Crisis & Choice, Pt 9: “Hero Without Borders”

HERO WITHOUT BORDERS (LUKE 10:25-37)

A few years ago I saw a truck in front of me roaring fiercely about to turn the corner onto the freeway ramp. In the driver’s seat of the humongous truck was a man in his late 20s, ramming his engine and blasting his stereo. The guy had dark glasses and a black T-shirt – the type you associate with a rabid Raider fan. I had nothing but dislike, distaste and derision for his outward appearance.

As the man was turning into the freeway, he did not slow down but was traveling at his normal speed. He was in such a hurry that I thought he was putting his life and the life of others in danger. However, he made a U-turn into the opposite lane instead of entering the freeway ramp. Slowing his truck down, he jumped out of his truck at the same time it screeched to a complete stop. How dangerous, I thought to myself as I took a clearer look at the stocky man who was wearing shorts and spotting tattoos.

Then I saw smoke coming out of a car lying on the side of the road where the man had stopped. How wrong I was! Beside the car was a woman who was in need of help and it turned out that the young man was not a danger or nuisance to the public, but a good Samaritan and a hero to a damsel in distress.

In Luke 10, Jesus told a story to a smart-alecky man who challenged his teaching. The travel from Jerusalem to Jericho was as dangerous a travel zone as any. According to Walter Liefeld, robbers could easily hide on the rugged, bleak, rocky terrain that characterized the 17-mile stretch travel (Expositor’s Commentary, Vol. 8 pg. 943). The traveler in the parable was an easy target. He was traveling alone when he was preyed on, set upon and beaten up by robbers, not thieves. Thieves robbed at night, but robbers in broad daylight. The robbers were well-organized, well-equipped and well-informed gangsters and criminals, and they easily overpowered the unsuspecting travelers.

Who is a hero? A hero is one who sees a neighbor or stranger in need and whose help you can meet. Heroes are ordinary people who do what they can out of extraordinary compassion, mercy and kindness.

What motivates heroes and helpers? Why are they different from spectators and bystanders? How do they conquer their fears?

A Hero Does Not Close His Eyes to What is Happening
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. (Luke 10:30)

Lost behind the story of Seabiscuit, the most celebrated racehorse of the 20th century, and the jockey played by Spiderman’s Tobey Macguire was the story of its peculiar trainer, Tom Smith. When a rich man decided to turn to horse racing, he needed to find a trainer for his horse. He stumbled upon an eccentric and old, but a talented and tender trainer whose chances of training a racehorse had all but slipped by.

When the owner Charles Howard first met his future trainer, he spotted the horse lover caring for an injured horse that was past its time and no longer in racing favor. Unlike other trainers, Smith did not have a barn or stable or home, living outside in the bushes with the one horse that he had rescued from owners that wanted to shoot the poor animal.

The shrewd and curious businessman then visited the trainer in the middle of the night to ask him why he was wasting his time on an out-of-favor and down-on-luck horse. Howard asked, “Will he get better?’ Smith replied, “Already is…a little” The owner then got to his point: “Will he race?” Smith acknowledged, “No. Not that one.” The curious owner exclaimed, “So why are you fixing him?” Smith spoke with candor and won the owner over with his answer: “Cause I can. Every horse is good for something. He could be a cart horse or a lead pony. And he’s still nice to look at. You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a bit.”

The sufferer and victim lying on the road was not a thing, but a person; not an animal carcass, but a human body, not somebody known to the Samaritan, but dear to someone. The ghastly sight and the lifeless body did not accurately reflect or portray the person he was. The beating stripped him of his humanity. The robbers derived the man of his clothes (v 30) and possibly everything he had, including his money and his donkey. The verb “stripped” was used only on one other person in the Gospels – Jesus Christ (Matt 27:28-31, Mark 15: 20). The man had both an unwanted Messianic moment and Pauline moment; he was not only stripped the same way Jesus was (Matt 27:28-31, Mark 15: 20) and he suffered Greek “beating” the same experience as Paul’s flogging (Acts 16:23), wounds (Acts 16:33), and beatings (2 Cor 6:5).

The beating he suffered has been translated elsewhere in the Bible as “blows” (Luke 12:48), flogging (Acts 16:23), wounds (Acts 16:33), beatings (2 Cor 6:5), flogged (2 Cor 11:23), and lashes (2 Cor 11:24). The word can be singular or plural; in this case, the traveler, unfortunately suffered not a single blow, but numerous “blows” to the head, body, and all over that sent him crashing to the ground. The robbers beat him to the pulp, till he was unrecognizable even by his mother, for a reason. It was intended as such so that the man could not call for help, follow behind them, and as a warning not to try anything foolish or call the police.

Verse 30 says the man was half dead, or hemithanes in Greek – the word “hemi” (from hemsphere) is half and “thanatos” is death. He could hardly move a muscle, lift a finger, or bat an eye. The man laid there motionless, helpless, and friendless. The text did not say he was barely alive, but emphasized that he was half dead. The burden to help or seek help was on every pedestrian who saw the man who was slipping into coma, in such an extreme state of duress, and was defenseless against inclement weather, straying animals and further cruelty.

A Hero Does Not Turn His Back on What is Happening
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. (Luke 10:31-32)

Social psychologists Latané and Darley did a classic experiment on how the number of people present in an emergency situation would influence the likelihood of them offering help. They discovered that the more people present, the less likely they are to help, and coined this unconcern the “bystander effect.”

In the actual experiment, when one bystander heard a voice crying for help and sounds of severe choking, 85% of the students who were alone rushed to help. When they thought another person besides them was present and can help, the percentage dropped to 65%. When they thought five were present, this dropped again to 31%.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/bystander_effect.htm

The Chinese say, “When three monks are present, no one gets the drink.” It’s been said, “The sheep is stolen when two shepherds are present.”

The priest and the Levite represented the experts of the law – they were godly, religious, and moral but they were also realists, veterans, and dodgers. They could smell an upcoming moral dilemma, a Scriptural controversy and a trick situation in the making from afar. So they had to use their wits, look for loopholes, check their liability and cover their backs. The law was not blind to the needy, but the system was. Everyone knows of a second interpretation of a text, the room for flexibility in their profession, and the presence of ambiguity, vagueness and gray areas on an issue. The priest and Levite knew how to get around the letter of the law. No fine print or do’s-and-don’ts was too difficult to pick apart. They were like the law expert who was flawless in his answer and brilliant in his question to Jesus. The lawyer, who was schooled in the art of debate and rhetoric and of parsing words and dictionary meanings, asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Define neighbor (v 29)!

The attitude of the expert in the law was no different from that of the priest and Levite when they saw the loner writhing on the floor. The actions of the priest and the Levite are the same in Greek. They crossed the other way, or antipareélthen (anti=opposite + parerchomai=go) in Greek. They went the opposite way – they reversed course and turned around or they walked backwards as fast as their feet could carry them; they didn’t pass on the right or left side or even hop, skip, jump or step over him. The two men did not bother to come close, find out, know more or get involved. They did what was unspeakable, ingenious, and original – the Greek verb “passed by” (vv 31, 32) appears nowhere else in the Bible.

The poor man was somewhat unfortunate but the two had much at stake. The thought of having to cleanse themselves ritually if the man was dead and if the body was a corpse did not appeal to them. Corpses were considered unclean and defiling in the Old Testament. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. 12 He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. (Num 19:11-13) Too troublesome! After all, who wants to revisit Jerusalem for the ceremonial cleansing after just visiting there?

A Hero Does Not Harden His Heart to What is Happening
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, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins 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.' 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:33-37)

On Aug. 8, 2004, the Vietnamese community of Westminster, California, celebrated one of the kindest and bravest acts performed by a stranger on them. On Nov. 13, 1985, ninety-six Vietnamese refugees despaired for their lives and their families’ when the engine of the boat carrying them across the South China Sea went dead. The boat people crammed onto the rickety boat could see a tropical storm headed their way. For four days they had watched the ships passed -1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, but none would stop to rescue them.

When the 51st ship passed, the refugees waved, screamed, and clamored in vain as before. The South Korean fishing ship traveled on but turned around 10 minutes later to save them. On board the ship, Jeon, a captain employed by Koryo Wonyang Corp. for 16 years, was returning from the Indian Ocean with 25 sailors and more than 350 tons of tuna. As Jeon's ship, the Kwang Myung 87, approached them, the captain could see the dire straits the people were in. He called the sailors together because it was against company policy to pick up boat people, but Jeon told them he'd take responsibility. The sailors told Jeon they were with him. Many years later did the refugees know what had happened to Jeon. The shipping company fired him for picking up the boat people against the company’s rules. He couldn't find another captain's job and survived through his savings and by helping out at friends' businesses.

On Aug. 8, 2004, nineteen years after the dramatic boat rescue, hundreds of people in the Vietnamese community of Westminster paid back a debt they can never repay. They honored the ship's captain, Je Yong Jeon, after survivor Peter Cuong Nguyen managed to track him down.” Nguyen said, “He has the biggest heart. Without his rescue, there would be no today. We would have been dead.” Jeon, now 62, shrugged off the compliments, saying, “If I wasn't there, other people might have done the same thing that I did. As a fisherman for 25 years, I've caught a lot of fishes. And during the 25 years, it was with God's grace that we found the boat people and were able to save all of them.” (Los Angeles Times 8-9-04 “Fishing Captain Who Saved 96 Boat People in '85 Is Honored.”)

The one who finally helped the loner was a Samaritan. The parable has traditionally been called The Parable of the Good Samaritan for an apt reason. A good Samaritan was an oxymoron to the Jews. The Samaritans were the offspring of Assyrian settlers and Jewish northerners after Israel, the northern kingdom, fell in 722 BC. They were despised also because they were not considered the cream of the crop. The very bright or worth taking were exiled into the conquering nation’s service.

The Samaritan felt pity for the loner. The man was right in his way and right under his nose. He couldn’t help but felt a sick feeling; he was about to vomit and throw up at the sight of the foul-smelling blood-covered man. The Greek word for “took pity” or “had compassion” is splagchnizomai, or the movement or call of the bowels. The churning of bad diarrhea in the Samaritan’s stomach started when he saw the man. He couldn’t control or suppress his feelings and sympathy for the helpless stranger. When nature calls, one has to act on it.

So the Samaritan went to him, not away from the victim, stayed on and not strayed from the path, and bandaged his wounds. The distance and direction of the three groups of people could not be any starker in contrast. The robbers “went away” (v 30) or with the Greek preposition “apo/from” (ap-erchomai or “went from”); the priest and Levite (vv 31, 32) “passed by the other side” (anti-par-erchomai) with the prepositions “opposite” (anti) and along (para); and the Samaritan (v 33) “went pros/to” (pros-erchomai) to the man or with the Greek preposition “to” – they share the same root word, but the first and the last words are strict contrast. Also, this is the only time the word “bandaged” or “bound” is mentioned in Greek. The Greek word is katadeo (v 34) or bind up, not just “bind.” He wrapped the wound accordingly, taking care not to bind it too tight or too loosely but making sure the man’s bleeding had stopped. Next, he poured oil and wine on the wound to clean the wound.

Not only did the Samaritan have compassion and care on the man, he also had commitment. He could not do everything by himself, but he helped the nameless man as much as he could and did all that was in his power. He had run out of money to cover such an expense; so he promised the innkeeper to pay the bill on his return trip. The Samaritan committed his time, money, and attention to someone who despised him.

Conclusion: A hero conquers the mental fear he feels when he considers the actual fears the victims experienced. Faith without conscience or compassion or courage is weak and worthless and weakness. It’s been said, “One cannot define one's neighbor; one can only be a neighbor.” Haddon Robinson said, “Your neighbor is anyone whose need you see, whose need you are able to meet.” A neighbor is someone who says, “What is mine is God's and what is God's belongs to my neighbor because my neighbor belongs to Him.” (Bob Larson) Do you help based on a person’s merit or his need? Do you care about your well-being or the victim’s well-being? Do you contribute what you have or complain what you lack? Do you make the first move or wait for others to do so?