The Enemy Who Stopped to Help

Peter's clothes had long since dried from his walk on the waves. Now Jesus was on the road south to Jerusalem, and the road ran through Samaria.

Samaritans and Jews were old enemies, and most Jews hurried through Samaria without stopping for the night if they could help it. When one Samaritan village refused to let Jesus stay the night, James and John were furious.

"Lord, shall we call fire down from heaven and burn them up?"

Jesus turned and scolded them, and they walked on to another village.

Later, an expert in the law of Moses stood up to test Jesus. (He had studied the law so long he could probably recite it in his sleep.)

"Teacher, what must I do to have life that lasts forever?"

"What does the law say?" Jesus asked. "How do you read it?"

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind," said the man. "And love your neighbor as yourself."

"Right," said Jesus. "Do that, and you will live."

But the man wanted to prove himself right. "And who is my neighbor?" he asked. He meant: where am I allowed to stop?

So Jesus told a story.

A man is walking down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It twists down through rocky hills, so steep that the bottom is lower than the sea, and robbers hide behind the boulders. Out they leap! They beat the man, tear off his clothes, grab everything he has, and run, leaving him half dead in the dust.

Footsteps. A priest, a man who serves God in the temple, sees him lying there, moves to the far side of the road, and keeps going.

More footsteps. A Levite, a temple helper, looks and crosses to the far side too.

Then, clip-clop, a donkey comes around the bend, and on it rides a Samaritan.

(Somewhere in the crowd, someone groaned. A Samaritan, in this story?)

The Samaritan sees the hurt man, and his heart turns over with pity. He climbs down and kneels in the dirt. He pours oil and wine on the cuts to clean them and wraps them in bandages. He lifts the man onto his own donkey, walks him to an inn, and cares for him all night.

In the morning he hands the innkeeper two silver coins, two days' pay. "Look after him," he says. "If it costs more, I'll pay you back when I come this way again."

Jesus looked at the expert. "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man the robbers attacked?"

"The one who showed him mercy," said the expert. (He could not quite get the word "Samaritan" out of his mouth.)

"Go," said Jesus, "and do the same."

The expert had asked where love could stop. Jesus answered with a man who stopped: an enemy, from the wrong side of an old fight, paying out of his own purse. A story could show the expert that kind of love. It could not put it inside him.

But the one telling the story loved like that himself. His enemies called Jesus a Samaritan as an insult. The village that turned him away got no fire from heaven, only his patience. And in Jerusalem, his kind of love would cost him far more than two silver coins. It would cost him his life.

The Samaritan paid the bill and promised to come back. So did Jesus. On the third day God raised him from the dead, and before he went home to heaven, he promised his friends he would come back.