If you are like most people, you will walk by and pretend not to notice. If you are like most people you will pretend the need is not there. If you are like most people you will come up with your excuses of why you can’t help.
I am like most people. I walk with blinders on. The blinders that keep you so focused on what is ahead, instead of seeing what is going on around you.
I have things to do. The time I have is needed elsewhere. Someone else will help.
How naïve are we? How selfish are we? How dare we choose to act in the flesh? Is that what Jesus would do?
The parable of the good samaritan in the Bible is a good example of how we choose to walk with blinders on. A lawyer presents a question to Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. Jesus then asked him what the laws says. The guy is a lawyer, he knows the laws, right?
He said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He answers Jesus’ question correctly, and Jesus says “do this and you will live.” However, the lawyer trying to find a loop hole in loving his neighbors asks, “and who is my neighbor?”
Come on, he’s a lawyer…he is a smart man. He KNOWS who his neighbor is. He knows the Laws. Instead he is trying to make an excuse. Therefore, Jesus in typical Jesus fashion, gives the lawyer a parable.
The parable talks about a man who left Jerusalem to go to Jericho and was robbed by thieves who left him half dead. Half dead, what a term in a spiritual context. This man was no more alive than some of us. How about that conviction?
Half dead. If we walk with blinders on, how are we not half dead? If we choose not to see this man who has fallen and offer him help, how are we any better than the thieves who left him in that position? There are so many parallels in this chapter. The man “fell among thieves.” He fell among sin, correlating to the fall of man.
The journey from Jerusalem to go to Jericho can be viewed as the road of life. I am not sure how many miles the man had to walk, but we all have our walk in life. Our everyday walk in life is filled with sin all around us. It is filled with hurting people. It is filled with people in need. It is filled with thieves and robbers. The enemy is hard at work, for real.
The parable then tells of how a priest and a Levite both walk by the man (the one left half dead) at separate times and choose to pass on the “other side.” The priest and the Levite, they are both people of God, but they choose not to act with love for their neighbor. They chose to pass on the “other side.” They chose to walk with their blinders on. They chose not to love. Would the enemy not make that same choice? The enemy loves when we leave people half dead and wounded.
Then there is the Samaritan in the story. The priest and the Levite chose not to live beyond themselves, but the Samaritan chose compassion and selflessness. The good Samaritan went to the half dead man and bandaged his wounds. He gave him wine, and placed the man on his own animal to carry him to a place of rest. Then the Samaritan paid for him to have a nice place to stay.
Jesus is the Samaritan in the parable. Jesus does not over look the half dead. Jesus does not choose to pass by on the “other side.” Jesus takes care of all of our wounds, if we let him. Jesus provides us with a place of rest. Jesus paid for us to have it all. Jesus is the embodiment of compassion and love. Jesus showed how the man left “half dead” is still recoverable by the grace of God.
The parable ends with Jesus asking, “so which of these three (the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan) do you think was the neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” The Lawyer answers and says, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus states, “go and do likewise.”
Let us take our blinders off. Let us choose not to be the ones who pass by “on the other side.” Let us be the ones who choose compassion and love. Let us choose to love our neighbors.
Who is your neighbor?
