Even people who have never cracked open a Bible know what a Good Samaritan is.  Last winter there was a story of heroism in New York City, and newspapers had headlines like “Good Samaritan Saves Man on Subway Tracks.” 

          The Good Samaritan who save a man on the subway tracks was a construction worker named Wesley Autrey.  Autrey was standing on a subway platform with his two young daughters, ages four and six, waiting for a train. Suddenly, he saw another man on the platform, apparently suffering from a seizure.  As he watched, the man stumbled and fell off the platform down onto the subway tracks.

          Just at that moment the headlights of a rapidly approaching train appeared in the subway tunnel. Acting quickly, and with no thought for himself, Wesley Autrey jumped down onto the tracks to rescue the stricken man by dragging him out of the way of the train. But he immediately realized that the train was coming too fast and there wasn't time to pull the man off the tracks. So Wesley pressed the man into the hollowed-out space between the rails and spread his own body over him to protect him as the train passed over the two of them.

          The train cleared Wesley by mere inches, coming close enough to leave grease marks on his knit cap. When the train came to a halt, Wesley called up to the frightened onlookers on the platform. “There are two little girls up there. Let them know their Daddy is OK.”

          Immediately, and for good reason, Wesley Autrey became a national hero. People were deeply moved by his selflessness and his bravery. It was a remarkable deed of concern for another person. Wesley Autrey had no obvious reason to help this stranger. He didn't know the man. He had his young daughters to think about. He must have known that he might die trying to save this stranger.  But he saw that a human being was in desperate need, and he made the quick decision to risk his own life to save another.  People called him a Good Samaritan because of the story Jesus told.

          Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan as a response to   religious leader who was challenging Jesus.  It says the man wanted to test Jesus.  And Jesus’ answer is brilliant.  The question the man asks is about eternal life.  It’s a question religious folks are still asking—“Jesus, tell me, who is going to heaven?  What do you have to do?”  The story is found in Luke 10.     

 ²⁵On 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?"

          Jesus responds to the man’s question with a question for him.  He doesn’t just give a pat answer—he engages the man in dialogue.

 ²⁷He—that is, the religious leader-- 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."

 ²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

          Don’t we all want to justify ourselves?  We still want Jesus to tell us the answer to this question:  “If I have to love my neighbor as myself—a tall order no matter who we are talking about—can you at least tell me exactly which neighbor it is that I have to love?”

 ³⁰In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

 ³⁶"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

 ³⁷The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
      Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

          This is one tough story.  To begin with, the man asking all these questions is a Jewish religious leader—an expert in the law.   These are people who measure their righteousness with great precision, even counting their steps on the Sabbath, in order to adhere to the rules.

          And second, the hero in Jesus’ little story—the Good Samaritan—is a Samaritan.  The Jew’s hate the Samaritans!  They refuse to touch them or eat with them because they think the Samaritans are beneath them, and Jesus tells this story where the Samaritan is the hero, and the priest and the Levite—both religious Jews—are the ones he will have to admit failed to be neighbors.

          We can only imagine how the man responded when Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”   

          The real question for us, of course, is what this teaching means for us.  Most of us are simply not Good Samaritans.  That’s why the story of the man who heroically saved another man by throwing himself on the man in front of a subway train that was running over them both is so amazing.  To be that heroic is just not normal!  I don’t know about you, but I am pretty sure I would not have reacted the way Wesley Autrey did. 

          And as Jesus’ story demonstrates, being religious does not make a person more likely to be heroic.  The un-neighbors were the priest and the Levite.  The pastor and perhaps in our day, the social worker.

          They were too busy or to scared—remember the man had just been robbed and severely beaten—he really shouldn’t have been traveling in that area by himself!

          Several years ago, a famous experiment was conducted with seminary students—students who were studying to be pastors. Researchers gathered a group of these seminary students in a classroom and told them that each of them had an assignment. Their assignment was to record a talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The thing was, the recordings were going to be done in a building on the other side of the campus, and because of a tight schedule, they needed to hurry to that building. Unbeknownst to the students, on the path to the other building, the researchers had planted an actor to play the part of a man in distress, slumped in an alley, coughing and suffering. The students were going to make a presentation about the Good Samaritan. But what would happen, the researchers wondered, when they actually encountered a man in need? Would they be Good Samaritans? Well, no, as a matter of fact, they were not. Almost all of them rushed past the hurting man. One student even stepped over the man's body as he hurried to the other building where he was to teach about the Parable of the Good Samaritan!

          When we walk out of here today, having heard the story of the Good Samaritan, will it make any difference?  The truth is that we will be just like the seminary students; just like the priest and the Levite.  Yes, there are times when we may do something heroic, like the Good Samaritan did, or like the man in the New York subway did.

          But most of the time we will think about our own safety first—and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  I don’t want you to go out of here and foolishly risk your life trying to save someone.  In our day, we have people who are professionally trained to help in dangerous situations, and all of us can be grateful for that.

          So what should we make of this story Jesus told?  Remember the question the man asked in the beginning?  “Teacher,” he asked Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
          The man gave a really good answer.  He had studied the scriptures and he knew his stuff.  He had even sorted through all the rules and regulations and sifted out the truly important.  He answered Jesus, “‘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.’”

          And Jesus agreed.  But then, the man wanted to justify himself.  We always want to justify ourselves, don’t we?  Because deep down, we know we really can’t obey these laws.  We can’t really love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.  We can’t really love our neighbor as ourselves.   It’s really, really hard, isn’t it?  There’s something in every one of us that wants the best for ourselves.  We might, with some effort, share with our neighbor, but still, we love ourselves best.

          And what Jesus is really saying here is that true religion involves a change of heart.  True religion means loving God with all your heart, and loving your neighbor as yourself.  And we just can’t quite do it.

          So we become religious.  We make a bunch of rules and we work very hard at following them.  We dress nicely and show up at church on Sunday morning, stand and sit when we are supposed to, hoping that God will notice and approve of us.

          What I think Jesus is saying is this.  I don’t really care if you follow all those rules.  What is going on in your heart?

          Most of us, when we hear the story of the Good Samaritan, think we are supposed to identify with the Good Samaritan, and try to be like him.  Maybe.

          But think about this.  Perhaps you and I are the man in the story who was robbed and beaten and left to die on the side of the road.  We’ve lost our way, and we don’t know how to live our lives.  And the Good Samaritan—Jesus—comes to us and picks us up.

          He takes pity on us and bandages our wounds, pouring the oil of healing on us and dressing our wounds with the wine of his blood shed for our sins.  He picks us up and takes us in, paying the price with his own life.
          He gives us back our lives, and eternal life as well.  Not because we are in any way worthy—we’ll never be as good as we ought to be—but because Jesus loved us enough to give his life for us.  It is that love, that only Jesus could truly demonstrate, that is worthy of eternal life.

          We can’t do anything to earn our way to heaven.  We’re simply not capable of being that good.  We are sinners.  If you haven’t sinned yet today, you certainly will before the day is over.  The only reason we don’t think about that is that, like the religious leader in the story, we have come up with some rules and regulations that we are capable of following, and we use them to justify ourselves.

          Jesus says those things are good, but they are not enough.  The way to receive eternal life is to put your faith and trust in Jesus—to recognize your own sinfulness and accept his forgiveness. 

          And when we realize the incredible gift that we have received in Jesus—the one who laid down his life for us—our hearts are changed.

          We won’t instantly become loving Good Samaritans—we still may step over a body on our way to an important appointment.  But we will begin to allow God to make us over in his image—to become a people who love because we have received God’s love.

Prayer:

          Jesus, come to us and bandage up our wounds.  This world has battered us and beaten us and we need your healing.  Pour out on us the oil of your healing.  We are sinful, selfish people, and we can’t free ourselves from our self-centered, sinful ways.  Wash us in the blood that you so freely shed for our sins.  Thank you for the wonderful gift of your forgiveness. 

          Heal us so that we might love others as we love ourselves.  Wash over us with the wine of your great love—your blood, shed for our sins, so that we might respond by loving you with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength, and with all our minds.

          Thank you that you have gone to prepare a place for us in heaven, and we can know that we have eternal life—not because we know and follow the rules; not even because we love God and love our neighbor, but because of your grace, so freely given for us.

          Amen.