Jericho Road
Let us look at a well travelled age old story, tradition tells us that this was in essence the hot news story in the Newspaper of the day, so it appears to be a very real account of an actual event that had just happened. {Luke 10:29-37} Basically a Christian got it really very rough, lost all he had with him and almost lost his life. His Pastor came by, but with sermon preparation, important meetings and so much more to do, he hurried on past, he was a very important and busy Holy man. The Associate Pastor was a wee way back, rushing along, and came upon the same predicament, but he was late for the meeting held by the Pastor in front of him, and there were critical items on the meeting’s agenda, so he must hurry on.
Finally a Travelling Salesman(or somebody very low on the pecking order), who came upon the scene, saw the Christian in dire straits, and stopped to render assistance, His St John’s training kicked in, so out came the First Aid Kit, and in no time the wounds were attended to, and the patient was improving. So he loaded him up and drove off. At the Motel he frequented further up the road, he spoke to his friendly Motelier, who agreed to look out for the recovering patient, he even booked the patient into a room, paid the bill and continued on his way. He promised that on his way back in a few days he would settle any outstanding costs that might have been incurred over and above what he had already paid.
There are two interesting “Punch Lines” in this story, one is sort of the introduction at the start, and the other is the punch line at the end, so here they are. Luke 10:29 “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?” and Luke 10:37b “Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” Nowhere in the story is there an obligation by any party to attend to only their own people, or Nation, or Group; just a plain, “Go, and do thou likewise,” or the Golden Rule which was applied in this story. If you find somebody in need, then you attend to supplying the solution and help needed, right there and then.
Matthew 7:12 “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Remember “Law and Prophets” to us this side of Calvary equals the Bible. To take it a step further, the victim on the road is in essence Jesus Christ from a verse in Matthew 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.” So how does that make us look, when we see those about us in difficulties, are we actually Christians, and seeing Jesus in them?
Christmas/New Year is almost upon us, so are we going to use “Christian Eyes” and look out for those fellow traveller on the road of this life who may be disadvantaged, hit hard times, needed a helping hand, they are living around us, living near us, or are we just going to hurry along in our busy lives and leave it to somebody else? Well that is what we pay our Taxes for? The Salvation Army is very good at this, this is not my mission calling. It’s just passing the buck. Jesus tells us that “The Buck stops with you and me, right at our feet,” we are Gods hands and feet to look after his children, our fellow travellers in life.
To put this in Heavens Perspective, if you Broke Down on the Highway, would you be at all pleased if all the Breakdown/Rescue vehicles just consistently sped right on past you without even looking or even hesitating, are you going to be happy about that? Just think how God feels as he sees his child in difficulty, sees you his Breakdown/Rescue worker approaching the scene, he claps his hands in happiness that his child is just about to be rescued, then in horror sees you travel right on past them without blinking. Not doing your actual rescuing job, not caring about God’s Children or fellow travellers, just looking good, keeping clean, representing a clean and respectable image to the Public, just flying the Company Flag, truckin on by, holy eyes front, and driving perfectly by. It is all about Image, or is it all about Rescue, doing the deeds. James reminds us in James 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Christianity is an action word, doing, being, working; it is not a passive cruise word.
There was a wee song years ago that went something like this, “Do you know Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes?” We may be the only gospel fellow travellers ever read or see, so do we represent Heaven or the other place? A children’s story coined this phrase, “You win or lose, by the way you choose.” Are we daily, moment by moment choosing Jesus Christ and living just like him? If Jesus walked beside you through the day, and he let you have first picking at every situation, would he be busy fixing all the things you left undone, or would he be beaming as you his child attended to each and every situation just as if Jesus would have done it himself? Dear Reader, let us each resolve to actively live the Christian life by doing.
Luke 10:37b “Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
