The Good Samaritan

How can you not have fun doing this one? Because I wanted to emphasize the question that prompted this parable, we started by introducing Jesus and a lawyer. There were enough individual characters in this story that they all “needed” a prop to help keep them straight. Jesus wore the white vest we use for Him in all the stories. The lawyer, since he was so smart, got a graduation cap. He already knew the two most important commandments, which we held up for review, but he also knew they were hard to keep perfectly, so he was hoping to make it easier. So he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus replied with this parable.

There was a man (wearing a jacket) who needed to walk to the city of Jericho. On the way, suddenly some thieves attacked him! They stripped off his jacket, and beat him half to death—with balloons to help prevent things getting too real, ha! Then he was supposed to lie there on the floor, but it was easier to just let him sprawl in a chair. Soon along came a priest (in a red cloak) who looked at the injured man and walked widely around him. Next came a Levite, or “priest’s assistant,” in a necktie, who did the same thing. But then there came along a Samaritan—one of those punk guys a good Jew wouldn’t even talk to, wearing a sideways baseball cap and bouncing along on a stick donkey. He (she) took pity on the injured man and stopped. She took some bottles out of her carry-bag and poured some of their contents (air rather than wine & oil) on his arm & head & then attempted to bandage him up. She managed the arm but decided the head was going to have to be left as is. Then she helped him get on the donkey and led him off to one of the side rooms where they “spent the night.” Then in the morning, the injured man stayed inside (I think he would have stayed in there the rest of the morning if we hadn’t remembered to get him out when we started the game!) while the Samaritan came out. She gave a couple of coins to the innkeeper (in a bibbed apron) and told him to take care of him with that money, and she would bring more later if necessary.

When Kevin led this parable three years ago, he sent some photos of kids “bandaged up” in toilet paper. Looked like fun, but I thought it would be even more fun if for our game time the kids had to bandage up their parents! So that is what we did.

Then for a craft, we had collected ten different items that might be good to have in a first-aid kit. Each kid got ten small squares of paper with the name of one item per square; their assignment was to draw the items and put them all into a box in the middle of the table marked “first-aid kit.”

I was glad to have been assigned to lead the Bible study this time, as I wanted the chance to bring out something I had learned from this parable a few years ago. I think it’s important to notice that the parable was meant to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” and not “How much must I do for needy people in order to fulfill God’s commands?” And did you ever notice that Jesus doesn’t make a point of criticizing the priest or the Levite? And here’s a question to ask yourself—could it be that neither the priest nor the Levite had any first-aid items with them? And as far as I can tell from the story, they were walking, not mounted. And another question—did you notice what the Samaritan did not do for the injured man? He did a lot, to be sure, but he apparently needed to get going the next day so he had to leave him in the hands of the innkeeper rather than stay and nurse him back to health. He didn’t have to do absolutely everything to be Jesus’ model neighbor. The real point of the story is that this man did not stop to worry about who it was who needed the help he was fully able to provide. I think we’re not expected to do everything for everyone. (Did you notice that this parable is directly followed by the story of Mary and Martha?) However, we are expected to do what we can for anyone.