find God where you do not expect him - 15th sunday C

Why did Jesus choose a Samaritan as the protagonist of our parable today?  Why choose a Samaritan as the hero, the good guy, the model of this story?  And to think that this story is told to a devout Jew at that.

Some backgrounder perhaps may help us appreciate the question and the story of Jesus.  Jews and Samaritans do not see eye to eye during the time of Jesus.  When Jesus passed by Samaria intent to go to Jerusalem the Samaritans did not accord him a warm welcome.  For this the apostles James and John asked Jesus to call on fire in order to destroy their town, thus earning them the nickname sons of thunder.  Even in our story today the Jew could not bring himself to say Samaritan after being asked by the Lord, who was neighbor to the robbers' victim?  Instead he answered the Lord, "the one who treated him with mercy." Such was the hatred between them he cannot even bring himself to mention the word Samaritan.

But going back to the question, why did Jesus choose a Samaritan as the good guy of the story?

Two points.

First. This is because God wants to tell us that he shows up where we least expect him to be.  The Jew must have fallen from his chair when he realized that the Samaritan was the good guy instead of the Jewish priest and the Jewish Levite.  He did not see that coming.  So also nobody expected God to reveal his glory on a cross.  His disciples could not believe it.  Peter had to remonstrate Jesus when he said that he would be nailed to a tree to suffer and die and rise on the third day.  It is difficult to imagine God in that place, it is difficult to imagine God in that situation, it is difficult to imagine God in that state or condition, it is difficult to imagine God in that person.  But surprise.  God is there as he was with that hated Samaritan.

If you think that God can never be there, beware, God might just be there waiting for you – waiting for your concern, your attention, your forgiveness perhaps or your love.

If it never occurs to you that God is working something out in this situation or working something through in this particular person, ay beware because God is probably doing just that. 

In God we learn to expect the unexpected because when we fail to see him in others, when we refuse to help because we are angry with that person, when we refuse to care for someone we have strong feelings against, when we refuse even just to pay attention because we want to ignore a person, we also risk missing the saving presence of God. This is the first lesson of our parable today.  God shows up where we least expect him.

Second.  In this story of Jesus, the hated Samaritan is the good guy because God promises something to us.  He promises us that he will come to all, not just to some, not just to many, but to all, no matter what, whether sinner or saint, acceptable or unacceptable, high and low, good and bad.  The Samaritan may be considered by any good Jew as cursed and unclean, a sinner and therefore damned, yet Jesus comes to him and even uses him to show all of us the goodness and compassion of God.  God comes to us in unlikely places, in unlikely people because God comes to all of us.  And many times God surprises us, or should we also say, God disturbs us, for we never thought he would come too to somebody or to some event we never thought he would.

Today is the 40^th day since the death of your husband, your father, your grandfather, our friend Ricardo.  Probably this 40^th day was instituted in our culture in order to cut short our grieving which for some people can take a long time.  The friars may have thought correctly that grieving for a long time can be unchristian. The number 40 is always associated with preparation, an act of looking forward to something new – the 40 days of Jesus before his mission, the 40 years in the desert before the promised land, the 40 days of rain before the flood subsided and a rainbow appeared.  Grieving allows us to look back, the 40^th day prods us to look forward.  Both are needed.

I never got to really know your father.  In my short acquaintance with him he struck me as somebody who has a lot of questions and tells a lot of stories.  Today we allow him to leave us knowing that he has done his part to become God's presence to us in his care and love, in his discipline and advices, in his strength and weakness, in his being a husband, a father, a grandfather and a friend.  May he rest in peace.  Till we meet again.