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<a href="/blog/2015/09/29/the-ditch/">
The Ditch</a>
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<p>Recently I attended a course where we did a devotional session on the parable of the good samaritan. Most of us know this parable, recorded in <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/Luke+10/">Luke 10</a>, where an expert in the law tries to test Jesus and asks Him:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”</p>
<p>“What does it say in the law, what is your reading of it?”</p>
<p>“You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.”</p>
<p>“You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Simple enough. Wait, no wait a minute, that’s not simple at all! I need to love God with all my <em>soul</em>, <em>strength</em> and <em>mind</em>? What does that look like? What does it require of me? And I need to love my neighbour as myself? That could get pretty uncomfortable if I’m honest with myself.. Who is my neighbour??</p>
<p>The Bible says that the expert in the law wanted to justify himself. I don’t know why, maybe he kind of felt like I do. So he asks the same question:</p>
<blockquote><p>“And who is my neighbour?”</p></blockquote>
<p>Now Jesus begins the famous parable. A man (probably Jewish) was walking down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Upon doing so, he encountered some dodgy folks who beat him up, robbed him and left him half-dead on the roadside. So a priest comes by. As he is walking he sees the guy lying there. It doesn’t tell us what he was thinking, but being a priest, he had a small problem. The law didn’t allow him to touch the half-dead / possibly looking-like-dead man. That would make him unclean, and that wouldn’t be priestly. So he passes by on the other side of the road, and continues on his business. Next, a guy from the tribe of Levi walks by. He is also under the law, and possibly serves in the temple, and likewise passes by on the other side of the road. The third guy that comes by is a Samaritan, and when he sees the Jewish guy lying there, in the ditch, he has compassion on him. His heart is stirred, he decides to stop what he is doing, get uncomfortably close to the bleeding Jewish guy, and help him out. He binds him up, takes him to a inn, pays two days' wages (a large enough sum to make an impact on his budget) and makes sure he’s taken care of. That’s something we all aspire to right? But this is probably where Jesus' questioner became really, really uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Jews <a href="https://bible.org/illustration/hatred-between-jews-and-samaritans">despised</a> Samaritans. They considered them as the worse of the human race. Cultural tensions between the two groups had grown and grown over years to the point where Jews “had no dealings with Samaritans”. It was apartheid of races. And the dislike probably went both ways. So for a Samaritan to help out a Jewish man was really, really stepping out there and disregarding culture. Truly an applicable example of loving in a time like we find ourselves in. People all over the world understand that. We love that passage. We create laws and NGOs that try to live out the example of this humble, selfless Samaritan. And to be honest, most of us, including me, probably read that and think “Man, I really need to be a better Samaritan. I don’t always do that much. Maybe I should get involved in a program that helps people etc.” We always see ourselves as that Samaritan walking along the road, finding some helpless stranger that needs our abilities, our finance and our compassion to get out of the ditch. Even if that person that we need to help is someone we don’t particularly like, or just straight-out despise. But what if we aren’t the trying-to-be-good Samaritan. What if we aren’t the one in the priveleged position of being able to chose who we help and who we don’t help. What if we are the man in the ditch?</p>
<p>You see, the man in the ditch is probably a Jew. Chances are, he didn’t like Samaritans either. Maybe the man in the ditch didn’t expect the Samaritan to come along and help him out. Maybe he didn’t even really want help from a Samaritan. Now he finds himself in the position opposite to what he has always believed himself to be: he is weak, unable to help himself, even weaker than those Samaritans who are the lowest of the low. His own people didn’t help him, they had their reasons, but the Samaritan helped him. The Samaritan saved his life, and when he dropped him at the inn, he didn’t wait for a thank you or take a quick jab at him for causing him so much trouble with his cultural prejudices. He just helped, made sure he was cared for, and then he left. He showed mercy when the man in the ditch (me) didn’t deserve it from him. He bound up the man’s (my) wounds when he had no strength to do it himself. He paid the man’s (my) debt when he had no money left to do so. He put aside all of the cultural, racial prejudices and he just plain rescued him (me) from certain death.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?”</p>
<p>“The one who showed him mercy.”</p>
<p>“You go, and do likewise.”</p></blockquote>
<p>We’re all in the ditch together. We all need saving. Perhaps when we have fully realized what the Great Samaritan has done for us, can we truly find the strength to help others out. May reconciliation between all South Africans come not out of what we have achieved, but out of what has been achieved for us.</p>
<p><em>Acknowledgement must be given to Dr. James Krohn, who’s teaching on the parable of the Good Samaritan inspired much of what is written here.</em></p>
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<time datetime="2015-09-29T11:02:08+02:00" pubdate data-updated="true"></time></div>
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<a class='category' href='/blog/categories/reconciliation/'>reconciliation</a>, <a class='category' href='/blog/categories/south-africa/'>south africa</a>
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