Sermon Devotional: The Parable of The Good Samaritan

Scripture:  Luke 10:30-37 (ESV)
  
Traveling at the Speed of Relationship

We consider the Parable of the Good Samaritan—one we know well and yet are invited to consider once more. The story begins when a lawyer, seeking to justify himself, asks Jesus a defensive question: “And who is my neighbor?” (v.29). Behind the question lies a motive of self-protection—a desire to define love narrowly enough to feel righteous without risk. It is a question that draws boundaries, not bridges.

In response, Jesus tells a story that dismantles defensiveness and redefines neighborliness. A man is beaten, robbed, and left half dead on the road. Two religious figures—those who might have been expected to help—pass by at a distance. Their boundaries of ritual purity, propriety, or convenience become barriers to mercy. Then, a Samaritan—a cultural outsider—draws near. He listens to the stirring of compassion within him, tends to the man’s wounds, and ensures his care.

At the end of the story, Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer: “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” (v.36). The lawyer cannot avoid the truth—mercy is the measure of neighborliness. Jesus does not answer who our neighbor is; He shows us how to be one.

This parable invites us into three key reflections:

1. Unexamined boundaries can detour us from showing mercy.
   The priest and Levite’s decisions to “pass by on the other side” remind us how easily rules, roles, and fears can justify inaction. Compassion often asks us to cross the road—to break through comfort and convenience.
2. When your heart or gut speaks, listen more and dismiss less.
   The Samaritan was “moved with pity” (v.33). The stirring of mercy is the whisper of God’s Spirit within us. When compassion rises up, it is not weakness—it is divine invitation.
3. Relationships are mile markers along the journey of faith.
   The Samaritan’s journey slowed to the speed of care—perhaps three miles per hour, the pace of walking beside another. Life with God is not a race; it is a pilgrimage of presence. Traveling at the speed of relationship creates space for mercy to take root and love to take form.

When Jesus says, “Go and do likewise,” (v.37) He is not giving us another task to add to our list; He is inviting us into a way of being—one where love in action becomes the rhythm of our lives.

May we travel today at the speed of relationship, attentive to the quiet invitations of compassion, and ready to cross the bridge to meet others with mercy.

Consider—
╬   Are there boundaries in your life to reconsider in light of today’s passage? Who will you discuss this with?

╬   Is there someone who the Holy Spirit is prompting you to show mercy to today? Listen and accept God’s invitation.

╬    Father, thank you for your perfect comfort and compassion. Lord Jesus, slow me down to the pace of Your love. Remove the boundaries that keep me from compassion. Help me to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit’s invitations to show mercy to others, as you have extended mercy to me. In Christ, Amen!