Episode 71 - Doing unto others - the Good Samaritan

We have learned this parable of the Good Samaritan ( Luke 10:25-37) How often do  we truly understand the mercy we would want if we were the one in need and do we give that to others?

Transcript

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This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine. Hello and welcome to Shine. I am your host, Nicole Florence, and this week we're gonna talk a little bit about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. The greatest command that we have been given, of course, is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself. So this week we're going to talk about ways that we need to reflect on that, ways to practice that. And of course, the best parable to start off with is the parable of the Good Samaritan. We've all heard this in Sunday school and in church. It's been preached. Of course, I'm talking about Luke chapter 10, verse 25 and on, where we hear the story about a man who has been beaten. He has been beaten to the point where he is completely unrecognizable. And when you think about that, I think about the fact that for the most part, if I see someone, I can describe them. I can describe their height, you know, maybe their ethnicity, uh, what kind of hair, what kind of clothes they have on, that would allow me to give some description of who they are. But in this parable, we uh are really finding out how awfully um beaten this man was and was robbed. You know, he was stripped, um, he was left for half dead, and so no one could tell if he was um uh a Gentile, was he a Jew, was he a Greek, was he a Roman? Uh no one could probably tell if he was a tax collector, was he uh a priest, was he a father, um, what was his trade? What was his status in society? Um nothing. There was absolutely nothing that was recognizable about him. And as we go through the story, we know that the people who say uh they follow the law of the Old Testament, of course. People who say they are religious pass him by. They completely pass him by as someone who they feel is of lower status, someone they feel that yes, maybe I can help him, but will he be able to help me? They completely pass him by because at that time in that religious and political climate, you had to be careful who you helped. Um maybe you were going to be tainted in some way if you helped someone who was, you know, against uh what you preached or someone who was um not within the same belief system. And of course we find the the one person, the political person who was the one who was of greatest uh sin, so to speak, to uh the Hebrew people is the one who stopped. The one who truly saw the just pure vulnerability and pain and affliction on another human being and did not take into account all the other things, was the one who truly helped him, and not just helped him, but in abundance. We know, yes, I'm gonna find you a place to stay, I'm going to make sure you get what you need to heal, and then some, in a way that I know many of us we've we've done a time or two, but maybe not always. So we really have to think about how we show mercy, because that's what Jesus says. The good Samaritan was the one who showed mercy. And in all my years of hearing this parable, I always put myself as the passerby. I always thought to myself, well, if I would pass by, I would be the one that would stop and help no matter what. I would show mercy for anyone and everyone. Because that's what Jesus would want us to do. But the question is, is how do you show mercy? And part of understanding do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is to put yourself in the place of the one who was robbed, put yourself in the place of the one who was beaten, left for half dead, unrecognizable with nothing. And we need to ask ourselves what would we need? What would we want? What kind of mercy would we want shown upon us? Because too often we think we know what we should do, we think we know how to show mercy in a way that yes, shows that we are thinking about the other person, we are giving them what they need, but the reality is part of showing mercy is putting ourselves in the place of that person in need and asking ourselves, how would we want mercy shown upon us? Because the fact of the matter is we are all going to be that man on the side of the road. We are all going to be so afflicted, so downtrodden, we are going to be unrecognizable to ourselves and probably to our loved ones and truly in need of another's mercy. And so we have to ask ourselves in that moment, do I want someone to just, I don't know, fling a dollar or change at me and keep walking by? Do I want someone to maybe say kind words but not do anything, not you know, give anything behind them? Because yes, I enjoy kind words, but if I'm naked on the side of the road, y'all, I need clothes. I need someone to help sit me up. I need someone to help me heal my wounds. I need someone to find clothes and a comfortable bed. And most of all, I need someone to pray for me. I need someone to pray for me. So this week as we talk more about doing unto others, as we would have them do unto us, I think it's important for us to, yes, when we see those in need. How are we using our gifts of the Spirit to be that good neighbor? But we also need to understand that part of us showing mercy is having that empathy, that sympathy, that compassion of understanding what it's like to be that other person and what would we want done for us if we were the ones afflicted. So I hope you'll join me this week. I hope you'll share with a friend as we have these conversations and talk together as a community that walks with the spirit. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.