The Parable of the Good Samaritan: Joshua-Style

I never know what Joshua is going to say on our 40 minute drives into Little Rock for his Therapeutic Recreation. Some days, he's quiet...he'll read things on his phone. Other days, we'll sing to the songs on KLOVE. But if he's talking, I turn the radio off...and I listen as closely as I can.

For some reason, on this day, he started talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37. A "parable" is a simple story that's used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.

Joshua said, "this guy...this traveler...got booty-kicked and robbed by some dudes...and was left on the road..."

(BOOTY-KICKED?)

(ohhhh myyyy)

"Some Pharisees came by, and they wouldn't help him."

I said, "Pharisees? Wasn't it a priest...and a Levite?" (A Levite would be from the tribe of Levi, and would be responsible for religious duties).

Joshua: "yeah. The Pharisees." (sigh) They wouldn't help him. They said he was ugly and dirty. But the Samaritan said, "DUUUDE...let me help you."

I said, "The Samaritan had compassion on him, even tho the Samaritans and the Jews did not get along."

Joshua said, "he did. But the others were obsessed with being clean."

I said, "they want to look clean on the outside...but they are NOT CLEAN on the inside...in their hearts."

He said, "yeah...God hit that up all through the Bible."

WHAT?

Joshua: "God was, like, 'what are you doing dudes? Your hearts are not clean!'"

I love Joshua's sweet take on this story. Yeah, he got some of the details wrong...but he got the main gist of the story...and isn't that the real point?

Also, I will have to share that he talked about a story from the Bible that I had never heard. I mean, I'm no Bible Scholar, and I'm not braggin'...but I've read the Bible through on numerous occasions. I thought I knew all of the stories.

Until this one.

Joshua told me the story of the Good Samaritan reminded him of that other story in the Bible...where Jesus healed the leopard.

THE LEOPARD.

You're welcome.

JESUS: "'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?' And he said, 'The one who showed mercy toward him.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same.'" Luke 10:36-37