Sunday Homily - July 14th, 2019 - The Side of the Road

The Good Samaritan Icon

I.

Has anyone here been stuck on the side of the road before?

Was it because your car broke down?
 Did you have a flat tire?
  Did you have a sick child that was about to puke all over the back of your headrest,
   and you needed to take evasive action?

There are many reasons why people end up pulling over to the side of the highway.
 But, some are more severe than others.

There was a story I read once about a police officer
 who was the first person to come upon a vehicle that had flipped over.

The officer pulled over and went to the side of the road
 and hurried up to the car to discover a young man unconscious in the driver's seat,
  with a piece of metal embedded in his neck,
   bleeding from the large artery in his neck.

There was very little the officer could do other than try to stop the bleeding
 and call for immediate backup.

The officer, with both hands planted firmly near the wounded young man,
 shouted and tried to wave any drivers on the busy highway to stop and help.

Cars moved over to the left lane,
 giving space to the police car,
  but just out of sight was the flipped car with the desperate officer calling for help
   for anyone passing by to help save the young man's life.

No one stopped.

When the backup arrived, the young man was dead from his injury.

The officer, retelling the account of the story, said that if one person would have stopped,
 if only one person had been able to see them and pull over,
  it could have given the officer the ability to stabilize the man's injury
   with the medical kit in their police car.

And yet, whether it be from the lack of visibility,
 or perhaps the assumptions of the drivers who went by that,
  "Oh, there is a police car at the scene, everything must be alright."
   If those assumptions had been set aside,
    there is a chance that it could have saved that young man's life.

How would that roadside account have been different,
 if there was but one Good Samaritan who stopped to help.

II.

The story of the Good Samaritan
 is one that we hear so often that it can stop having meaning for us in our modern context.

We know the story so well that we can repeat it in our sleep.

But, I wonder, friends, if we who know this story so well
 even think about putting it's principles into action?

Think about why Jesus would tell this story.

Jesus is getting tested by a man with a question about inheriting eternal life,
 and he wants to get a straight answer from a religious leader like Jesus.

And when he tried to justify himself by asking,
 "Well, who exactly is my neighbor, so that I can love my neighbor?"
  Jesus responds with this parable.

But take careful note, at least for a moment,
 that Jesus doesn't tell a story about a good Jew, helping out a Jew who got beaten so badly
  that passers by thought he was dead.

Instead, Jesus tells about a Good Samaritan.
 A Good Samaritan, who had no dealings with Jews.
  A Good Samaritan, part of a people who had racial animosity between their people and the Jewish people.
   [c.f. New Testament Commentary by Craig Keener]

A Jew is beaten so badly that the priest and Levite who passed by
 didn't want to take the chance of defiling themselves with a dead body,
  or what is also likely is that they didn't want to suffer the same fate,
   should the same robbers still be near, hiding behind the trees.

And yet, this Good Samaritan,
 the last person who would be seen helping a Jew,
  is the one who stops on the side of the road,
   binds the man's wounds,
    carries him to safety,
     covers the expenses for this man to stay and get well,
      and then the Samaritan goes on his way to continue living his life.

The Samaritan wasn't the person who was supposed to stop,
 yet he did anyway.
  The Samaritan was no angel,
   but it doesn't take a messenger from heaven to care for a wounded person on the side of the road.
    The Samaritan also doesn't have to pay the medical expenses for this wounded Jew,
     and yet he vows to repay any expense incurred.

And notice finally that Jesus didn't tell this lawyer who is his neighbor.
 Rather, Jesus says to him, "Tell me, who was a neighbor to this man?"
  Effectively, Jesus asked the lawyer, "Who has been a neighbor to you?"

And as the lawyer reluctantly replies that the Samaritan was the neighbor,
 Jesus then commands the lawyer, "Go and do likewise."

III.

Rarely do we get to talk about a near parallel between biblical times and our current day,
 but let's be serious for a moment.

The next time that you see someone on the side of the highway,
 with no one stopped with them,
  think to yourself for a moment,
   "God may be calling me to be a Good Samaritan."

Those people who are on the side of the road probably don't look like you.
 They might just be switching drivers for a journey,
  or they could just have a car-sick child in need of some fresh air.

But regardless of the reason,
 what if they needed you
  just like that police officer just needed one person to stop and help the young man,
   bleeding from a deadly wound?

What if that person on the side of the road has just had an awful day,
 and desperately needs encouragement from a random stranger stopping on the side of the road?

What if the angel sent from heaven to do God's will turns out to be you,
 just regular you, who sees someone in need, and actually treats them as your neighbor?

Jesus didn't tell the parable of the Good Samaritan to merely illustrate a point:
 he did it to call you and me to real, concrete action.

And that real, concrete action of having compassion on the person stuck on the side of the road
 is even spoken about in terms of inheriting eternal life!

So, if you find yourself asking, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life,"
 and Jesus responds, "Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself,"
  be prepared to be commissioned to stop on the side of Highway 67/167
   the next time you go to Little Rock.

Be prepared to be commissioned to actually be Good Samaritans to people crying out for help.
 To be people so filled with the love of God that we stop on the sides of the road
  to bind the brokenhearted, love the loveless, have compassion on the hurt,
   and to be a companion for those who have lost all hope.

Let's face it, y'all.
 Every one of us is commissioned by Jesus in this parable
  to actually go out and become a Good Samaritan to all who we come across.

The world is so full of people who have been left on the sides of the road.
 They fill our nursing homes right down the street.
  They sleep on our very streets at night.
   Many of them stop by our food pantry next door for their next meals.

Please, friends.
 The world doesn't need any more empty sentimentality or hollow good intentions.

The world desperately needs genuine followers of Jesus Christ,
 people whose hearts are broken for the pain of the world,
  and yet who are so filled with the love of God and neighbor
   that they cannot help but move toward those who need help.

The world desperately needs us to be serious about our Christianity.
 The world so very desperately needs us to be serious about following Jesus.

And the world doesn't need superheros.
 It doesn't need Iron Man or Captain America.
  It just needs imperfect, unimpressive, sometimes unnoticed, often the last person expected:

The world needs Good Samaritans.
 And you, friends, are called to be one today.

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.