The
Eighth Sunday of Saint Luke
THE GOOD SAMARITAN |
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At that time, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain [man] went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded [him], and departed, leaving [him] half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked [on him], and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion [on him], And went to [him], and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave [them] to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. In
the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. In
today’s Gospel teaching my dear Christians, we have perhaps one of the
greatest Biblical teachings, like so many, this one is also a parable, which
Christ spoke. This one however, was pretty much an answer to a cunning
lawyer’s question, whose objective was to provoke our Lord, into giving an
answer which was outside the Jewish tradition; this is the parable of the
Good Samaritan which I think most of you have probably heard of. This
parable is truly a great teaching which comes from Christ himself; its words
are so powerful and so wise and at the same time synchronic with the times
we live in. Through today’s teaching, we have the opportunity to compare
ourselves to the characters of the parable, to see how we would react in
such circumstances. The
parable starts with the following phrase: “And,
behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
A Jewish lawyer in those
times was someone who studied and interpreted the law, which was mostly
based on the Jewish Law. This lawyer was trying to “trap” Jesus. He was
trying to get Him to say something which the Scribes and the
Pharisees could judge Him for, because they already despised Him so much.
This lawyer was one of many “pawns” that would go to Christ and try to
provoke Him in some way and this can be seen from the question he asked the
Lord. He was asking a question which he already knew the answer to. Christ
refers him to the Law itself; “What
is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself”.
The first part of his quotation is from Deuteronomy, which is a book
in the Old Testament, for those who are unaware but the second part is from
the words of the God-man, Jesus Christ Himself. The lawyer’s answer was
perfect, which makes you wonder why he asked this question in the first
place. It is obvious that this cunning lawyer was following Jesus, for him
to be using the words “and thy neighbour as thyself”. Our Lord was teaching the
people the very essence of the Law; that is to love God and by truly loving
God we will naturally love our neighbours. Christ then said to the
lawyer: “Thou
hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.” My
dear Christians, Christianity is not complicated at all; it is we who
complicate it with our pride and our desire to sin. Christ reveals the truth
to us; He gives us the Law which we must follow. If we believe in Christ our
God, then we must obey His Law, otherwise we are nothing but hypocrites,
like the lawyer in the parable who knew the Law, but did not truly live
according to it, rather he externally kept the letter of the Law, seeking
recognition from people. Some people simply refuse to follow God’s Law
which today is also known as the Church’s Law, but they still say they
believe in God. Is this ever possible?
Take for example
employees of a company; they know that they must obey their
employers’ demands, rules and strategies, even if they do not agree with
them; otherwise, they will risk losing their job and their benefits. Imagine
how disrespectful we are to our Creator, when He knows that we obey people
for the sake of money, but we refuse to obey the Him Who made everything and
everyone. And we are not even thankful to Him, nor do we take into
consideration the consequences of our actions. However, we must not want to
love God because of fear of punishment, or because of hope of reward, but
because HE IS GOD, our Father and Creator. Christ
simply amazed the lawyer with such a simple and wise response He gave him.
But instead of falling at the Lords feet repentant of his pride, he lets his
pride master him. He wanted to have the last word in order to justify
himself by saying to the Lord: “And
who is my neighbour?” Christ
did not answer the lawyer directly, because the Lord knew, that as a proud
and “clever” man, the lawyer would have thrown a swift and deceiving
answer back at Him. Instead, He answers in a way which couldn’t be
contradicted and He said it all through the parable. As we focus now, we
will surely be amazed by the Divine Wisdom in Christ’s teaching. “And
Jesus answering said, A certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and
fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and
departed, leaving him half dead.” The
road from Jerusalem to Jericho must have been a very dangerous route.
Jerusalem is an image of salvation, and Jericho was an image of sin,
conflict, disharmony, and emptiness. In
the original language this phrase “went down” implies a continual
motion down, and the Fathers stress this. In the spiritual sense, this man
who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho symbolizes man, who fell from
his originally perfect state which was intended for Heaven, for the very
dangerous and sinful path which leads to Hell. This was the case with Adam
and Eve, and is still the case today with us Christians, when we start
rebelling against God with our actions. Who
are the thieves mentioned in the parable? The thieves portray the
demons, which strip man of his raiment which in the spiritual sense does not
mean clothing, but virtues. They strip a man of virtue, and then wound him
with his own sins, leaving him half dead. “And
by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the
place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.” The
priest who was a supposed follower of the Law, as was the Levite, both
walked right past the half dead man, one after the other, while he lay there
helplessly on the ground in agony, yet they thought nothing of it. They
probably didn’t want to risk touching a dead man, because they would have
been unclean for a certain amount of days and they would have been unable to
go to the temple because of that. They were so caught up in trying to
enforce every last letter of the Law, that they could not distinguish the
very essence of the Law. Is it better that they left
their neighbour there to die? The priest and the Levite remind me
of us clergymen and the Christians, who think we are saved because we go to
church and say that we believe in God. I wonder if we truly realize that
salvation depends on whether or not we actually apply God’s Law in our
lives. Knowing and hearing the Law like the Priest and the Levite did, mean
nothing, if we do not have love and zeal in what we believe. How can we as
Christians preach the word of God, when we do not know any of the
scriptures, when we do not even know what we believe in? When we do not even
do the simplest of things like fasting and prayer and coming to confession.
It is foolish to say you believe or love something when you know nothing
about it, or are not willing to show dedication to it. No one can fool God,
because He knows us to the very depths of our hearts. He knows our
intentions, weaknesses, sins and virtues. The priest and Levite not only did
not act as men of God, but not even as humans, and that is how we become
sometimes my dear Christians when our hearts are taken by sin, we become
ignorant of what is happening around us, even to what is happening to us, we
lose our sense of direction and turn to things which have no meaning. “But
a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw
him, he had compassion on him”
On the other hand, the
Samaritan man who was walking by saw the wounded man, attended to him and
was compassionate toward him. Christ here uses a Samaritan, of all people,
to be the compassionate one. Why
is this? and who were the Samaritans? The Samaritans were a tribe
from Samaria, who were despised by the Jews because they were known to be a
sinful people. Christ
wants to show us that as bad as the Samaritans seemed to the Jews, they
still had hope of salvation because some of them, even though sinful; kept
the Law in their hearts. Take this particular Samaritan for example, he did
what even the most respectful of the Jews didn’t try to do; which was to
show mercy, compassion and love to their fellow man. This shows us that we
should never judge anyone or hate anyone even if we know that they are
living in sin, because we don’t know anyone’s future, besides, they may
very well turn out to be better Christians than we will ever be. This
Samaritan man symbolizes our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ dear brethren,
however unlike the Samaritans of course, Christ is perfect and sinless. He
journeys in order to come to each one of us, as we lay metaphorically by the
side of the road wounded by the demons. He sees us and is merciful and
compassionate with us as His purpose on the earth was to save us from
eternal death. Going back to the words of the parable; “And,
went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him
on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.” The
Holy Fathers give us so much explanation for these words; take for example,
“binding
up His wounds” - what does this mean? When Christ sees us in
despair wounded in sin, He knocks on our door and gives us His hand, so that
we may take it and follow Him. Through the great mystery of the Church;
Repentance & Confession, our wounds are bound up, in other words our
sins are forgiven. The oil and wine
symbolize three things. The obvious meaning is that oil and wine really were
remedies which were used to soothe and sterilise wounds. The spiritual
meaning is that, the oil represents the Mysteries of Holy Baptism, Holy
Chrismation and Holy Unction, because in all three mysteries, the use of oil
is necessary. These mysteries are performed on us for forgiveness of our
sins and for the healing of our souls and bodies, which allows the Holy
Spirit to enter our hearts. The wine on the other hand, symbolizes the All
Holy, Pure and Life-giving Blood of our Lord who sacrificed Himself for us
all on the Cross, of which we partake of through the mystery of the Holy
Eucharist. The other meaning of the oil and wine is that they symbolize the
two natures of Christ; that He is both God and Man. Continuing
on with the passage, “he put him on his own beast”. What could this mean? The beast signifies the incarnation
of our Lord. The wounded man was unable to help himself to get help, because
he was so badly wounded, until the Samaritan came along, soothed him and put
him on his beast in order to take him to a place of healing. Like the
wounded man in the parable, when we too are wounded sometimes by sin, we
cannot help ourselves to redemption, and this is how man was before Christ
became Man for our sake, in order to resurrect us from our fallen state.
Christ put us on His “beast”, in other words He carried us out of sin
through His Incarnation. The
inn which the wounded man was taken to symbolizes the Church, which is none
other than a spiritual hospital. It is a place where you find many sick
people, in other words sinful and imperfect people; however, it is the place
which gives you salvation. “And
on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the
host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest
more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”
Like the Samaritan, who did
not stay long with the man at the inn, Christ did not stay long with us on
the earth before His Ascension into the Heavens. The
two pence which were given to the host of the inn, symbolize, what Christ
left to the administrators of the Church, who are the Holy Apostles as well
as the Bishops and Priests. The two pence are; the Holy Scriptures and the
Holy Traditions. It is through these that man finds salvation within the
Church, just as were the two pence which were given the host in order to
care for the wounded man. He cared for him as the clergy must care for the
souls which have been wounded by sin. This care comes through the teachings
of the Holy Scriptures and of the Holy Traditions. And as the Samaritan
promised the host, whatever other costs were needed would be repaid by him
on his return. This of course symbolizes the return of Christ on Judgment
Day, Who will return to Judge the living and the dead, where He will
“repay”, the true administers of the Church who cared for the souls of
the sinful and brought them to repentance. After
the parable Jesus said to the lawyer: “Which
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among
the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto
him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Christ gave the lawyer this
parable, because He knew that the lawyer was very much like the Priest and
the Levite in the parable, which is why Christ told him to go, and do the
same as the Samaritan; to become a neighbour to his fellow people.
To
finish my dear Christians, I would like to remind you all about the fasting
period we are about to enter. As of tomorrow, all Christians are called upon
to begin the great fast for the Great Feast of our Lord’s Nativity. Let me
remind you all why this fast was set by the Holy Fathers. In the Old
Testament, Moses fasted for forty days in the desert of Egypt with no food
and no water in order to receive the Law, the Ten Commandments, we on the
other hand, fast for forty days, not like Moses who did so without food and
drink at all, but just abstaining from certain food on certain days, and
this; not simply to receive the Law like Moses, but the Lawgiver Himself;
Christ our Almighty God, so I think fasting is the very least we can do.
Fasting should also be combined with other things such as prayer, repentance
& confession, receiving the Holy Gifts, helping people in need, and
feeding poor people. Let
us all with God’s help, try to start fasting as of tomorrow and you will
begin to see how much it will affect your lives, but to do so we must try to
believe in what we are doing, we must ask God to help us believe, we must
ask for His help and great mercy so that our hearts may become the same cave
which our Lord Jesus Christ will be born in. May Christ Bless you all and
may he forgive us. Amen.
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