I ask you which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell among thieves? The ATC cadet, of course. Hooray! Give yourselves a clap. Okay, so I’m being a little flippant, but underneath the story are some very fundamental issues that need our consideration.

Secondly, we all must walk this difficult walk of life, where we are prone to attack – not necessarily by robbers and thieves, but by social mores or material things, by temptations of the flesh and our own self wills. We can be just as dangerous and harmful to ourselves and to others as anyone else. But then, of course, we can’t hide from ourselves and that could leave us feeling guilty, or inadequate or just plain hopeless.

You’ll notice in the story that the injured man was stripped of his clothes, so nobody knew his rank or even his religion, or where he came from. One of the problems of the world today is that we are anonymous as individuals. We are measured by externalities, what people can see on the outside, the clothes or uniforms, the work we do, the cars we drive: they don’t see who we are. In my first parish in a small town in Kent, I used to walk to the church every morning, wearing my collar, and almost everyone would greet me with a smile, a “good morning” or other salutation. On my day off, when I wore mufti, nobody would even look at me, let alone speak to me. That doesn’t say much for the respect of the individual.

Thirdly, our duty doesn’t necessarily end when we hand matters over to others. Whilst we certainly need to know when to let go, we also need to ensure that we maintain a responsibility for the total well being of others. Our friendly Samaritan not only took the wounded man to a place of safety and convalescence, but he paid money to ensure his continuing welfare and promised to pay even more when he returned, if it was necessary.