Canada has entered a Samaritan scenario. We personally didn’t ask to be here, but here we find ourselves. And we each have a path to choose. What role will you choose in our current cultural predicament?
We’ll return to why this is our Canadian scenario in a moment. First, let’s allow the Word to lead us.
A religious legal expert challenges Jesus with the question, “[W]hat must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). In response, Jesus employs His wonderful Q and A process: “What is written in the Law?... How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26).
This well-educated man replies with the central thought of the Mosaic law of loving God first and with everything, and even the accompanying “Love your neighbor as yourself,” (Luke 10:27; cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).
Jesus affirms him: Yes. Correct. “Do this and you will live,” (Luke 10:28). You’ve answered your own question.
But the lawyer isn’t done. Here, we’re given another glimpse behind the veil into his heart: “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10:29). This passage opens with him standing up to test Jesus. Now we see he’s also seeking self-justification—not actual salvation, not instruction toward righteousness, nor life direction from this not-formally-trained-and-certified so-called prophet of the people. It’s no stretch to assume the lawyer thought he knew all the answers to his posed questions. His first purpose is to test Jesus: Do you know? Are you correct? Can I catch you in an error? But another motive comes to the surface: He wants to be seen as having achieved this level of self-righteousness in the eyes of the apparent crowd witnessing this exchange.
Lawyers really can be wonderful people. And their minds have been trained to think in unique ways. Yet, despite the level of educational training we may have achieved in any field of practice, our human hearts still need redemption. We cannot educate ourselves into the kingdom of God. We don’t think our way into salvation. Even though repentance is a change in our thinking, it’s the result, not the catalyst. When the lawyer asks Jesus who his neighbour is, one thing to consider is scope. How broadly does this need to be defined? If broad, gosh! I’ll be responding to people right, left and centre. But if narrow, well then, I can limit my exposure, obligations and costs and make the fulfilment of this requirement quite manageable. I can continue to earn my inheritance of eternal life without too much inconvenience.
Here, Jesus paints a scenario for the lawyer, the disciples, the crowd, and for us. A Jerusalem traveller en route to Jericho is jumped, attacked, beaten, robbed and left for dead.
The dynamic tension builds: what’s going to happen to the guy?
Enter stage right: the priest. Is he our protagonist, our principal character who will save the day? Nope.
The next entry: the Levite. Hero? Saviour? Nope.
Enter the culturally despised Samaritan. Ugh. How can this anti-hero be the hero in this Jewish story? Yet, that is exactly who he is. And the scope of what he does is broad, personally costly.
Jesus asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (Luke 10:36). And do you wonder just what the attitude of the lawyer is when he replies, “The one who had mercy on him” (Luke 10:37)?
And what about Jesus’s command to “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37)?
Jesus is still saying the same thing today—not only to The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, nor to pastors, deacons or ministry leaders. He is calling each of us individually, to go and do likewise.
Who are our neighbours? Who are those beaten and thrown to the roadside today?
There’s a lot of attention being given to various immigrant groups: international students, refugees and newcomers of all kinds. People come with legitimate needs and may seem different from what we are used to. Our culture often responds like the lawyer: judgmental, discriminatory and proud. At best, indifferent to newcomers’ needs, a growing chorus decries their presence, unwilling to give tangibly. Like the priest and the Levite, we become religious but ineffective.
Which role will you choose to fill? How did the lawyer go and do likewise? Whose life-crisis need did he stop and meet using his time and wallet? We don’t know, but his fulfilment of Jesus’s command isn’t the point. Ours is.
While our elected representatives must deal wisely and effectively with the nation at large (pray for them), our unredeemed culture will respond as it will. How will we, the “called out ones,” respond?
Responding to newcomers’ needs isn’t hard. It’s often not even financially expensive. Like the Samaritan, it will cost us our greatest assets today: time and effort. Get involved in (or start) an ESL group. Volunteer with your church, the YMCA or other local organizations assisting newcomers. Help new families figure out how to register their kids for school, gear up appropriately for our Canadian winters, navigate our health system, find groceries to meet their needs, and so much more.
Need help being “We – The Called” to immigrants? Check out our resources in the PAOC Toolbox, or email charles.hermelink@paoc.org.
Charles Hermelink is PAOC Mission Canada’s Cultural Language Priority co-ordinator and the onboarding and development specialist.
This article appeared in the July/August/September 2024 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2024 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Photo © istockphoto.com.