Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, and for many of us, the ‘take home lesson’ is about caring for someone in distress. We know the story: A man was on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho when he was attacked by bandits. They roughed him up, took his money, and left him for dead on the side of the road. Two other travelers passed by him, pretending not to see his plight. The third man stepped in to help. The obvious message is that we should be like the third fellow, loving others even if they are strangers.
The story reminds us of the supreme spiritual importance of not turning away when we see an individual or group, or even an entire nation, that is suffering.
I was a newly minted clergyman during a dire famine in Ethiopia in the 1970s. Every night the national news carried graphic pictures (and no trigger warning that the images might be disturbing, back then) of emaciated children, perhaps hours or minutes from death. Every night the newscasters spoke of the millions of people who were in grave danger of dying of starvation or dehydration.
The difficulty was that the numbers were so large they were beyond our comprehension. Worse, the problems seemed beyond the world’s ability to remedy. Several churches in our area began raising money to send to the UN’s global relief agency, UNICEF. A few people screeched that the UN was a communist front organization, and supporting UNICEF was just as bad as putting up the red flag. Others said that they weren’t going to contribute because the little bit of money our group could raise wouldn’t do any good.
That negative conversation was brought to an abrupt halt when an elderly farm stood up and said, “They’re dying one by one; we can’t save the world, but we can help them one by one.” The hat was passed, money was raised, and it was sent to UNICEF. Just as importantly, we were not turning our eyes away from the suffering of others.
It is hard to see the pictures and read the stories of the suffering in some of our large cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and elsewhere. It’s easy to blame government policies, and easy to blame the victim. That does no good unless the complainer has some reasonable idea on how to make things better.
Sometimes it is even harder to see pain and suffering close to home, or even in our own homes. The parable reminds us that Jesus wants us to open our eyes, see others, and when appropriate respond with care and compassion.
It is up to us, the followers of Jesus, to carefully reflect over what he would say and do – and then do it. We are his hands, legs, mouths, and arms.
G C Stoppel
Priest Associate
Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Allegan, MI
Saturday, November 23, 2024
