There’s a famous parable told by Jesus in scripture about the “Good Samaritan.”
If you are unfamiliar, it’s a parable where Jesus is trying to teach people with status, religiosity, and power how to love those that are down and out.
If you have read this before check it out in 10:25–37.
Jesus tells this story of a man that lost every single thing and was left on the side of the road to die because he was beaten and robbed.
There were two opportunities for him to receive help, but the two persons that could have helped passed right by and did nothing.
However, the story takes an interesting twist.
There is this least likely person that appears on the scene and sees the man battling for his life! This Samaritan makes his way over to the man and chooses to close the social and geographical distance between himself and the man’s poverty.
He doesn’t stop there! He cares for the man until he is restored back to full health.
The man that should have died life changes because a person refused to pass by and do nothing.
The message is clear in this story–we should stop walking by problems when we have the power to do something about the problems right before us.
We’ve got to deal with both the climate that produced the conditions that had the man on the side of the road, and we ourselves must also take time to lift up the people that life has broken down (by choosing to get closer to the issues).
Yesterday, I met a man sleeping on a bus stop bench. Tears fell down my face because as I gazed behind the man, there was an abandoned building right behind him.
Literally, the answer to his poverty and homelessness was gated and boarded up.
Although I am well aware of how some Real Estate properties have private owners, I still dream of conscious courageous capitalist(s) placing people on their agenda and even considering how they can invest in people and communities rather than waiting until communities are gentrified to make a profit.
As I walk to Memphis, TN to commemorate MLK’s last stance for MAP18, I’m reminded that we must stop walking by!
We must not be like the religious leaders in the parable I mentioned above that walks by without stopping to address the issues that plague us all.
This morning before I start DAY 3, I’m thinking about the words found in one of my favorite songs by Kindred The Family Soul. The song is called, “ALL MY PEOPLE.”
The hook says,
“I want all my people around me
Everybody living good
Everybody eatin good
Everybody chillin
I want all my people around me
Everybody eatin good
Everybody living good
I want for my brother what I want for myself.”
I believe what they are communicating in this song is what I feel in my heart at this very moment.
I want to see every single human have access to the resources that will make life a little more peaceful and stable for them.
I would like to see people who don’t have anything have the same quality of life that I have, and many others have.
But, in order for this to happen we must stop walking by!
Terence
