The Good Samaritan, Act I

This is the first installment of rewritten looks at the Parable of the Good Samaritan. All three come from my third period Gospels class of sophomores. I promise that part of the assignment was not opening with, One Day! My students weave some surprising twists into their versions of Jesus' famous story of mercy. Hope you enjoy them! All are used by permission.

One day, a boy walks to school, crying. He came from a troubled home and lives with the fact that he can’t defend himself, his mother, or his sister from his stepfather. The boy’s best friend stops at a stop sign with his girlfriend and sees him. She asked, "Isn't that your friend?” Feeling embarrassed, he drove by and said, “Nah. it might look like him but it's not.” It started to rain and his teacher drove by. The teacher thought, “I would stop, but he’s very disrespectful in my class.” So he didn't stop. But, the class nerd saw the boy walking in the rain. Even though the boy gave the nerd a hard time at school, he picked up the boy and gives him a ride. After thanking the nerd, the boy showed respect for the nerd and they became good friends.
                                    -Cameron 

One day, a girl was at the library walking through the stacks of books. She found a book by her very favorite author that she hadn't read yet, and in her haste to pick it up before anyone else got it, she grabbed it from the bottom of a huge stack. The girl was bludgeoned by the pile of falling novels- they were 500 page long, hardback series about dragons and space exploration, so it was ridiculously painful. Her little brother walked by, looking for Manga about cat ninjas. He saw her and thought, “She stole my pie yesterday, she deserves THE PAIN I FELT.” Next, her friend from middle school walked by, trying to find Shakespeare For Dummies. The girl in the pile of books screamed her ex-friend’s name, but the friend remembered how the girl had been snooty because she didn't read Shakespeare in the traditional form, so she ignored the girl. Finally, a Neo-Nazi walked by in a Swastika shirt, looking for ‘Mein Kampf.' He saw the girl and the small bit of his soul that wasn't Neo-Nazi was saddened by her whimpering and pulled her out the pile of books. She lectured him on the benefits of not being a Neo-Nazi, and he reformed.
                                    -Julia 

One day, a kid was walking home from school when a gang pulled up. They shot him in his leg and took all of his possessions. He was left on the sidewalk, bleeding to death with no one to help. His brother passed him up, thinking, "I can’t help him, I will be late to my girlfriend’s house," so he kept driving. Then his friends were walking by and when they spotted him, they pulled out their IPODs, acting like they could not see him or hear him. Then the kid that bullied everyone at school saw him and immediately helped him and took him to the hospital and stayed with him overnight.
                                    -Kirk 

Applicable quote of the day:

“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour.”
― Timothy Keller, (Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just)

God bless,
Steve

Luke 18:1

www.hawleybooks.com

E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com