![]() Subtly, unconsciously, we try to place Jesus with the holy men even when Jesus clearly does not place himself there. Why? Because very often, that is where we find ourselves in this story, as it plays out on our streets, in our neighbourhoods, on our doorsteps, every day. We want the priest and the Levite to be not quite so wrong, not so far from the Jesus-example of neighbour we see in the Samaritan. He was on his way to the Temple or some sacred ritual, could not be made ritually unclean for then he’d be unable to perform important functions for the community … Have you been in a bible study when someone, usually well-meaning, has made excuses, given reasons, for the priest and the Levite to need to pass by?Ī family needed the ancient Jewish equivalent of last rights. Perhaps Jesus works with the expectations of his audience with these two examples – that shock factor, to wake the people up to the law of love that has become obscured by the practices and attitudes of holy men too caught up in the letter of the Law? And in this story’s set up, that is clearly not the right choice. The Levite – member of the hereditary holy tribe of Israel – walks on by. I say improbable, but they are Israel’s holy men, and surely that’s where Jesus’ live audience might have expected to place Jesus in a story, right? Rabbi, teacher, healer, Son of God, prophet – holy man, yes?īut the priest walks on by. From our two thousand years of receiving the stories of priests and Levites under the suspicion of a critical Jesus, this seems improbable. ![]() I do wonder, even with the provocative trope of the Samaritan as exemplar Christ-like neighbour, is that the only place we could situate Jesus in the parable? What could we see of his teaching about neighbours if we look for the unexpected, if we locate him with another character? But these people understand what God is doing here, why don’t you, who worship God our way? Samaritans worshiped God in a different city, in different ways. At the time, their presence in the stories would have shocked listeners to attention. The Samaritan, as with outsiders like Moabite Ruth in older stories, is a well-known trope in our gospel stories. ![]() Jesus chooses to make the example of a good neighbour someone unexpected, and made more obvious in this unexpectedness by the passing by of the two holy men of the people of Israel, the priest and the Levite. The Samaritans are ‘them’, definitely not ‘us’. The Samaritans, remember, are an enemy of the people of Israel. The one who stops, offers care, invests their time and money in the healing of this stranger.Īnd this is no simple stranger. The one whose heart goes out to the person bleeding by the side of the road. Perhaps the expected answer is that Jesus is the Samaritan, the example of a good neighbour. ![]()
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