It's probably one of the best known stories that Jesus told during His time here on earth. At the time it was a comment on our social responsibility, our concern and compassion for others, the importance of living out our faith and not just paying lip service and about what or whom actually constitutes our neighbour. But mostly, it was about recognising that neither religion, race, nationality, gender or age should become a barrier to our commitment to help others. And while Jesus related the parable of The Good Samaritan to the Jews, underlining their requirement to show compassion to their greatest enemies of the time, the story could easily be transferred to modern day to confront Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and 'Christians', heterosexuals and gays, blacks and whites, feminists and male chauvinists, atheists and believers, rich and poor, young and old, Tutsis and Hutus, even rival football fans. Indeed any two groups that find each other offensive in some way.I was reminded of the story today when a group form a church in USA visited our school and told the parable through a hastily organised drama sketch. It reminded me of a few years back when we used some of the pupils from school to make a video of the same story, calling it, rather appropriately, 'Neighbours', though any comparison with the acting on Ramsey Street was purely coincidental - ours was much better! Anyway, we used a bike instead of a donkey and the robbers were much more nineties than biblical in their dress though essentially when you've seen one robber, you don't want to see another! We got a handful of pupils from two schools with different religious backgrounds and asked them some 'staged' questions to which they had learned off answers to fit the overall script. But it did allow us to really explore who our neighbour actually is, what our responsibility should be and how we should react towards others. We even thought about those in the story who would have been expected to help and didn't, for whatever reason and so the job of rescuing the man was left an individual from his nation's greatest enemy. And in the midst of it all we asked why the man was carrying valuables in such a dangerous area, why he hadn't chosen a different route and what might have been the motivating factors behind the robbers' desire to steal and also to inflict wounds on their prey.
But this morning, with our visitors, the story was brought to me in a way that I had never really experienced before. Let me tell you, the guys from the States told the story wonderfully but it wasn't what they did or said that focussed my mind. As they asked for volunteers from the pupils to help with the drama, wife called up six individuals to help. Knowing the importance of acting out the story as it was read, another teacher and myself began to wonder why she had had chosen to of our foreign nationals to act. I thought to myself, 'how will they understand what is said?' And so the kids were dressed up for the occasion and the story was started and performed . But here's the strangest thing. Out of the six children who acted, the man left for dead by the robbers should portrayed by a Lithuanian boy in my class and the Samaritan who came to his aid was played by a Latvian girl. And as the narrator read his text, I was fixed on the words he spoke, when he said, 'imagine the only person who could help was somebody of another nationality.' Unknown to him, that was exactly what was happening in real life as two children from neighbouring countries played out the parable of The Good Samaritan right in front of our eyes. Historically the two nations haven't always been friends and though they are close neighbours and have long been good allies, the moment was not lost on me, though the narrator wasn't even aware that it had happened.
Hasn't God a wonderfully strange way of bringing home His point, even to those who think they know the story well. Wife had no idea why she had picked both children and certainly had no control over the fact that one would be portrayed helping the other. But it taught me this morning, once again, that God loves everyone, that nobody is beyond His salvation and indeed He wishes that everyone might be saved. That's why He is waiting so long before returning because, as Peter writes, 'The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.' Although some of the things we do might be offensive to Him, no human being is offensive to God. He is our example. Let us live our lives in His shadow.
