Luk 10:29 But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus,
"Who are my neighbors?"
Luk 10:30 Jesus replied: As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked byon the other side.
Luk 10:32 Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been
beaten up, he also went by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt
sorry for him
Luk 10:34 and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.
Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.
Luk 10:35 The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, "Please take care of the
man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return."
Luk 10:36 Then Jesus asked, "Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who
was beaten up by robbers?"
Luk 10:37 The teacher answered, "The one who showed pity." Jesus said, "Go and do the same!"
Today I want to take a slightly different approach to my blog then I normally would.
Today I want to show how a bad motive can cause us to take a good deed and turn it into something
bad.
In the above story Jesus was teaching about prejudice and and religious piety, but suppose for just one
moment the man on the road that had been beaten was a robber who had attempted to rob a good man
who had been able to beat the robber senseless and left him for dead.
The priest and the temple worker were still wrong in not tending to the man, but now the good Samaritan becomes both a suspect in the robbery and we find that he is complicit to the robbery by nursing the beaten man back to health without alerting the authority’s.
I am making this shift in Jesus parable due to some unfortunate circumstances in my life that has
caused me a great deal of pain.
A person close to me has made some false accusations before a court and is being helped in this falsehood by persons that should have been responsible enough to find out the facts before before assuming they were being told the truth. This is a kind of prejudice.
What hurts me even more is I have bent over backwards to help the person telling the lies, but they
have rejected that help and have continued down a path of self destruction.
The persons rendering the help seems to think they are being good neighbors, good Samaritans if you
will. In truth they are hurting they very person they are rescuing. They would have known this if the
had the right motives and made a phone call to me but now they are endangering the person they are
helping and themselves.
What is the wrong motive when someone comes to you for help?
Pride. When you seek someones approval rather than justice it is always pride.
I can tell they are seeking someones approval because they failed to find out both sides of the story
before acting.
I forgive them but the pain remains.
There are several lessons to be learned here:
1. What you don't know can hurt you and others.
2. Your motives are not always as clear as you may think they are especially when doing a good deed.
3. The apparent victim may not be a victim at all.
Can you think of any more lessons to be learned? What do you think?
"Who are my neighbors?"
Luk 10:30 Jesus replied: As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked byon the other side.
Luk 10:32 Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been
beaten up, he also went by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt
sorry for him
Luk 10:34 and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.
Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.
Luk 10:35 The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, "Please take care of the
man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return."
Luk 10:36 Then Jesus asked, "Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who
was beaten up by robbers?"
Luk 10:37 The teacher answered, "The one who showed pity." Jesus said, "Go and do the same!"
Today I want to take a slightly different approach to my blog then I normally would.
Today I want to show how a bad motive can cause us to take a good deed and turn it into something
bad.
In the above story Jesus was teaching about prejudice and and religious piety, but suppose for just one
moment the man on the road that had been beaten was a robber who had attempted to rob a good man
who had been able to beat the robber senseless and left him for dead.
The priest and the temple worker were still wrong in not tending to the man, but now the good Samaritan becomes both a suspect in the robbery and we find that he is complicit to the robbery by nursing the beaten man back to health without alerting the authority’s.
I am making this shift in Jesus parable due to some unfortunate circumstances in my life that has
caused me a great deal of pain.
A person close to me has made some false accusations before a court and is being helped in this falsehood by persons that should have been responsible enough to find out the facts before before assuming they were being told the truth. This is a kind of prejudice.
What hurts me even more is I have bent over backwards to help the person telling the lies, but they
have rejected that help and have continued down a path of self destruction.
The persons rendering the help seems to think they are being good neighbors, good Samaritans if you
will. In truth they are hurting they very person they are rescuing. They would have known this if the
had the right motives and made a phone call to me but now they are endangering the person they are
helping and themselves.
What is the wrong motive when someone comes to you for help?
Pride. When you seek someones approval rather than justice it is always pride.
I can tell they are seeking someones approval because they failed to find out both sides of the story
before acting.
I forgive them but the pain remains.
There are several lessons to be learned here:
1. What you don't know can hurt you and others.
2. Your motives are not always as clear as you may think they are especially when doing a good deed.
3. The apparent victim may not be a victim at all.
Can you think of any more lessons to be learned? What do you think?
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