The
Good Samaritan
Some time ago, before the tribal troubles in Kenya I
was speaking at a conference. I was
using for my talk the story of the Good Samaritan. Knowing a little about the tensions of the
area I used as my illustration one of the tribes, who in the area where I was,
was not very popular to say the least. I chose this least popular tribe and
used the tribal name instead of a Samaritan.
At the end of my talk, and the meeting over I was taken
on one side and told how dangerous it was to speak thus. Much better to tell
the story with the Samaritan as the good neighbour, as I did not understand the
culture of tribal enmity, and by putting one of the ‘despised’ tribes in place
of the Samaritan I was living dangerously, and people would not like it.
I wondered how we might tell the story today, maybe in
the streets of London or New York perhaps, and some poor Christian guy has been
mugged and beaten and is lying in the gutter.
Along comes a good Charismatic Pastor, who knowing that he has to preach
to his good congregation hurries by on the other side of the Road, must protect
himself to deliver the sermon.
Then along comes a worship leader par excellence, boxed
instruments over the shoulder, ready to lead the people in Praise and Worship,
very necessary that he was on time to tune the sound and check “1,2, 1,2, 1,2”,
shame for the man in the gutter but there are people to lead, to stand, to
raise holy hands; Very important that he was early to get it all ready.
Finally, a young Muslim guy saw the man from his nice
new car, he stopped and lifted the mugged young Christian and put him, dirt and
all, on the back seat of his new car and drove very quickly to the nearest
hospital, phoning the police on his mobile.
He then visited the poor guy every day he remained in hospital until he
was well again. Which one I wonder was
the man’s neighbour?
.....................................................................
You can read the original story in Luke 10:25-37 I
have put some of it here for you from the New International Version (NIV)
Jesus answered,
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength and with all your mind ‘and, ‘Love your neighbour as
yourself.’ 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do
this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked
Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him
of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A
priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he
passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite,
when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But
a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him,
he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey,
brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next
day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after
him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense
you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour
to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had
mercy on him.”
Jesus told
him, “Go and do likewise.”
Adrian Hawkes
For adrianhawkes.blogspot.com
Edited by Gena Areola
w. 666
