UNDERSTANDING AND BECOMING GOOD SAMARITANS

by: Norberto Betita

In the account of Luke  a “certain lawyer” asked, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” After a discussion about the commandment to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself,” the lawyer made a follow-up question, “And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way:  and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37.)

Since then the word Good Samaritan, because of the deep and abiding principle which it carries relating to the loving and caring for those who are wounded and suffering strangers as taught by the Master Himself, became very popular as a meaningful identification for anyone who give of their time, talents and means for the cause of others. In the Mirriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary the Good Samaritan was adopted as a noun with equivalent meaning of “A person who helps other people and especially strangers when they have trouble.” The parable then becomes an ordinary real life story of a man---victim of robbery and three different men of different attitudes and concerns toward the injured person. Forgotten somehow was the deeper meaning of the parable.

John W. Welch in his article The Good Samaritan: Forgotten Symbols, Ensign February 2007, quoted from an early Christian writer, Origen: “The man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is Paradise, and Jericho is the world. The robbers are hostile powers. The priest is the law, the Levite is the prophets, and the Samaritan is Christ. The wounds are disobedience, the beast is the Lord’s body, the (inn), which accepts all who wish to enter, is the Church....The manager of the (inn) is the head of the Church, to whom its care has been entrusted. And the fact that the Samaritan promises he will return represents the Savior’s second coming.” (Origen, Homily 34.3, Joseph T. Lienhard, trans., Origen: Homilies on Luke, Fragments on Luke (1996), 138.) Each figurative item in the parable which illustrates in general the Plan of Salvation was best explained by John W. Welch in the same article. 

By our understanding of the allegorical meaning of the parable we can best determine which role we should place ourselves momentarily in regard to our present circumstances and positions. We may consider ourselves as Adam’s posterity who came down into the world and subjected to its hostile powers, and wounded by our continued disobedience and remain to be  in that status---one to be saved and rescued. Or we may have the role of the Levite which John W. Welch described as “A lesser class of priests,” doing “chores in the temple” who “came close to helping:” as “he came and saw. He may have wanted to help, but perhaps he viewed himself as too lowly to help,” and “also lacked the power to save the dying person.” Or we may bear the part of the innkeeper and his staff to attend to and help everybody who came into the inn (the Church) to be nurtured and rescued.  Or we can act like the Good Samaritan (the Christ) who actually performed the saving deed for the dying man, in which the Lord commanded the lawyer to “Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:37.) And for which we are commanded to “... be the means of bringing salvation unto them” (3 Nephi 18:32), and “stand in the office which” we are “appointed” and “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” (D&C 81:5.)

Whatever our present position and calling may be, we should understand that these are all part of our Heavenly Father’s plan for the eternal happiness of man.

Many years ago while I was an employee of the bank, I overheard a conversation among my banking colleagues of an initiative of their church requesting its members to donate money for a church project. After their distasteful discussion, one who was among the most affluent proudly announced that for her part, she contributed P150.00. When measured by our salary at that time, that may have been quite generous, but when considered in the light of her prominence and affluence, her contribution was far from being benevolent, especially considering that their donations are not regular. 

I was Branch President then of a lone branch of the Church in Surigao City, Philippines, and as I listen to their discussions, my thoughts led me to the exceptional generosity of many lowly members of the Church. One of them earns a living as a peddler. Each day he carried a heavy bundle of household trappings, tools and equipments and walked around the City throughout the day. He carried with him a small towel to wipe his perspiring face as he walked under the heat of the rising sun. Each Sunday he gave to me his donation envelope for his tithing and every first Sunday, he and his family fasts and prays, and gave of their fast offering equivalent to the cost of two meals. He could have saved the money to improve his nipa hut, but he chose to offer it in expression of his love to God and to those of God’s children who are more in need. Despite his limited formal education he served in the church in different capacities including that of being a Branch President in later years and magnified his callings. When he speaks, I could feel the power of God in him through the Holy Ghost. He is now in the sunset of his life, but still serving faithfully.

Then I was reminded of an old member who walked 4 kilometers to Church each Sunday to attend services. He once asked me if it was right for him to deprive his family of a complete rice meal, all because his neighbour have nothing to eat that night, and he decided to give half of their remaining rice enough only for their supper to the needy family. Both families eat rice porridge for the night. I asked him what he felt, and he responded that he felt glad to have shared his little means to a starving family. “Then what you did was right,” I told him.  He could only but read and write, but he understood better the meaning of being a Good Samaritan. He died a faithful member of the Church.

Once while we were eating our noonday meal with rice and dried fishes as the unprivileged menu, my old friend who taught me how to raise vegetable garden when I was jobless cried as he offered a prayer of thanks for the food. He told me later that while we dined together with such a lowly foodstuff, his thought goes to others who might not have food to eat that very hour. He had been a very generous man whose concern is always for those in need. He became our Stake Patriarch and eventually departed this life in righteousness.

These are only a few of the many unadorned stories of compassionate offering of one’s soul in acts of saving the wounded and the weary travelers of life’s journey on the Jericho road, in contrast to the voices of the proud and conceited voyagers who have thrown in so little out of their abundance.

Faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints throughout the world have done and are continually doing the role of the Good Samaritan as symbolized by Jesus Christ in the parable, in savings the souls of the wounded and dying, and those subjected to the hostile powers along their worldly journey. They serve in different capacities giving of their life and means for the work of salvation.

Joe J. Christensen told his own story:

My mother taught me an important lesson...For many years my father had a practice of trading for a new car every year. Then, shortly after World War II when grain prices increased, we were surprised one day when Dad drove home in a more expensive car.

One morning my mother asked, “How much more did the new car cost than the other one?

When Dad told her, my mother said, “Well, the other car has always been able to get me where I need to go. I think we ought to give the difference to someone who needs it more than we do.”

“The more hearts and minds are turned to assisting others less fortunate than we, the more we will avoid the spiritually cankering effects that result from greed, selfishness, and overindulgence.”

John W. Welch explained, “Finally, the innkeeper is promised that all his costs will be covered: “I will reward you for whatsoever you expend.” Perhaps more than any other element in the story, this promise---in effect giving the innkeeper a blank check---has troubled modern commentators who understand this story simply as real-life event. Who in his right mind would make such an open-ended commitment to a strange innkeeper? But when the story is understood allegorically, this promise makes sense, for the Samaritan (Christ) and his innkeeper already know and trust each other before this promise is given.”

Surely, the Christ will come again as He promised the innkeeper. There will be an accounting of what had been done by each of us. And we will be judged according to how we performed our roles in the work of salvation. He said, “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25) “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:25.) This counter-intuitive expression by the Lord Himself should remind us that our earthly lives should not be at variance with the principles taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan which typifies the Plan of Salvation.