291. “Do Unto Others…”

30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” [Luke 10:30-37, NRSV]

Parable of the Good Samaritan, 1647 by Balthasar van Cortbemde

By sheer chance, a google headline on the 21 December 2016 issue of the Penang daily, The Star, caught our attention: “Auction winner gives up house”. The story is as surprising as it is heart-warming.

Lee Hui Sen was at a public auction of bank-foreclosed residential houses whose owners had defaulted in mortgage payments. Taking fancy in one particular double-storey house, Lee posted a successful bid at RM445,000 and paid the 10% deposit in compliance with High Court Rules.

Aged 47 years, the man of the house was named simply as “S” who was made a bankrupt in his bankers’ debt-recovery process. To a lawyer, something was not right. With mortgage on the house, why did the bank go on to make S a bankrupt. It could have just foreclosed on the mortgage. Then, there is the unexplained question of why the court allowed the bankers’ petition for bankruptcy against a mortgagor. If the bank relied on strict legal justice, the case seemed pretty short on equity, which ought to be the business of the courts as well. In any case, press reports did not give a complete picture. Bits and pieces of news reports, however, did suggest to us that the mentality of the bank officers was always “business first” and “business as usual”, even though the family of S and his wife Nor has been servicing the housing loan for a good twenty years.

Now, they stood to lose the house once it went to public auction. Such is the cruel, faceless, heartless reality of the business world. It is a reality rich in sharp business practices, but has not even a scintilla of healthy sense of social responsibility. Is it right for businesses, a bank in this case, to do its utmost best to rack up billions of Ringgit in profit annually, without regard for the damage it causes to the social environment? In the event, the house did go under the auctioneer’s hammer, and the inevitable eviction order did arrive at the door. But a sad and painful human story was unfolding behind that door. Did society care? Did the bank bother?

Then, Lee entered the narrative of this pain.

Having entered a successful bid at the auction and paid the 10% deposit of RM44,500.00, Lee and his family went to take a look at their new estate. What they saw interrupted the expected flow of the narrative. The family saw some clothes on the laundry line outside the house and was impacted by the sight. Lee’s lawyers had already served the S and Nor family a demand for vacant possession and the withdrawal of the caveat they had entered on the property. Now feeling very bad for the family still living in that house, but facing imminent eviction and completely losing their home, Lee wrote a hand-written letter to them saying, amongst other things:

  • that he was sorry for buying their house and causing them to worry about the dire consequences;
  • that “he had decided not to continue with the purchase even though he had paid the 10% down-payment;
  • that he and his family did not have the heart to evict them and causing them to lose their home;
  • that he and his family would lose the deposit money they had paid to court, but the money would go into S and Nor’s bank account on the housing loan and they hoped that “it would be of some assistance” to the cash-strapped couple;
  • that he advised S to go to the bank to restructure his loan to avoid the house being put up for auction again; and
  • that he wished their family good luck.

The story in The Star revealed some confusing data, amongst which were the bank having allegedly made S a bankrupt without his knowledge, rescheduled the loan repayment scheme and yet would not stick to the new schedule but proceeded with the public auction of the property, and even ignoring the intervention with a view to assisting in negotiation by the Muslim Consumers’ Association of Malaysia (PPIM).

Malaysia is a melting pot of cultural, racial, religious and political tensions. Nor said to the press that while “people are fighting for so many things outside and yet this man can provide assistance to a family for them to start anew.” She was amazed that Lee and family would render such great help to people whom they have not met. She called it “a miracle to rebuild our lives again.” Datuk Natzin, head of PPIM, to whom S and Nor had turned for help, said of Lee that “this was a very good example of a man with a golden heart.”

On Lee’s decision to “forgo the RM44,500.00 deposit and hand over the house back to the family,” The Star labels Lee “the Good Samaritan”. The Penang daily is quite right. Like the Good Samaritan, the Lee family’s action could be captured under three points: they  saw the suffering, they had compassion, and they helped.

Jesus’ work of salvation is reflected in the work of the Good Samaritan. In Lent, we reflect on what Jesus did for the suffering humanity: he would not pass by the death-bound humanity unattended, but in compassion and mercy made the ultimate sacrifice in order to help in its restoration to life, a life in abundance with God.

Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, March 2022. All rights reserved.

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