02 Jun “Team Samaritan”

If you’re not a baseball fan, you may have missed what I consider to be some very important news this week. Major League Baseball has begun the process of integrating the accomplishments of Negro League’s players into the MLB record book. MLB first announced the effort nearly four years ago. It was an arduous task and it is not yet finished.. The Negro Leagues kept poor records and much work was done stitching together newspaper accounts of games from the 1920s to the 1940s. Much work remains.

The greatest impact of the effort so far is on the legacy of slugger Josh Gibson, who many believe was the greatest player of all time. With his stats now in the MLB records, he is recognized, by far, as the greatest hitter the game has ever seen. For nearly a century Gibson’s memory and his family suffered the awful injustice of his accomplishments not being recognized in Major League records because of the color of his skin. About the time I heard this news I was reading a devotional about the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well, and it got me thinking.

Jews held a bitter hatred of the Samaritans which was driven in no small part by racial hatred. While historians often point to theological differences as the starting point for a centuries long feud, Jews came to regard Samaritans with racist contempt. They referred to them as half-breeds and worse. So, what does Jesus do? He chooses to showcase them.

Jesus goes out of His way to meet the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. He then accepts her unconditionally despite her complicated past. He then tells her that He is the Messiah, and she suddenly becomes a wildly enthusiastic evangelist for Christ! Because of her, many Samarians came to accept Jesus as the Messiah.

Jesus also made a Samaritan the hero of one of His parables. When a Jew is robbed, beaten, and left for dead it is a Samaritan who Jesus has rescue the man, after two other Jews passed him by:

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ Luke 10:31-35 (NIV)

Two men Jesus’ Jewish audience would have considered holy and beyond reproach ignore the man. Jesus instead has someone the same audience would impulsively revile come to the rescue. The idea is so revolting to at least one person hearing, that when Jesus asks which one treated the man as a neighbor, an expert in the law replied to Jesus: “the one who had mercy on him.” It appears he couldn’t even bring himself to say, “the Samaritan!”

We would all like to believe that we would never be capable of judging someone by their ethnicity, color of their skin or any other superficial factors. In today’s parable, Jesus reminds us not only to accept everyone as our neighbors. He also reminds us to cherish the value of everyone God has created. Let us pray that we would remember that every time someone new walks into our church or our lives. Because we are all welcome on God’s team!

Pastor Jerry Bader