Grey clad mystery: A spin on the good Samaritan

Monday, April 03, 2006

A spin on the good Samaritan

Imagine you're the guy asking Jesus 'Who is my neighbour?' And Jesus describes the good Samaritan story to you. And then Jesus asks you: 'Who was the neighbour to the man on the road?'. You would say, 'The one who had mercy on him.' The Samaritan was the neighbour to the man in the ditch. We are to love our neighbour. We are to love the person who reaches out to help us out of the ditch. We are the ones beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Don't be afraid or too proud to RECEIVE love and kindess. We all need it far more than we will every realize.

Inspired by a sermon by Pat Wiens inspired by God

1 comment:

Anonymous7:56 a.m.
Mark Buchanan in "The Holy Wild" discusses the Samaritan issue from this perspective. Interestingly enough, there are still other perspectives. Robert Farrar Capon (I love that name) suggests that the person in the ditch is the Jesus figure in this story. He is the one who has suffered innocently. Capon suggests that this is the first of the misnamed parables. He points out that those institutions that have been named things like, "The Good Samaritan Hospital" should really be named "The-Man-Who-Fell-Among-The-Theives-Hospital". This makes me ask the question, if I look at me as the one in the ditch and Christ as the Samaritan, does that mean Christ has been able to "save" me because of good works that he has done? I now remember that he was the one that suffered and died, beaten, spit upon to save me. Maybe we are both in the ditch. Christ, cause that is the way he chose to identify with us and me, because of my fallenness. PW
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Gandalf the Grey

But the last-comer was named among the elves Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, for he dwelt in no place, and gathered to himself neither wealth nor followers, but ever went to and fro in the Westlands ... befriending all folk in times of need. Warm and eager was his spirit for he was the Enemy of Sauron, opposing the fire that devours and wastes with the fire that kindles, and succours in wanhope and distress; but his joy, and his swift wrath, were veiled in garments grey as ash, so that only those that knew him well glimpsed the flame that was within. Merry he could be, and kindly to the young and simple, and yet quick at times to sharp speech and the rebuking of folly; but he was not proud, and sought neither power nor praise, and thus far and wide he was beloved among all those that were not themselves proud. Mostly he journeyed unwearyingly on foot, leaning on a staff; and so he was called among Men of the North Gandalf, 'Elf of the Wand'.