the person in need does not have my logo? Who is my neighbor? In the eyes of God, who am I expected to help?

A lawyer asked Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied with a question: “What does the law say?” The lawyer replies: “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Good answer”, Jesus said. But the man wanted further clarification: “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus replies: “let me tell you a story…”

There was a certain man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. It’s a terrible road—very steep, very rugged, very remote, and infested with robbers. The man was robbed, beaten, stripped of his clothes and left for dead.

Three people pass by. A Priest and then a Levite, and finally, a Samaritan. The first two, for reasons of their own, pass by on the other side. It is the unexpected one, the despised Samaritan, who responds with compassion and proves himself to be a neighbor.

It is such a simple story. In telling this story, Jesus is saying the question is not “Who is my neighbor?’ But rather: “How can I be a neighbor?”

A neighbor is more than one who loans you a cup of sugar or brings in your mail or newspaper. A real neighbor, according to Jesus, is much more. In the Kingdom of God, a neighbor is one who sees the needs of others and is willing to get involved.

The road to Jericho is treacherous. It is any place where people are robbed: robbed of their dignity, robbed of their love, robbed of their value as human beings, robbed of food and clothing.

Helping a neighbor in need is not always going to be neat and tidy—it will not always be convenient. It often doesn’t fit our schedules. It can be messy.

But according to this story that Jesus told, you cannot follow him without being involved with people on the Jericho roads of life—people who are hurting and in need.

A neighbor, according to Jesus, is also a person who transcends barriers. The Samaritan traveler was an extremely unlikely candidate to stop and provide assistance to the injured traveler Samaritans were despised by the Jews. The Jews considered the Samaritans unclean.

Yet, Jesus shocked his listeners when he said that it was a Samaritan who reaches out to the victim in this parable. The Samaritan, according to Jesus, was the real neighbor because his heart is ruled by a sense of love, rather than a sense of limits.

He transcends the barrier between Jews and Samaritans.

Pastor Michael Lindval tells a true story about a friend of his, Fahad Bahnan, an Arab Christian pastor in Beirut. In 1983, during the last Arab-Israeli War, Israeli armies drove into Lebanon—and members of Bahnan’s Christian Church began to buy up all the canned food they could—so they could survive an Israeli siege.

When West Beirut was totally cut off, the Church met to decide how to distribute the food they had purchased. Two proposals were put on the table. The first was to distribute the food to church members, then other Christians, and last, if any was left, to Muslim neighbors.

The second proposal was different. First, food would be given to Muslim neighbors, then to other Christians, and finally—if there was any leftover—to church members.

The meeting lasted six hours. It ended when an older, quiet, much respected woman stood up and said, “If we do not demonstrate the love of Christ in this place, who will?” And so the second proposal—giving food to their Muslim neighbors first—passed.

In telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus reminds us that a neighbor is one who sees the needs of others and is willing to get involved. A neighbor is one who transcends barriers to practice love and forgiveness without limits.

If we don’t demonstrate the love of Christ in this place who will?

Finally, a neighbor is moved with compassion to help— to do what they can to help someone. The first two pass by on the other side of the road, but the Samaritan does everything he can to help. Listen to the verbs that Jesus used here to describe the actions of the Samaritan:

+ He came to the man + He cleans his wounds + bandages him + puts him on his animal + brings him to an inn + cares for him overnight + gives money to the innkeeper to care for him + promises to come back and pay for his careJesus then asks the lawyer, “Now which one do you think was the neighbor to him?” The lawyer, said: “I suppose the one who showed mercy…” Notice, he could not even bring himself to say “the Samaritan”.

I grew up in Fresno, California. First Presbyterian Church in Fresno operates a Thrift Shop. The man who manages the Thrift Shop, Bob Osborne, has traveled numerous times to Africa and India to see human need firsthand and to do whatever he can to meet those needs.

On one trip to India, Bob Osborne stuffed his suitcase with as many shoes as would fit. Why? Because shoes are a rare commodity in India, and he planned to leave as many pairs as possible with those who needed them.

On the return flight, Bob was barefooted. He was bare- footed! He had taken the shoes off his own feet to give to an Indian farmer.

A neighbor, like the Good Samaritan is moved with compassion to do everything they can to help someone in need.

--That’s why our High School Youth did mission work last week at the Pine Ridge Reservation

--It’s why we have a food pantry and why we are starting a clothes closet at our Central Campus.

--It’s why we do all the things we do to help our neighbors who are in need!

In telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus set a very high standard—a high bar for us to follow. We are called to get involved with people we see on the Jericho road—the difficult places of life.

We are called to extend our love by transcending the barriers that separate us from other people. We are called to do whatever we can to help our neighbors.

It is a tough standard. The truth is we are helpless to be Good Samaritans on our own strength. We were once in the ditch—We were the one who were helpless and wounded beside the road, the one who needed to be rescued.

And along came a Good Samaritan, a Good Samaritan named Jesus, despised and rejected, who came to save us. He spoke tenderly to us, lifted us into his arms, and took us to the place of healing.

God saw us in the ditch and had compassion. The Crucified One has been neighbor to us. Jesus Christ has been neighbor to you…to me. And now he says: “Go and do likewise.”

He invites us to be part of his “Good Sam Club”—to show our kindness and love to all people, not just those who are like us—who share our logo, but to all people who are wounded and hurting along the road to Jericho.

I would like to close by sharing with you the prayer of an unknown author who sums up the challenge all of us would- be-Samaritans face:

Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and was rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can’t make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slowly through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not only to those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive. Bless us with patience, empathy, and love. Help us to truly be good neighbors. Amen.

Pastor Brent Campbell
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church,
West Campus
Sunday, July 11, 2010