A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell among robbers, who began to beat him. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the robbers beating the man, he spoke to them in words of great power and beauty, telling them of the wickedness of violence, and how it was loathsome in the eyes of G_d to beat strangers. ‘Get lost, greybeard!’ the brigands shouted to the priest, and he passed on towards Jerusalem. So too, a diplomat, when he came down the road, saw the robbers beating the man, and spoke to them of the folly of violence, and how little profit there was to be had in beating strangers. The diplomat, too, the brigands told to bugger off, and he made haste to Jerusalem. Next there came a cowherd of Edom, uncouth in his speech, and when he saw the brigands beating the man he began at once to whale the bejesus out of them with a bit of four by two, so that they fled. Then he bound the man’s wounds, put the man on his own horse, and took him as far as the nearest inn, where he looked after him.
Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?
4 comments:
Well, the evidence is clear - The cowherd injured more people than any of the others, including the robbers. The only evidence of the crime he was punishing, was himself as a witness. Even if the robbers were guilty, they each only fractionally beat one man. The cowherd beat several, off his own bat :).
I think this is as fine a parable as ever was written.
However (and I say this with all due smartarsery) if I were made of as much straw as the priest and the diplomat in this story, I would probably not risk getting into a brawl with robbers either!
In my defense, all I can say is that they do have more motivation and are more well-rounded characters than the Priest and Levite in the original. :D
True enough.
I should add that the parable of the good Samaritan is one of the few lessons that I actually took away from my Sunday schooling that actually had an impact on how I think about the world.
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