Kindness sounds simple. But most of us have walked past someone who needed help, because we were busy or unsure or a little afraid. Jesus told a story about exactly that.
The question
A man who taught the religious law came to test Jesus. He asked what he had to do to live forever. Jesus asked what the law said. The man answered: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus said that was right. But the man wanted to be sure he was doing enough. So he asked one more question: who is my neighbor?
The story
Jesus told him about a man walking the lonely road down from Jerusalem to the town of Jericho. Robbers attacked him, took his clothes, beat him and left him half dead.
A priest came down the same road. He saw the man and crossed to the other side. Then a Levite, a man who helped at the temple, came by. He looked, and he crossed over too.
Then a Samaritan came along, a man from Samaria, the region next door. His people and the people listening to Jesus had a long, bitter quarrel between them.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
Luke 10:33 · King James VersionThe original Greek
Σαμαρίτης δέ τις ὁδεύων ἦλθεν κατʼ αὐτὸν καὶ ἰδὼν ἐσπλαγχνίσθη,
Found in Papyrus 75 (about AD 200), Codex Vaticanus (about AD 325), Codex Sinaiticus (about AD 350).
He knelt down. He poured oil and wine on the wounds and bandaged them. He put the man on his own animal and walked him to an inn. He took care of him all night. In the morning he paid the innkeeper and said he would pay more when he came back.
Go and do the same
Jesus asked which of the three was a neighbor to the hurt man. The lawyer could not even say "the Samaritan." He said, "He that shewed mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go, and do thou likewise."
Kindness, in this story, is not a feeling. It is stopping. It is getting your hands dirty, and spending your own money, for someone you do not know.
You do not have to be perfect to do it. The Samaritan was the person nobody expected. If you have ever stopped for someone, you were the neighbor in this story.