Tonight at SEITE we looked at the theology of community ministry. We attempted to look at bible passages, such as The Good Samaritan, from the perspective of the poor and marginalised.
As our group reflected on the passage, it suddenly hit us. The vulnerable person was not the beaten man in the road; it was, and is, in fact the Samaritan man. This guy was on the edge of society, ostricised and rejected. He was the victimised one. He was the one in real danger. Yet, this was the guy, despite all that he endured from the Jews on a daily basis, who chose to help. To be the neighbour.
As we reflected we came to a realisation that there are a number of occasions and incidents when we are vulnerable and in need, when it is other vulnerable and in need people that are the answer to our worry or predicament. Sometimes it is true that those we expect to be the answer walk on bye. Those that we would naturally think would help us, end up letting us down. The vulnerable stop, the vulnerable relate, the vulnerable understand, the vulnerable act.
I wonder how the beaten man felt. I can imagine when the first 2 guys came past that his spirits lifted, only to be then dashed. When the Samaritan appeared, he must really have feared for his life. Extreme fear, to extreme relief, to extreme shock!
WE don’t know what happened next – well actually it is just a story that Jesus told. But, if it were in real life, this Samaritan traveler would have had a massive transformational impact on the life of this beaten man.
And this led us to our conclusion for the night. So often, we think of the poor as being the object of our mission, but in reality they are the trigger that transforms the lives of those in mission. (Morisy, beyond the Good Samaritan).
There are many examples of this happening in reality. In YFC we send young people on Gap Years. They do contribute to mission in their location, but the real result is a transformation of their lives due to an encounter with the poor and marginalised. Others go on gap years or mission experiences overseas, and again the interaction transforms the lives of those who go and return so that their lifestyle and outlook change permanently.
So – ‘who is my neighbour’ asks the person. Our suggestion – the vulnerable serving the vulnerable. I found this fascinating, as I have always looked at this passage, without exception, from the point of view of the beaten man. Today, through looking differently, loads of new stuff has appeared in my (rapidly filling to capacity) brain.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
Couldnt agree more…. I have been travelling around preaching on this for the last few weeks…. here is an extract!!In this passage the religious teacher has come up to Jesus all proud and full of “rightness”. As a Jew he believed that Salvation had come purely to them, in coming up to Jesus he was not really asking him what he should do, but was more trying to point out to Jesus how much he had done, and how good he was. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho runs down a steep hill through the countryside for about 17 miles. It is the kind of wild country in which robbers might well be safe. These robbers took advantage of an easy target and took things to such an extreme that they leave a man half dead. They jumped out on the Jewish man when he was alone in a place where no one would see them. It was the cowardly approach, like jumping someone in a dark alley. The crowd listening to the story would have been angry at the fact that a fellow Jew was being seen in such a difficult situation. The crowd could easily have imagined the same thing happening to one of themJesus’ response is to tell a story about how a man had been injured between Jerusalem and Jericho, and that all the seemingly good people didn’t come to help him, but actually it was the “bad” Samaritan who was the one who helped the man, took care of him and provided for him. In telling the story like this Jesus is not only telling the man that he should take care of those who are injured or hurt, but actually Jesus is flipping this man’s arrogance on its head and showing him how the Jews needed to adopt a more humble, servant role that placed them as no better than anyone else. Jesus showed this man how the man he considered to be different and not as good as him was actually the one that had showed a more Godly, loving response than the seemingly good Jew. The challenge is the same for us there are many people around us who are different to us and even (as in the case of the Samaritan) our enemies and often we can think that we are better than them, that we have the answer and they don’t, that they are bad people and we are good. The challenge in the story of the good Samaritan however is that Jesus shows that the truly good are humble servants. They are the ones who don’t place themselves above all others, who don’t seek their own way first, but actually give out and give to others.
cheers Richard.I had never taken that slant on the story before, with the man being ‘labelled’ by Jesus as the one on the floor who needs to accept the help that others, who seem below him, are able to give.Gives a twist to Ballards comment of Leaders being called to be ‘servants of the servants of God’, we also need to be able to be served by the servants of God.