Go And Do Likewise

 “Luke 10:25-37    July 13, 2025 Rev. June Wilkins

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan only shows up in the gospel of Luke

and it is one of the most familiar of Jesus’ parables

It’s so familiar that the term “Good Samaritan” 

is a cliché in our language. There’s “Good Samaritan hospitals” 

There’s “good Samaritan laws”.  Even someone who’s never heard of this story –

or even the bible– knows what a “good Samaritan” is.

It’s someone who does something good for a stranger in need.

 

And that is usually our understanding of this parable too.

Be nice to strangers. That’s the whole thing. 

No need to go on with the sermon, right?

 

But does Jesus ever just give a nice story with a swell easily

Wrapped up moral, does he? Of course not.

 

Especially not to a lawyer who it says is trying to test Jesus.

Now when it says lawyer,  

it’s not exactly like we understand lawyers today.

Back in Jesus’ day, Jewish lawyers were those people who

understood and interpreted the law of Moses.

They were religious leaders too.

 

The question this lawyer asks doesn’t seem too outrageous.

It’s a question that we all want to know the answer to:

“What do we have to do to inherit eternal life?” And we know lawyers

don’t ask questions unless they already know the answers.

Jesus knows that this man knows the answer. 

He works with the law every day. The lawyer has studied and interpreted it.

It’s an answer that he has heard since he was a boy.

So Jesus throws the question back to him.

“What’s written in the law, lawyer?”

 

And the lawyer says it:

“Love the lord your God with all your heart soul strength and mind

and love your neighbor has yourself.”

 

And Jesus says, Sure that’s perfect. 

 

And I’m sure if the lawyer had left it at that,

we probably wouldn’t have heard about this story

But the lawyer doesn’t leave it at that. 

 

It says that the man wanted to justify himself.

In other words, he wanted to make sure that he had

already done what was necessary to inherit eternal life.

He wanted to check it off his list.

He wanted to go away knowing that he was

secure and had earned it already.

 

This shouldn’t be foreign to us, we do it all the time.

Just read the bible for a little while and see how you do it in your head.

 

So the man asks the question to justify himself,

“Who is my neighbor?”

The man was hoping that Jesus would answer with something like:

“Your family, your friends, the people who live next door,

those who are culturally similar, the people you like,

the people who don’t make you feel uncomfortable,

That is your neighbor”

The lawyer would have loved for Jesus to tell him that.

Then he would have been able to justify himself.

 

But Jesus doesn’t let him do that.

Jesus never lets us do that.

Jesus is always turning things on their heads.

 

In response, Jesus tells the story of a traveler

on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This was a notoriously dangerous road. The listeners knew that

someone was bound to get in trouble on this road.

And the story does not disappoint.

And the traveler is robbed and beaten up and

left on the side of the road half dead.

 

Then Jesus says that a Levite and a Priest go by.

As you might know, Levites and priests

are the Jewish religious leaders the dedicated temple workers,

the ones that everyone looks up to and assumed

will follow the law and ways of God.

 

But when they come across this other guy in the road who needs help, 

they both cross to the other side of the road to avoid him.

Now we don’t know why. Maybe they were in a rush.

Maybe they were afraid, it was a bad neighborhood after all.

Some say it’s because they were going to the temple in Jerusalem

and didn’t want to defile themselves.

I don’t think it matters, actually.

There could be countless reasons why they didn’t stop.

Think of all the various reasons that you or I have given ourselves

for not helping a stranger who needed our help.

The point is, the church people did not help.

So two people have passed by this injured traveler.

 

Now everyone knows, since the beginning of time,

that all stories happen in threes.

And then here’s where Jesus delivers the whammy.

 

If the first two guys fell through,

then everyone knew the last would be the hero of the story.

So the people listening are ready for the hero to come in.

And that hero was a Samaritan.

 

Samaritans were hated by Israelites.

They were originally Israelites, but years ago had stayed behind

in a gentile land and married gentiles. 

So in some people’s eyes, they were unholy and unpure. 

They were looked down on by Jewish people,

They were seen as second-class citizens.

They were the butt of Israelite’s jokes.

Samaritans were actually the people that the apostles, James and John

offered to destroy by commanding fire come from heaven

a couple of weeks ago.

 

Most Jewish people didn’t include Samaritans

in the scope of God’s favor.

For a Jewish person to call someone a Samaritan was an insult.

 

And yet that is how Jesus’ story goes, The Samaritan comes near,

the Samaritan is moved with pity. The Samaritan helps the man,

 takes care of him and saves his life. 

The Samaritan is the one who fulfills the law to love your neighbor as yourself. 

The Samaritan is the one who acts like a neighbor. 

And is also the one that the hearers of the story should be like, 

should emulate, should aspire to be like.

A shocker to all that lawyer, and the disciples

and all the other people hearing this story.

 

For Christians, this story might be rephrased:

A person was beaten up and left for dead,

A great pastor crosses to the other side of the street to avoid them,

and a beloved church member crosses to the other side 

to avoid them, just then – and then we can fill in the blank ourselves -- 

whoever we look down on, whoever we  would never

imagine would be the helpful one in the story,

whatever group you think is ruining America,

whoever we might consider asking fire to come down

from heaven and obliterate.

 

THAT person is moved with pity

and comes over to help the one in the road.

 

Last week there were horrible floods in Texas that killed many people.  

One of the first groups of outside people who came to help

were volunteer firefighters sent from Acuña, Mexico.

From Mexico, with all the horrible, inflammatory, 

Fire Fighters from Acuña, Mexico
Who came to help after the floods in Texas

and racist things said about Mexico, and Mexicans and Latinos in general,

by our president, and actually 

by the Governor of Texas too,

and the hostile way that many people of our

country have echoed those terrible sentiments,

Mexico still sent volunteers 

to help the people of Texas.

 

This really is the good Samaritan story in real time.

Who is my neighbor? The one who showed us mercy.

Mexico is our neighbor.

And our neighbor is not just someone who we pity and feel sorry for.

A neighbor is someone who serves us too.

A neighbor is someone who an teach us and we can learn from.

 

And this is how this is a super-clever story on Jesus part.

Jesus could have easily made the Samaritan the person that

was beaten up and left on the road for dead

And then the moral would be to help that person.

That is often the position that we put people who

are oppressed, hated, or outcast when we’re trying to include them.

 

While most of us pride ourselves on not hating people

of other races, classes, and cultures

a lot of us will still look down on people in another way

we see them as hopeless and helpless, not as advanced as us.

We see them as always needing assistance.

Like they will never become full people without our good guidance.

They just need to learn to be like us.

This is how many caring but privileged people think.

“Just learn our way. Poor, poor Samaritan. And you won’t be so sad.”

 

But no. Jesus takes the Samaritan, the hated one,

and puts him in the role of the one who helps

The one who is to be admired, emulated, imitated, learned from.

The Samaritan is the helper, the hero.

Jesus tells the lawyer, “Go and do likewise.” Go and be like him.

Find your eternal life in that whole arrangement.

 

Remember, the original question was

“What must I do to gain eternal life?”

And here is another layer to this amazing story.

Jesus is saying with this story that our salvation will not

be found with the religious leaders, or religious institutions.

 

Our salvation will be found in the outsider,

the one who is despised,

looked down on, and the butt of rude jokes.

Our salvation is found in the one that we make the other –

whoever that may be at the time.

 

And our neighbor is not just there to feel sorry for

and to have pity on, our neighbor is there

to teach us, to emulate, to learn from, and partner with.

That’s the new system Jesus has ordained.

 

In other words, for the people of God,

Salvation is found outside the usual places.

 

All this with a simple story about a man who gets robbed.

 

Jesus tells this man that we cannot put a box or limits on God’s love. 

God will be working wherever God is needed, 

God will be on the dangerous roads, in the streets of the city, in another country.

 

God will even work through those that we have labeled as unholy,

or unworthy, despised and hated, or poor and pitied.

God will work through people outside the Judeo Christian Faith.

And, on occasion, God will even work in and through us,

the people of Christ’s church

 

Jesus is our neighbor. Jesus has shown us love and mercy.

Jesus has rescued us, cleaned our wounds,

taken us to a safe place, and paid for our protection.

Jesus was the one who was despised and looked down on,

and he was crucified for it.

 

Jesus has shown us how to be neighbors to each other,

by being our neighbor first.

 

And Jesus’ love and mercy

is what moves us to go and do likewise.