Day 6: The other side
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side" (Luke 10:30-32).
Lord of all, God of unfailing compassions, ever-renewing mercies, inexhaustible love, You call us to love You with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Luke 10:27).
But because we are typically experts about the abstract, seeking to justify ourselves, You decisively answered for us the direct challenge, "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29). Moreover, You answered the unspoken question, "What is love?"—for You know the reality: Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find? (Proverbs 20:6).
And so, not just in Your parable, but in the ultimate sacrifice of Your life, You show us what love is: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16); and You tell us to "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37) —You tell us that we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). Yet, Lord, this does not come naturally to us—it is a work of Your supernatural grace.
So many times, we have been—we are—that priest, that Levite—recalculating, averting, avoiding, neglecting, ignoring...How much easier it is for us to see the deserted and the dying, the waylaid and the wounded, from the other side—the other side of our views, the other side of our experiences, the other side of our expectations, the other side of our demands, the other side of our judgment!
Forgive us, O Lord for passing by our fellow-travelers on the road. Forgive us our outward show—our priestly phylacteries, our Levitical tassels. Forgive us for imagining ourselves to be in the place of God, when indeed we are far from the place of compassion, the place of mercy, the place of love.
We know that love is possible only through Your Spirit in us (Romans 5:5, Galatians 5:22, 1 John 4:19). Fill us with Your Spirit. Teach us to love not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth (1 John 3:18).
Give us today and every day, compassion for the battered and the broken, the weak and the weary. Heighten our awareness. Open our eyes to see, our hearts to love, our arms to embrace, our hands to minister.
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