Jesus had a remarkable way of turning conventional viewpoints on their head. Though now often told as a tender children’s story, the parable of the Good Samaritan was shockingly offensive to his Jewish audience.
At that point in history, Jews and Samaritans despised each other. The unbelieving Jews snarled their worst insults at Jesus by accusing Him of being inhabited by a demon and by calling Him a Samaritan. Although Jews and Samaritans worshiped the same God (the God who commanded them to love others as themselves), their socio-religious differences had blinded them to their own bigotry that contradicted God’s command. They couldn’t see past their negative perceptions of each other.
In his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commented on this parable. “The first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”
With their deeply ingrained code of honor, Albanians were the “Good Samaritans” of Europe during World War II. Albania is the only country in Europe whose Jewish population increased dramatically during the Holocaust. Albanian families, most of them Muslims, offered refuge to Jews who were escaping extermination. Regardless of the risks or costs to themselves, they kept these families in their homes and cared for them as long as necessary, even while under occupation by fascist forces. Who were neighbors to those Jews? Those who had mercy on them.
Instead of asking the question, “If I try to share the Gospel with those in darkness, what will happen to me?” maybe we should reverse the question: “If I do not share the Gospel with those in darkness, what will happen to them?”
Our work in Albania is not yet complete. In order to get back there to finish the work God has put before us, we need your help. We need more team members willing to make pledges of regular monthly support. Can you put aside a dollar or so each day to be a neighbor to Albanians who haven’t yet heard the words of life? As the Samaritan (and the Albanians) showed mercy, Jesus asks us to “Go and do likewise.”
