The one who stopped

Good Samaritan stories, told in this century.

Someone asked Jesus a question that sounded simple. "Who is my neighbor?"

He was hoping for a short list. People like him. People who already belonged.

Jesus didn't give him a list. He told him a story.

A man was walking home from work. It was late, and he took a shortcut down an alley to save a few minutes. He didn't see the men waiting there until it was too late.

They beat him and took his wallet, his keys, his phone, even a cheap watch his dad had given him. Then they left him on the ground, hurt and barely awake.

A little while later, a man from the church two streets over came down the same alley. He saw someone lying there and kept walking. He told himself he would call for help once he got to his car. He never did.

A few minutes after that, a woman who had just locked up the church slowed down when she saw him. She even said a quick prayer. Then she decided the police would handle it, and she went home.

They were not cruel people. They were tired, and they were in a hurry, and they talked themselves out of stopping.

Then someone else came by. He drove a delivery van, and he did not look like he belonged on that street. Earlier that day, a stranger had yelled at him for parking in the wrong spot. He was the last person the hurt man would have expected to help him.

He stopped anyway. He got out, knelt down, and used the first-aid kit from his van to wrap the man's wounds. He talked while he worked, so the man would not feel alone.

He lifted him into the van and drove him to the hospital. The hurt man had no ID and no one to call, so the driver waited. He gave the desk his own name. He even left a card for whatever the bill might be.

The next morning he came back with a clean shirt, a phone charger, and a cup of coffee. He told the nurse he would check in again after his deliveries.

Jesus asked, "Which of these was a neighbor to the man who was left in the alley?"

The one who showed him mercy.

"Go and do likewise."

Luke 10:25–37.

If this story stayed with you, you can bring that to God here. Cast is a quiet place for that.