Recently, I heard of two separate instances when someone went out of their way to help another person. Both of these challenged me – but God had apparently not finished with me at that point and proceeded to use the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan to give me even more food for thought.
The first instance I heard about involved someone a friend found sitting outside on the steps one Sunday after a church service. He looked rather unkempt and down on his luck and, as my friend passed nearby, he asked her if she knew of somewhere he could stay for the night. She told him she didn’t but that she would ask someone who might and suggested he come with her. She soon found their community worker and said to him, ‘This gentleman needs a bed for the night. Do you know anywhere he can go?’ As it turned out, the community worker did and immediately took care of the poor man. However, what seemed to touch this man most was one key word my friend had chosen to use. ‘She called me a gentleman!’ he told their community worker, his voice filled with wonderment.
Would I have thought to use that word? Would I have even helped this man?
The second instance sounds less dire, yet things could well have escalated. One evening, our daughter received a pleading text message from our grandson at his first ever school camp. He has ADHD and was never allowed on school camps at primary school because of his behaviour. Now, in Year 7, he had finally made it to camp. But alas, his message informed his mother that he was starving as the food was terrible – could she please bring him a ‘care package’ that evening after work?! Now this demand is not as selfish as it sounds – our grandson truly has trouble tolerating foods with certain textures. Besides, his mother knew that, if he did not eat something, his behaviour could well be adversely affected. So, she did what he asked, driving over an hour to the campsite in the dark and another hour back home, in order to take him whatever healthy snack food she could lay her hands on quickly.
Would I have bothered to do that? Would I have helped our grandson?
Then I read the story of the Good Samaritan which impacted me more than it ever has on previous occasions and left me feeling even more challenged. To put it mildly, this Samaritan did a lot for the poor, half-dead traveller who had been robbed:
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. 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.’ Luke 10:34–36
Would I have offered all the next level care he offered? Would I have even seen that poor man?
Go and do likewise, Jesus told the expert in the law who asked who his neighbour really was (Luke 10:29, 37b).
I wonder if this expert did what Jesus said. I wonder if I will.
Jo-Anne Berthelsen's Blog 