Week 13, Exercise 2: Jesus Challenges Me

This exercise should be experienced between March 14 and 17.

Use your imagination to pray with Luke 10: 25-37 (The Story of the Good Samaritan).

Recall that at the time, Jews and Samaritans hated each other. When the Jewish community returned from the Babylonian exile in the 530s BC, the Samaritans tried to prevent them from rebuilding the Jerusalem temple. Jews of Jesus' day also considered Samaritans unclean because they were the descendants of the northern tribes of Israel who had inter-married with non-Israelites. For Jesus' Jewish audience, listening to how a Jewish priest and a Jewish levite ignored the Jewish man in need while the Samaritan loved him as a neighbor would have been shocking.

What does the story mean for us today? If you are a Democrat, consider the following: a Democrat was walking from a bus stop to a rally for President Obama. While he was still a distance from the rally, a group of men beat him severely, took his wallet and left him in an alley half dead. No one saw this occur so no one knew the man was wounded. A little later, a group of Democrats walked down the street near the alley. They were very loudly debating whether President Obama's stimulus package was effective. Because of the loudness of their voices, they could not hear the agonizing moans of the man in the alley. They walked right on by.

A few minutes later, a right-wing Republican walked by. He passed by the alley way and happened to hear the wounded Democrat's cries. Immediately he ran to the man. He could tell the man was a Democrat from the political buttons the man had fastened to his coat. The Republican took out his cell phone and called 911. When the ambulance arrived, he asked the ambulance drivers which hospital they would take the man to. He then took a cab to the hospital so that he could be of further assitance to the wounded man.

If you are a Republican, consider the following: a Republican was walking from a bus stop to a Republican presidential debate. While he was still a distance from the hall that was hosting the debate, a group of men beat him severely, took his wallet and left him in an alley half dead. No one saw this occur so no one knew the man was wounded. A little later, a group of Republicans walked down the street near the alley. They were very loudly debating whether Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum was the best candidate. Because of the loudness of their voices, they could not hear the agonizing moans of the man in the alley. They walked right on by.

A few minutes later, a left-wing Democrat walked by. He passed by the alley way and happened to hear the wounded Republican's cries. Immediately, he ran to the man. He could tell that the man was a Republican from the political buttons he had fastened to his coat. The Democrat took out his cell phone and called 911. When the ambulance arrived, he asked the ambulance drivers which hospital they would take the man to. He then took a cab to the hospital so that he could be of further assitance to the wounded man.


Perhaps you know and even better way to retell the story of the Good Samaritan. One of the points to the story is that all people are our neighbors. The other point is that we need to examine our consciousness to be aware of the "purity codes" and power structures that we construct. Whom do we consider to be an outsider and why?

In prayer, speak to Jesus in whatever way works for you. We may want to begin our colloquy with the wounded man (whomever he is in our lives). We may want to ask the Samaritan "What did you feel in your heart for the wounded man?"

It would be helpful to speak with Jesus about who it is that we exclude. Ask for the courage and the grace to love all outsiders.