he took care of him and instructed the inn keeper to do the same, giving him money to
cover any costs the traveler’s recovery might require. By acting so generously and
lavishly kind, the Samaritan loved his neighbor as he loved himself. And what a great
self-love that was!
And now the hard part: putting all this into action. I’m sure the passing priest
would have like to help the injured traveler, but the priest was most likely on his way to
temple, and touching any blood would make him unclean for 3 days, and no one could
enter a temple if they were unclean. The same applies to the Levite. As a tribe of priests,
basically, he was also probably temple-bound, and could not help the traveler, as much
pity as he might have felt. While these two in the parable may have had good intentions,
they did not act on them. Unfortunately for them, action beats intention.
So how do we act when trying to love our neighbor like we love ourselves? Once
again, the answer is basic: the same thing that we do when we are in need, when we
ourselves need help. We work until we get the assistance we need. In this same way we
must work for the improvement of others’ lives: as if we were doing it for ourselves. But
don’t think it will be all give and no take. Imagine if everyone were to strive to love their
neighbor. We’d all be stumbling over each other to help one another, just as Christians
should. I like to use an image given to me by a guest preacher during my time at Project
Burning Bush in Virginia. He gave two images: one of heaven and one of hell. In hell,
there is a great banquet with tables and tables of every kind of food imaginable. But
everybody’s arms are in casts that keep them from bending their elbows so they cant get
the food from their forks to their mouths, and everyone goes hungry. In heaven, there is
also a great banquet with piles upon piles of great food to eat, and everyone’s arms are
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