It’s hard being a good Samaritan

Oct 26, 2024

Mustard Seed Journeys - Joanne Wong

The meaning of the parable of the good Samaritan at the end of the day is simple - Love your neighbour as yourself… but gosh it’s hard to do. We all know this story, don’t we? How an expert in the law asked Jesus “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and later the same expert responded to God’s question “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” by saying “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10:25-27

Jesus then illustrates ‘who is my neighbour’, with a well-known parable that is also a well-used idiom, “Good Samaritan” meaning: Someone who tries to help people in trouble or need; A compassionate person who helps others unselfishly; A person who helps others without any thoughts of a reward or compensation (source: theidioms.com).

Recently, one of our lessons for the Year 1 students in my catechism class was about the parable of the Good Samaritan and we asked the children who their neighbour was and how they could use their helping, healing hands, to help others.

As I prepared for the class, I realised how much easier it was to show kindness and be helpful to those I know versus being kind to someone I didn’t quite like or someone I didn’t know. It’s also so easy to turn a blind eye and walk away from someone in need when it requires us to delay our agenda; the things we need to do, the places we need to be. We always come up with excuses such as we don’t have the time, we are too busy or we don’t have extra cash or small change.

But how can we change this thinking? How can we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? (Colossians 3:12) How can we show simple acts of kindness to our neighbour?

Priest, Levite, or Samaritan – who are we?
Our days on earth are numbered, Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Knowing that we have a finite number of days to spend should spur us not into a life of debauchery, self-pleasure, and sin, but rather to seek the kingdom of God, to pursue wisdom, goodness, kindness, justice and more.

Yet, this call to seek God and His Kingdom isn’t an easy one, in fact it goes against today’s world that encourages us to consume more, buy more, become more. If we examine ourselves, what would we see? Would our values and actions align with that of God?

Also, how many times have we helped others only because we know they can repay us back – ‘I scratch your back, next time you scratch mine ah?’ Or help those whom you want to make a good impression, who will remember your good works and reward you. And how do we treat our helpers at home or the foreigners that help to build our country? How do we speak to them, what do we say about them?

How many times have we been like the priest and the Levite and how many times have we acted like the Samaritan? For me I realised I am more like the priest and Levite but am hopeful that I can be better.

It is indeed so difficult to be a good Samaritan in our daily lives, to pursue the good that bring us closer to God’s Kingdom.

Here’s three ways that we can become more Samaritan:

1. Pay it forward
The idea is simple - when someone does a good deed for you, instead of repaying them directly, you can perform a good deed for someone else. Kindness is one of the most powerful forces on earth, and using kindness to serve other people can be transformative. Think of all the everyday people that are out there fighting for change to help the refugees and migrant workers, stray animals, flood victims, deforestation, etc.

I think about these people and wonder how selfless they are to put aside the ways of the world to fight for a cause. It overwhelms me sometimes wondering how I can be like them. But really, we can start with just one small step - be inspired to donate some time or money to help worthy causes, and as shared, just pay it forward by doing small acts of kindness without expecting anything in return.

God has gifted each of us with abilities and talents that can be used to serve others, thus we can use these gifts to show kindness to those in need and help to serve people in our lives and in our community.

2. Open our eyes and hearts
We may not stumble upon someone who is beaten up but there are others out there who are hurting who need our help. Let’s open our eyes to these people by really seeing with our hearts and not our eyes. Who needs our time? What can we do to help?

Let’s set aside our hesitations, fears, and the countless reasons not to act, and take a moment to help — offering whatever we can.

We need to look beyond ourselves by serving others and helping to create change and impact someone else’s life even if it is in a small way. As St Mother Teresa said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

Ask God for guidance in our words and actions, and trust Him to lead our steps as we step out of our comfort zones to extend kindness to others.

3. Pray to be more Samaritan
Most often we don’t think we are the problem. It’s someone else that is the problem not us. We aren’t very good at recognising our own biases and flaws.

So let us pray and ask God to help us become more like the good Samaritan. Let us ask God to touch our lives and change our hearts so that we will seek His Kingdom more. May He make us more generous and compassionate; may He open our eyes to see opportunities to make a difference, and may He change our hearts so that we become people after God’s own heart.

Joanne Wong is on a journey towards having faith the size of a mustard seed. She welcomes thoughts and suggestions on how to have a closer walk with God. Email her at [email protected]