Most of you remember the Seinfeld show and many of you were fans. In its final Episode, which aired at the end of the 1998 TV season, the main characters (Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer) receive a one year sentence for failing to help someone who was being robbed.

What happens is this: Jerry has just received a contract from NBC to do a sitcom and the network is flying them all to Paris as a gift. But their plane encounters problems and they are stuck in LakelandMassachusetts. Killing time wondering around on the sidewalks in this quaint New England town, they become innocent bystanders and witnesses of a car jacking.

Being New Yorkers and the kind of people they are they make fun of the guy who is being robbed. Kramer, who has a camcorder in his hands, films the incident as a curiosity. They never lift a hand, never shout out; they are 10 yards away, and could care less. They just stand there and casually watch! The robber speeds off with the car and the police arrive late on the scene. With the excitement over, and the poor victim standing dazed in the street, Jerry turns to his friends and suggest they go get something to eat.

They turn to walk off when the officer stops them and says, "Alright, hold it right there."

Jerry: Wha'?

Officer: You're under arrest.

Jerry: Under arrest, What for?

Officer: Article 223 dash 7 of the Lakeland county penal code.

Elaine: What, we didn't do anything.

Officer: That's exactly right. The law requires you to help or assist anyone in danger as long at its reasonable to do so.

George: I never heard of that.

Officer: It's new, its called the Good Samaritan Law, Let's go.

The series ends with them serving their time. The critics hated it. It was pretty bad but there was a redeeming quality to that last episode. For nine years Seinfeld's characters used, ridiculed, and made fun of everyone they met. The four of them were the Priest and the Levites of our modern world. We climb the ladder of success and FedEx gives you the world on time. This is our attitude. Stopping to help someone crimps our style and requires too much of our time.

Looking back on it I can't help but wonder if the script for that final episode was taken right out of Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan. George says that he never heard of that one. Truth is, the law isn't new. It's as old as the tablets Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. There's nothing NEW about it. The story of the Good Samaritan tells us how we are to treat others: Not just our friends, not just the people in our town or stranded on the road or in need, but the very people we despise or dislike or make fun of. In a word: Our enemies. The story of the Good Samaritan is a lesson on how the Law of Moses is to be understood and lived out.