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<\/a>\u2026 Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn\u2019t stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the \u201cI\u201d into the \u201cthou,\u201d and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn\u2019t stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings \u2014 an ecclesiastical gathering \u2014 and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn\u2019t be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that \u201cOne who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony.\u201d And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a \u201cJericho Road Improvement Association.\u201d That\u2019s a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the casual root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.<\/p>\nBut I\u2019m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It\u2019s possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, \u201cI can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable.\u201d It\u2019s a winding, meandering road. It\u2019s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you\u2019re about 2200 feet below sea level. That\u2019s a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the \u201cBloody Pass.\u201d And you know, it\u2019s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it\u2019s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, \u201cIf I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?\u201d But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: \u201cIf I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question before you tonight. Not, \u201cIf I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?\u201d The question is not, \u201cIf I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?\u201d \u201cIf I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?\u201d That\u2019s the question.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Martin Luther King Jr., April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tenn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“It’s alright to talk about ‘streets flowing with milk and honey,’ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s alright to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preacher must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,77,79],"class_list":["post-14872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hope","tag-justice","tag-mlk"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>\u2026 Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn\u2019t stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the \u201cI\u201d into the \u201cthou,\u201d and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn\u2019t stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings \u2014 an ecclesiastical gathering \u2014 and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn\u2019t be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that \u201cOne who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony.\u201d And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a \u201cJericho Road Improvement Association.\u201d That\u2019s a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the casual root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.<\/p>\n