The Good Enemy: The Good Samaritan Story Revisited
A sermon by Lanny Peters
Pastor, Oakhurst Baptist Church
July 25, 2004
Jesus’ stories are truth incarnate. The word made flesh.
A writer who understood this deeply was Flannery O’Connor. In the front room of her farm house in Milledgeville, Georgia, she once wrote: “When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one. The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that cannot be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. …A story isn’t really any good unless it resists paraphrase, unless it hangs on and expands in your mind.” (Mystery and Manners. pp. 96 and 108.)
O’ Connor helps explain why a story sometimes just grabs hold of you and won’t let go. Jesus told lots of stories which hang on and expand in your mind. Last week I preached on what has come to be called the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And here I am still on that same story text this week, because it was not through with me yet.
This story has spawned countless sermons for two thousand years, and even some good ones. The phrase Good Samaritan has become a part of our vocabulary, though often used in a way not consistent with the story Jesus told. A Good Samaritan is seen as a benevolent person who offers help to a stranger. That makes sense, but it is only half the story.
Before the Samaritan came along, first a priest and then a Levite, two highly respected figures in Jesus’ time, each saw the man in the ditch but passed by on the other side of the street without offering to help in any way. But a Samaritan was moved with compassion and went far beyond what anyone might have expected. All these acts of compassion were coming from a person who was a member of a group that were the outcasts and enemies of that society.
Last week I pointed out that this parable is so familiar to us that we can hardly imagine the impact it had in its time. It would be like telling a story where an American is in the ditch and Billy Graham and Jimmy Carter pass by on the other side and the one who stops and does all these loving things is--a member of Al Qaeda. Or if you are a member of Al Qaeda hearing this story, Osama Ben Laden and an Imam each pass by on the other side without offering help and the one who stops and does all these loving things is an-- American Christian fundamentalist.
Everyone hearing Jesus tell this parable would not only have been stunned but they would have also been gravely offended. No one would have been more shocked than his own disciples because of an incident that had happened a few days before. In the previous chapter in Luke’s gospel, Jesus made a trip to the region of Samaria. (9:51-56) Jesus sent messengers ahead of him to find a place for them to stay. But when Jesus and his entourage came to the first village in Samaria, they were not allowed to even enter the village. Luke says it was because Jesus had set a course for Jerusalem. Perhaps figuring they had enough troubles anyway, the Samaritans did not want any part of this controversial figure.
Jesus turned around and headed out of Samaria. But this rejection outraged Jesus’ disciples. How dare these racial half-breeds insult their teacher? Standing up for Jesus, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” They were so mad that they wanted God or some army created by God to destroy the whole town.
But Jesus turned and rebuked them; that is, he sharply and severely reprimanded them.
One ancient text says, Jesus rebuked them and adds, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them. (See NRSV text notes.)
Earlier in the gospel of Luke, when Jesus calls the original twelve apostles, he began by teaching them the essence of what it would mean to follow him. Now, he reminded them of what he had told them in the beginning:
“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:27-36, NRSV
Much like the original disciples the historical church has never wanted to accept how radical Jesus was. In order to appease governments over the centuries, the church first softened and then distorted Jesus’ teachings about love of enemies. Selling their soul, the church even came up with ways of justifying war and giving nations their blessing in killing enemies. Jesus would rebuke such thinking now just as he did in his life on earth.
Last year when we rained fire down on Baghdad, few churches stood up to say that was not what Jesus would want. And now a bipartisan committee of Congress has concluded that Iraq never had the weapons of mass destruction that we built our rush to war upon. There is no question that Sadaam Hussein was the enemy of his people, as are the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and a number of other corrupt and ruthless regimes around the world. But Iraq was no threat to us.
In the most recent issue of Baptist Peacemaker, Paul Hanneman has an excellent article in which he reflects:
“How many years ago.. .how many wars ago.. .was it that Walt Kelly's cartoon character Pogo Possum said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us"?
Robert Johnson, my favorite Jungian writer, used to speak of the teeter-totter principle of the psyche. Things have to be kept in balance, or they will tend to balance themselves. If you overbalanced on one side— for example, identifying too much with the good and the righteous, then sooner or later the unconscious would erupt on the other side to bring back balance.
Preachers who claim moral rectitude—and then get caught in sleazy motels consorting with prostitutes, for example. If you don't acknowledge the shadow side, it'll turn around and bite you. Hard.
We shouldn't be surprised at the brutality, torture, and humiliation of Abu Ghraib. Heartbroken, yes; horrified, to be sure. But not surprised. When our leaders claim the moral high ground, when they refuse to acknowledge mistakes and errors in judgment, when denial reigns supreme, the other, darker side was bound to come out somehow, somewhere. The psychic teeter-totter has to be balanced.
Some have sought to minimize the significance by comparing our soldiers' actions to the horrors Iraqis suffered under Saddam Hussein or to the Islamic terrorists' beheading of Nick Berg. But when you've claimed to be the standard-bearer of freedom, the real issue is how your behavior measures up to your own ideals. Ours doesn't.
The world once mourned with us at the tragic, senseless loss of life on 9/11. Now the world condemns us for behaving in the same monstrous ways as have those we call enemies. We are dancing alone, to use Thomas Friedman's words (New York Times column, May 13, 2004). And our leaders appear already to be moving on as if nothing unusual has happened. Al Ghraib is not a problem to be handled, but the symptom of a deeper issue.
Repentance is what's needed. Repentance (“metanoia” in Greek) means a complete about-face, a turning around of the mind, a changing of life and lifestyle, the taking of a radical new direction. It is less about looking back in sorrow—though that is a necessary part of the work—and far more about looking ahead toward God's dream of peace and justice for the world.. .and living into it. (“We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us.” Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer 2004, p. 5.)
One reason I asked Ronald and Kevin to be worship leaders today is that they, like others in the Oakhurst Recovery Program, have helped us live into God’s reconciling work in the world. The men in that program are immersed in the business of repentance. Before coming here, they were part of a population that is often feared and ostracized by our society; that is homeless people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. These folks are often seen as the other, but we know them now as neighbors. And as I have said countless times, they have as much to offer us as we offer them. They may have once been in the ditch but now they often act as Good Samaritans to many of us.
When their historic enemies, the Samaritans, rejected Jesus, the disciples felt humiliated. Their solution was to rain fire down on the village. And in the name of God of course, whom we always assume is on our side when we decide to rain destruction down on someone else.
In no uncertain terms, Jesus rebuked his disciples. And not only that, a few days later he told a story that has come to epitomize what it means to be a good neighbor. For the hero of the story, Jesus chose not a priest or a Levite, not even a Jew, but a hated Samaritan.
But Jesus did more than just talk the talk; he walked the walk. For despite his rejection in Samaria, he later tried again to seek reconciliation. This time, he did not announce his coming in advance. (John 4: 1 ff.) Instead, he slipped into Samaria quietly and met a woman by a well, a Samaritan woman, who was an outcast even in her own community. Jesus’ deep understanding and complete acceptance, and most of all his forgiveness and unconditional love, changed her forever. The Samaritan woman went from being an outcast to an evangelist, rushing back to the village to tell everyone about what had happened to her.Other Samaritans not only came out to meet Jesus, but they invited him to stay with them in their village. John says, “Many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of her testimony. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” (John 4: 41-42)
Jesus and the disciples stayed in their homes- Samaritan homes- for two days. The disciples sat at the table with their former enemies and laughed and talked and learned about each other’s ways. Including the disciples who had once wanted to rain down fire from heaven and consume them. Jesus showed them all what it meant to “Love your enemies.”
The story of the Good Samaritan could also be called the story of “The Good Enemy.” God’s hope is for more than just loving our enemy, but reaching the point where our former enemy is our neighbor.
Jesus said to do this, be neighbors with your enemies, and you will live.
As in that image of peace in the 23rd Psalm proclaims, “God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.”
Despite all we do, there will be no homeland security without world security. Every church that follows Jesus Christ is by authority of its founder a peace church. Anytime our government, whether it is led by George W. Bush or John Kerry, Republicans or Democrats, rushes to rain down fire on some perceived or even real enemy, every church who calls upon the name of Jesus must do everything in our power to rebuke them in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of the world.