A Compassionate Neighbor: The Call to Serve Others

A man was going down to Jerusalem to Jericho,

when he fell into the hands of robbers.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed on the other side.

So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,

passed on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;

and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

Luke 10:30-33

The Good Samaritan compassionately saw an injured man—a Jew.  He did not simply have sympathy on the man.  He was filled with compassion for a person who was thought of as a social and religious enemy of his countrymen.  The Samaritan empathized with the beaten man.  He felt his pain and hurt.

         The passerby observed the situation.  He saw and evaluated.  Observation is useful only to the extent that it leads to further evaluation and action.  Randy White, author and urban missiologist, writes:

“It is hard to drive unmoved past the gaping needs of the neighborhood unless one is totally hardhearted or suffering from a serious case of denial.”

        The Samaritan could have passed by on the other side, as had the priest and the Levite, brethren of the injured one.  But his observation led to further action—he took pity.