I’ve read this passage often. I’ve always considered that what Jesus was teaching us is that to be a Good Samaritan we should demonstrate simple acts and random acts of kindness.  However, consider this story again.  Jesus was not describing a simple act of kindness.  He was describing a life saving event that temporarily interrupted the Samaritans life.

Also, I failed to recognize the message of evangelism that resonates from these verses.  We often think of evangelism as the ministering of the gospel message, but in this story Jesus demonstrates to us that there is more to evangelism than the preaching of the good news.  Sometimes it’s not enough to simply declare Jesus to the needy.  Sometimes we must demonstrate Jesus to them.

A Certain Man

We find that a “certain” man took a trip to Jericho. He wasn’t a Jew, a Gentile, a Samaritan, a Roman, a slave, or a king.  He was just a certain man.  Why did Jesus call him a certain man?  He did not limit it to the religious and heathen, the rich and the poor, or the well or the sick.  I believe that Jesus was making it clear that this certain man could be anyone.    

This man fell into misfortune, and was “stripped…, wounded …, [and left] half dead.”  He was not born into his plight, nor did he fall into his circumstance out of choice.  In fact there is no evidence that he did anything to bring this upon himself.  He simply “fell among thieves.”  In short, his dreadful circumstance was forced upon.  His plight was dire that he was unable recover on his own.  He lacked both the strength and capacity to do so.  So he laid their half dead. 

What’s more, the desperate needs of this man made it clear to everyone who passed by that only an extraordinary would help.  To merely stop and offer him a prayer, to give him a religious tract, to leaving him some food and water, to provide him some money, or to wrap a few wounds would not make any difference in this man’s life.  The only thing that would help is for someone to help in and extraordinary effort that would cost them dearly in both time and money.  Who would be willing to do that for a complete stranger? 

They Passed by Because of the Cost

Many of the men to whom Jesus spoke this story contributed to the poor and needy on a regular basis.  But just like the priest and Levite in this story they kept their difference and usually didn’t even know the names to those whom they gave.  Its one thing to give money that is sent to a relief effort in a foreign country or to the local needy.  This doesn’t take much of a commitment.  But to get to know those who are in need and to obligate oneself to walk along side them to recovery is whole different level of commitment.   It’s easy to give indiscriminately because it doesn’t require a genuine commitment.  It eases the conscience but does not change the circumstance of the wounded and “half-dead.”

One morning last week while on my way to work I came across a very old van parked in the middle of the Morley intersection of Jefferson and Northland.  I had a very important meeting to be at so I could not afford to spend much time with them, but I stopped away.  There was a man out in front of the van looking at the engine and a woman sitting in the passenger seat.  I pulled along side and asked the man if he needed help. 

After trying to jump the engine we quickly discovered that the engine was seized up.  I checked the clock.  If I left then I could just make the meeting, however the woman emerged from the van and asked her husband, “How are we going to get the children to school on time?  If we don’t go now their going to miss breakfast.” 

Children?  I didn’t know there were children in their van. 

“Do you know anyone here in town?”  I asked.

“No, we’re staying in Grand Rapids to take care of my husband’s grandmother who is recovering from a broken hip.  We didn’t want to switch schools so we drive our children up here for school.”

Great, I thought.  They would happen to be decent people.  It’s not often that I come across men who are willing to make this kind of commitment to their grandmother.

I looked in the window of the van and saw the children and the grandmother shivering in the cold.   This was going to take some time.  So, with children stacked on top of children I commenced to take their children to their various schools in both Morley and Stanwood.  But it didn’t end there.  After that there was the need to find them some other transportation.  This required a trip to Big Rapids for another van.  By the time I finally got on 131 to head to Grand Rapids my meeting had not just begun, it had ended.  Being late to a meeting with your boss is one thing, but to just not show up is something quite different, and the situation made it so that I was not able to even call. And in the current environment of cuts and cost control it important not to appear as anything but competent.  The stop to help this family had cost me dearly. 

Repulsive

Perhaps cost was not the issue for the Levite and the priest of this story.   Perhaps the situation this man was in was just too repulsive for them.  Let’s face it there are people whose life style is repulsive to us.  Maybe they’re what we’d consider “white trash.”  Maybe they’re of another race or ethnic group.  Perhaps we are afraid to be around them.  What ever the reason, we sometimes find ourselves encountering people who are in dire need of help, but we just cannot bring ourselves to be around them.  Perhaps we know of people who live in trashed out homes.  Perhaps we know of those whose lives are so destroyed that they cannot possibly change their lives on their own.  To help them will cost us dearly in both time and money. 

Have we ever avoided the destitute because their long hair, beards, and filth cloths make us feel uncomfortable or even scare us?  A ride into town is not really going to help them much.  They need a commitment on our part.  From time to time we all come across people in desperate need.  We know intuitively that the only way we can make any difference in their lives is through a costly commitment on our part. 

Last week I saw two large Mexican men standing beside a car parked alongside 131.  They were trying to wave down traffic.  Something in me said, “It’s not their car.  They’re just standing there trying to make people believe that it’s their car.  If you stop they’ll hurt you.”  I fought off the feeling to go on and turned around to see if I could help.  I routinely help people who are broke down, but these men looked ominous.  After I stop I discovered that they too had children shivering in their car, their engine was seized up, they needed help, they had no one to call, and they needed to get to Greenville.  It was no surprised to discover that they had been trying to flag down help for over an hour.

I know that these examples don’t begin to demonstrate that great need that some of our neighbors have or how to minister to them.  A trip to school or to Greenville doesn’t begin to compare to the terrible circumstance that some people are in.  These examples merely demonstrate that to be a neighbor according to the definition in this story will impose into our lives. 

Stripped and Wounded

One of the most devastating things a man can go through is the loss of his Job.  It strips him of self respect, self worth, and leaves him feeling like “half” a man.  I know of men who have gone through periods of unemployment and I have watched their lives bleed away till they are “half dead.”  Sometimes their homes slowly begin to deteriorate.  Often they loose strength to go on in life. 

Years ago I went through a very difficult time.  I lost my job and then my home during a deep economic recession.  I lost everything that was dear to me.  I ended up spending a Michigan winter sleeping in a pup tent in a state park.  I eventually went to Texas to find work with the only possessions I had left: my guitar and back pack.  It was one of the darkest hours of my life.  I remember my first night in Texas, and how I cried and ask God to take my life.  I had no reason or desire to live.  I almost gave up.  I was “half dead.”  There was no Samaritan that came to my rescue, and so the journey out of my plight was long and arduous.  That experience did something to me, something that I not sure that I have ever recovered from.  Perhaps if I had a neighbor it would be different.  There are people like this all around us.  They have been brought down, not necessarily by choice, but by life.

There are women we know who are wounded.  Perhaps their wounds have come from the loss of their husband though a divorce or death. Perhaps their wounds are from abuse they have experienced at the hands of their husband or from their parents.  Some women’s lives reflect a pattern of decisions, one after another.  And so they carry around their wounds the rest of their lives.  Often they just shut down and so their children and homes suffer.  They don’t necessary do this out of choice but because they are “half dead” and lack the strength to go on.  So they lay along the paths that our lives take us in silent pain wishing that some neighbor would stop and help to them.  They know that they will never be able to help themselves.

Sometimes people are faced with double afflictions.  First they are wounded and stripped by the circumstances of this live.  Then as they lay there “half dead” they experience the humiliation of seeing the others pass them by.  Like the Levite and the priest through our neglect we sometime demonstrate to them that they are not worthy of our time and effort.

I know of a young teenage girl who lives across the field from my house.  She’s in her early teen years and she came to one of the Friday night cookouts.  She is a very lonely young girl who goes to school alone, she takes break, lunch and study hall alone.  She sits home alone, and her life is spent alone.  My heart breaks to know of how lonely this young girl is.  She has been stripped of self esteem, wounded by the cruel words of her peers, and knowing that as she grows up she will enter into live never knowing the precious spirit that she possess.  I wish that I could pay a young girl to be her friend and to show her love and compassion… to be Jesus to her.  But to pay someone to do that means that they would not be a friend out of love and concern.

Even within our small group the young people sometimes form into clicks.  There are the popular and… well, the not so popular young people.  I often wonder if the popular young people really understand the wounds they inflict into the hearts of the other young people by letting them know that they are not worth their friendship, or at par with them.  Are we as parents teaching our children correctly by allowing this? 

Someone Who Was a Neighbor to Me

I once had a man be a neighbor to me.  It was many years ago when I lived in Texas.  Texas began to experience a recession and new home construction began to dry up.  The man I worked for no longer had work for me so I was forced out on my own. 

I took a job framing a house for a contractor but competition was fierce and the margin of profit was really tight.  I had only an old power saw, a few old extension cords, a level, hammer and square.  I had no nail guns or other useful tools that could help me complete the house in a timely manner.  So I struggled out in the hot Texas sun 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week.

After about 2 weeks of non-stop work I was mentally and physically exhausted.  As I looked around the home at all the work that was yet to be done I realized that with each passing day I was going deeper and deeper into debt.  I felt like I was slowly drowning and slowly I began loosing strength and the will to continue.

There was a man I knew who had a rather large home church.  They met on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.  He asked me if I’d come and share the following Wednesday.  I agreed even though I was quick reaching the point of despair.  I had little left to give.  But I dried my eyes and went to his home that night and share some scriptures from Ephesians. 

There was a family there that night who I had never met.  The father listened intently and seemed to draw more from the message than I felt that I gave.  Following the meeting we chatted for a few minute.  I told him vaguely about my job and some of the trouble I had.  When I left the meeting I forgot that I had even talked with him.

The next day while I struggled in the suffocating heat and fought my despair a white van pulled up to the job site.  The man I met the night before emerged from the van, opened the back of the van and began to pull brand new tools from the back.  There were saws, drills, blades, and so much more.  I stood there speechless to his act of kindness.  The he did something incredible.  He pulled a blank check from his wallet, signed it, and handed it to me.  “Buy whatever nail guns, compressors and air hoses you need,” he said.  The check will be good for it.   Then as suddenly as he arrived he left.

This man wasn’t rich.  He lived in a modest home which was meagerly furnished.  The money could have easily been spent on his family.  This man had obviously given from their livelihood to help me.  But why did he make such a sacrifice for me?  He never spoke of this sacrifice and to this day I don’t know why he done it.  All I know that his selfless act of kindness showed me that I was worthy of something more than just a slow agonizing death along a forgotten piece of highway. 

After his gift it would have taken a Roman Legion to stop me.  Because of his investment into my life I complete that house and then another and another.  Within a year I had a large construction company that employed a dozen men – many Christian brothers who also had lost their jobs.

How could he have known that he saved my life that day?  How could he have known that he rescued a “certain man” who laid bleeding and dying? 

Evangelizing the “Half Dead”

Let’s not forget the balance.  There were three things that the Samaritan had to address in order for this man to be made whole. First, the Samaritan had to bind his wounds.  This speaks to ministering to the emotional need.  Secondly, he had to provide him clothing for his nakedness.  This speaks to ministering to the spiritual need. Thirdly, he had to get him out of the ditch.  This speaks to ministering to the physical need. 

Evangelism takes on different characteristics depending on the audience.  The those who are emotionally and physically who there many not exist an need to minister to these needs.  They need only to be ministered to spiritually through the gospel message. 

What the Cost?

There are people and families, some who live no more than a few miles from our homes who live in complete poverty.  This area of Michigan is full of them.  But many are not there by choice.  They simply fell among thieves. 

Many of us will volunteer our time and labor to help our friends and other people we know.  Do we do this because we know the effort to help our friends is not nearly as imposing as the effort it will take to be a true neighbor to others?  We feel good when we’re able to bring a meal to a fiend, or to do some house work for them.  We can measure the time and effort that it will cost us and it’s easy to work something like this into our schedule.  But think of the Samaritan.  Somehow we know that to bring a meal to those who are in dire need won’t help them.  To be a neighbor to the “certain man” required him to alter his live, his schedule and his budget.  It wasn’t merely fitting something into his schedule and budget.  It may have destroyed them.  It was a major impact to his life that caused him to cancel and alter many of his plans.  Consequently we sometimes engaging with people in deep need because we fear that if we start there will be no end.  Perhaps we fear that if we give to them that they will expect even more from us – more than we’re willing to give or to help.  And certainly more than our schedules and budgets will allow.

Obviously none of us can help all the poor, wounded, and needy, and that’s not what Jesus was trying to teach us.  This story isn’t meant to teach us about giving.  This story is about evangelizing our neighbors and what it will cost us.  This story warns us to not neglect the ministry of the stripped and wounded of our society.

Like the “certain man,” are there those in need who are in our path?  Maybe they are not directly in our path but just off to the side.  Perhaps we can’t help but see them as we go down the paths of our lives.  Can we journey through live without seeing them, and do our paths converge with theirs?  If so, they are our neighbor.

This word has been a burden on my heart over the last week, and I ask you to please consider sharing it with your families in whatever capacity the Spirit leads.  Consider discussing with your children the damage other children feel when they ignore them or form clicks.  It doubles their affliction.  This can happen to adults as well. And we should guard against it.  Consider discussing with your families about who the “certain men (women, and children)” are in their lives, and what each of us can do to be their neighbors. 

Consider using the following measure to test whether or not we are a neighbor: have we changed or at least affected their circumstance?  Don’t consider if they are just better off, but are they better off in the sense that they will now recover.  Have we taken them from beside the road into an environment where they will be made whole?  Are they in an environment that will nurse them into a “complete man (woman or child)?”

I pray that this word strikes a chord in your heart as it does in mine.  “Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).”

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