The Good Samaritan

         

Hey again, I figured if you were to read this blog, you ought to know a little bit about the author writing it. So before we talk about why this post is being written, I'll give you a little bio about myself. My name is Evan and I was raised in a small town called Denville. While I was growing up I loathed those Sunday mornings where my mother would drag me to church. Eventually through her persistence, she convinced me to go to a youth group held one Sunday night. The games we played there were so much fun that I wanted to learn more about the whole experience.  Later I joined a Christian drama school; the plays we performed aimed to glorify God. I later found out that the reason I was having so much fun was due to God. This gave me the desire to take it upon myself to learn who this God character was, and it turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me. Here I am now, 20 years old, looking to spend the rest of my life teaching the word of God through his and my own ministry. I am hoping that I can start some of that ministry right here with you readers. So thats me, hope you enjoy the rest.

        So, onto why I'm writing this in the first place. Tonight some friends and I went on an "adventure" (that’s what we call it anyway). It was kept secret of where we were going until we got there. An hour later we end up at the World Fair in Queens. For those who don't know where that is, its the scene from Men in Black where the Space Ship is disguised as a tower. It was cold, about 35 degrees but we were more than dressed for the night in warm jackets.  Anyhow, we spent a couple hours there walking around and on our way back we see a man. As it was midnight in a strange neighborhood, a couple of friends were skeptical of the man in fear he'd hurt us. As we got closer we saw what appeared to be a dog, so we lost concern as we thought it may just be a man walking his dog. Again we got closer and this "dog" gets clearer. It turns out that it is an orange waste bag full of cans. This was not a man walking a dog, this was a homeless man. I insisted we walk over and give him a couple dollars. I had no cash on me so I asked a friend for a few bucks just to get him a meal. A friend refused, insisting that this homeless man could have been crazy or dangerous.  We simply avoided him and continued on towards home. I felt conflicted when I got to the car, but I just hopped in and buckled my seat belt.

       On the ride home, about 10 minutes down the road, I started talking to my friend in the back seat about how we should have given him a few dollars. He brought up the whole debate on why you shouldn't give the homeless money because they could misuse the money for items other than food or clothes. I told my friend that if I had food I would have given him food, but unfortunately all our group had on us was a few dollars in cash. So I felt as if it would have been the right thing to give this man some money, in hopes he would buy a warm meal with it. My friend responded that he believed most people are not good and wouldn't have spent it on food or necessities. He suggested that if I didn’t have money to give him, why wouldn't I just have given him my jacket. This statement tore me up. I'm luckier than most and have 20 jackets to my name; why couldn't I give up just one to help this man through a cold night. What hurt me the most was that I hadn’t even considered this as an option. I spent the rest of the ride trying to figure out what I should have done; I prayed for answers. A passage from the bible popped in my head, Luke 10:25-37, about the Good Samaritan. For those who don't know, here it is below.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He 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’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

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 neighbor?”

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 traveled, 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[c] 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 neighbor 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.”

I found it in my heart that my friends and I made a mistake. We as Christians cannot just pass by people because of who they are or who they appear to be. Whether homeless man, or an enemy of a Samaritan, we are called to have "mercy on him" and take care of others. From this day on, I will help heal the man who fell into the hands of robbers, the homeless on the street, or any who find themselves in need. Jesus calls us to go and do likewise!