* * *
This past week, Newnan First UMC hosted kids from around our community for Vacation Bible School. Over the course of the week, these young people heard about God’s ability to go beyond all that we could hope for or imagine and stories from the Bible of those that went beyond what we would normally expect. In the course of these stories, we see that the results of going beyond expectations often far exceed what could possibly have been hoped for. As Ephesians 3:20 reminds us: “Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us” (CEB)
Over the course of the month of June, we have been talking about these same themes in worship. At the beginning of the month, we heard about Daniel and the lion's den and going beyond with faith. Last week, we took a look at Queen Esther and going beyond with boldness. This week, we have the familiar story of the Good Samaritan and will focus on going beyond with kindness.
This is one of those stories that most Christians know by heart and that even many non-Christians have heard of. We even hear stories on the news of people described as a Good Samaritan when they do a good deed for someone else. One of the reasons for this is that we simply don’t expect this behavior. We have gotten to a point where we simply don’t expect people to be kind to others, so when someone does something compassionate or kind for someone else, we make a big deal out of it.
As I thought about this, I was reminded of the BBC miniseries (and book), Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. In this story, Richard Mayhew is a businessman who has been living and working in London for just a couple of years. He is originally from Scotland, so he doesn’t really know anyone in London. He is fairly successful at work, but his only friends appear to be one work colleague and his fiancée.
As the series opens, Richard is at work when he is reminded that he was supposed to get reservations at a very particular restaurant for his fiancée and her extremely influential boss from the museum. He manages to still get reservations and rushes out to get ready for this important dinner to discuss an upcoming exhibit at the museum.
As they walk down the street toward the restaurant, a young woman stumbles out of the shadows and falls on the sidewalk. She is dressed in clothes we would consider shabby, she is dirty, and she is covered in blood. People walking down the sidewalk step around her without even looking down. Richard’s own fiancée simply steps over the woman. But Richard stops, feeling the need to help.
Now let us pause here for a moment. I wonder which of these sounds more common - those that are walking by without a glance or the one that stops to help? Maybe this will help us think about why those called "Good Samaritans" are celebrated.
Returning to our story, when she realizes Richard is no longer walking with her, his fiancée turns around to ask what is going on. He points to the woman lying on the ground. His fiancée makes some disparaging remarks about the homeless. Richard says she is hurt and needs help. His fiancée is completely focused on the dinner. She tells him just to leave some money and hurry up. If they wait for an ambulance they’ll be late to dinner, and they cannot be late. Someone else will call. Hurry up.
But Richard cannot leave this helpless person lying there on the sidewalk. He reaches down and scoops her up. The woman manages to communicate that the blood is not hers, and that she just needs to rest, so please don’t call a doctor. He carries her back to his flat and lets her sleep. The next morning, the young woman named Door looks much refreshed. She enlists Richard’s help to escape some men that are looking for her. In the process, Richard is introduced to a world he didn’t even know existed, a world inhabited by those on the margins - the ignored, the outcasts, those that choose to live away from society's rules. It also happens to be a world of magic
In the end, Richard travels with Door until she completes her quest to discover who killed her family and why. He protects her from murderers, survives a quest that has killed countless others before him, and slays a mythical beast at the heart of London Below. He went far beyond simply aiding the hurting woman that others had ignored on the street, and his life was changed in the process.
In this story, Richard is constantly an outsider. He is a Scotsman living in London. He is a bit eccentric next to his fiancée's high class style. She frequents society functions while his desktop is covered with troll dolls. And he is an outsider in London Below as he follows along on a quest that is not his. But this does not keep him from stopping to aid a person in need. Where others simply stepped around or over this woman lying in the street with shabby clothes covered in blood, where others ignored the obvious pain of someone in need, where most of those on the street couldn’t even be bothered to look on that need, Richard noticed. He stopped to help. And he went beyond the typical help of dropping a bit of money or simply calling for an ambulance and walking away.
Richard stopped and talked to the woman lying there. He took her somewhere safe where she could recover from her injuries. He made sure she was safe before he allowed her to continue on her journey. And in the process, he entered into relationship with Door and many others he would never even have met if he had not stopped to help her on the street.
Like the Samaritan in the parable that Jesus told, Richard went beyond what was expected. He stepped beyond the norm with kindness and compassion for the young woman he found on the street. Like the traveler in the parable, Door was literally lying on the side of the road in obvious need. Her clothes were torn and covered in blood. And yet, those on the street simply walked around her. Perhaps they didn’t cross to the other side of the road, but they did their best to ignore her need. Or perhaps like Richard’s fiancée, they sought to justify walking away with their own needs.
Surely the priest and the Levite had very good reasons for ignoring the need of the man lying on the side of the road. Maybe they were running late for worship. Maybe they were afraid of touching the man’s blood and needing to ritually cleanse themselves later. Maybe they assumed the man was already dead.
But the Samaritan saw the man and was moved with compassion. He bound up the man’s wounds, placed him on his own donkey and took him to an inn. Then he set the man up with a room, paid the innkeeper to see that the man was cared for, and promised to pay any additional monies when he next came through.
The Samaritan didn’t just call an ambulance. He didn’t just put bandaids on the wounds and walk away. He tended the man’s wounds, took him somewhere safe, and provided for his needs until he was able to get out on his own again.
Now I can’t say that following this encounter the Samaritan entered a magical land, completed a sacred quest, and slayed a mythical creature. But I like to think that when he returned again to the inn, he continued to care for the traveler and developed a relationship of some sort with him. I like to think that some sort of bond was formed between the two. For in the end, this is what Jesus is calling us to - loving relationship with one another.
Loving relationships are built on the kindness and compassion that the Samaritan showed. They are built on a love that does not think of its own gain but seeks instead to serve others. The Samaritan was an outsider in the story. He is from a different nation and not even Jewish. And yet he is the one that stops to help the man in need. He didn’t stop and ask the man’s nationality. He didn’t stop to check his insurance card. He didn’t stop to wonder how his service to others was going to affect his own status in his community. He didn’t stop to ask if the man had done something to put himself in this situation. He simply saw someone in need and helped them.
Not only that, but he didn’t stop and ask what the least amount of help was that he could give and still be considered helping. He helped extravagantly. He gave abundantly. We have to remember that in these parables Jesus is making a case for what the kingdom of God looks like. And the love that God has for us, the love that God expects us to have for one another, is extravagant. It is kind, it is compassionate, and it goes beyond any limits we might want to place on it. We don't get to limit God's love - for ourselves or for others.
As we think about the compassion shown in these two examples today, I want us to think about our own lives. When faced with need, do we cross to the other side of the road, step around the outstretched hand, and refuse to meet the other’s eyes? Or do we look upon others with the same love, kindness, and compassion with which Jesus looks upon us?
In some ways, it is sad to think about the ways in which we celebrate the Good Samaritan. It is sad to think that acting with kindness and compassion towards others is so extraordinary, so outside of the norm, that it is something to be celebrated.
But this is exactly why Jesus told this story. He needed to jar us enough with this act of kindness that was so unexpected that we would recognize it as a sacred thing. The love that we are called to share with one another is a mere reflection of that love that God has shown us.
What I would truly love to see is a story on the news about “Good Samaritans” from a local church doing good in their community and have the response be, “Well, of course they would do that. They are Christians after all.”
That is the world that Jesus was pointing us to. That is the example of kindness, compassion, and love that Jesus talked about in this parable, the same example that Jesus lived in his life with others, and the same task to which Jesus calls us all still today.
When our community looks at the work of our church, are they surprised by the kindness, compassion, and love that we show to the world around us?
I hope that the answer is yes; at least I hope that they see us showing kindness, compassion, and love to others in our community. But I would hope it would not be a surprise that we act that way.
I hope that we will continue to go beyond in faith, that we will continue to act with boldness, and that we will continue to show loving kindness to the world around us.
So let us join together and love our neighbors so extravagantly that everyone will know we follow Jesus.