Читать книгу Boyd's Commentary - R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation - Страница 67

What happens if I choose not to help?

Martin Luther King Jr. in his last speech delivered on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee raised this parable as a parallel to the struggle for rights by the Black sanitation workers. In his explication, he stated that the priest and Levite asked, “What will happen to me if I stop?” This was predicated on their understanding that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was quite dangerous. King said they wondered whether the robbers were close or if the bloodied man was faking and a part of the band of thieves. They were afraid. King changed the question the Samaritan asked himself. He said the Samaritan asked, “What will happen to him if I do not stop?” The inversion of the question demonstrates a willingness to picture oneself in the ditch. The answer, if the Samaritan did not stop, was the man in the ditch most likely dies. The world will not stop, but what will become of his wife and children? This is the question we should ask ourselves when we see even an enemy in distress. What will happen to him or her if I do not stop? Most likely further harm may come to those who need our help. We are neighbors in as much as we decide to stop and help those in the ditch. Jesus was clear we should be those who go and do likewise, developing a “dangerous unselfishness.”

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OCTOBER 19–25, 2020