04/29/2026
A poem for all times ending with the Question for all humanity:
THE MAN BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
In the long, long ago, a traveler came down the road to Jericho;
He fell among robbers, who stripped him, and left him dying from many a blow.
A priest passed by on the other side; he had no time to spare;
A Levite glanced at the wounded man, but left him lying there.
A human being, beaten and robbed, and left by the road to die!
And others content to have it so, and willing to pass him by!
But, lo! another traveler came, a man of a hated race;
He came to the victim's side, and grief and pity were in his face.
He bathed and bound the bleeding wounds of the man by the side of the road;
And on his beast of burden placed a different load.
And then to the inn there slowly moved that tiny caravan;
That wounded man and the little beast and the Good Samaritan.
His time and his strength and his money too, the Good Samaritan gave,
That he might from a cruel death that day his needy neighbor save.
And my prayer is that I may be like the man who mercy showed In the long ago on the Bloody Way,
to the man by the side of the road.
—by James H. Childress
Luke 10
Verses 36-37
“Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbor unto him that fell among robbers? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
- “He that showed mercy on him “… Significantly, the lawyer did not use the hated word "Samaritan," thus affording a glimpse of his inner thoughts toward others. (Still pridefully prejudiced)
“Go and do likewise” … By such a command, Jesus enjoined upon all who would be his followers that they should go and be a neighbor to all men; and, in this, there is sharp divergence from the question of the lawyer, who seemed to be asking who was a neighbor to himself; whereas, Jesus focused on the converse of it, "What kind of neighbor are you?"
- from J. B. Coffman’s Commentaries Luke 10
