a mediocre samaritan

We don't know what to do with a strong victim.  We want victims to be pitiable -- their mistakes are in their past and they are vulnerable and limp.  We love to pity them, to tell sob stories, and we want them to grovel in gratitude, accept each gift as a gem of generosity while their own wants and desires take sabbatical. 

But a strong person who is down and out? Someone who is still in the process of making mistakes and who dares to make demands of their destiny?  They are arrogant.  Ungrateful.  Need to learn a lesson the hard way.  Because we fail to remember that amidst crisis and chaos, each of us is still human with our human flaws, which might even be magnified by extreme circumstances.  And how terribly critical that we love because of and despite these flaws.

That always kind of bothered me about the story of the Good Samaritan.  Our victim appears flawless.  He was just minding his own business when out of nowhere these bad people attacked him and left him limp and helpless on the side of the road.  And when the Samaritan finally stopped to help, he was probably spewing gratitude and humility. 

Thats not the story I see in real life.  I imagine the man was maybe provoking the robbers.  Maybe he had been gambling with them earlier and didn't pay all that he owed.  Maybe he was flaunting his new camel.  Maybe he hit them back when they attacked.  However it happened, he probably began to get bitter about all the people passing him by, treating him like roadkill.  He may have even ventured to make a request of the kindly Samaritan when he stopped by.  "Will you help me file a report against those guys?"  "Hey, do you have a cell phone? I need to call my neice to tell her I won't be there tomorrow."  "Listen,  I've got these lotto tickets, can you check the numbers for me?" 

I don't know, maybe he was limp and blameless, but that's unfair to expect every "victim" to be.  Let's be good neighbors to the strong ones too.