The Wages, An Illustrated Story | 23. Songs and Parables |We Forget the Samaritan
Then, I saw the more drunk guy, Bill the jerk, passed out on his back under a tree. It looked like the shade had moved and was no longer protecting his prone body from frying up to a sweaty red in the changing angle of the sun. His wonderful pal Ross had abandoned him, probably off somewhere on some other stupid adventure.
Leaving him there felt like good revenge. I was still angry at him, and I enjoyed a little fantasy of him choking to death on his own barf while distracted festival goers passed him by. But I thought I would be a good Christian, and went to the cross on the flag of the Saint John’s Ambulance people who were monitoring the event, and took them over to where Bill the jerk had passed out. All the while I was struggling back and forth with the idea that contacting medical professionals wasn’t enabling.
We forget that the Samaritan in Jesus’ story was the enemy to the righteous people; a loathsome outsider, a wandering outlaw.