The story of the Good Samaritan has two scenes. Scene One takes place on the dangerous Jericho Pike. Most artists depicting the Good Samaritan parable focus on this scene. The Samaritan is kneeling over the victim or hoisting him onto a beast of burden. You can usually find the priest and the Levite in the distance with their backs turned toward the action.
Here are a few such renditions.
The first is by Van Gogh painted in 1890. The priest is in the distance, the Levite a bit closer. The Samaritan is actively helping the victim. Van Gogh is copying the work of Delacroix from 41 years earlier. Delacroix painted this topic more than once.
Here are two works by Delacroix showing two moments in the scene. He painted the one Van Gogh was copying first (1850). The other was painted in 1852.
Below are some more modern depictions of the same scene.
The colorful work by Paula Modersohn-Becker was painted in 1907—not long after Van Gogh’s.
Here is a surprisingly youthful depiction by 82-year-old English artist Dinah Roe Kendall. Looks very British! The priest and the Levite have their umbrellas to protect them from coming unpleasantness. Notice how different the Samaritan is from the other English actors in this scene.
At last we turn to Scene Two in the Good Samaritan. This scene takes place at the innkeeper’s door. Here is Rembrandt’s work from 1630 and a second, The Moon and the Good Samaritan, by contemporary artist Daniel Bonnell.
The final rendition is by Texas painter, James B. Janknegt. It is entitled Portrait of You as the Good Samaritan. Do you see yourself anywhere? (If not, why not?)
Today’s Gospel is one of the best-known stories from the New Testament. It bears repeating because its message is so easily forgotten.
It is the story of The Good Samaritan or The Care and Treatment of Aliens in Our Midst.
We relive this story in our own lives daily. Sometimes we play the Samaritan. Often, we play the priest and the Levite.
Your adults are likely to be well aware of aliens. Aliens are often in the news today. Many people in America want to keep them out, forgetting our shared heritage.
Aliens challenge our economy.
Aliens bring with them ideologies and values we may not understand.
It is not a greet leap from these fears to a common bottom line on the topic of aliens.
Aliens are a threat. Where there is one there is more—who knows how many?
What might be “given” to aliens is rightfully “ours.”
The story of the Good Samaritan is a common plotline in literature.
Use the movie ET as a focus of your discussion today. The story of ET is the story of an extraterrestrial—an alien life form. Use a photo of ET or perhaps you can find a vintage ET toy. Or you can just retell the story of Elliot and ET. Let your congregation remind you of ET’s greatest wish (prayer). ET phone home.
ET was an alien in trouble, caught without help in a land that belonged to someone else. He just wanted to go home.
The law wanted him.
Science wanted him.
He was an object to them. The word “alien” stripped him of his, well, we can’t really say “humanity.” But isn’t that what we are tempted to do to modern aliens—strip them of humanity? Sending them home is OK with us because sending them home is within our power.
In the story of ET, sending the alien home is not within human power and that frightens those “in charge” of order and safety. People like to think someone is in control. People in control like to think they have power! It is frightening when we realize we really don’t have as much power or control as we think we have. That’s what the priest and the Levite realized when they “passed on the other side.”
ET is befriended by a young boy who actually becomes one with the creature. He shelters him, feeds him, teaches him and cares for him to the point of sacrificing his life. Sound familiar?
Comparing the story of ET to the Good Samaritan will give you many points to discuss with your adult learners.
Who are the aliens in our community? The victims? The misfits?
Who are the authorities who pass them by?
Who are the Samaritans?
But remember the often forgotten last verses of this story. The Good Samaritan continues to care for the victim long after he drops him at someone else’s door. Being a Good Samaritan is an ongoing responsibility.
Remind your adult learners of the question that prompted Jesus to tell this story.
Who is my neighbor?
Tomorrow’s post will feature The Good Samaritan in Art.
In the story of the good Samaritan, the religious people (the priest and the Levite) find reasons to pass by the poor soul who has been robbed and hurt. In each case, their failure to act with compassion is prompted by fear for their own hides.
It is the Samaritan—the outsider, the person at whom the religious people of the day would collectively thumb their noses—who offered help—ongoing help, not just a quick fix.
We lived the Good Samaritan story this week. We needed help. One of our good members faced the imminent loss of her home and income due to the reign of terror inflicted on Redeemer and its members by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Our little church, which SEPA insists doesn’t exist, rallied.
We asked for help from churches who helped create this situation. They were prayerful but unhelpful. It’s so easy to find excuses to do nothing.
“We’ll pray for you” is the universal excuse of SEPA Lutherans. Their prayer, we suppose, is that someone else will fix the mess they created. How tiring all that prayer must be!
We went to unrelated Lutheran churches. We don’t do that sort of thing, was their answer.
At last we found the help we needed. One local church who has been helping us for the last four years offered major assistance with no expectation of return. A church some 200 miles away (and smaller than Redeemer!) both contributed and guaranteed what we couldn’t raise locally. Four individuals also helped graciously. As far as we know, only one has any church affiliation.
Two of them used the same phrase: “A wrong has been done and it must be righted.”
And so little Redeemer, raised the money we needed to satisfy Redeemer’s debt—twice what SEPA expects to pay. This debt would never have been a problem to anyone if our school were operating for the last four years and contributing to mission and ministry in East Falls. But SEPA, hungry for our assets, interfered with and ruined our 25-year relationship with a Lutheran agency and stopped us from opening our own program. They have kept the doors locked on both the sanctuary and school for nearly four years—no ministry is better than a neighborhood church they can’t control.
SEPA Synod took our property under questionable legality. A court split decision ruled in their favor, saying the courts could not be involved in church issues. The dissenting opinion pointed out that the legal arguments seem to favor Redeemer and the case should be heard by the courts. In five years, court room after court room, the case has never been heard.
We have always claimed that SEPA’s interest in our property was entirely a result of their failing finances and mission—not Redeemer’s.
This week is further proof.
We’ve been saying in our posts on social media that the power in the church is shifting. There was a day when congregations had to band together to provide services and perform effective mission. Individuals now have the power to do much more on their own. Support of hierarchy is more expensive than effective.
Redeemer (and yes, we do exist) proved that this week.
Don’t get us wrong . . . we appreciate prayer. But we appreciate even more those who help find answers to prayer.
Thank you to all who cared enough to do more than pray. You are a living parable.
Bwana awabariki!
03 Mar 2013
Undercover Bishop: A Parable for Today’s Church
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
