It happened in the early morning hours of Friday, November 14, 2014 on a lonely stretch of interstate near Nashville, Tennessee. A car had crashed against a retaining wall. Four brothers from Omaha, Nebraska stopped to help. A witness said the driver of the car had wandered into the woods. One of the brothers, Mark Ferguson, began looking for the driver to offer assistance.
Unaware that he was on a bridge, Mark stepped over a guardrail. Instead of stepping onto land, he fell 100 feet into the Stones River. He survived the fall, swam to shore, but later died. The driver, Nathan Albright, was found and charged with a DUI after admitting to drinking alcohol earlier that night.
News outlets rightly called the 27-year old husband and father from Omaha a Good Samaritan. That title originates from a story Jesus told to answer the question, “And who is my neighbor?” That is still a good question. We may think we want a neighbor with prestige or popularity. We may think we want a neighbor with influence or affluence. We may think we want a neighbor with great experiences or education.
But when I’m lost in the darkness of a Friday night, your fame does nothing to help me. When I have wrecked my car and my life, your degrees can’t fix that. When I am too poor to help you and too wounded to help myself, your influence does not heal me.
Jesus’ Good Samaritan had no standing in the religious community, but he had something better. It is called compassion. When he saw a man beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, he detoured and got involved. He did not know why the man was bleeding. He did not know who was guilty and who was innocent. He did not know if the need was real or if he was walking into a trap. But that did not matter because his compassion was bigger than his caution.
Mark Ferguson knew nothing about Nathan Albright’s past. He did not know why Nathan crashed his car. He did not know where Nathan was from or where he was going. He did not even know Nathan’s name. But Mark did know Nathan needed help, and his compassion was bigger than his caution.
That’s the kind of neighbor I need. That’s the kind of neighbor we all need. And while Mark could not save Nathan, his amazing act of love points to a person who can rescue all of us from our past and from our pain. His name is Jesus. When we were totally helpless, Jesus saw our need, died for us and in our place, and rose from the dead so that we may live free and forever.
So who is our neighbor? It seems Mark Ferguson was one of them. Now it’s our turn to go and do the same.
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