A gay man was walking from his house to the neighborhood grocery store, when he was attacked by a group of thugs. They took his clothes and possessions, beat him and went away… leaving him half dead. A preacher happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw that the man was gay, passed by on the other side. A good Christian Mom saw him also and decided to create a movement to boycott the street that let a gay man walk down it. But a homeless man came to where the man was and felt sorry for him. He bandaged his wounds, even putting on some rubbing alcohol he had been saving. Then he put the gay man in his own shopping cart and rolled him to a hotel and took care of him. The next day he took out all the money he had and gave it to the hotel owner. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return from begging for more money, I will reimburse you for any extra you may have to spend.”
Which of these three do you think was a good Christian to the gay man who fell into the hands of thugs?
The world is full of thugs that want to beat up on all kinds of people – maybe not always physically, but definitely emotionally and socially. Do we want to join the thugs just to get to the chance to “be right”, or do we want to be known for our mercy and compassion?
At one point in history, an expert of religious law was told a story like this one and asked who was the good person in the story.
The expert in religious law replied “The one who had mercy.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Are we bandaging wounds, or causing more?
(this is an excerpt of a blog post called “They Shall Know We Are Christians By Our Political Pressure Moves.” You can read the rest of this post and all of my other random musings at my Ecclesia Extraneus blog: http://ecclesiaextraneus.wordpress.com)
