The Good Samaritan Loves His Neighbor: Courageous Action
Luke 10:25-37 July 5, 2020
One day someone asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” He answered with a parable, a story containing a rich spiritual truth; this morning we’ll explore Jesus’ answer –considering how we are each called to be Good Samaritans. We’ll enter in to this through a similar story, one from the 20th century, a true account – but it has a different ending.
At approximately 3:20 in the morning of March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was returning to her home in a nice, middle-class neighborhood in Queens, New York. She parked her car in the lot and started to walk toward her second-floor apartment some 35 yards away. She got as far as a streetlight when a man grabbed her. She screamed. Lights went on in the 10th floor of a nearby apartment. She noticed and yelled “He stabbed me, please help me!” Windows opened in a lower level apartment and a man shouted, “Leave that girl alone.” The attacker looked up, panicked, and hurried away into the darkness. I once heard the saying that “strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others.”
Kitty struggled to get to her feet. Lights went back off in the apartments. Meanwhile… her attacker had circled around the city block and lay in wait, managing to stab her once more. Lying on the street, bleeding and in pain, she cried out “I am dying, I’m dying.” Again lights came on and windows opened in several apartments. The assailant fled to his nearby car and left. Kitty staggered to her feet, bleeding and needing assistance. A city bus slowed down on its route, but never stopped. It was now 3:35 AM.
Suddenly Kitty’s attacker was back. She had made it to her doorway when he plunged his knife into her again and this time it was fatal. It was 3:50 AM, a full 15 minutes after Kitty’s death, when police received the first phone call from one of her neighbors. The squad car arrived within two minutes. On the scene they found Miss Kitty Genovese and she was beyond their help, or the help of any other Good Samaritan. (The New York Times, March 27, 1964, page 38)
Does this heartbreaking story of a young woman violently attacked while her neighbors did nothing to help her – trouble you? In the year 1964 Kitty Genovese’s death became a powerful symbol, raising this question in our American consciousness: “Why didn’t her neighbors do something to help her?” That question is in me as well; how could so many be uninvolved bystanders? How could there be such callous indifference to another’s suffering – especially when people were safely tucked away and out of sight in their apartments? Television sets across the nation that year were tuned in, everyone wanted answers. The detectives investigating the murder case revealed that no fewer than 38 of Kitty’s neighbors had witnessed at least one of the three attacks, but none came to her aid – nor did they call the police while she was still alive. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “There comes a time when silence – is betrayal.”
The question on the minds of Americans then, was similar to what was being asked in the first century. Who is my neighbor, and what should my response be - not only as a fellow human being, but as a person of faith? Jesus answers those questions for us in a clear and compelling way. In his parable the first neighbor comes toward a wounded man on the side of the road; I think of him as “the passing priest”. He has some reasons, or I’d say excuses, that he felt justified passing by on the other side of the road from the Samaritan. The priest had probably spent several long days residing at the temple, serving his required period of weeks. He was off-duty now and had a 20-mile walk back to his hometown of Jericho. He likely felt he had “done his time”, his duty for God; someone else could handle this time-consuming, unpleasant task. The passing priest reminds us that any one of us can come up with reasons or excuses, passing by people in true need. (That is the message from the music video we saw earlier in today’s service, what do OUR EYES SEE? Are we noticing the people around us who hurt and need OUR help?)
The second neighbor that came along is the one I call the “Looking Levite”. He was at least curious enough to examine the man’s condition. But it was more like the reaction we ourselves can have at the scene of an accident; we “rubberneck” as we pass by, taking in some of the grisly details. Our hearts can even be touched, we might offer a prayer for them, but we leave the job of taking care of their emergency needs to some other person. We look, can feel for the person, know we could do something to help, but remain uninvolved.
The question for Jesus’ audience, and for us today is: “Were the Passing Priest and the curious, but uninvolved Levite, being good neighbors?” NOT at all. They moved past someone in critical need of care. Doing just what Kitty Genovese’s 38 neighbors did. They saw a young woman being violently wounded and did nothing. While that exact scene may not be one we have ever experienced, listen to this verse from James 4:17: “To those who know to do good, and yet do not do it, it is a sin.”
Did you realize this? God has been telling us in many other ways, through many stories, and through his Son Jesus, that we are meant to involve ourselves in assisting others in need - whenever it is within our power to do so. To better understand this, it can help to know that Jesus did not define “our neighbor” as someone who lives next-door to us. He defined neighbor as “any human being in need”. So when we obey the command to love our neighbor it may be a friend or a complete stranger. That person might be a kind and grateful individual, so easy to care for, or they could be a rude and ungrateful sort. What Jesus wants us to grasp is that all people are persons of worth, each deserving to be treated with dignity and compassion.
Now for the radical part of this parable. The Samaritan character references Jews who lived in the south, in the land of Judea. Northern Jews, represented by the priest and Levite, lived in northern Israel near Jerusalem. There was deep animosity between these two. The divide was wide, the prejudices real. There was an “us against them” attitude in the hearts of the religious leaders and the people. Each justified their own point of view, lines had been drawn in the sand and tensions ran high.
Can anyone here this morning relate to a nation experiencing all of those dynamics? Can you see how Jesus put two “supposedly pious northern Jews” in a story with a detested, supposedly less-than- righteous southern Jew? His audience would have instinctively justified the Priest and Levite’s actions, defending them for not getting involved. But then Jesus introduces the heathen “Samaritan” and makes him the hero, the one who has compassion, who shows God-like mercy. All I can say is - Jesus “went there”. And his listeners must have gotten really quiet, and uncomfortable.
As suspense hung heavy, Jesus faced the northern Jewish spiritual leader who had said “Who is my neighbor?” He asked him this question: “Which of these three was a neighbor to the wounded man?” “The one who showed mercy,” was his reply. “You have your answer, now go and live your life in this manner,” said Jesus.
I believe the holy men there that day, and all the ordinary folks in the crowd, knew in their hearts that they should never ignore the suffering of others. But I think two things were barriers for them, and they can be for us as well. They needed to see others with God’s eyes, so that their impulse would be to step forward - not remain at a distance. Kitty Genovese’s neighbors were probably nice, ordinary people who loved their kids, watched fireworks together on the 4th of July, and got by the best they could in their daily lives. Plenty could have been church-goers too. But when their windows opened, they saw a helpless woman crying out for their help – and ignored her. No impulse of love moved them to find a way to stop the violence. They closed their windows and blinds and turned off the lights. Afraid. Cautious. And that non-involvement had a price – it allowed hate-filled violence to reign that dark night – and a beautiful fellow human being died alone and in pain on the side of the road. We need Good Samaritans in our neighborhoods and communities. We can counter today’s grievous acts of prejudice and violence - with our voices and our advocacy. We can get involved in practical ways, to effect change. That is exactly what Jesus is telling us. He says that “Whoever truly loves me – will love their neighbors.”
If we can orient our eyes toward seeing the situations and people where God is calling us to be personally involved, here is the next large hurdle. A good quote I found this week sums it up nicely: God followers are “called to show risky, expensive, inconvenient compassion”. Have there been times when you have been like the Good Samaritan and it required real sacrifices of your time? Were you inconvenienced and was it also costly in other ways? But what is God-like LOVE – if it is not also embodied by action?
It says in the Bible in Lamentations 3:22-23 that “God’s compassion toward US never fails. It is new every morning, great is His faithfulness.” May prayer for all of us is that our compassion will never fail, no matter what barriers there may be, may it be NEW EVERY MORNING. Amen.
Luke 10:25-37 July 5, 2020
One day someone asked Jesus “Who is my neighbor?” He answered with a parable, a story containing a rich spiritual truth; this morning we’ll explore Jesus’ answer –considering how we are each called to be Good Samaritans. We’ll enter in to this through a similar story, one from the 20th century, a true account – but it has a different ending.
At approximately 3:20 in the morning of March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was returning to her home in a nice, middle-class neighborhood in Queens, New York. She parked her car in the lot and started to walk toward her second-floor apartment some 35 yards away. She got as far as a streetlight when a man grabbed her. She screamed. Lights went on in the 10th floor of a nearby apartment. She noticed and yelled “He stabbed me, please help me!” Windows opened in a lower level apartment and a man shouted, “Leave that girl alone.” The attacker looked up, panicked, and hurried away into the darkness. I once heard the saying that “strong people stand up for themselves, but stronger people stand up for others.”
Kitty struggled to get to her feet. Lights went back off in the apartments. Meanwhile… her attacker had circled around the city block and lay in wait, managing to stab her once more. Lying on the street, bleeding and in pain, she cried out “I am dying, I’m dying.” Again lights came on and windows opened in several apartments. The assailant fled to his nearby car and left. Kitty staggered to her feet, bleeding and needing assistance. A city bus slowed down on its route, but never stopped. It was now 3:35 AM.
Suddenly Kitty’s attacker was back. She had made it to her doorway when he plunged his knife into her again and this time it was fatal. It was 3:50 AM, a full 15 minutes after Kitty’s death, when police received the first phone call from one of her neighbors. The squad car arrived within two minutes. On the scene they found Miss Kitty Genovese and she was beyond their help, or the help of any other Good Samaritan. (The New York Times, March 27, 1964, page 38)
Does this heartbreaking story of a young woman violently attacked while her neighbors did nothing to help her – trouble you? In the year 1964 Kitty Genovese’s death became a powerful symbol, raising this question in our American consciousness: “Why didn’t her neighbors do something to help her?” That question is in me as well; how could so many be uninvolved bystanders? How could there be such callous indifference to another’s suffering – especially when people were safely tucked away and out of sight in their apartments? Television sets across the nation that year were tuned in, everyone wanted answers. The detectives investigating the murder case revealed that no fewer than 38 of Kitty’s neighbors had witnessed at least one of the three attacks, but none came to her aid – nor did they call the police while she was still alive. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, “There comes a time when silence – is betrayal.”
The question on the minds of Americans then, was similar to what was being asked in the first century. Who is my neighbor, and what should my response be - not only as a fellow human being, but as a person of faith? Jesus answers those questions for us in a clear and compelling way. In his parable the first neighbor comes toward a wounded man on the side of the road; I think of him as “the passing priest”. He has some reasons, or I’d say excuses, that he felt justified passing by on the other side of the road from the Samaritan. The priest had probably spent several long days residing at the temple, serving his required period of weeks. He was off-duty now and had a 20-mile walk back to his hometown of Jericho. He likely felt he had “done his time”, his duty for God; someone else could handle this time-consuming, unpleasant task. The passing priest reminds us that any one of us can come up with reasons or excuses, passing by people in true need. (That is the message from the music video we saw earlier in today’s service, what do OUR EYES SEE? Are we noticing the people around us who hurt and need OUR help?)
The second neighbor that came along is the one I call the “Looking Levite”. He was at least curious enough to examine the man’s condition. But it was more like the reaction we ourselves can have at the scene of an accident; we “rubberneck” as we pass by, taking in some of the grisly details. Our hearts can even be touched, we might offer a prayer for them, but we leave the job of taking care of their emergency needs to some other person. We look, can feel for the person, know we could do something to help, but remain uninvolved.
The question for Jesus’ audience, and for us today is: “Were the Passing Priest and the curious, but uninvolved Levite, being good neighbors?” NOT at all. They moved past someone in critical need of care. Doing just what Kitty Genovese’s 38 neighbors did. They saw a young woman being violently wounded and did nothing. While that exact scene may not be one we have ever experienced, listen to this verse from James 4:17: “To those who know to do good, and yet do not do it, it is a sin.”
Did you realize this? God has been telling us in many other ways, through many stories, and through his Son Jesus, that we are meant to involve ourselves in assisting others in need - whenever it is within our power to do so. To better understand this, it can help to know that Jesus did not define “our neighbor” as someone who lives next-door to us. He defined neighbor as “any human being in need”. So when we obey the command to love our neighbor it may be a friend or a complete stranger. That person might be a kind and grateful individual, so easy to care for, or they could be a rude and ungrateful sort. What Jesus wants us to grasp is that all people are persons of worth, each deserving to be treated with dignity and compassion.
Now for the radical part of this parable. The Samaritan character references Jews who lived in the south, in the land of Judea. Northern Jews, represented by the priest and Levite, lived in northern Israel near Jerusalem. There was deep animosity between these two. The divide was wide, the prejudices real. There was an “us against them” attitude in the hearts of the religious leaders and the people. Each justified their own point of view, lines had been drawn in the sand and tensions ran high.
Can anyone here this morning relate to a nation experiencing all of those dynamics? Can you see how Jesus put two “supposedly pious northern Jews” in a story with a detested, supposedly less-than- righteous southern Jew? His audience would have instinctively justified the Priest and Levite’s actions, defending them for not getting involved. But then Jesus introduces the heathen “Samaritan” and makes him the hero, the one who has compassion, who shows God-like mercy. All I can say is - Jesus “went there”. And his listeners must have gotten really quiet, and uncomfortable.
As suspense hung heavy, Jesus faced the northern Jewish spiritual leader who had said “Who is my neighbor?” He asked him this question: “Which of these three was a neighbor to the wounded man?” “The one who showed mercy,” was his reply. “You have your answer, now go and live your life in this manner,” said Jesus.
I believe the holy men there that day, and all the ordinary folks in the crowd, knew in their hearts that they should never ignore the suffering of others. But I think two things were barriers for them, and they can be for us as well. They needed to see others with God’s eyes, so that their impulse would be to step forward - not remain at a distance. Kitty Genovese’s neighbors were probably nice, ordinary people who loved their kids, watched fireworks together on the 4th of July, and got by the best they could in their daily lives. Plenty could have been church-goers too. But when their windows opened, they saw a helpless woman crying out for their help – and ignored her. No impulse of love moved them to find a way to stop the violence. They closed their windows and blinds and turned off the lights. Afraid. Cautious. And that non-involvement had a price – it allowed hate-filled violence to reign that dark night – and a beautiful fellow human being died alone and in pain on the side of the road. We need Good Samaritans in our neighborhoods and communities. We can counter today’s grievous acts of prejudice and violence - with our voices and our advocacy. We can get involved in practical ways, to effect change. That is exactly what Jesus is telling us. He says that “Whoever truly loves me – will love their neighbors.”
If we can orient our eyes toward seeing the situations and people where God is calling us to be personally involved, here is the next large hurdle. A good quote I found this week sums it up nicely: God followers are “called to show risky, expensive, inconvenient compassion”. Have there been times when you have been like the Good Samaritan and it required real sacrifices of your time? Were you inconvenienced and was it also costly in other ways? But what is God-like LOVE – if it is not also embodied by action?
It says in the Bible in Lamentations 3:22-23 that “God’s compassion toward US never fails. It is new every morning, great is His faithfulness.” May prayer for all of us is that our compassion will never fail, no matter what barriers there may be, may it be NEW EVERY MORNING. Amen.