A Modern Parable

It is Friday night. Cheers still echoed in his head from the end-of-the-season football game that his team had just won. An undefeated season was just the thing to boost this quarter-back’s ego. He struts down the street toward his house, as if nothing could bring him down now.

As he turned the corner at Main and Fifth Street a gang surrounded him. They harassed him. He was slammed into the brick wall, smacked in the face until blood splattered from his nose, and beaten until all consciousness was lost. Two of the gang members searched through his pockets and proceeded to steal the credit cards and crisp bills that had been placed neatly in his wallet that afternoon. At the sound of sirens, everyone in the group ran away, but not before a bullet had lodged itself in the football player’s shoulder.

The night passed slowly. Still the quarter-back did not awaken. The pavement beneath him was now soaked and permanently colored by his blood. Black and blue patches formed on his chilled and clammy skin. Seizures violently shook his body due to the loss of blood. Shadows left him in the dark, unseen by the few that passed in the early morning hours.

Eventually the sun lit what was once hidden and unknown. On his way to work, an officer of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes passed by the alley where the quarter-back lay. As his eyes fell upon the strange form, he turned away, disgusted by what he saw. His quickened footsteps echoed throughout the streets.

A few hours passed. It was now the noon hour, and the cars in traffic were rushing everywhere in an attempt to get to lunch. The quarter-back had come to for a bit, but was overwhelmed by the pain so much that it seemed best to remain still.

It was at this time that the student body president walked along the back roads as a shortcut to get to his favorite restaurant. He couldn’t wait to get that juicy double-burger and fresh French fries in his mouth. In fact, his mouth was already watering at the thought.

Concerned by the figure of the quarter-back, he stopped to see what had happened. His eyes met those of the athlete. Pain and desperateness radiated from the eyes of the fallen man. Noticing that the quarter-back's wallet was missing and that it was a frequent area of gangs, he bounced up and ran away, afraid to be the next victim.

The sun continued on its path and it soon grew dark. Sounds of the night life filled the air; jazz music flowed from the dance club a few blocks down, the horns loudly beeped as individuals raced on a two-lane street. The neon lights began to cast their colors on whatever fell within their reach.

By this time the quarter-back had vomited several times. His labored breathing provoked sharp pains in his chest. His hand grasped his shoulder in an effort to ease the tension of the wound.

A young man with thick glasses walked down the sidewalk this night. Normally his nasal voice and large vocabulary caused those who tried to befriend him to turn away. Dressed in jeans a bit too short and a large shirt that had holes along the seams, he, too, passed along the alley where the quarter-back lay. As he began to comprehend what he saw before him, he flung his thick books about calculus and astronomy aside and knelt beside the football player. Gently he turned the jock over and examined his wounds.

He proceeded to take off his shirt and wrap it around a deep cut in the quarter-back’s arm. Sprinting out to the busy street just a few feet away, he hailed a cab. With some help from the driver, he loaded the player in the car and took him to the emergency room, where he turned the patient’s care over to the professionals.

When he left the hospital to return to his own home, the young man made certain that the doctors would take care of the injured player. He dug a credit card out of his worn, brown wallet and placed it on the counter. “Don’t worry about the cost,” he said. “If his care takes more than that, just let me know, and I’ll come back and pay it.”

(This modern parable was based on the story of the Good Samaritan, which you can read in Luke 10:30-37. May it remind us to put others first...)