Compassion

I recently read a news story about a homeless Jewish man in New York city, the poor man was attacked by a group of Arin Brotherhood teenagers. The beat the man almost to death, stole what few valuables he had, stripped most of his clothes off, leaving only his Yarmulke on his head, in order to disgrace the Jewish race.
A little while later, as the sun began to come up, there was a lot of people who walked by, some looking at him and pretending they did not see him, others, making sure to let others know they were not interested in helping, in case his attackers were watching. The passerby's soon included a Catholic Priest, who decided that he would call the cops when he arrived at the church, but first he had a few stops to make. Then there was a group of pastors from a protestant interdenominational work group. Then finally there was a Jewish Priest who stopped and looked, and apparently decided that it was none of his business.
About an hour later, after many, many people had walked by, a dark brown skinned man walked by and saw the Jewish man almost at death's door. Knowing there was no time to call an ambulance, the Muslim man carried the Jewish man in his arms, the five blocks to the nearest Emergency Room. Once he arrived, the hospital did not want to admit him, because they did not know if he had insurance or not. So the Muslim, agreed to sign papers saying he would be responsible for the mans bill.
The men became good friends over the next week, as the Muslim man, visited the Jewish man in the hospital every day.
As you have probably imagined, I have just told a modern version of the story of the Good Samaritan found in Lk 10:30-37. I hope telling it in this context helps to bring it to reality for you today. Look at vs 33 the Bible says the Samaritan "had compassion" on the other man. How often do we have compassion on those around us?
By nature I am a helper, by nature my first instinct is to offer my assistance to anyone around me, whether or not I know them. I have pulled over to change a flat for elderly people, and women by them self. I have given rides to hitch hikers, I have left the house in the middle of the night to pick up friends who had gotten into bad situations. However, there have been times that I have seen people I know that were in need of a friend's help, and yet I would look the other way, because that person had gotten on my bad side.
I failed to have compassion. In that moment I decided to look away, I sinned. What about you? Have you ever turned your back on someone you knew? What about someone you did not know? God will never turn His back on us, and commands us to show compassion to others, whether or not we know them. Are we obeying His command?