Here is a devotion to start your day!
Also available now at Power, Love & Miracles:
Hidden Heroes of the Bible: The Empty Tomb. Chapters 10-12 [PLM+]
Thomas: Doubt- Doorway to Deeper Faith. The Bible Unplugged podcast, episode 74
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Hero: The “Good Samaritan”
Loving across boundaries and inconvenience
Scripture: Luke 10:25–37
But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Reflection
Jesus tells the story because someone asked a careful question: “And who is my neighbor?” The man wanted clarity, maybe limits. Jesus gives him a story that blows the limits wide open.
A traveler is beaten, robbed, and left half dead on the road. A priest comes by, sees him, and passes on the other side. A Levite does the same. Both are religious professionals, both perhaps busy, cautious, or afraid. They see, but they do not move to help.
Then comes a Samaritan—a man from a group despised by many Jews of that time. He has every reason to keep walking. The wounded man is likely from the very group that looks down on people like him. But when he sees the broken body by the road, something in him is moved with compassion.
He crosses a cultural distance much wider than the road. He bandages wounds, pours on oil and wine, lifts the man onto his own animal, and takes him to an inn. He pays for his care and promises to follow up. This is not a quick, symbolic gesture. This is costly love: time, money, energy, vulnerability.
Jesus’ question at the end cuts through all defenses: “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor?” The answer is clear—not the ones with the correct theology on paper, but the one who showed mercy.
You may not find yourself on a literal road to Jericho, but there are people “by the road” all around you—those who are hurting, excluded, or ignored. Some belong to groups you’re comfortable with. Others do not. Some are easy to love. Others stretch you.
Being an unassuming hero sometimes looks like choosing compassion over convenience, and mercy over tribal loyalty. It means crossing the road when it would be easier to keep your head down and walk on.
Centering Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You crossed the greatest distance to come to me in my brokenness. Thank You for this story that exposes my excuses and invites me to mercy. Open my eyes to the person by my path today, especially the one I’d rather avoid. Give me courage to cross the road and love with practical, costly kindness. – Amen
Practice for Today
Cross one “road” of inconvenience or difference. Reach out to someone outside your usual circle—different background, belief, or personality—with a tangible act of care.
Journaling Prompt
Who do I tend to walk past in my daily life, and what fears or assumptions keep me on the other side of the road?
Closing Blessing
Lift your eyes from your plans to the wounded by your path.
Let compassion outrun caution and convenience.
Bind up what you can, carry what you must, entrust the rest to God.
Choose to love those on the other side of your bias and boundaries.
Pray as You Go
Breathe in: Show me my neighbor…
Breathe out: … move my heart to care
