Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

 In the late afternoon of April 29, 1992, a man named Reginald Denny finished loading his red International dump truck with sand, and headed for a plant in a nearby community.  As he was heading down the Freeway he decided to take a familiar shortcut and took an exit.  Minutes later he came to an intersection where people began throwing rocks at his windows and yelling at him.  He was forced to stop in the middle of the street.  Reginald Denny had driven right into the middle of the ’92 L.A. riots.

     A young man stepped onto the truck and threw Denny's door open.  Another man dragged him out and threw him to the ground.  While one man stood on Denny’s neck, a group surrounded him and someone kicked him in the abdomen.  Another man threw a five pound oxygen tank at Denny’s head, and still another began to kick him and hit him with a claw hammer.  As Denny tried to stand up, a former semi-pro football player threw a brick at the side of his head, and Denny was knocked unconscious.  Moments later, as he started to come out of it and began crawling towards his truck, a man came up and kicked him in the face.  Overhead, a news helicopter circled, live-streaming what was happening to a national audience.
 
     At this point, four strangers ran into the center of that violence to help a man they had never met.  Unlike Denny, all of them were African American.  The first was Lei Yuille. She had been watching the mauling on television when her brother turned to her and said, “We are Christians.  We need to go help.”  They jumped in their car and took off.  When they got as close as they could, Yuille leaped out and ran over to the truck.  Denny had somehow managed to climb back up into the cab.

 

     The second to arrive were Titus Murphy and his girl-friend, Terri Barnett.  They, too, had been watching the television and decided they had to do something.  Murphy joined Yuille in the cab, and together they tried to protect Denny and care for him as best they could.  Moments later, part-time trucker Bobby Green arrived and after helping move Denny from the driver’s seat, took over.  Later, he said that when he saw what was happening on the television, it felt like he was the one being beaten.  Together, the four were able to get Denny to a nearby hospital.

     Reginald Denny almost died that day.  The only reason he didn’t was because four people decided they couldn’t stand by and watch it happen.  They risked everything to save him.  They risked all, even though he was a stranger and even though he was white, on a day when four white police officers were acquitted for the beating of Rodney King just one year before.

“But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.  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… Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? [The lawyer] said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” (Luke 10:33-37)