Deuteronomy 22:1-5: in context

The law gives a homely but telling command about a neighbor's lost property. If you see your brother's ox or sheep straying, you shall not hide yourself from it, but bring it back to him. If you do not know whose it is, keep it until he comes looking, and restore it. So too with his donkey, his garment, and every lost thing of his that you find; you may not hide yourself. And if you see his animal fallen by the road, you shall not hide yourself, but help him lift it up.

The phrase that recurs is the striking one: you may not hide yourself. When we see a neighbor's need, a lost animal, a fallen beast, some trouble we could help with, the temptation is to hide ourselves, to look away, to pretend we did not see, to pass by as though it were none of our concern. The law forbids exactly this: you may not hide yourself from your neighbor's need; you must involve yourself and help. It is a command against the willful blindness that lets us avoid the trouble of helping by simply not seeing. There is a searching relevance in this for us. We are surrounded by needs we could help with, and the easiest thing is to hide ourselves, to avert our eyes, to not notice, and so to feel excused from acting. We see the trouble and look away; we sense the need and pretend we did not; we hide ourselves so that we will not have to help. The law names this and forbids it: you may not hide yourself. When we see a brother's need that we could meet, we are not to look away but to help, to restore the lost thing, to lift the fallen, to involve ourselves rather than avoid the inconvenience. This is the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who, unlike the priest and Levite who passed by, did not hide himself from the wounded man but stopped and helped. And it is the spirit of the law here: not to avert our eyes from the needs we could meet, but to see and to act. The command reaches into our daily lives, where the temptation to hide ourselves from others' needs is constant, and the excuse of not noticing is always available. You may not hide yourself, God says; when you see a need you could meet, do not look away, but help. Bear one another's burdens, Scripture says; and much of that begins with refusing to hide ourselves from the burdens we see.

When I see a need I could help with, a neighbor's trouble, a burden I could ease, am I tempted to hide myself, to look away and pretend I did not see so that I need not be inconvenienced, or can I heed the command, you may not hide yourself, refusing to avert my eyes from the needs I could meet and involving myself to help?