Today I was confronted with a situation that really made me stop and think. The last two years of living in Hong Kong have provided many more opportunities for me to be the "Good Samaritan" than when I was living in small town America. If you're familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10, you know that a man asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus replied by saying, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27) When the man asked who his neighbor was, Jesus told a parable about a a man lying on the side of the road after being beaten up. Two supposedly "religious" leaders (a priest and a Levite) passed him by, unwilling to help. Then finally a Samaritan (who were hated by the Jews) man, came and went out of his way to help this man. Obviously, this man was the neighbor to the one in need.
As I was walking with my roommate, Jen, to watch some friends play ultimate frisbee today, we passed a man on the side of the road. He was leaning up against a fence on the sidewalk, slouched down, and appeared to be sleeping; his arm was bleeding and he had a 10 dollar bill in his hand. As always, I felt an urge to help him, but soon my thoughts were overcome with fear and doubts and questions. How quickly I rationalize walking by, thinking he probably doesn't want my help, or, "I can't help him; I can't even speak Cantonese." So...I continued walking, but as Jen and I looked at each other, we knew we were both thinking the same thing...how can we just walk on by like nothing is wrong? Luckily, she said to me, "Is he okay?" So we walked back and I simply asked him if he was okay. He seemed to quickly "wake up" and responded that he was, in fact, okay. He got up on his feet and seemed to be very grateful that we asked.
I don't mean to share this story to point out how great I am or anything like that. Rather, I hope it can be a reminder of how Christ calls us to help those in need and to love our neighbors. I believe it's these simple acts of love that will bring Christ's Kingdom to earth. I was quite disappointed with myself; it's so easy to criticize the priest and the Levite man in the story of the Good Samaritan for being too self-righteous to take time out to help, but when I was confronted with a very similar situation, unfortunately, I responded in a much similiar way. If it hadn't been for my roommate's simple question, I also would've walked on by.
If Christ's people don't take the time to stop and love, who will?
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