Not My Job? (Friday Devotional)

 

But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

Luke 10:29-32

On August 8, 1982, the Boston Red Sox were playing an afternoon game at Fenway Park. Suddenly a foul ball screamed past the first base dugout and left fielder Jim Rice heard a sickening crunch. Looking around the corner of the dugout into the stands, Rice saw 4-year-old Jonathan Keane bleeding profusely from his head. Realizing that it would take several minutes for park EMTs to get to the scene, the ballplayer sprang into action. Rice leaped over the railing into the stands, cradled the young fan into his arms, and carried the boy into the dugout, where he received immediate attention from the team's medical staff.

Within just a few minutes, Jonathan was rushed to the hospital, where doctors credited Rice with saving the boy’s life. Jim Rice played the rest of the game in a blood-stained uniform, a reminder of the turn the day had taken. His job may have been to play left field for the Red Sox, but his calling that day was far higher.

When you see someone who needs help, it’s far too easy to default to the priest and the Levite’s position in the story of the Good Samaritan—to ignore the need. Whether because you’re in a rush to do something else, because you’re concerned about your own well-being, or simply because your heart is hardened in that moment to your neighbor’s need, the easiest thing in the world is to pass by. After all, it’s not your job to help.

But what Jesus reminds us—what Jim Rice displayed that day in 1982—is that sometimes your calling is more important than your job. Sometimes God puts you right in the path of someone in need, not so you can pass but so you can step in. Because sometimes the person best suited to help is not the one with all the education and training—sometimes it’s the person who’s right there.

Helping your neighbor may not be your job at any given moment. But according to Jesus, it’s always your calling.