Samaritan

“ And Jesus turning said to them: " Go, show yourselves to the priest and offer sacrifice according to the law." And as they went, lo! ere they reached the city gates their hideous deformity disappeared and their flesh became as the flesh of a little child. But were not ten made clean — nine Jews and one Samaritan? Where then are the nine? Alas! there is no one found to return and give glory to God but one, the stranger, the Samaritan.
Brethren, no cup of human joy is without its drain of sorrow. A shadow is on the Saviour's countenance and the Samaritan is presently shamefaced and apologetic. ”

“ He felt within himself all the evangelical virtue of charity, perhaps stronger than any other sentimental impulse. He was the good Samaritan who rescues the dying man on the road-side, doctors his cruel wounds, and pours out the balsam that heals. ”

“ If a Samaritan does well that helps a distressed Jew, certainly a Jew does not well if he refuses in like manner to help a distressed Samaritan. Petimusque damusque vicissim—These kind offices are to be reciprocated. "And therefore go thou and do as the Samaritan did, whenever occasion offers: show mercy to those that need thy help, and do it freely, and with concern and compassion, though they be not of thy own nation and thy own profession, or of thy own opinion and communion in religion. ”

“ But the twelve apostles were hardly yet willing to entertain kind feelings for the long-despised Samaritans.
Accordingly, when Simon Zelotes observed the Samaritan among the lepers, he sought to induce the Master to pass on into the city without even hesitating to exchange greetings with them. Said Jesus to Simon: "But what if the Samaritan loves God as well as the Jews? Should we sit in judgment on our fellow men? Who can tell? if we make these ten men whole, perhaps the Samaritan will prove more grateful even than the Jews. ”

“ And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.'
It is certainly most unfortunate that our translators—who had just rendered Διάβολος by Devil, in our Lord's discourse—should take the same word for δαιμόνιον, in the discourse of the Jews. I need not say that they did not mean what He meant, or anything like what He meant. They called Him a Samaritan,—evidently alluding to the Samaritan passion for enchanters. He was a possessed man, like one of those who appeared so often among the worshippers on Gerizim, and drew so many disciples after them. ”

“ Not quite out of our hearing, however, for Heaven has caught his gentle, loving words, and hidden them within this parable, that all coming times may listen to their music; nor out of our sight either, for his photograph was caught in the sunlight of the Master's speech; and as we turn over the pages of Inspiration there is no picture more beautiful than that of the nameless Samaritan, whom all the world calls "the Good," the man who knew so much better than his age what humanity and mercy meant. ”

“ The stern prophet of the days of Ahaziah, had called down fire from heaven to the destruction of two successive bands of the insolent myrmidons of the Samaritan king; and might not the wonder-doing Son of Man, with equal vindictiveness, commission his faithful followers to invoke the thunder on the inhospitable sectaries of the modern Samaritan race? But however this sort of summary justice might suit the wrathful piety of James and his “amiably gentle” brother, it was by Jesus deemed the offspring of a spirit too far from the forgiving benevolence of his gospel, to be passed by, unrebuked. ”

“ And also then the Romans prevented the Samaritans from ascending the Mount; for they said: "Who- soever goes up on to this Mount shall be put to death ". And the Romans placed upon the sum- mit of the Mount a talisman, and this was a brazen bird,and it used to turn round with the sun howsoever it revolved, and it was so that if a Samaritan did go up, the bird would screech out: "Hebraeus," and they would know then that there was a Samaritan on the Mount, and would issue forth against him and kill him. Arid the children of Israil continued in this distress, un- till Baba Rabba arose ”

“ The nine, though outwardly restored are inwardly less godly than when they turned their hideous faces and raised their shrivelled hands appealingly to Christ, but the Samaritan has been transfigured through and through. Their transfiguration is in their flesh, which to-day is and to-morrow returns to dust, but his is a change of soul which will last forever and ever. It is our misfortune to be content with the appearances of sanctity, a fair exterior, but the critical eye of God goes deeper, it searches the reins and the heart. ”

“ I forgot that the Gospel warns us [10] that he who goes down from Jerusalem immediately falls among robbers, is spoiled, is wounded, is left for dead. But, although priest and Levite may disregard me, there is still the good Samaritan who, when men said to him, “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil,” [11] disclaimed having a devil, but did not disclaim being a Samaritan, [12] this being the Hebrew equivalent for our word guardian. Men call me a mischief-maker, and I take the title as a recognition of my faith. For I am but a servant, and the Jews still call my master a magician. ”

“ There are many signs that Samaritan elements entered early into the Christist movement. The fourth gospel even represents the founder to have been accepted in Samaria as the Messiah; and in so far as the cult became Gentilised, even if the Ebionites did not stand for an ancient local and quasi-Samaritan foundation, Samaritans would be the more ready to join it, since they were thereby helping to discomfit the more exclusive Jews. But they too had their Christ-myth; and the conception of the Holy Spirit as a dove came from them to the Christians. ”

“ One of the most beautiful things in the Bible is the story of the good Samaritan with his simple, unostentatious aid to a wounded man, an enemy of his people whom the Samaritan knew was none the less a brother. And you will remember the priest of the temple, the man who taught charity, and love, drew up his skirts and passed the wounded man by. ”

“ Sin must be left outside, but the sinner of every race and tribe was welcomed to all the privileges of this kingdom. We now see the wisdom and the divinity of our Lord's course.
Had these marveling disciples had their way, the sect of the Christians would have been added to the sects of the Herodians and the Sadducees, and been buried in the same grave centuries ago. The voice that talked with this Samaritan woman is heard round the globe now, and every century only adds greater authority to its divine utterance; and it is heard because it spoke with this despised Samaritan woman. ”

“ In the case of the priest and the Levite you can see what a hateful thing is want of compassion. On the other hand, the example of the Samaritan shows you how noble and beautiful is a heart full of pity and a desire to help those in need. Now which heart is yours most like? that of the priest or that of the Samaritan? Do you feel pity for others in their misfortunes? Do you not sometimes feel a wicked joy when evil befalls any one? Do you help the sick or poor as far as you are able? ”

“ Our Catechism explains it by saying: "We should fear and love God that we may not hurt ... our neighbor in his body." In the story of the good Samaritan we learn what this means. The man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves (robbers) , who wounded him and, leaving him half dead, departed. Luke 10,30. These robbers hurt the Jew in his body, they brought his life into danger. But for the Samaritan he certainly would have died. The life of our neighbor may be hurt in other ways. ”

“ To this opinion of the Samaritan woman, therefore, who imagined that God was less rightly or duly worshipped, according to the privileges of the different localities, either by the Jews in Jerusalem or by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, the Saviour answered that he who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places, and thus expressed Himself: “The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshippers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” ”

“ Samaritan, who has compassion on the naked and wounded wretch, goes to him, binds up his wounds, pours in oil and wine, sets him on his own beast, brings him to the inn, and takes care of him:—this one is Christ. ”

“ On the whole, I was very favorably impressed with the appearance of the Samaritan community. The men were generally handsome, tall, healthy-looking,and intelligent, but very few of them could read or write. The women are modest, and the children very pretty and thoughtful, yet full of life and activity. I am told that the Samaritans live to a great age, and generally escape the epidemics which break out occasionally in Nablûs. ”

“ On the contrary, the law which He imposed on His disciples: ‘And into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not’ (Matt. x. 5) , this, during the days of His flesh, He imposed also on Himself. He was not sent ‘but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt. xv. 24; Acts xiii. 46) ; and if any grace reached Samaritan or heathen, it was, so to speak, but by accident, a crumb falling from the children's table.”38 Samaria had been the portion of the tribe of Ephraim and of half the tribe of Manasses. ”

“ The Woman of Samaria.—In this year too, at its close, comes the interview with the woman at Jacob's well, in Samaria. It is well worth noticing that to a woman, and she a Samaritan woman, Jesus poured out truth as prodigally as he did to Nicodemus, a ruler of his own nation. The result of this interview was the adherence of a large number of Samaritans to the Master. All the above story of this first year of our Lord's public ministry we learn only from the Gospel of John, each of the other evangelists beginning his story with the Galilean ministry. ”

“ There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give Me to drink. For His disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman saith to Him: How dost Thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and Who He is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. ”

“ Now there was a certain wicked doubter, a Samaritan, who, desiring to bring confusion to Rabbi Simon ben Yochai, secretly buried an unclean corpse in a place already purified. And the Samaritan came cunningly to Rabbi Simon, saying "Me-thought thou didst purify such a spot in my field; yet is there an unclean body there—the body of a man. Surely thy wisdom hath failed thee, or may-hap thy magic hath some defect in it? Come thou with me!" So he took with him Rabbi Simon, and dug up the ground, and showed to him the unclean corpse, and laughed in his beard. ”

“ To begin with, Justin Martyr, a Samaritan born, expressly says1 that almost all the Samaritans worshipped Simon.2 This alone might dispose of the notion that the “Simonians” dated merely from the time of Paul and Peter. It is absurd to suppose that nearly all the Samaritans, a people with old cults, could be converted within a century to a new Deity originating in one man. The cult must date further back than that. ”

“ Now after the passion of Christ, our Lord, and his ascension into heaven, there arose a certain Simon, the magician, a Samaritan by birth, from a village called Gittha, who having the leisure necessary for the arts of magic deceived many, saying that he was some Power of God, above all powers. Whom the Samaritans worship as the Father, and wickedly extol as the founder of their heresy, and strive to exalt him with many praises. ”

“ But a certain Samaritan, speaking against the people and against God, and asserting that neither are the dead to rise, nor is that worship of God to be maintained which is in Jerusalem, but that Mount Gerizim is to be reverenced, added also this in opposition to us, that our Jesus was not He whom Moses foretold as a prophet to come into the world. ”

“ Secondly, The Samaritanes allowed no commerce with the Jews, John 4. 9. yea, the mutual hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews was so great, that it was not lawful for the Jews to eat or drink with the Samaritans. How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria, Joh. 4. 9. Nay, whereas liberty was granted unto all Nations of the earth to become Proselites to the Jewes, so did the Jews hate the Samaritanes, that they would not suffer a Samaritan to be a Prosylite. ”

“ It is a melancholy truth that the Christian world too generally forgets that the mild spirit of the gospel dictates candor and forgiveness towards those who are dissentient in opinion. The example of the good Samaritan was recorded to impress the cultivation of the benevolent affections towards all mankind, without restriction to neighbor or to country. ”

“ You know that Christ signifies in a Parable concerning the wounded Samaritan, that he fell among Murtherers, who beat him and wounded him, and pulled off his Cloaths, and went away, and left him half dead, till the Samaritan came, and took Pity on him, dressed him, and poured Oil into his Wounds, and brought him into the Inn: This is a manifest and lively Representation of the Corruption of Man in Paradise, and also of the Corruption of the Earth in the Curse of God, when Paradise departed from it. ”