by Ed Ostrom

Created on: July 11, 2007

Luke 10:30=37 records the well known story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told to teach some valuable lessons about discipleship and service. The actions and attitude of the unnamed Samaritan makes a strong statement about how Christ Followers should conduct themselves in their day to day lives. Today let's dig deeper into Jesus' story and mine for ourselves some precious ore that can help us in our daily service as Christ Followers.

Jesus commenced His story by relaying the fact that one day a man journeyed down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The Jericho Road was an infamous stretch of highway that was often frequented by ignoble bandits that often attacked unsuspecting travelers conversing this road. This is what happened in Jesus story. The man in the story, travels the Jericho Road alone. He is confronted by a band of henchmen who were only interested in what they could get in the way of money, jewels and anything else of value. They attacked the unsuspecting traveler, beat him within an inch of his life, robbed him of his possessions and leave him amidst the blood and the mud to either die or find his way back to civilization. The vultures gathered readying themselves to pick his carcass clean. The man was in a hopeless and helpless state. He only hope was that someone would come along and would be willing to help him and get him where he could obtain medical help. But the road was lonely, and hour after hour passed and no one came near to help him. The hours passed; the sun relentlessly shone on him, and he grew weaker and weaker as time passed. And then, he heard something. It was the sound of foot steps echoing on the hard pathway. He hoped beyond hope that the approaching traveler would see him and would be willing to help him. In a few minutes the suffering victim recognized the Priestly garb of the approaching traveler. Now for sure he would be helped. A servant of God would surely help him. But Jesus said the Priest saw him and passed by on the other side. Many people are shocked by this behavior because they feel the priest would want to help this poor man. On the other hand others argue that the priest could not stop to help because if he did he would become ceremonially unclean for his priestly duties. However if we pay close attention to the words of Jesus we would find that claim can not be made for the priest. Jesus said, "now by chance a certain priest came down that road." The priest was going from Jerusalem (where the Temple was and where

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