Listen:
“Who is my neighbor? …The one who had mercy on him.” (Luke 10:29)
Reflect:
Already in Matthew 9:13 Jesus had told the disciples to go and learn what it means, “I require mercy not sacrifice”. Apparently, it had not yet been acquired. In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells a story in which a priest and a Levite, both preoccupied with what “one must do”, missed out on an occasion to practice kindness and compassion. They did not show mercy to a man left to die on the side of the road after a street mobbing. Touching a possibly dead person would have nullified their plans. In a hurry to get to Jerusalem, where they were going to offer sacrifices in the temple to make sure they had things right with God, there was no room for something unforseen like that.
The story makes me wonder how many sacrifices we make for selfish reasons. We are preoccupied with being good so we can feel better about ourselves, but we fail to see our neighbor in his suffering.
In Jesus’ story, there is not much room for the priest and the Levite. It’s the Samaritan that gets the attention. He is allowed to linger and to participate in the story. At the end, he has acquired a new adjective, good, which he would never have gotten in a Jewish account.
Mercy lies at the heart of the spiritual journey. We grow toward Christlikeness only as we become more compassionate and caring. A non-compassionate Christ-follower is a contradiction in terms. However, we cannot show real concern, especially for those in pain, if we don’t allow ourselves to move gently toward what scares us…the messiness and pain that comes with being human.
Prayer of Response:
“Lord, help me stay open to love in this world of pain. In my hurt, I often close. Open me with the gift of forgiveness.” – Peter Traben Haas
Questions to Ponder:
Take some time at the end of each day this week to reflect on your encounters of that day. When have you been able to show compassion and kindness to someone? When have you failed? How did that make you feel?
—Submitted by: Gudrun Reeves
Gudrun Reeves is Austrian and lives and works with her Texan husband in Champfleuri, a Christian Retreat center in the French Alpes. She has been part of Lifesprings since it’s beginnings in France and she cannot (or doesn’t want to) imagine what life would be like without this lovely community of God-fearing women.
Feature photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash.