The Good Samaritan
             (Luke 7)

Jesus told a story about a man who was traveling on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.
He knew the road was dangerous, but that the way he had to go.
There were bandits and thieves along that way.
Sure enough, some of them swooped down and caught him that day.
They beat him up from his toe to his head.
They took all his money and left him for dead.

After a long time a priest came by.
He stopped when he heard the man’s weak cry.
“Help me, please help me,” the injured man said.
The priest could see blood on his hands and his head.
“The thieves might still be around,” he thought.
"They’ll catch me too and take my money and my ring.”
So he hurried on by without doing a thing.
The priest knew he should have helped, that’s all I can say.
But he got on his donkey and just rode away.
The poor injured man started to cry.
“That man was a priest, why didn’t he help me, why?”

The poor man was just lying there on the ground.
He had almost given up hope when he heard a sound.
Another man was coming. Who would it be?
He lifted his head just a little, so he could see.
It wasn’t anyone he knew,
but he could tell that this was a religious man too.
Yes, the man saw him. He stopped when he cried.
But then he passed by on the other side.

At last another man came. The injured man could tell by his face,
that he was from Samaria, an unfriendly place.
He thought, “Now I know I’m going to die.
This man is an enemy, I know he’ll pass by.”
Now the Samaritan knew
that if he stopped to help this man, the thieves might get him too.
But he was a good man.
He said, “Yes, I’ll help you all that I can.”
So he treated his wounds, wrapped a bandage around,
and put the man on his donkey, all safe and sound.
Then he went to an inn, I’m happy to tell,
and paid someone to take care of him until he was well.

Jesus finished his story and said,
“Now let me ask you, if I may,
which of these men pleased God that day?”
Yes, the Samaritan did what was right, that is true.
And that’s what God expects us to do too.

Elaine J. Roark