The Right Audience
The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Luke 10:29-37
One of the things that they teach when you must make a speech is to learn how to read your audience. I certainly did that when doing year-end seminars for the company years ago. After each seminar, I would get feedback in the form of survey evaluations, and after all the students had left the class, would look at them to see how I was doing. My scores tended to rate excellent, but there was one class that did not rate as well as I normally do. My timing was good, and my delivery was flawless. Yet, my scores were about a half point less than normal. It took me a few days to figure it out, but eventually, I was able to determine what the problem was. In providing examples, I used sports analogies to help correlate to what I was teaching. These typically worked well, but this class was filled with professionals who were not big on sports at all. Once I decided to integrate a few more non-sports related examples into the presentation it not only fixed the problem but also raised my scores even higher. You see, one can have a profound impact on the meaning of a speech by catering it to the right audience.
God always knows how to communicate the right intent to the right audience. This brings me to the parable of the Good Samaritan. To us as a follower of Christ, we can see this story, and understand the message of being good to others. To go a step further, we could also connect the story as loving thy neighbor as thyself as noted in the Greatest Commandment discussed by Jesus with a religious expert a few verses before (Luke 10:25-28). However, a sermon this past week gave me yet another perspective on this story. As I have mentioned before, sometimes God gives a message dual meaning when you read its intent properly. To get this meaning, we must stop looking at ourselves as the primary audience in this speech. Jesus’ audience was not Samaritans. Instead, it was the Pharisees, who were highly knowledgeable in matters of Jewish law and fully aware of much of Jesus was saying. The context was that they were not the Samaritans because they in their own eyesight were ‘too good and righteous’ to even be considered like them. Thus, the parable takes on an entirely different meaning. It was not to provide good advice on how to live a Christ centered life. It was a warning to show how blind they were showing God’s grace and love toward someone in need.
You see, priest and Temple assistant were all people the Pharisees identified with and known to be of the highest standing of people. Yet, they were the ones who ignored the beaten man. It was a person who was not even a part of their group, a Samaritan, who helped him. What could we learn from this ‘warning?’ For them and even us, we need to be on guard to not be so caught up in our own righteousness. Put another way, Jesus said, “Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.” (Luke 22:26b) We are to serve whether it is our brother in Christ or an unknown poor man laying down in the corner. It is for us not to say, “Well God will have someone help him.” It is our obligation to be the person to lay down our fears and serve those in need no matter how it is deemed necessary.
Serving God is an honor whether we know it or not. Either helping a brother in need or buying a stranger a meal when they were short a few dollars, our neighbors in God’s eyes are no different. Thus, they should not be in our eyes either. Let us not only strive to be the Good Samaritan but also better ‘priest’ and ‘Temple assistants’ as well. Where can you serve others better? What barriers can you remove to serve others you normally would not? My prayer is that we listen to God not just as the audience. Additionally, let’s make sure we hear as the right audience. Amen.