I'm a Samaritan, leading my donkey down the dust-covered route toward town. I hear a moaning sound, and looking down, I see a Hebrew laying beside the road, beaten, bleeding, coughing his life out through his teeth. With great difficulty, I assist him to sit down up, and I raise him onto the donkey's back. I'm going to take him into town; I cognize of an hostel where he can acquire help.
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The Book states us what the Good Samaritan did, but it doesn't state us what he thought. Here's what I believe he thought:
"I don't have got clip for this! I've got topographic points to go, things to do, people to see. I've got assignments to keep, duties to fulfill. I don't have got clip for this! And besides, he's a Jew! If he were witting right now, he'd be hating my guts! It would function him right to put there and die! Oh, I say now I look like a racist? Well...he started it!"
And then he assists the cat onto his donkey.
But, Mr. Samaritan, I thought you didn't have got time?
"That's correct. Time is just what I don't have. I've got people to do, topographic points to see, things to go. Up to my axillas in assignments and obligations. But, for the adjacent two hours, this is my lone priority."
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Jesus gave us the narrative of the Good Good Samaritan in reply to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Even though (or possibly because) the Jews and the Samaritans have got no traffic with each other, the thought of the 1 putting aside his ain involvements for the other who is in desperate demand is a perfect illustration of John's warning that "we ought to put down our lives for the brethren (I Toilet 3:16b)." This, by the way, is another in the long listing of ways to state "Love your neighbour as yourself."
Until a short clip ago, I thought the poetry about laying down our lives was easy. After all, unless things travel horribly incorrect politically, I'm never going to be called on to decease for anybody. Martyrdom is something that happened to people in books, long before I was born. Who would I decease for?
But recently, as I was reading through the First Epistle of John, I noticed that there was no reference of dying in that verse. It states that Jesus Of Nazareth laid down his life for us, and we should put down our lives for each other. And then I saw that Jesus Of Nazareth laid down His life long before He went to the cross. Day by day, minute by moment, twelvemonth after year, Jesus' life was laid aside, and our Negro spiritual social welfare became His 1 priority. And Toilet also states us that if we're going to follow Jesus, we must walk as He walked. Day by day, doing unto others as we would desire them to make unto us; laying down our lives, setting aside our ain interests, or as Alice Paul says, "Bear ye 1 another's burdens, and so carry through the law of Jesus (Gal. 6:2)."
On the whole, not a bad manner to live.
February, 2008
Saint David Liter Henderson
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