I recently read the Good Samaritan story during my morning time with God (Luke 10.25 – 37), and I recalled the modern-day experiment retold in Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point. Here’s part of a summary by another blogger:

In the experiment, seminary students were each asked to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme and then walk over to another building on campus to present it to a group of undergrads.  In between the two buildings, the researchers placed an actor dressed as a derelict, slumped down in an alley, coughing and groaning. They then watched to see if the seminary students would stop and help the man or not on the way to giving their theological presentations…It didn’t really matter if the seminarians were presenting a talk on the Good Samaritan or whether they went into ministry primarily to help out humanity or not. The only thing that mattered is whether or not they were in a hurry. To one group of students, the experimenters would casually say, “It will be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head over now.” To the other group they would look at their watches and say, “Oh, you’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago.” In the group that thought they had plenty of time, 63 percent stopped to help the man. In the hurried group, only 10 percent stopped to help. –Mike O’Quinn, March 2, 2017, emphasis mine

The primary application is “context.” When the context was “hurry,” few stopped. In our case, our hurry kills margin. And with no margin we’re sometimes disobedient to our most fundamental calling of loving our neighbor (the context of The Good Samaritan). Maybe that’s why Dallas Willard is often quoted as saying,

You need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. -Dallas Willard

That brings us to Jesus’ lifestyle of margin. He never seemed to be in a hurry. Jesus stopped to heal a woman while on the way to help someone’s daughter. (Luke 8.40 – 56) Jesus seemed to have margin all the time. Here’s a story that starts with Jesus leaving Judea for Galilee  by way of Samaria (John 4.3, 4), and it ends with his spending two days in a Samaritan village:

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.  (John 4.39 – 41, ESV, emphasis mine)

When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time to do something VERY important, he still had time for Zacchaeus:

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19.5, ESV)