Jesus and the Samaritans

A talk given at Brent mosque in 2011

Asalamu alaikum! Greetings of peace from the Christian Muslim Forum

I am very grateful to my colleague Mustafa Field for enabling us to meet here this evening. It’s good to be at your masjid and to be creating another opportunity for Christians and Muslims to meet constructively to build friendships and strengthen relationships. In doing so we follow in the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ, who built and rebuilt, welcomed and included, made room for the marginalised and challenged the status quo.

My title tonight is ‘Jesus and the Samaritans’. The Samaritans were neighbours to the province of Judaea, they were the descendants of those who had repopulated the northern kingdom after it was invaded and taken over by the Babylonians. They retained Jewish practices and customs but didn’t have anything to do with the Temple, they had a different sacred place, you could say that they had a different qibla. They were hated, marginalised and lived segregated, parallel lives. In fact in John’s Gospel when the leaders have the most difficulty with Jesus’ message, and his claim to be the bringer of revelation and he challenges them because their ears are not open, they say to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan” (8.48). One of the themes of the Gospel is how Jesus identified with the marginalised, they were his closest followers. Like the Samaritans too, Jesus was not ‘kosher’ we might say, he came from a very ethnically mixed part of the country, it was called ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ after all.

Here’s another piece about the Samaritans, we read in Luke’s Gospel — ‘Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan.’ (17.11–16)

The Samaritan is singled out and Jesus singles out another, fictional, Samaritan in his most famous parable, which I expect most of you know and many non-religious people are familiar with — The Good Samaritan. But before I retell this story, we need to put on other people’s shoes. Jesus tells this story to his own people, it makes a strong point about difference and challenges all our perceptions. It is the wrong way round.

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 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.’ 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.”

The legal expert, jurist, mufti perhaps, cannot bring himself to say ‘Samaritan’, he might as well have said, ‘heretic’, alien, stranger. Jesus has embarrassed him into giving the right answer, while failing the scholar’s test, he expected Jesus to say his countryman, someone of the same ethnic group, the same religion.

Any further explanation seems redundant, the meaning is clear. But it is a huge challenge to us, as religious people, it should not be possible for us to hear it and do nothing. So the Samaritans are really important for us still, and if we seek to follow Jesus we should see those who are radically different from us as just like us, God’s creations, loved by God and equally capable of showing God’s love and being God’s agents of mercy and compassion as any of us.

I was struck recently by how far behind the founders of our religions we are in living out the values at the core of our faiths. They are not values of division, hard dogmatic difference and mutual exclusion [pause].

Yes, we do have our differences, important distinguishing differences which tell us and others who we are, but only for the benefit of enabling us to walk with God and make us a supportive community.

Jesus’ people had some hard dogmatic differences with the Samaritans but Jesus shows us that love and humanity comes first, that difference and identity are for others, not against them. As Christians and Muslims we are united before the command to worship only God and then to make practical sense of it in the everyday world — to love our neighbour. The shahadah ‘la ilaha ill’allah’ is not complete without recognising the place of the Messenger and his sunnah.

My friend and colleague Dr Musharraf Hussain when opening a number of Christian Muslim Forum events over the last few years which brought together Christian and Muslim leaders always seemed to take great delight in reminding us that we have been rivals, even enemies, for 1400 years [pause], before saying that men and women of pulpits must do better. That we should be at the forefront of building and role modelling good relationships, walking the talk, being the change we want to see and taking our congregations with us.

Did Jesus Christ encourage us to pass by on the other side when our sister or brother needs us, even if we don’t know them? When he said ‘love your enemies’ he was challenging the whole idea of having enemies, it is not for the follower of Jesus to make enemies, or invent enemies. In the society of Jesus the idea of neighbour was tightly drawn, people not of the same religion and ethnicity were unclean, you would avoid them if you were on your way to prayers. Jesus’ message was to stand all of that on its head.

The Christian message is to welcome, to seek radical equality, and make a place for the other. Though sometimes, sadly, it is hard to spot.

Some people say that inter faith is a modern idea, something designed for days of reducing church attendance, for liberals who want to water down and compromise their faith. Well, you can tell that they have not experienced inter faith, have not wrestled with what it means to my faith to see ‘the Samaritan’ binding up the wounds of the assaulted or for me, God willing, to be someone else’s Samaritan. ‘Love God and love your neighbour’ is the most radical message possible, it is present in both our faiths and for me is the Gospel, telling me to welcome and make space for the other, Muslim sisters and brothers, and be a witness to the love of God.