Luke 10: Growing in compassion

Cadet Hannah Carr calls us to show God’s love in our lives.

Key texts

Luke 10:25–37

Don't know about you, but for me motivation can sometimes be a real sticking point. Having worked in challenge events, I really admire those who have the motivation and determination to run a marathon or take on a new challenge, motivated by the incentive of doing good. Over the years, I’ve had to learn how best to work in order to maximise motivation. Often this includes an incentive or reward of my own.

In the parable of the good Samaritan, motivation is a key factor. The expert in the Law was motivated by a desire to justify himself, to test Jesus, and to find a loophole in the teaching. The good Samaritan, who is motivated by love and compassion, contrasts this.

The parable Jesus tells is not merely a story of charity or service but one of love. Serving is a huge part of loving others, yet, if our service is rooted in self-gain, it is not truly loving others as God has commanded. In order to grow in our compassion, we must ensure that our love of others is rooted in the love of God – in our love of God. Loving others is not about what we do or how we act. It is about who we are.

Pause and reflect

What motivates you to be compassionate towards the people around you?

Jesus intends the Samaritan man to be an example. He is set apart from the rest of the characters as a parallel to Jesus. His motivation for helping goes deeper than just service – it is compassion and love. We can see this in three ways.

First, despite any inconvenience to himself, the Samaritan stopped.

We don’t know why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop. Maybe they had places to be or were worried about their own journeys. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notoriously dangerous. In the space of 20 miles, the road dropped 3,600 feet. It was narrow and rocky, a haven for bandits and thieves, and described in the fifth century by early Christian theologian Jerome as the ‘bloody way’. Maybe the priest and Levite were so concerned with their own safety and wellbeing that they didn’t want to risk sticking around and being attacked by bandits.

However, the good Samaritan did stop. He risked his own safety to stay, ignored any inconveniences to himself and continued.

Pause and reflect

What sort of inconveniences might stop you from loving people around you?
How might you overcome them?

Second, the Samaritan didn’t consider what other people would think.

Samaritans were a hated people. During the time of the 10-tribe Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria was the capital city. After the kingdom was destroyed by Assyria, Samaritan survivors inter-married with the invaders. In Southern Kingdom eyes, this was a betrayal of the true faith. Consequently, 700 years of distrust and discrimination followed.

On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, it was one of the people being discriminated against who took the plunge and showed mercy on those who hated them. Imagine what his family might have said if he returned home and told them he had helped a Jewish man.

Here is raw, demonstrated mercy. All judgements, history of hurt and engrained divisions are put aside in favour of love. Through the parable, Jesus calls for abandonment of all status, privilege, exclusiveness and division from whatever cause. He pleads for unprecedented and immediate mercy. The forgiveness demonstrated by the Samaritan mirrors the forgiveness on the cross by Jesus, who forgave the sins of all humanity even though humans were the ones who sentenced him to death.

Pause and reflect

What divisions might be prevalent in your life?
Can you think of any hurt from previous relationships that you may need to surrender?
In prayer, watch God transform your pain.

We must be motivated by the law that Jesus sets out for us: to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbour.

Third, the Samaritan went the extra mile. We can tell that his help was rooted in love and mercy, rather than just practical help, because of the way he acted afterwards. If this had simply been a demonstration of how to give aid to people in need, he would have bandaged the wounded man and gone on his way. Maybe he would have given him the bandages and told him to do it himself. However, the Samaritan bandaged the man, put him on his own donkey, took him to an inn and cared for him. His care was rooted in love and mercy, the same love and mercy that Jesus demonstrated.

Pause and reflect

How can you see the love of God in your life?
Take a moment to thank him for his boundless love.

If we are to grow in compassion ourselves, we must first look at the compassion of God and follow his example. His is boundless love, uninterrupted mercy that is not limited by anything.

In Mark 12:28–34, Jesus declares that the greatest commandment of all is to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. If this is the greatest commandment, this is surely what he asks us to do – to love God above anything else in our lives. We must be motivated by the law that Jesus sets out for us: to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbour. Only through this love can we receive eternal life as Jesus promises.