THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act V - The Synoptic Gospels, Scene 7
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

                                                                            Scene 7

1                 3               2

4

VOICE TWO: The two gangs had lived in adjoining neighborhoods for years. But they didn’t attend the same schools, no principal could have maintained control of such a rivalry. Every child entering kindergarten knew who the enemy was.

VOICE THREE: Hatred ran deep. Memories of previous confrontations provided nurture for a constant battle-cry for revenge. The two-block neutral zone between the neighborhoods often became the battle area.

VOICE FOUR: It was in that no-man’s zone that a certain man found himself one dark night in the spring of the year. He had worked late in the office, discovered to his chagrin that his car battery was dead and decided to walk back to his own neighborhood, just on the other side of the neutral zone.

VOICE ONE: Hoodlums struck him at the entrance of the first dark alley he approached. They took his watch, his wallet, his shoes and his coat, a starter jacket his kids had given him for Christmas. When he struggled over the jacket they beat him with iron rods and then left him on the curb, nearly dead.

VOICE THREE: The man could hardly see through his swelling eyes, but he thought he recognized a man walking quickly down the sidewalk on the other side of the street as the muggers ran away. It was the pastor of a church on his side of town, a man who worked with the gang members from his neighborhood. Surely a man of the cloth would help him, especially a man from his own side of town. But the man gave him one glance and hurried on by, looking warily over his shoulder for those who had attacked the victim.

VOICE FOUR: The next man who came by was also in a hurry, but he did cross the street and stare down at the man, perhaps in an effort to see if he was still alive. The victim recognized him as well. He was also from the man’s neighborhood, in fact, he was the father of one of the gang leaders. Surely he would give the help needed. But he passed by on the other side.

VOICE TWO: Finally, when all hope had disappeared, he saw a young man coming down the street. He strained to see and nearly cried when he saw the distinctive hat and colors of the rival gang. There was no way this fellow was going to help him, in fact, he would probably deliver the final blow. The injured man held his breath and tried to play dead, hoping against hope that his enemy would ignore him and not injure him further.

VOICE ONE: Wait just a minute. We all know what happens. That’s the Good Samaritan.

VOICE TWO: Sure, we know how this story ends—but is that the way a story like this usually ends?

VOICE THREE: Jesus didn’t tell this story in order to show his questioner, the expert in the law, that he needed to be a good neighbor. He already knew that. Jesus told this story knowing that the lawyer would be saying in his heart, “That would never happen, there are no good Samaritans.”

VOICE TWO: He wanted the man to come to his own conclusion that humanly speaking there are no good Samaritans. Our community includes every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, and if we don’t love every one of them as ourselves, we are not keeping the law. Is it possible for us to think of the Parable of the Good Al Queda Terrorist? Or the Parable of the Good Nazi? Or the Parable of the Good Ku Klux Klanner?

VOICE FOUR: It is humanly impossible to be a Good Samaritan, but at the same time it is a divine requirement. That is what God demands from each of us. Realizing that we cannot keep the requirements of the law, makes us realize that we need a greater righteousness than our own.

VOICE TWO: In seeking to justify himself, the expert in the law came face to face with his own unrighteousness.

VOICE ONE: And Jesus said, “Go, and do thou likewise.”