Who Is My Neighbor?
Listen: “When It Don’t Come Easy” by Patty Griffin
One of my favorite independent films is called Love Song for Bobby Long which was written and directed by Shainee Gabel, based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. Its world premiere was at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2004. It stars John Travolta as a brilliant, aging alcoholic who was once a famous English professor, and a young Scarlett Johansson as a headstrong woman who returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother. The film features a collection of misfits who form a community of love and acceptance despite the tragic flaws of each person. This grace-based community of misfits offers surprising elements of redemption to each other. The soundtrack is one of my favorite movie soundtracks to date.
After watching the film, I went down a rabbit hole. I ordered the book upon which it was based: Off Magazine Street. I found the book even more enchanting, and the author, Ronald Everett Capps, was a big fan of playwright Tennessee Williams. After reading Capps novel, I started reading Williams’ plays, and I fell in love with Tennessee Williams’ plays. Williams is best know for plays like A Street Car Named Desire, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, and The Night of the Iguana. His characters are beautifully flawed, both tragic and resilient. Williams says, “My chief aim in playwriting is the creation of character. I have always had a deep feeling for the mystery in life, and essentially my plays have been an effort to explore the beauty and meaning in the confusion of living.” In my view, Tennessee Williams displays an ability to capture redemptive notes in tragically flawed human beings—a gospel for misfits as I see it. “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains” said Blanche DuBois in A Street Car Named Desire. Blanche, in her desperately dignified resilience, utters a famous line at the end of the play: “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
In another context in the Middle East a couple of thousand years ago, a progressive Rabbi told a story to challenge our concept of neighbor—that is, who we love and care for—which is called The Good Samaritan. Throughout most of the history tribes, peoples, and nations have focused on who is in and who is out. If a person is a part of our tribe, our group, our friends, our community, our religion, or our political persuasion, then we attempt to love them and try to care for them. But if they are not in our group, then our tribe is quick to label them as “The Enemy,” and we don’t listen to them, care for them, love them, or seek to understand them. Instead, we cancel them. After all, they are “The Enemy.”
Jesus challenged this approach by telling a powerful story. A religious expert in Jesus’ day, challenged Jesus with a question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responded, “What does the Torah say?” The man probably quoted something which he had heard Jesus say in another context. He cited two commands in the Torah, Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18. In summary, love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live!” The religious expert followed with another question: “And who is my neighbor?”
So Jesus answered the question by telling a story. A Jewish man was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was attacked by bandits, stripped, and left for dead. Without clothing or the ability to speak, no one would have been able to identify his ethnic identity. A priest passed by and decided not to help. The priest could not discern whether he was Jewish and whether or not he was dead or alive. The priest was probably in a hurry to get to Jericho, and didn’t want to go through the inconvenience of committing time and money to help the beaten man. Especially if he wasn’t Jewish. If he touched the man and he was dead, the priest would become ceremonially unclean (which required an inconvenient week of ritual cleansing). If the beaten man was not Jewish, then the priest was technically not obligated to help him because he wouldn’t have qualified as a neighbor. The beaten man might not be in the same tribe as the priest. He might be “The Enemy.” So the priest passed by and a temple assistant also passed by on the other side.
Next, a Samaritan enters the scene. A despised Samaritan. Samaritans were descendants from the hostile Northern Kingdom of Israel. They had fought and separated from the pure Jews of the Southern Kingdom, had interbred with the pagan Assyrians, and developed a corrupted place and practice of worship. The Samaritans were “The Enemy.”
The Samaritan showed compassion to the beaten man. He treated his wounds with oil and wine and bandaged him. He transported him by donkey to an inn in Jericho. Because he was Samaritan, he risked his life when he carried a dead Jewish man into a Jewish city. The Samaritan could have been lynched as “The Enemy” by the inhabitants of Jericho. The Samaritan then spent his own money to put the man up in the inn for two weeks. The Samaritan devoted his time, his money, and his resources to care for the Jewish man in addition to risking his own life by entering into the hostile territory of Jericho.
After telling the story, Jesus then asks the religious expert a question: “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” The religious expert gags a bit; he doesn’t want to say “The Samaritan.” He says, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same” (Luke 11:25-37).
I think The Good Samaritan is channeling the heart of God’s love for every human being. Every human being is our neighbor, our family, and our tribe. We are all loved by God; we are God’s children; and we have a responsibility to every person. According to the responsibility statement in the AA community: “I am responsible, when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help. I want the hand of AA always to be there, and for that I am responsible.” We are not alone. We are called to practice radical inclusion through communities of love.
Someone asked Mother Teresa once, “How do you do great things for God?” She responded, “You can’t do great things for God, only small things done with great love.” We are called to a life of service and love to our neighbors. We are called to show God’s love in practical ways with no strings attached. We are called be Good Samaritans. So, who is your neighbor?
Shalom
©realfredherron, 2023
