Parable Dimensions

Pentecost + 5 – Lectionary 15

Year C

13 July 2025

Deuteronomy 30:9-14

Psalm 25:1-10

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

Divine Judge,

you framed the earth with love and mercy.

Keep us faithful in prayer,

so that we may be filled with the knowledge of your will,

and not ignore or pass by another’s need,

but plumb the depths of love in showing mercy.   Amen. 

________________________________________

We’ve often looked at the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but have we ever looked at it from the point of view of the beaten individual?

In today’s gospel, we’re told: “²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”” (Lk 10:25-29)

Today, we see that ‘an expert in the law.’ We see that he wants to how one should define “neighbour”, and I’m sure that there are many places is in the world in which people are wondering who is their neighbour, these days?

So, today, I thought I would attempt to approach this text from the perspective, not of the one who stops to render aid, but from the perspective of the victim.

Jesus tells us: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.” (Lk 10:30b)

A man is beaten, shot, stabbed.

He’s robbed of his wallet, his watch, his phone, luggage, and car. They’re all gone, and he’s left bleeding and abandoned on the side of the road, unable to move because of his injuries.

So, I wonder what’s going through his mind?

We can surmise that his injuries hurt very much and he’s unable to get himself off the ground. He’s unable to get himself to a hospital or a critical care clinic. Perhaps he has broken bones as well as open bleeds.

Because of the degree of his injuries, and the missing phone, he has no way to call for help, or to alert friends and family. He can’t even to call his business associates and inform them of this unexpected delay in his plans.

If he’s conscious, even his voice is weak because of the pain, because of his injuries.

When he’s conscious I’m sure we can hypothesize that he prays for aid, for someone to stop, to call for an ambulance, or to help him to get to a nearby hospital.

As time passes, his injuries cause his body to stiffen and it becomes more difficult in his conscious moments for him to move or even speak, as he lies by the side of the road.

The gospel tells us: “³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.” (Lk 10:31)

What does it seem to this man, lying here, injured to the point of becoming unconscious? Sure, the person who passes is a priest, but couldn’t he just make a call to 911 or to emergency services?

But this doesn’t happen because the priest crossed the road to better avoid the injured man. He saw him lying there but he actively avoided him on his way.

Then Jesus tells us: “³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” (Lk 10:32)

The same thing! The same behaviour is seen by the injured man, and so his hopes sink even lower. He’s almost to the point of giving up, of succumbing to his injuries, but Jesus’ story continues.

“³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” (Lk 10:33)

An absolute stranger stops to offer aid.

Someone from a different culture halts his own journey, delays his own business dealings, and he helps the man who is beaten and left on the roadside as if dead.

In his moments of consciousness, I’m sure the injured man is grateful for this stranger. He’s grateful to be seen with compassion and with love for one’s neighbour.

We’re told that he personally tends the wounds of the injured, not worried about blood or stains. There isn’t concern as he uses the oil and wine he’s transporting to clean and treat the wounds, or the cloth he may have been taking to market used as bandages, as he strives to save the life of this one stranger.

Jesus tells us: “³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.” (Lk 10:34)

And what’s more, he arranges to pay for the care that this stranger receives and offers to settle accounts if the deposit left isn’t enough.

Given the events of the world, today, this parable may gain more depth in our lives as we strive to keep Christ at the centre of our hearts, as we strive to know who is our neighbour, in these increasingly troubled days.

Some nations, like France, have actually instituted a “Good Samaritan Law” that obliges people to stop and render aid to those in need.

At the same time, there are elements in the world that seek to make us fear ‘the other,’ whomever that might be in a given moment or circumstance.

Today’s expert in the law stands up and desires to have Jesus affirm who is ‘in’, and who is ‘out.’ He wants to build walls, affirm divides as made by society, but that’s not the purpose of the gospels.

That’s not the message that Jesus brings to our hearts, our souls, our lives. If it were, then the Holy Spirit’s actions at Pentecost wouldn’t have happened when we heard the gospel, the message of God’s love, each in the language of our hearts.

Acts tells us: “Each one heard their own language being spoken. …[and they asked] ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? —we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”” (Acts 2:6b, 8, 11b)

Jesus points out to us, as he points out to the expert in the law, that the only definition of stranger is in our own minds because this is who Jesus calls ‘neighbour.’

It’s important to note that today’s rescuer isn’t Jewish. He’s Samaritan. He believes in God, but his worship patterns differ from the Priest and the Levite who have already passed by without stopping.

The Samaritan’s practices differ from the expert in the law and from the audience who are hanging on Jesus’ every word, this morning. Not better, not worse, just different.

South of our boarder, we see people rounding up absolutely anyone who doesn’t look like, sound like, or act like the people in control.

Around the world we see nations invade another’s nation under the guise of invasion or conquest of territories, or people attempting genocide for sole conquest of land.

We see atrocities visited on the lowest and the most vulnerable in our midst both far away and just outside our doors.

Too often we are able to get caught up in our daily round of tasks and in our own distractions we fail to see the most vulnerable in our midst. And then, we fail to recognize how these others have fallen, or have been beaten in and by life, by the world all around us.

Some years ago, on a deserted winter road, my husband and I came across a car in the ditch. We were on our way to visit family in that particular direction. My husband has extensive first aid experience and so we stopped to see if aid was needed.

In that place and at that time, cellular service wasn’t very reliable, but we managed to call 911 and let them know about the accident, that the driver had a bleeding injury to his neck, and he was found alone in his car, in the ditch.

About this time, another car also stopped. The driver was an off-duty nurse, and between them, a blanket kept in the car and the use of my scarf, aid was able to be provided, and the man survived.

When the ambulance and the police arrived, these two had him stabilized with the scarf, which didn’t survive the encounter, but the man did.

At a later date, because the police took phone information, they let us know that the man had survived the accident and it was because of the impromptu use of the scarf to staunch his wounds that this was possible.

Like the man left for dead on the side of the road, because of one act of kindness, this neighbour in need lives.

At the same time, as those who ‘love ourselves as we love our neighbour” (vs 27b), we recall that we are able to love because we are loved.

We are loved by God, and because of that love then we are able to love the whole world.

Returning to today’s gospel, how does the beaten and robbed man feel when he wakes in a warm bed, cared for and healing? Because of one stranger who, in a beaten man, saw a neighbour, he lives and is able to see others as neighbours as well.

Once the neighbour in need is seen, not as an issue, not as a problem, not as a nuisance then the love of God, which fills our hearts is seen and heard in the language of our hearts, and able to be shared with all whom we encounter.

Today’s gospel doesn’t tell us how the beaten man in the parable felt about the neighbour who found him and saved his life.

But, looking back at the text, we are able to hypothesize that, once he recovered, he, too, found neighbours in need, and so helped when and where aid, attention, and even just to be seen is able to be a lifesaver to these neighbours.

Amen.