Friday; October 4

In the parable we call the Good Samaritan Jesus tells the story of man who was beaten, robbed and left for dead.  Three individuals encountered the man in his traumatic state:  a priest, a Levite and a common ordinary Samaritan.  The priest and the Levite passed by the man without helping him (I am sure they had important things to do), but the Samaritan took the time to care for his immediate needs and guaranteed help for the future.  In driving home the point, Jesus asked the “no-brainer” question, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” (Luke 10:36).   Even the most unobservant person in the audience would have had to vote for the Samaritan.  What was the difference between these men?  It wasn’t pedigree, job description or knowledge – the thing that set the Samaritan apart was his willingness to act.  He put His good will into action.
Have you noticed how much discussion there is these days about social issues?  Whether it is homelessness, violence, poverty, bigotry or whatever else, there are a lot of things in our world that need attention.  The question is are we willing to get involved?  Are we willing to “do” something?  Sure, it is easy to study the problems or criticize the lack of resources; but the only thing that really matters is our willingness to take action.  It is easy to debate whether this should be a community, church or political problem; but until we are willing to intervene we are no better than the priest and the Levite (who are either footnotes or villains to the story).
I don’t know if we will ever really find the definitive answer to what ails our society, but we can do what we can do.   Let’s not be guilty of walking by people in their time of distress; let’s walk with them in their hour of need.
          Think About It!

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