In this passage, Jesus is challenged by a lawyer about who is his neighbor, and Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. This will be the second sermon in our four week sermon series on the Good Samaritan passage from Luke 10. This week, we’ll be focusing on the two characters who walk by the beaten man without helping him: the priest and the Levite. 

Our passage says that the priest came by the victim of the passage “by chance”, but he “passed by on the other side” of the road. The Levite who follows after him does the same thing. Priests during this time period worked at the Temple in Jerusalem, offering prayers and sacrifices, as well as leading worship. They were supposedly descendants of Aaron and had their role handed down from generation to generation through the male line. 

The roles of Levites were a bit more complicated. They came from the tribe of Levi and had a variety of roles in religious life, including being musicians and guards at the temple. They offered prayers, but not sacrifices, and they also served as attendants to the priests. 

Both of these men would have known their scripture well and would have known that they had a duty to help those in need. So why didn’t they? We can speculate, but it’s important to note that Jesus doesn’t say. He leaves it to our imagination. In contrast, we know why the Samaritan does what he does: he has compassion for the victim. 

Much has been made of the Priest and Levite being afraid of becoming ritually unclean from attempting to help the man in the ditch. It was possible that the man was dead (he looked like he could be), and touching a dead body would have required them to undergo ritual purification. But I think that we make too much of these excuses. Luke’s audience were not Jewish priestly folks. They weren’t even Jewish. But Luke definitely wants them to see themselves as being in danger of acting like these two men who pass by without helping. Why would anyone, Jew or Gentile, avoid helping someone? Asked this way, I think we get more basic and plausible answers. They were afraid. They were in a hurry. They didn’t want to become responsible for getting the man back to health. These are the reasons I think Luke wants his readers to watch out for regarding themselves.

I know that, for me, I’m not worried about my ritual purity when I see someone in need. I’m much more likely to think, “someone else will help,” and “I have somewhere I need to be.” In this way the two persons who walk by are more sympathetic characters, but also more condemning for us to consider. May we ask God to help us get over our excuses for not helping those in need!