Good Samaritan

The other day a man from the community that i didnt recognize wondered into the neighborhood. Kinda strange how the local pack of mutts never bark unless there is someone in the area who seems like a threat. They see hundreds of new mission workers every month, and every week in the summer. But they always seem to know when there is a trouble maker in the midst. The guy who wondered into our neighborhood was drunk as a skunk. And then some. He came into our building looking for help. He was too wasted to even receive the help we were trying to give him. After a while he wondered away, reclaimed the beer he had carefully hid in the bushes and started down the road. My mind quickly fixated on other things. A few minutes later my buddy greg who lives accross the street from my office hollored over "Hey, theres a guy layin in the ditch by the road down there". Funny, its not something you hear every day and yet it didnt phase me much. I walked upstairs to a big window in my bosses office to see if i could see him. THere he was. I could only see his head sticking up and his right arm was laying in the street. The rest of him indeed was in the ditch. Somehow he looked pretty comfortable there. Before my boss and i headed out to rescue him from the ditch we decided to first call the local shelter to see if there was room for him. As i waited for my boss i sat and stared at the poor soul. I thought.... wow.... now thats the bottom of the barrel. His life is so sucky that he is literally laying passed out in a ditch in one of America's poorest communities. Of course the Good Samaritan came to mind. I watched two or three cars come by, see him, slow down, move out of the way so as not to runover his arm and keep on going. The UPS guy was the first to stop. He didnt get out of his truck, he called someone on his cell phone and moved on. Sad part is that since he is a stranger, no one knew who he was. They didnt know he was a drunk who deserved to stay there and suffer a while. For all they know, he could have been hit by a car. I actually began taking pictures of the whole scene. I excitedly snapped photos of passers by and yelled to my boss. Dude!, this is just like the good samaritan. He laughed and shook his head at the fact that i was way more excited about recording a visiual aid than was anxous to get to the rescue. As we started out the door, two of our staff folks had finally stopped and helped the guy. He was angered by the fact that we asked him to get rid of his beer if he wanted to get in one of our cars. He refused. He stumbled away. What was his name? Where was he from? Did he have a wife or kids somewhere? Did somebody love that guy? His parents? What had he been through? Did he go to college? Did he have a job at some point? Im not sure ill ever know. But i do know this. This guy is one of the people that Jesus came to see. Its this guy that the servant of the rich man throwing the banquet said to invite to the party when the rich, religous right stuck their noses up at the gift of grace. Hes the reason Jesus came. This guy and the hors on the corner are gonna enter the gates before and or instead of the religous right who have placed themselves on the highest wrung on the christian ladder. Unless of course they all join Joel Osteen and think positive thoughts and concentrate on their best life now.