It Was the Road to Jericho

The biblical road to Jericho has carried travelers and their stories for millennia. In this early 20th century poetic work, Annie F. Johnston transforms the Good Samaritan's act of mercy into something more expansive - a meditation on what it costs to help a stranger, and why we do it anyway. The narrative unfolds in three movements: the Samaritan's discovery of the wounded man, a sweeping turn toward the world's countless wounds and brokenness, and finally a call for collective healing through love and sacrifice. Johnston writes with the earnest conviction of her era, her language thick with imagery and moral passion. The question she poses is eternal: when you encounter suffering, will you pass by, or will you stop? For readers drawn to religious poetry, allegorical literature, or meditations on compassion that feel both ancient and urgently modern.