A Jewish man is robbed as he is walking down the road going from Jerusalem to Jericho. He is left almost naked and all his positions are taken. A few minutes later a priest walks down the road. Instead of helping him, he crosses the road and acts as if he did not see the man.
About an hour later a Levite walks down the road. Again as soon as he saw him he crossed the road and walked on as if he did not see the man. A few minutes later a Samaritan walks down the road. It is a well-known fact that Jews don’t like Samaritans and Samaritans don’t like Jews. Yet instead of crossing the road as the Priest and Levite did the Samaritan helps the Jewish man.
He bandaged the man’s cuts, put him on his donkey and took him to the town. He took him to a hotel and gave the hotel owner to silver coins. The Samaritan told the hotel owner to look after the man and let him stay until he recovered.Why is the Samaritan the hero?Jesus makes the Samaritan the hero of the story as it is how Jesus wanted everyone to behave. As everyone wants to be a hero they will all act as the Good Samaritan did to be known as a hero.
Modern Good SamaritanA man was on holiday in Cornwall when, while walking in a car park with a friend, he felt really weird. He was having a cardiac arrest.He literally collapsed and died, there and then on the tarmac, age 47.As his friend was trying to figure out what was happening, a stranger driving out of the car park stopped, having seen the man lying on the ground, and asked his friend if he was OK. The stranger and his passenger got out of the car and came over to where he was lying. They immediately realised what had happened and took over.
They were both consultants from Plymouth's A;E Department at Derriford Hospital. The driver happened to have the only piece of equipment that could bring me back to life - a portable defibrillator - in his car. After three-and-a-half minutes of being dead, he had the man conscious and he was immediately airlifted to Treliske hospital.Meaning TodayToday the Good Samaritan parable makes Christians want to help strangers when others don’t bother to.
For example if a Manchester United fan was hurt after a football game you would expect another Manchester United fan to help him. But if no United fans did help him and it was a Liverpool fan that helped him and got him some first aid, then he would be a Good Samaritan. It could be big things that you do for strangers or it could also be little deeds for strangers like simply holding a door open for someone or helping an elderly women to carry her shopping to her car.Although, in the 2000 years since Jesus told this parable the meaning and how it makes people act has not really changed and it is appropriate now as it was then.
