DON’T JUDGE TOO QUICKLY

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Luke 10:30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

The language used in scripture often allows us to retrace steps to enter the minds of the characters about whom we read. Our character of interest today is the man Jesus presented in the parable of the good Samaritan. We know these things about him based on today’s text: ‘that he was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands robbers on the way’.

We realise where he intended to arrive at, and where he actually ended up were two different places. He neither planned to fall into bad company nor did he intend to forfeit his life that day, he was just wrongly located at the time regardless of his plans.

There are many who have found themselves in similar shoes, and have arrived in places that had very little bearing on where they wanted to arrive at. Like the man, some have lost assets, relationships, and have been left barely hanging on to life. Yet, they are the very people the world judges harshest, there is no room for mercy or empathy.

Beloved, it is easy to become a judge without having all the information, and that is a precarious position in which to wield power. Let us therefore be careful about the conclusions we draw about the people we see and their situations. It could be that we really have no idea what their story. Be a neighbour first, before you become a judge.

#sly