Samaritan – 11 July 2022

Here is a bronze sculpture, that sits high on an outside wall above a door. It would be easy to miss it by not looking up, and then one would just pass by. It depicts part of the story of the man who fell among thieves, and was aided by a passing Samaritan.

A man lays on the ground, unable to rise and in pain. Another man bends over double to place his hands around him and lift him up. The man on the ground has placed his left hand on the left hand of his helper. This is a gesture of reassurance and thanks. At the man’s feet there is a jar. A container for oil or wine, the contents will be used to tend to the man. To one side stands a donkey, steady and peaceful, waiting to receive the body of the injured man, and carry him to safety. The whole sculpture is calm and reassuring. Here is love in action, kindness and rescue.

The sculpture sits above the door of the building that houses the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Bayerns), Würzburg.

Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

Luke 10:30-35

a man who had fallen among thieves
lay by the roadside on his back
dressed in fifteenthrate ideas
wearing a round jeer for a hat

fate per a somewhat more than less
emancipated evening
had in return for consciousness
endowed him with a changeless grin

whereon a dozen staunch and leal
citizens did graze at pause
then fired by hypercivic zeal
sought newer pastures or because

swaddled with a frozen brook
of pinkest vomit out of eyes
which noticed nobody he looked
as if he did not care to rise

one hand did nothing on the vest
its wideflung friend clenched weakly dirt
while the mute trouserfly confessed
a button solemny inert.

Brushing from whom the stiffened puke
i put him all into my arms
and staggered banged with terror through
a million billion trillion stars

EE Cummings