Sermon Notes     March 29th, 2009                 

Luke 10: 25-37: The Good Samaritan

If someone asked us: Would you help a person in need, our response would very likely be: Yes of course. A lot of people would give the same answer. But the Darley-Batson Experiment shows that this is wishful thinking. Very likely we wouldn’t.

 

Darley – Batson Experiment “From Jerusalem to Jericho”:

From the Chicago Reader of January 12, 1996 (source: http://www.chicagoreader.com/torture/960112_1.html )

By John Conroy

In 1970, psychologists John Darley and C. Daniel Batson conducted an experiment inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan. (…)

Darley and Batson thought that the tale was based on some notions of human behavior worth testing. (…) In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1973, Darley and Batson wrote, "The parable implies that people who encounter a situation possibly calling for a helping response while thinking religious and ethical thoughts will be no more likely to offer aid than persons thinking about something else . . . [and] persons encountering a possible helping situation when they are in a hurry will be less likely to offer aid than persons not in a hurry."

To test those hypotheses, Darley and Batson gathered a sample of 40 students from the Princeton Theological Seminary. In individual sessions, half the students were given a copy of the parable of the Good Samaritan and told they would be required to deliver a sermon on the subject in a few minutes. The other half were told they would be talking extemporaneously about employment prospects for seminary students. All subjects were told to report to an office in another building to deliver their talks; some were told that they should hurry because people were waiting for them, while others were led to believe that they had slightly more time to report to the test site.

On the way to the test site, each student passed a poorly dressed figure slumped in a doorway, head down, eyes closed, not moving, a man described by the two psychologists as an ambiguous figure, possibly in need of help, possibly drunk, possibly dangerous—a situation not unlike the one that occurred on the road to Jericho, except that in this case the ambiguous figure was clothed. As the subject passed, the man coughed twice and groaned.

Sixty percent of the seminarians walked on without offering help. A seminarian thinking about the parable was no more likely to stop than one given a less lofty topic, and on several occasions a seminarian going to talk on the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the man. Only 10 percent of those who were told to rush to the test site offered help, while 63 percent of those who thought they had a few minutes to spare offered aid. In examining psychological tests given to their subjects, Darley and Batson found no personality characteristics that predicted helping behavior; the only factor that seemed to predict helping behavior was degree of hurry.

The psychologists were drawn to conclude that as the speed of daily life increases, ethics becomes a luxury.

In the Darley - Batson experiment the dominant attitudes are the priest attitude of avoiding, and the Levite attitude of ignoring because people were in a hurry.

It is very likely that the priest in Jesus’ parable is in a hurry as well. He doesn’t even pay attention, he just walks by. He sees the man in need, but he decides not to look too closely. He doesn’t even want to know.

The Levite actually comes closer, and looks at the injured man. But then decides not to help. I don’t know what attitude is worse: pretending that nothing is there or realizing that a person may need help and ignoring it. What both don’t know at this point, is, if the man is still alive or not.

Since the priest and the Levite are both working at the temple they both are not allowed to touch a dead body. Touching a dead body would make them ritually unclean and they would not be allowed to fulfill their duties at the temple.

Something else has also influence on their behavior: fear. The robbers could still be around. The priest and the Levite may risk their own lives by helping the other man.

 

So there are obviously three factors involved: a degree of hurry, a degree of fear, and priorities. The degree of hurry, and the degree of fear influence how they set their priorities. Fulfilling their duties at the temple and their own wellbeing has obviously a higher priority than checking if this person needs help.

Darley and Batson showed in their experiment that this has not changed, although the parable about the Good Samaritan has been known for over 2000 years.  The experiment explains that we become victims of our fear and of our busyness. What it doesn’t explain though, is WHY we become victims of our  fear and our busyness. It doesn’t explain why our priorities are different when we are in a hurry or when we are afraid.

 In my opinion the experiment misses a detail. The degree of hurry and the degree of fear are not really the reason why we either have the priest attitude of avoiding or the Levite attitude of ignoring. Because the attitude is there already. The attitude is not created by a certain degree of fear or busyness. Busyness and fear are only an influence which makes our attitudes come to the surface.

The reason why we either avoid, or ignore or get involved like the Samaritan did, has to do with our whole being.

The priest and the Levite are not getting involved because serving is just something they DO. It is not something they ARE. Serving, helping a person in need is just one of many other tasks.

 

The Samaritan acts differently. He acts differently because he IS different.

He IS a servant. He is not just fulfilling a task.

Before Jesus tells the parable about the good Samaritan he refers to the law of Moses which tells us to love our neighbor. Loving our neighbor is not something we do, it is something we are. We can’t decide to love our neighbor tomorrow and not today because we are busy with other things. We can’t decide to love our neighbor in ten minutes, but not in half an hour. We either love our neighbor or we don’t. The Samaritan IS loving. He doesn’t even think about the fact that the robbers may still be around. He doesn’t think about appointments he may have to keep. He doesn’t think about the fact that he doesn’t have much reason to help because he is a Samaritan. The other guy is Jewish and may not even appreciate his help. (A Samaritan is as much liked by the Jews as an Ohio State fan in Michigan). But the Samaritan simply helps. He simply serves because he IS a servant. It’s his nature.

 

And being a servant is one of our purposes here on earth.

The mission statement of All Saints Lutheran Church in Hartland says: Disciples of Jesus Christ, gathered for worship, sent to serve. We are sent to serve because we are meant to serve! We are meant to BE servants.

And that doesn’t come over night. It needs constant training.

We need constant training in NOT driving past the car in the ditch. We need constant training in NOT ignoring the handicapped person asking for a phone. We need constant training in NOT overlooking the depressed person who wants to share their problems.

 

The Levite and the priest are serving - sometimes. But they ARE NOT servants. Because if they were with their whole being they would have stopped and helped. They would have had the Samaritan attitude of getting involved.

The Samaritan serves the man in need because he IS a true servant. This is why he has the attitude of getting involved. This is why he pays attention, stops on his way, turns toward the man in need, helps, and stays with him the whole time.

Go and BE likewise!

Amen.