June 18, 2023: There Is No ”Them” - Michael Hidalgo

He came by the place where the person was hurting, beaten and naked to provide assistance in the form of clothing, water, cleaning wounds and a ride on a donkey. Sound familiar? Well, when Jesus told this story it wouldn’t have been offensive only because he makes a hero out of one of their most despised peoples; it’s doubly offensive because he calls them to remember a story from their past. What Jesus has the Samaritan in his story do - bandaging, pouring oil and wine and giving donkey rides - is an echo of what Samaritan soldiers did for their wounded and captured countrymen hundreds of years earlier. But many years later, Samaritans, in a rage, scattered human bones all over the Jewish temple courts.
 
Isn’t it astounding the way we can remember the parts of the story that serve the opinion we would like to have of someone, and how easily we can forget the times we served one another and treated each other with honor and dignity? How interesting that the most recent offense has a way of blotting out of our memories years of good? What is it that is so painful about remembering the joy that once was while in the midst of angst? Isn’t this life and relationships? One day we honor each other and the next day we insult each other (knowingly and unknowingly), and in the middle we have to figure out how to go about remembering our stories with others. What do we hold onto? What do we let go of? What action gets to have the last word about someone in our heads? Or is there a better way Jesus invites us to go about this?