June 11, 2009 a weekly devotional
every thought captive from Park Cities Presbyterian Church
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
Now, with so much more information coming our way, and from places we’ve likely never heard of, we can’t hope to respond appreciably to even a fraction of it. In constantly receiving without responding, though, we’re being conditioned to respond to nothing. Our responsiveness is atrophying for want of use because we’re becoming accustomed to hearing information only.
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:36–37
In his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman coined a phrase to refer to what he considered to be one of the negative impacts of the information age. His “low information-action ratio” postulated that with the exponential increase of data now flooding our flat screens, highways, desktops, and cell phones comes a corresponding diminution of actual responsiveness to any of it. There was a time, Postman argues, when most information we received was local, whose implications or impact were immediately felt, and therefore which tended to elicit some kind of reaction more readily. If you heard your neighbor’s house burned down, you were more likely to tend to their need because you knew them and because that information represented almost all the “news” you’d heard all day.
That our compassion is being compromised by the onslaught of data we’re exposed to seems a very tenable thesis, but Jesus’ parable of the Samaritan may unearth a deeper reason for our unresponsiveness: the atrophy results not so much from lack of use as it is from a lack of gratitude. The Samaritan is the quintessence of responsiveness and compassion. He is entirely impartial to the identity of the beleaguered journeyman. He pays no attention to his ethnicity, his physical condition, or his socioeconomic status; he simply attends to his need because of the need. The Samaritan expresses substantial generosity in extending time, care, wisdom, and resources to see to his recovery. Furthermore, Jesus’ protagonist exemplifies clear perspective: 16