Ignoring the Robbers
Andy Crouch
January 1, 2001
The man lies naked on the side of the road. The robbers who stripped him and left him for dead have vanished with their spoils. Cloaked in the anonymity of violence, they are unknown. By the same token, their victim is himself anonymous-we know neither where he came from, which direction on the road he was traveling, or what his status was before the attack. Did the robbers pick their target carefully, or randomly? Was his wallet fat or thin? We don't know.
Along the road come three other travelers. Unlike the robbers and their victim, their identity is clearly established by their clothing, their accessories, and their bearing. Some residents of present-day Northern Ireland swear that they can tell a Protestant and a Catholic apart by sight-so even the Samaritan, who to our modern eyes would be indistinguishable from his Jewish neighbors, is as clearly identifiable as the priest and the Levite who precede him on the road. And though he may not share their high status, he has just as much to lose if he interrupts his journey to care for an anonymous stranger.
Jesus' most famous parable captures our global situation at the turn of the millennium. 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty. Whole nations-including nearly the whole continent of Africa-enter this century devastated by the effects of corruption, disease, and war. Even in the prosperous United States, over five million children live in poverty.
In this environment, it is natural to seek to identify the robbers-to find someone to hold responsible for suffering. Sometimes this is eminently possible. Human rights organizations like the International Justice Mission specialize in removing the veil of anonymity that cloaks the most blatant acts of oppression around the ...
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