C: 15th Sun of OrdTime (14 July 2019) - THE BROTHER SAMARITAN (Lk 10:25-37)

Our gospel today is popularly referred to as the Parable of the Good Samaritan. However, subtitles as we read now in English bibles are not part of the biblical texts. They are appended for the aid of comprehension of contemporary readers. The same goes with subtitles like the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32) or the Cleansing of the Temple (Jn 2:13-25).

The title Good Samaritan is not an ideal subtitle for our pericope. This phrase could never stand true in the first century CE context because it would be an oxymoron to Jewish ears. For them, a Samaritan could never be good. Three reasons substantiate this assumption. Firstly, the Samaritans were a people identified to idolatry and impurity on account of what transpired in Samaria in 722 BCE. We read in 2 Kings 17:1-41 that after the Northern Kingdom—whose capital city was Samaria—fell to the Assyrians, the city was repopulated by peoples from all around the world, bringing along with them their occult pagan practices and odd ways of living. Secondly, they were also associated with demon-possession as we hear in Jn 8:48. Probably, it was on account of the divinity claims of a certain Samaritan named Dositheus that gave birth to this stereotype; it was further enhanced by the magical practices of the Samaritan Simon Magus in Acts 8:9-24. Thirdly, the Samaritans in the Hellenistic times sided against Judea during the civil unrests, particularly accepting and supporting the colonial Greek Seleucids (cf. 1 Mac 3:10). All of the abovementioned reasons were at the back of the minds of the Jews in the time of Jesus, causing the Jews and the Samaritans to socially dissociate from each other (Jn 4:9) and easily harbor ill grudges against each other (Lk 9:53-54). Thus, they should be better referred to as Bad Samaritans in the Jewish perspective.

Jesus, however, in the course of his earthly existence, exemplified a contrasting behavior, opposite to what normal Jews did. Instead of showing animosity to them, he displayed compassion, friendliness, and kind-heartedness. In John, he engaged in a lengthy conversation with an unknown Samaritan woman, guiding her to the truth of eternal life, and staying in her village for two days (cf. Jn 4:4-42). In Luke, he rebuked Zebedee’s sons for desiring to punish Samaritan villagers for their lack of hospitality (cf. Lk 9:51-56). Additionally, he blessed with salvation a grateful Samaritan leper whom he had earlier cured (cf. Lk 17:11-19). Inspired by this series of examples, the disciples of Jesus conducted their first foreign mission in Samaria, which they successfully did (cf. Acts 8:4-25). With all of these biblical stories, we can truly feel Jesus’ endearment of the Samaritans by using a Samaritan as his illustration par excellence in response to a scholar’s question “who is my neighbor?” (Lk 10:29).

Yet for Jesus, the Samaritans are not only neighbors, they are his brothers/sisters. In his heated discussion with Jewish leaders at one point, he was identified by his opponents as a Samaritan (cf. Jn 8:48): “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?” Instead of negating the appellation, he did not; he only refuted the diabolic possession accusation (cf. Jn 8:49) and continued on with his debate with them. Deep in Jesus’ heart, probably, he knew that what they said is true… he is truly a Samaritan, as well as he is also a Jew (cf. Jn 4:9). In fact, Jesus is one with all of us since for him we are his brothers and sisters.

There is no need to explain further the implications of our gospel today into our present context except to live out Jesus’ parting words to the scholar: “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37).

- Rex Fortes, CM