Important Lessons From the Parable of the Good Samaritan

What will happen to them? This is a question we should ask ourselves daily. Now I know why Jesus used the road between Jericho to Jerusalem in the parable of the good Samaritan. This road is 15 miles long and when you start out from Jericho, the land topography stands at 800 feet below sea level, on getting to Jerusalem you are up at 2,500 feet above sea level, an elevation of 3,300 feet. That’s a dangerous road! It’s easy to think and say that the Priest and the Levite in that parable were not good people given that none of them stopped to help the man that fell in the hands of robbers. But here is what I think, it could be possible that these men were afraid given the nature of that road, perhaps they thought the robbers were still somewhere within the path. So the question the Levite asked himself was: “If I stop to help this man what will happen to me?” The Priest asked the same question. But the Samaritan turned the question around. What he asked himself was: “If I do not stop and help this man what will happen to him?” Now, this is the question we should be asking ourselves: “If I do not stop to help my neighbours what will happen to them?” Our leaders in this country should be asking themselves this question: if we don’t help the masses what will happen to them? If we do not bring back the Chibok girls what will happen to them? If we don’t rescue the 18 generation of unemployed graduates in Nigeria what will happened to them? If you do not stop by to help your parents what will happened to them? We must stop by to help someone. To help a child who is out of school, hawking wares in hostile environments. To help a girl who is abused by people who should protect her. To help a man who has lost his sanity on account of poverty. To help those displaced by insurgency. To help society get eviscerated from the banalities of patriarchy. If we do not stop by to fix humanity what will happen to it? If you take our common wealth and stock them in foreign bank accounts what will happened to the citizens? About the Writer: Evans Ufeli is a lawyer and the author of acclaimed novel, ‘Without Face’. He is also an Alumni member of the Writers Bureau, Manchester, a highly sought-after conference speaker with a passion for the concept of change. He lives in Victoria Island, Lagos. You can contact him via Facebook: Evans Ufeli, Email: evanylaw@yahoo.com, Twitter: @Evansufeli and Phone: 08037712353. He blogs at www.ethicsafrica4u.wordpress.com.