New Parables to Ponder: 12 Stories to Spark Spiritual Questions

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

"This is the worst possible time for my car to break down!" said Jake Decker.

Most people are wrong when they say that. It's never a good time for your car to break down, but usually it's just inconvenient. You'll probably forget it ever happened in a couple months. But for Jake Decker, it's true.

Jake is stuck in the middle of nowhere on Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. This road might be the last place on earth you would want your car to break down because it's in the middle of the Mojave Desert, one of the hottest places in the whole world. But it's worse for Jake Decker. He isn't driving a car. It's a delivery van full of fresh fruits and vegetables. But that's not all. Jake is the owner of a chain of convenience stores along Interstate 15, but his stores are losing money. The only reason he hasn't gone out of business is his newest store in the town of Mountain Pass. It has been the top earning store in the region for the last 3 months. Normally, Jake wouldn't be delivering the groceries himself, but this month has been so bad he couldn't afford to pay the driver. The only way that Jake can keep his business going is by personally delivering the groceries to the store in Mountain Pass.

But an hour ago, Jake was run off the road by a couple of joyriding teenagers in a tiny car that they'd fixed up to drive fast and loud. When the van swerved off the road, two of his tires popped. There's no cell phone service here to call for help. Jake has to wait for someone to pass by. It's so hot that Jake can't stand on the side of the road for very long. He sits in the van where there's shade, but it isn't any cooler. Jake must run the engine to power the refrigeration unit that keeps the groceries cool in the back of the van, but he doesn't want to waste any power by using the air conditioning for himself.

A small shadow appears on the empty desert horizon. Jake jumps out of the van to get a closer look. Speeding toward him is a tow truck. Jake shouts with joy. He waves to the truck as it approaches. The tow truck speeds by the broken down van. It never even slows down. Jake looks at the truck in confusion. The tow truck wasn't hauling a car. Why didn't it stop?

As the hours pass by, Jake lays down in the front seat of the van. It's so hot that Jake has taken off his polo shirt. Now his skin is melting into the seats. He leaves the door open in the hope of hearing a car in the distance. Any noise makes Jake sit up to check if someone is coming, but nothing is ever there.

Jake hears a rumbling noise. Maybe it's coming from the refrigeration unit? It's still keeping the groceries cold, but it won't run for much longer. Jake jumps out of the van to check the refrigeration unit, but the noise isn't coming from his van. Jake turns around just in time to see the blur of a flatbed truck pass by the broken down van. Jake looks at the truck in confusion. The flatbed of the truck was empty. Why didn't it stop?

The sun sets before the van runs out of gas. The hot desert begins to cool just in time to save the groceries. Jake is lying in his van drifting in and out of consciousness and in desperate need of water. He can faintly hear a squeaking noise getting louder and closer. When the squeaking noise stops, Jake hears the mumbles of a voice, but heat exhaustion prevents his brain from understanding what is said. Jake can't even open his eyes as a pair of hands pulls him off of the seat and slides him onto wooden boards.

The last thing Jake remembers...

...is the squeaking noise...

...slowly spinning around him.

A fuzzy white light surrounds Jake from every side. A soft voice speaks next to him. It takes a few seconds for Jake to understand the words.

"Jake, honey. Can you hear me?"

Jake turns toward the voice. The foggy figure clears into the face of Jake's wife. "Where am I?"

"Jake, you're in the hospital at Mountain Pass."

Jake looks around to see he is lying down in a hospital bed in a bright white room. He's wearing a hospital gown and is covered by the sheets of his bed. As his wife helps him sit up, Jake notices the bright mid-day sun pouring into the window. "What happened?"

"Your van broke down a couple days ago..."

"Wait...what?!?" interrupts Jake. "A couple days ago!" He shakes his head in confusion. He remembers the broken down van. It must now be filled with rotten groceries. He imagines the empty shelves of his empty store. He can picture the empty aisles and the empty cash register. The only thing that's full is his mailbox with bills.

The soft voice of his wife reassures him that everything is okay as Jake's business partner, Dave Walters, walks into the room. "How you feeling, Jake?" Jake nods his head silently, but he won't look Dave in the eyes.

Jake's wife begins to explain what she knows. "The nurse said that an old man named Buddy Greer brought you to the hospital in a large, wooden cart attached to a bicycle."

"Greer? Why do I know that name?" asks Jake.

Dave interupts. "Buddy Greer owns Greer Grocery Store...well...he used to." Dave's words fill Jake with memories. Jake and Dave purposely opened their convenience store in Mountain Pass across the street from Buddy Greer's store. They hoped that their brand new store would steal customers from Buddy's store. They never could have guessed how well the plan would work. Buddy lost so many customers to Jake that three months ago Buddy's store had to close completely. That's what caused Jake's store to become so profitable in the first place.

"That's not all, Jake." Dave hesitates for a moment. "On my way here, I stopped at the van to get it towed, and all the groceries were gone. Then I checked-in with the manager at our store. He said business was doing so well that he needed more groceries, but he suggested that we get the delivery man a truck." Dave pauses as Jake's eyes squint in confusion. "I didn't know what he was talking about until he told me that the old man just had a wooden cart pulled by a bicycle. It took the old man three separate trips to deliver all the groceries. He barely got the last load to the store before it opened, so the delivery man stayed to help put the groceries on the store shelves."

Jake is silent for a long time. "So...Buddy saved me...then he delivered all our groceries to the store?"

"It sounds like it, but I haven't been able to find Buddy anywhere. No one has seen him since that morning. I went to his house, but the bank owns it now. He must have lost his home after his store went out of business. I'm not sure where else to look for him."

"But...why would he help me?"