The Good Samaritan

I have been thinking about the story of the good Samaritan lately. And the offensive nature of the story on first century Jewish ears cannot be under estimated. To make the good guy to be a Samaritan really has no equivalent in modern day society. These people were universally despised by every Jewish person, and the feeling was mutual. Both the Jews and the Samaritans made the claim to being the true descendants of Israel. Both would rather see the other people be wiped out and destroyed. In fact a few generations before Jesus, one of the leaders of the Jewish people went up to Samaria and Mt Gerizim and destroyed the whole darn thing. These people hated each other. This is truly loving your enemies, that's why it's so disturbing to the man trying to justify himself that the person who showed himself to be a true follower of God's commands was not a pious Jew, but a pious Samaritan. As I was thinking about it, I came up with the following modern twist to emphasize a possible secondary understanding....

Jesus was in a church one night teaching about the greatest commandment and loving your neighbor. Afterwards, a man on the board of the church Jesus was teaching at, came up to him and asked, "but who exactly is my neighbor?"

Jesus proceeded to tell him this story:

One night a Christian man was walking down the dark streets of the south side of Chicago by himself. It was raining and he couldn't see where he was going. Eventually he took a wrong turn and was jumped by a bunch of thugs who beat the crap out of him, took everything of value and left him for dead.

Not long after that, a preacher came by and saw the man half lying in the alley and half lying out. He was considering stopping to help, but just then his cell phone rang; the rain had made him late for his board meeting and they were calling to see where he was. "I'm on my way, just got delayed in the rain is all," the preacher said, and he quickly went off. He's probably dead anyway, he thought to himself to assuage his conscience, not much I can do for him now.

Just as the preacher turned the corner, a worship leader came walking down the same street. He too saw the man dying in the alleyway, he glanced at his watch and noticed that he was already late to practice. We've got a lot of new music to cover tonight, he thought to himself as he passed by, I really can't stay. I'll say a prayer for him, when I get to practice, and he continued on his way.

The worship leader was just out of sight as a fundamentalist Muslim man approached the alley. He saw the man left for dead, and quickly ran to his side. The Muslim noticed the man was wearing a cross, but that didn't stop him. He quickly got out his cell phone and called for an ambulance. When the ambulance finally arrived the Muslim was still there waiting with the victim. He found out where they were taking the man and quickly found his way there. He stayed the entire night in the waiting room of the ER waiting for news of the status of the stranger. When he found out that the victim was in critical condition, but would be alright, the Muslim left all the cash he had with the nurse to give to the man when he recovered and took down the address of the hospital so he could send more money later, and then went on his way.

Jesus looked at the board member and asked, "Who was the neighbor to the man left for dead?"
The board member answered, "The one who called the ambulance."
To which Jesus replied, "Then go and do as the Muslim did."

I'm telling this story like this because I want to get beyond the obvious teaching of the story (i.e. everyone is my neighbor) and instead get to a more subtle implication. I wonder if we can extrapolate a teaching that may be uncomfortable to our exclusivist Christian minds. If someone, who is not Christian, by their actions actually affirms the teachings of Christ (i.e. loving your neighbor), whether they realize it or not, doesn't that show that they are really followers of Christ.

This kind of flows from Paul's argument in Romans. Don't those who obey the Torah, even though they never received it, show that it is in all actuality written on their hearts? The implication being, who are we to say that anyone, regardless of their faith, is actually an enemy of God when they end up doing the very thing that God commands. Don't their actions show that their heart is actually in line with God's teachings and as such are a part of God's kingdom, whether they realize it or not?