In the time of the uprising a certain man fled from the Romans who were seeking to kill him and his family. For his brother had taken up arms against them. He went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
And by chance there came down priests, scholars and rulers who came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the inn keeper, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
But the innkeeper thought unto himself, 'Too many fugitives have died along this road. They greatly anger the people and must be prevented.'
It so passed that in that hour a caravan halted at the inn. The innkeeper gave the fugitive into the charge the merchants, paid them 30 pieces of silver, and bade them, 'Take ye this man to a desert fort and bid the guards confine him there, never to see his wife and his children. They are to set him free only when the sun sets on the day when peace doth rule from coast to coast and the lion lies down with the lamb.'
And that night the innkeeper stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as this fugitive is, unclean, in rags, and like to die, nor even as that Samaritan is, a feigner of compassion, hypocrite and angel of death. I pay my taxes, I meditate right thoughts, and this day have I pleased the people and saved from death a multitude of fugitives.'
And that same night the fugitive turned his face to the dungeon wall and prayed to die.
After three days the Samaritan returned to the inn. And the inkeeper told him all that he had done. And the Samaritan left the inn and wept bitterly.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street.