Three reasons suggest themselves why the priest and the levite passed by. In the first place, they might have argued that the wounded man was no concern of theirs. He was not their fellow countryman, and they had no strict obligation in justice to bother about him. Had he been one of their own, or had they been assigned the task as a duty, they would have discharged it. But neither of them believed in doing overtime, especially for a stranger.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had certainly no sort of obligation to come down from heaven to redeem the human race. He might, in perfect justice, have allowed it to remain on the roadside, prostrate as a result of its own sin, wallowing in blood. God had no obligation, nor could have, to create man at all. Still less, having freely created man, was God in any way bound to enrich His creature with divine grace, making man His son by adoption, and giving him a claim to the reward of heaven. If, even in the beginning, God was not bound to give such things to man, it is surely clear that He was even less bound when man, through his own fault, had wantonly flung back God's gifts into His face.
Why, then, did Christ come? St. John tells us it was "Propter nimiam caritatem on account of His exceeding great love." Nothing else can explain the mystery of the Incarnation.
The priest and the levite passed by, in the second place, because there was no material gain attaching to any service they could render. The man had been already robbed, his pockets were quite empty, and neither of the two was going to help unless he was paid.
And Jesus Christ, the Good Samaritan, what did He stand to gain by "emptying Himself, taking the form of a servant"? What profit could possibly accrue to the infinite God through anything done for Him by a tiny creature of His hand? The creature's little mind would be capable of a spark of the knowledge of its God. The human heart would give to its God, thus feebly apprehended, an inconstant, flickering flame of love. Not all creatures would give even the little they were capable of giving, but, to get even a little, this God, hungry for the devotion of His creature, "for us men and for our salvation," would become man.
There are millions of men, and there have been millions, who have deliberately spurned this love and this attempt to win their love. There are millions who serve God in a spirit that seems to imply they are rather conferring a compliment on Him! There are millions who weigh out nicely just exactly how much they will give Him, where they will draw the line, fearful lest He might ask too much, might somehow encroach on the territory preserved for self! "Propter nimiam caritatem" only love can explain it. Even human love will go to great lengths to win the object of its love.
It might be suggested, in the third place, that the priest and the levite went by because the sight of the man weltering in his blood rather made them feel ill. He surely must have presented a disgusting sight, poor man; and they were fastidious; and their fastidiousness, accentuated by the other two arguments that had been forming in their minds, lent them speed in beating their retreat.
The nearer a soul gets to God, the clearer becomes its knowledge of the heinousness and deordinaiton of sin. "Who can understand sins?" Only He Who can understand the full nature of the infinite God against Whom it is committed. That is why Jesus Christ shuddered in the presence of sin. That is why St. Catherine of. Sienna would take ill when a person in mortal sin entered the room That is why St. Francis Xavier swept over India and Japan to wage war against sin. and died in the effort to reach China and attack in that realm the stronghold of sin.
Others might be deterred by the vision of sin. Indeed, it is most repulsive, but the perfect knowledge He had of its foulness did not deter the Son of God from healing its wounds. Why did Christ come? Because He loved, and because none other than He could grapple successfully with this tyranny which had locked its manacles around the wrists of the men so loved by this Infinite Lover.
Jesus, Your love is becoming clearer to me, The truth of it shines in the plan formed to redeem us. You came, not because You were bound to come, but because those You loved could not manage without You. You came, not because Your coming would bring any advantage to You, but only to us. You came despite the revolting sight a soul in sin presents in Your all-pure eyes. What can I do in face of such love, but kneel and thank and try to realize the sheer truth and grandeur of it all?