Do this and you’ll live!

The parable of the Good Samaritin (Luke 10:26-37) is my favorite passage from the Bible, about which I have spent a tremendous amount of time reflecting and writing, and the guiding light of both my life and my ministry. Time, energy, and space will limit the points I wish to make, so I will try and limit them to how they impact my ministry as a chaplain. First, consideration will be given to the place of the neighbor in the context of chaplaincy; second, an examination into the preparation of the chaplain as the Good Samaritan; and third, finding life in caring for the dying.

Throughout the New Testament the word ‘neighbor’ is translated from the Greek word pleôsion. Pleôsion, when used as an adverb, is translated ‘near’, and when used as a noun, is translated ‘neighbor’, meaning one who is close by. Considering the commandment to love those who are close by as one’s self, and also the commandment to love even one’s enemies, changes entirely the common thoughts on such relationships. “Your neighbor is not your blood-relation only, not the circle of your acquaintance only, not your countryman or co-religionist only; but he or she whom you can help in any way whatsoever – the wretched tatterdemalion from the slightest contact with whom you shrink; the besotted and degraded; even your enemy, who hates you and despitefully uses you; him, her, mankind, you are to love.” (H.D. M. Spence, ed, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 16)  While Spencer was referring to one’s most wretched enemy as the neighbor, for the hospital or hospice chaplain such wretchedness can be allegorically and/or metaphorically conceived to be the most wretched of anguish, pain, confusion, and disease. It is these from which the natural woman/man will shrink, from even the slightest contact, but yet the chaplain chooses each day to walk into the lives of such individuals and their families.

The question, attempting to define one’s neighbor, is not a new question but was the same question asked of Jesus that precipitated the popular story of the Good Samaritan. “Who is my neighbor?” In answering this question today, it is important that we notice the positional references illustrated in the parable. The chaplain could argue that his patients are not his neighbors, but whether by choice, calling, and/or anointing, the chaplain has willingly walked into the proximity of his patients, thus making him/her the neighbor of the sick and dying. This is a good thing for the patient, because there are none who are more often lonely, shunned, or forgotten. My patients are my neighbors.

Another thing that has always fascinated me about this story is the preparation of the Good Samaritan. He came prepared to help someone injured along the road. He carried with him a first aid kit with disinfectant and bandages. He had transportation on which to carry the wounded. He had emergency funds available to pay for the extended care of the sick or injured. Finally, He had some training in the care and transportation of people in need of emergency care. While it may have been happenstance that the Good Samaritan came upon the man who had fallen among thieves, it is clear that he was prepared for such a possibility. None of the others who passed by were prepared to assist, either in what they had brought along or emotionally. None of them had considered the ‘what ifs’ of their journey that day. The Good Samaritan knew what to bring, what to do with what he brought, and where to take the injured he might pass.

The chaplain too should consider his/her preparation for the journey of chaplaincy and make sure she/he knows what to bring, what to do with what he has brought along, and where to take the sick and injured. There are many allegorical conclusions that I can make from this, but for me, my education and experience have taught me what I needed for journey down the chaplaincy road; CPE has taught, and is teaching, me what to do with what I have brought along on this journey; and my faith tradition has taught me where to bring my patients (at least those willing to go along).

Before Jesus began the parable of the Good Samaritan, He asked the question of his listeners, “What is in the Law?” As Jews had already been answering for centuries, the lawyer answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” The last point I will make about this parable will consider the reply of our Lord to the above statement, “Do it and you’ll live.” In other words, Love God and love your neighbor and you will have life. This came to my mind this past week as I stood by the bed of a woman who was dying, talking with her husband. The woman was obviously in the final stages of her disease process, and her husband’s grief at losing her was great. Yet, he felt compelled to ask, “How do you do this? How do you go from one dying patient to another without cracking up?”

Standing there, I thought of the words of Christ, “Do this and you’ll live.” That by loving my neighbor, who happened to be like the man the Good Samaritan found by the side of the road dying, I could have life. The Good Samaritan knew the secret that the ‘religious’ leaders of the day did not know: the way to life was not in riches, or stature, or appointments, but rather in stopping to love the unlovable, the unapproachable, the diseased, and the dying. For me, the most important thing Jesus did, besides Calvary, was to touch the leper. That is what I see my job as, one who touches lepers, one who loves them in the same way I long to be loved, one who loves his neighbor as himself. Nothing fancy, just a leper toucher, but with the job comes life in such a way that words cannot explain.