OTHER SKETCHES
I am indebted to Rev'd Ken Bale for the seminal idea for this retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It can be read straight or dramatised.
CAST: Jacob, His Wife, Rachel, Storyteller
"And where's the donkey?" was the first question that greeted the Good Samaritan as he trudged wearily home from the inn. Somehow he knew his wife wouldn't understand. He paused, considering how to break the news. He was a day late and he had missed his youngest child's birthday and the coins that were meant for a present had been spent on the injured man's accommodation. His wife was a great believer in the saying 'Charity begins at home' by which she meant that our responsibility for others ended with the in-laws or preferably with blood relations.
"And Daddy have you brought anything home?" This question was even harder to bear as he saw the expectation change to fear and disappointment on his youngest's face. His wife noticed. "Jacob ben Ephraim," (She only used his full name when he was in real trouble). "You'd better have a good explanation. Come on I'm waiting?"
"There was a man on the Jericho road," he began - somehow explaining was far more difficult than the action. It had seemed so uncomplicated then as that sight of an injured man, even a hated Jew, called out for compassion.
"Out with it then and it'd better be true."
"This man had been set upon by muggers who had kicked and beaten him and stripped off his clothes and left him for dead and I..."
"Idiot, fool!" burst out his wife pummelling him with her fists. "How often have I warned you about travelling that road without an armed bodyguard. You know that it's a favourite ploy of muggers to leave a victim around so that some soft-hearted shmuck can be set upon too. So that's where you lost the donkey and our money. A fine merchant you are! No insurance company will pay out on a story like that."
"No, no you're wrong!" gasped Jacob once the fury abated as the yelling children pulled his wife off him. "It wasn't like
that all. He was a genuine victim and I wasn't attacked although I was
really scared all the time I spent there giving him first aid."
"So where's the donkey?" demanded his wife unrelenting.
"It is still there at the inn."
"Inn, what inn? Are you sure you 're not spinning me some cock and bull story to explain why you've come back here on foot, a day late without a penny nor even a present for Rachel's birthday?"
Rachel burst into tears.
"There, there lass," said Jacob cuddling his daughter. "I can explain."
"You can explain it to your own mother and not to me because you're not setting your feet under my table, or sleeping in our bed until I see the donkey and a decent present for your daughter."
"The donkey's safe," pleaded Jacob, "And I'll have something special for Rachel after my next trip, I promise."
"If it's safe why have you left it an inn?"
"For security."
"To pay for your boozing and gambling, I suppose. I've changed my mind. You can stop here on your own and I'm off to mother with the kids. I'm packing my bags!"
"Wait love, it wasn't like that at all. That man was really poorly and it was late. I couldn't leave him so I set him on the donkey and took him to the inn. I left the money to pay for his keep and asked the landlord to look after him and said when I was back I would pay the balance."
"So why didn't you bring back the donkey?" she demanded once more.
"Well, the landlord was Jewish and didn't trust the word of a Samaritan like me so he asked for some security and I left him the donkey."
"Huh! But your landlord was prepared to nurse another Samaritan, so pull the other one it's got bells on!"
"But he wasn't a Samaritan, he was a Jew!"
"A Jew! A Jew! You risked your life and your business and gave away our money for a Jew! Oh Jacob ben Ephraim, how could you? Why didn't his own kind look after him? Why you?"
"Because, I suppose, I was there, love, I was there."
© Copyright Don Dowling October 2001