“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“And who is my neighbor?”
Questions asked by scholars in Jesus' time to test him and to justify their lack of charity …
Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10 to answer these questions and says:
The neighbor is the robber’s victim!
And Jesus asks the Scholar to answer which of the following men who passed by was acting as neighbor?
Remember that the Priest and the Levite (who should have been in the business of helping people) saw the victim,
“And passed by on the opposite side”
I can’t stop reading those words…
“Passed by on the opposite side”
When you are on the opposite side you don’t have to see the
Pain and struggle and ugliness of the “victim”
When you are passing on the opposite side your life doesn’t have to be interrupted or inconvenienced…
When you are passing on the opposite side you don’t have to be effected or affected in any way…
When you are passing on the opposite side you can get farther away from the pain and suffering...
But are you getting closer to inheriting eternal life?
What I love about how Jesus describes the Samaritan traveler is that the Samaritan took a series of steps that teach us how we can help our neighbor -
The victim’s we see who have been beaten, abused, lied to by the robbers of life!
1- He was moved by compassion at the sight
2- He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them
3- He lifted him up on his own animal and took him to an inn, and cared for him
4- He took 2 silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
“Take care of him”
5- He continued to CARE!
He checked Back..He circled Back-
“If you spend more than what I have given you… I shall repay you on my way back”!
I LOVE THIS EXAMPLE!
Jesus is into the details!
Who was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?
The Scholar gets it...
“The one who treated him with mercy”.
I see this example every day when I am blessed to see the most generous people helping to save Lives from abortion…
The victims in need - the mother and the baby!
There are usually others victims in this war as well.
People tell me all the time they can’t be at the center doing the work - or maybe they have no time at all to volunteer at any ministries like they
Wish they could!
That’s okay!
We can all be like the Samaritan - you don’t have to physically be there!
First - don’t look away but look at and be moved with compassion by the pain and suffering of the victim’s in your life.
Maybe it is the horror of what the victims in abortion experience!
Second - PRAY - PRAY- PRAY - prayer is like approaching the victim, pouring oil and wine over their wounds and bandaging them!
Because it is the true Victim - the Lamb of God- Our Savior Jesus who heals wounds!
Third - Sacrifice Time - that’s like lifting them up on your own animal - taking them to an inn… and care for them…
The inn is like our center - or any ministry helping those in need!
Or your own home-
Fourth - GIVE financial help to the Innkeepers of this world -
The places where people can be helped and be taken care of!
Fifth - Circle back - Continue to Care!
Continue to give in any way you can -
We all have victim’s that the Lord is putting in front of us -
It’s tempting to fight with or focus on the people who are passing by on the opposite side…
Especially in the injustice of abortion…
But our focus should be as Jesus has described!
Be the One who treated them with Mercy!
God bless,
Marie
