A mission team from our church left yesterday to assist a larger medical team in Mission, Texas. The purpose of the mission is to address medical needs of struggling people near the border and to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. The team is not concerned about how they got to where they are, but to minister to both their physical and spiritual needs. They are striving to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a broken and suffering world.
Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. An expert in Jewish law wanted to know who he was supposed to help. Jesus told the story in response. The gist of the story is that thieves both robbed and beat a traveler nearly to the point of death. He laid beside the road hurting and helpless. Two religious figures passed by and ignored his need. Then a Samaritan, a man who was despised by Jewish people, stopped to risk his life and render aid to the one who was hurting. He not only treated the man’s wounds, but put him on his own donkey, took him to the next inn, and paid others to continue to take care of him until he was well. Jesus told those who listened that they should, “Go and do likewise.”
Followers of Jesus Christ are still under the mandate to “go and do likewise.” We are to see people’s needs. Touch people’s hurts. And speak the name of Jesus. This is often inconvenient. It is sometimes expensive. It may even involve taking a risk. Showing compassion toward others is part of what it means to be devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that His disciples should visit those in prison, clothe those who are naked, feed those who are hungry, and provide water to the thirsty. Jesus then said, “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Matthew 25:40, NLT).
We live in a broken world. It will continue to be a place of pain and suffering until Jesus returns and establishes His rule. As He wept for the hurting, seeing them as scattered sheep without a shepherd, so His Church is to be moved with compassion to help. In fact, one interpretation of the parable is that Jesus is the despised Samaritan; the broken man is the people of our world; and the inn is the Church. Jesus finds the hurting and the broken and brings them to the Church for care and healing. Jesus ends the story in the latter part of Luke 10:35 with the words, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.”