A while back our car battery conks out. A little sputtering only a faint response. No engine starting. We’re downtown in a German-themed resort village about four hours from home, it’s nighttime, cold as cold can be, with take-out food not getting any warmer, wondering how long it will take AAA to bail us out. Help! I’ll get back to what happens in a moment.

Reading Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), I can identify with the beat-up man. But my dilemma is nothing like his. He’s bunged up and bloody, mugged and ripped off, and left by the side of the road as good as dead with no phone or police patrolling to help.

However, two promising blokes amble by, a priest and priestly helper, called a Levite. Surely, they’ll lift a finger. Don’t you think? Wrong! Not even a little pinky. Even worse they cross over to the other side of the road ignoring him completely. Anyway, they’re too busy for the Lord. Who has time to waste on what could be a dangerous trap? And they have a paycheck to earn. Families to support. Worshippers to comfort. Cut them some slack? Sorry, Charlie! Not in this story.

Who does help? Well, you know. That unlikely chap, a Samaritan. One from an unfriendly sect in ancient Israel. Jews and Samaritans ignore each other at best. But in Jesus’ story, help comes from that far-fetched source. This broken-down bloke must have thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. A Samaritan? Helping me, a Jew? Oy veh! How weird is that? Yet, there it is.

Back to my dead-as-a-doornail battery. When I leave my car to raise the hood, a young man comes toward me, holding a contraption that can start a dead battery in about three minutes. All on this gadget’s own power. Really? How? Who cares? He hooks up the cables to the battery terminals and within a couple of minutes, my car is running, which soon will cost me $200 for a new battery. Again, who cares? We’re fired up, ready to enjoy a still-warm Mexican meal which probably should have been Wienerschnitzel and sauerkraut! Ja voll!

So, don’t be thunderstruck when the Lord surprises you in unexpected places with mindblowing helpers. Or that Jesus might place you as an unanticipated helping hand to somebody in need, especially someone you don’t immediately gel with. Yes Lord, use me. You too?

And thanks for once again answering my prayers for HELP!

Gracious Lord Jesus, thank you for always being my good helper. Amen.