Martin Luther King, Jr. summarized the parable of the Good Samaritan in his very last sermon, I’ve Been to the Mountain Top, by the difference in two questions.
He described the priest and the Levite as men who asked the wrong question. Basically, as they passed by the man on the side of the road, they asked, “What will happen to me if I help this man?” That’s the wrong question.
He then stated that the Good Samaritan is good because he asked the right question. His radical question was “What will happen to him if I don’t help?” This is the question that makes us different. This is the question that brings the kingdom into the picture. This is the question Chris Seidman asked recently.
As Chris gathered information on the incredible famine currently happening in the Horn of Africa, he was overwhelmed. His heart was broken. He called me to find out more about the situation. And he simply couldn’t let the hurt of it all leave his heart. He pretty much asked me the second question of the Samaritan. Chris wanted to know—“What will happen if I don’t help?” I had to pretty much tell him that they would die. As hard as it seems to imagine, eleven million people there don’t have adequate food and water.
Then Chris asked what we should do. I told him that if we only sent food from here, it would not get there soon enough. They needed money sent to buy food for relief as soon as possible and have it delivered instantly. Chris then told me that his congregation, The Branch, near Dallas would send money. He called me back and said that he would see if the church would give its entire Sunday morning offering for food for these desperate people. He said that this would be a huge contribution because his congregation gives around $55,000 in its weekly offering. And the church decided to do it. All of their gifts on that week would feed the hungry in the Horn.
The big day came. They passed the plates. But it wasn’t $55,000 that was given. No, they gave $269,000. Can you believe it? What a church! And what a leader! It all happened because Chris asked the right question—the second one. He asked the Good Samaritan question. But he didn’t stop until help happened.
Churches today get bashed a bunch because they have internalized. And much of the criticism is true. But doesn’t this event restore your faith in what the church can do? It is a call to reevaluate our priorities. It is an example to really do what Jesus would do.
Barnaba Serum who received help in the Horn responded simply and profoundly. Barnaba wrote: “May God bless that Church, I was hungry and you gave me food and water to drink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Emmanuel Namunyu sent this message from the heart of the drought—“Thank you a trillion times.”
