We can all smugly criticize them, but perhaps there is more to this story.
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was dangerous. The priest and Levite may have legitimately feared for their own safety, whereas on a less dangerous stretch of road, they may have immediately rendered aid.
The injured man could have been a plant, designed by robbers to simply entice them to render aid and then rob them. This possibility may have occurred to them both.
They were undoubtedly aware of their ecclesiastical responsibilities to serve those in need. If they had stopped to render aid, perhaps they wouldn’t have been on time to their local food bank to do the shift they had signed up for. Maybe they were on their way to render aid to someone somewhere. Or, maybe they just gave annually to the local equivalent of Toys for Tots and called it good.
Service can involve danger
Sometimes service involves some danger for us. As a single woman, I avoided men who appeared to need aid, hoping someone else had the courage I did not. I was acutely aware of the danger I might be in. Other circumstances could also make us fearful for our own safety. It’s hard to criticize circumstances when none of us are in a position to analyze the risks to us and ours.
Just because you are extending yourself in a Christlike manner doesn’t mean your effort will be received in a Christlike manner. You could easily be taken advantage of or harmed, even both.
What qualifies as service?
What I’m more concerned about right now is how we choose what service to extend and how we do it.
We are commanded and expected to serve, but we are not compelled to serve. We get to choose what we do. Let’s choose well.
I’m suggesting we think of service in two rough categories: simple service and significant service. Obviously, there are gradations, but these distinctions are useful.
Significant service versus simple service
Simple service is quick, painless, and makes us feel instantly better. We get warm fuzzies from this type of service. It includes taking someone a casserole, cookies, candy, or something similar. It could include giving someone an item, especially one we don’t want and have no use for. This type of service is straightforward and easy. I sometimes call it “safe service.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t generally accomplish much. I say much because it can certainly accomplish something, however small.
Significant service, on the other hand, is often time-consuming, difficult, inconvenient, and even dangerous. However, it can make a tremendous difference in the lives of individuals and communities, not just in the present but often in the future as well. It can be life-changing.
A lot of service falls in between these two extremes, but I’ll leave it there.
The priest and the Levite
The priest and Levite may well have been on their way to some other event they didn’t want to be late for. They may have been prioritizing their service.
I’m reminded of when my first husband and I moved to Kansas. Through a series of large and small disasters and circumstances, we had to unload our moving truck on Sunday.
Our Branch President knew. What he did stunned us. He canceled church and told everyone to travel to our home and help us. It was over an hour’s drive for nearly everyone. A whole group showed up and we got it done in no time. We were enormously grateful.
Our realtor, who thought we were new and friendless, brought us a pie that day. She found us and the whole group lounging on the porch, having finished our efforts. She was stunned. She said, “I obviously didn’t make enough.”
Contrast that with another similar situation I know of. The church leader protested that if he addressed the very pressing need (I don’t know what it was), there wouldn’t be anyone in leadership left to conduct the church services that day. In disgust, my source for this story simply left to attend to the need. He doesn’t know what happened at church that day.
Can you imagine what would have happened to the woman with an issue of blood if Jesus hadn’t stopped to address her need while headed to heal Jairus’ very sick little daughter? Would he have been late to give the Sermon on the Mount if someone needed him en route?
Simple Service
While seemingly satisfying our need to feel we are extending service, simple service has its limitations. Unfortunately, it seems to be taking over much of the service rendered in the church setting as well as our individual efforts. It generally addresses what we want to do for people, which may not necessarily be what they truly need.
This type of service often gets slotted into our schedules like a hair appointment. We sign up ahead of time, attend for a specified time period, and then go home, patting ourselves on the back. Often, we never even encounter the people we are ostensibly serving.
I’m not the only one to bemoan this situation. David Cloutier, in True charity calls for more than a parish toy drive: Christmas giving must go beyond toys on the side altar published in U.S. Catholic, suggests that true Christlike service generally involves interacting with those we are serving. This is certainly the example that Christ set. Christ always interacted with individuals and focused on the one.
Significant Service
Significant service is what the Good Samaritan extended. It was inconvenient, time-consuming, expensive, involved personal risk, required extensive effort over time, and … (drumroll) … made a tremendous difference. He served the individual in need directly. There was no buffer of some sort of service organization between himself and the individual he served.
Significant service opportunities cannot generally be planned into our schedules. It comes up abruptly because needs come up abruptly. Often, Heavenly Father puts these in our path because he wants us to address the problems, usually because we have the talents or skills to respond to them, and He is giving us an opportunity to serve one or some of His children.
We may emerge from this type of service feeling exhausted, poorer, spent, and inconvenienced. On reflection, however, we KNOW we made a difference, a big one.
How are we teaching service?
We don’t know from the New Testament account of the Good Samaritan if he trumpeted his service to others, posted it to his biblical blog, alerted the local press corps, or posed for a photo op, but I doubt it.
Which brings up the question of how we are teaching service, especially to the youth. It’s not uncommon to alert the news and pose for pictures. This is troubling.
Unfortunately, I remember one of my own stake’s youth service activity where the kids were all supplied with special t-shirts while the service activity took maybe an hour or two. They all posed for a picture, and it was published in a local news source. I don’t think it's a coincidence that the stake president was a marketing and public relations professional, and he was present in the picture that got published.
The Church does it sometimes. However, I think its motives are different. The Church’s articles I’ve read are generally unusual and extensive service efforts. They are efforts that make a difference and often inspire us to think of how the service could be adapted to our own community or into our own lives. Often, the stories highlight some real innovation in serving significant needs.
Christ often told people to keep it confidential when he served them. He also told us to keep our efforts quiet and confidential when we serve. We can speculate on the reasons for this but the instruction remains.
Your own efforts …
I’ve been on the receiving end of service as well as the giving end. Both positions are hard for a variety of reasons. It’s often difficult to find out what their true needs are because people often keep these needs private. People often resist your efforts to help them. They often don’t appreciate the significance of what you have done for them. You may not get any appreciation from them at all.
We are probably tempted to view the service as a failure because our intended service objects don’t respond well. However, we need to remember that Heavenly Father focuses on our efforts, not on our successes.
I appreciate people’s efforts to help me. Sometimes they do what they want to do for me, rather than what I truly need. Sometimes their efforts cause me more problems. I try to focus on their intent more than anything. But it would be better if we all engaged in significant, selfless service.
Local church leadership can be helpful in all of this. They often have more information about individuals and individuals’ needs than is available to us. Querying them can be useful.
Sister Sharon Eubank, has been vocal about how to serve effectively. In this article, she encourages everyone to sit down with whoever they want to serve and ask a lot of questions. The article includes a podcast with her extensive instructions.
Conclusion
Let’s not pass up any opportunity to serve, simple or significant. However, let’s try to serve in the most effective way we can. We’ll all be better off for it.
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