Column: Views from the Pews with the Rev Margaret Kirk

Following the Prime Minister’s remark about “an island of strangers”, the poet Michael Rosen wrote a poem describing his time in hospital when he had covid.

He describes the caring of nurses: people to sedate him as he lay in bed, wash and feed him, hold his hand and reassure him, teach him to walk again with a stick and without one. The poem ends with lines describing his carers as ‘all people on this “island of strangers” from China, Jamaica, Brazil, Ireland, India, USA, Nigeria and Greece’.

It brought to mind one of the most powerful stories in the New Testament. The story told by Jesus when he is asked by a lawyer to define who is his neighbour, and in reply Jesus tells the story of how a stranger goes to the assistance of a man who is badly beaten and robbed as he is travelling.

Two men pass by – a priest and a Levite, both holy men of the Israelite community. They leave the traveller lying on the ground, severely injured, without going to his aid.

The stranger who came to his assistance was from the land nearby called Samaria, which is now referred to as the West Bank. Samaritans were descendants from the tribes of Israel, reviled and rejected because of not adhering to the rules and obligations of strict Jewish codes of behaviour.

But in the story Jesus recognises the Samaritan’s humanity and shows it in contrast to the lack of humanity revealed by the other two passers-by.