October 30
Scripture focus: Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?" He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself." "Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live." Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?" Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. "A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.' "What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" "The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, "Go and do the same." Luke 10:25-31 The Message
Spiritual renewal is learning how to do the next right thing in the moment – no more, no less. Jesus told a story that beautifully illustrates the limitations of spiritual renewal. A Samaritan – the kind of person in Jesus’ day that was considered disreputable by nature of where he came from – shows us how to live a renewed life.
“…his heart went out to him…” Jesus says that meant that he took care of him, made him comfortable and then made provision for him to find respite as he healed.
What the Samaritan didn’t do:
· He didn’t perform a miraculous healing, he positioned the man in a place for God to help, transform and create.
· He didn’t assume that he could provide for all the man’s needs; but he did aid in a way that was appropriate for his resources.
· He didn’t stop being responsible for his own life in order to rescue the wounded man from his suffering.
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Spiritual renewal sometimes seems like an impossible assignment because we confuse God’s part with ours. On any given day, if God asks you to be ye transformed and aid a fellow sojourner, you can trust him to provide you with the resources to do so. This won’t guarantee the response of the sufferer. But I hope it encourages you to live large as you trust God.
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