Luke 10:31

Passing On And Passing It On

He passed by on the other side. Luke 10:31.

I AM going to speak to you this morning about “passing on” and “passing it on.” What have these two things to do with each other? If you listen you will find out.

1. First of all we shall think about “passing on.”

In St. Luke's Gospel we have a very interesting story, a sort of story of adventure. It is a parable which Jesus told and it is called “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” You know the story. It tells of how a man was going down by that wild, bleak, rocky track that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho. There he was set upon by some of the robbers who infested the mountains. He was stripped of all he possessed and left wounded and half dead by the roadside. Later a priest came past and then a Levite, but each, in turn, passed by on the other side without doing anything to help the sufferer. At last a Samaritan came along, and when he saw the wounded man he got off his beast and went to his aid. He bound up the wounds, set the man on his own donkey, and brought him to an inn. And when, on the morrow, he had to continue on his way he left money with the landlord to pay for the visitor's board for several days, and told him that if more was spent he would repay it on his return journey.

Now I don't want to say anything more about the Good Samaritan. He speaks for himself. But I wish to talk about the two men who passed by on the other side. Why did they do it? Well, I don't think it was altogether because they didn't care. I believe they were sorry enough in a way that cost them nothing at all. I fancy they passed on for two reasons. First, because to care for the wounded man would have cost them a good deal of trouble (and money and time into the bargain); and secondly, because it might have exposed them to danger. The robbers were probably not far away, and they might return at any moment and set upon them. No, no, it was too much to risk! So they gathered their skirts about them and hurried on. Fear made them shirk their duty.

You see these men were really selfish. They cared little about anything except their own comfort and safety. I think in some ways they were worse than the robbers. The latter were wild men who had perhaps never had a chance to be good. But the priest and the Levite were ministers of religion. They knew more about what was right and kind than most people, and yet they passed on.

We are all ready to blame the priest and the Levite, but are we never like them ourselves? Yes, I think we are. And our reasons are just the same as theirs. It is partly because we won't take trouble, and partly because we are cowards.

We are like them when we join in the laugh against a schoolfellow who is unpopular. We may know that he doesn't deserve to be laughed at, but we laugh because everybody else is doing it and we don't like to be singular. And we are like them when we omit to help a friend in a difficulty. We may be sorry enough for him, but it isn't much good being sorry for people unless we do something practical to help them.· The world is filled with thousands of people who mean well. How much happier a place that world would be if all the meaning were turned into doing!

2. So much for “passing on”; and now for “passing it on.”

At school we used to play a game in class called “passing it on.” I wonder if you still play it? It was rather a silly game, but the fun consisted in playing it without being detected by the master. A boy at one end of the form gave his neighbor a pinch or a nudge with the injunction, “Pass it on.” Then the neighbor did the same to his neighbor with the same injunction, until the pinch or nudge had gone from one end of the form to the other.

I was reminded of that game the other day when I read a story about a boy who afterwards became a celebrated preacher Mark Guy Pearse. He was once going home from school. He had to travel part of the way by steamer, and he was under the impression that the sum of money he had paid for his ticket also included payment for lunch. When the luncheon gong sounded he went down below and had a good tuck in.

Afterwards, just as the boat was reaching its destination, the steward walked up to him and presented him with his bill for lunch. The boy was taken aback. He had spent all his money and had nothing to pay the bill. Then the steward told him that he must leave his luggage behind and give his name and address. But when the man heard the name his face changed. “Shake hands,” he said. “I will pay the bill myself for the sake of what your father did for my mother years ago when she was in great trouble.” So he paid the boy's bill, gave him five shillings, and saw him safely landed.

When the boy told the story at home, his father said, “My lad, I passed on the kindness to him long ago, and now he has passed it on to you. Mind, as you grow up, to pass it on to others.”

Years after, when the boy had grown into a man, he stood one day at the booking office of a railway station waiting for his turn to buy a ticket. In front of him was a small boy who seemed to be in difficulties. He had not quite enough money to purchase his ticket, and the clerk was telling him to move on. The boy offered to send him a little more, but again the clerk roughly told him to move on.

Then in a flash the gentleman behind him had a vision of another small boy who had no money to pay his lunch bill, and he heard his father's voice say, “Don't forget the kindness. Pass it on.” Immediately he stepped forward and said, “I'll pay the difference. What is it?” And he did pay, and afterwards in the railway carriage he told the boy the story of his own boyhood and of how his father had told him to pass on the kindness. Then he gave the boy the same bit of advice “Pass it on.” And as the train drew out of the station the boy waved his handkerchief out of the window and shouted, “I shan't forget! I'll pass it on!”

Do you wonder why I have told you that story and what it has got to do with the other the story of the men who passed on?

Well, it's like this. We are all a little like that wounded man by the roadside. We all depend on the help and kindness we receive from others. And so it ill befits us to pass by anyone who is in trouble, anyone we can be kind to, or help.

If you have received kindness from anyone your parents, or teachers, or neighbors, or friends pass it on. And don't forget the biggest kindness of all, the kindness we have received from the best of all Friends. Pass on a little of that kindness. If He has forgiven you, forgive others. If He has been patient with you, be patient with them. If He has loved you, love them.

Have you had a kindness shown?

Pass it on;

Twas not given for thee alone,

Pass it on;

Let it travel down the years,

Let it wipe another's tears,

Till in heav'n the deed appears

Pass it on.

Did you hear the loving word!

Pass it on;

Like the singing of a bird?

Pass it on;

Let its music live and grow,

Let it cheer another's woe;

You have reaped what others sow

Pass it on.

'Twas the sunshine of a smile,

Pass it on;

Staying but a little while!

Pass it on;

April beam, the little thing,

Still it makes the flow'rs of spring,

Makes the silent birds to sing

Pass it on.

(Henry Burton)