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Wretched Samaritans
Every nation in the world has a neighbouring nation who they don’t like. Some think their neighbours are stupid; some think they are are ugly; some think them rude, or even dangerous.
Jesus was a Jew, and the neighbours of the Jews were the Samaritans. The Jews of Jesus’ day thought that the Samaritans, were stupid, ugly, rude and dangerous. And Jesus told this story about them.
A Jewish man was travelling from Jerusalem (the holy city of the Jews) to Jericho. It was a long road that went through a deep gorge in the middle of a desert. It was a lonely and dangerous road.
This Jewish man – we’ll call him John – was attacked on the road. The thieves beat him up and stole his money; they even stole the clothes he was wearing. And they left him there, bleeding, naked and dying.
John was doomed. As he lay in the dirt he cursed his attackers, muttering, ‘Wretched Samaritans.’
Hours passed.
John hoped and prayed that someone else would come down the road and help him.
He heard footsteps.
Through swollen eyes he saw the black robed figure of a Jewish priest. He was saved.
As the priest approached, John reached out a bleeding hand.
The priest looked down at him with horror in his eyes.
John tried to call, ‘Help!’ but no sound came out.
The priest quickly crossed over to the other side of the road, and hurried past.
Inside his aching head, John uttered out the most hateful insult he could think of against the selfish priest: ‘Wretched Samaritan!’
John was alone again.
Hours passed.
Then . . . footsteps. It was his last chance. He pushed himself up from the ground as best he could, to attract the attention of the traveller. It was a man from the holy Jewish tribe, the Levites.
The man stopped and looked down at John. With a single word, the Levite asked a question: ‘Samaritans?’
John nodded painfully.
The Levite looked around in sudden panic. He didn’t want to be their next victim. He backed away to the far side of the road and ran for his life.
John was dying. Hours passed.
The sun was setting. The day was ending. John could hear the distant howls of jackals in the desert. They would smell his blood. He was easy food.
Just as the light was fading, John heard the clomping hooves of a donkey coming up the road towards him. His hopes rose. He was too weak to move, but he let out a long groan as the donkey’s owner came into view.
Then he wished he hadn’t.
He wished he had kept silent.
He wished he had acted dead and left himself to the mercy of the jackals.
Because the man with the donkey was a wretched Samaritan.
The donkey stopped.
The Samaritan stopped.
The Samaritan crouched down beside John and rolled him onto his back.
John couldn’t bare to look. He hoped the Samaritan would kill him quickly.
The Samaritan stood up and walked to his donkey. John watched through half-open eyes as the man pulled something from a leather bag. In the growing darkness he could not see what weapon the Samaritan had chosen.
The man returned, and knelt beside John’s exposed body.
John closed his eyes tightly and waited.
He felt the Samaritan’s hand touch the most painful of all his wounds. He felt something cold against his naked skin.
Then he opened his eyes.
The Samaritan man was gently washing his cuts and bruises with pure olive oil.
John must have fainted.
He didn’t feel the Samaritan man gently lift him up from the blood-stained dirt and place him on the donkey. He didn’t remember the donkey stopping at a travellers’ inn at the top of the desert road. He was not aware of the Samaritan man caring for him through the long silent hours of the night. And he was still asleep when the Samaritan man and his donkey set off the next morning, after paying the innkeeper to look after him until he was fully recovered.
When Jesus had finished his story, he looked at the Jewish people around him. He knew how much they hated the Samaritans. And he said to them, ‘You must go and do the same.’
©Robert Harrison
“Must Know Stories” was a Scripture Union project. Rob Harrison’s set of stories for adults was published by Scripture Union, and can be found here.
