Dan Berry • August 11, 2026
Scripture: Luke 10:25–37
The story of the Good Samaritan is probably known by most people, it is often remembered as a lesson about kindness and compassion. It certainly is that—but I would like to submit that Jesus intended it to be much more. It is also a harsh critique of religious passivity.
The priest and the Levite were deeply religious men. They knew the Scriptures. They led worship. They represented the faith. Yet when confronted with a wounded man lying on the side of the road, they walked past him. They looked and saw, but moved on. Their religion never became mercy.
Then Jesus introduces the hero of the story—a Samaritan. To His Jewish audience, that would have been shocking. Samaritans were viewed as outsiders, people who didn’t worship correctly and weren’t considered part of the faithful community. Yet it was this outsider who stopped, crossed the road, cared for the wounded man, and paid the cost of his healing.
Sometimes God uses the very people we least expect to teach us what mercy looks like. The Samaritan reminds us that compassion is not determined by religious labels, cultural identity, or theological agreement. Mercy is measured by a willingness to see another person’s pain and respond with love. That truth challenges us to examine our own assumptions. Are there people we’ve dismissed because they don’t fit our expectations? Could God be using them to reveal something about His heart that we’ve overlooked?
Jesus’ message is impossible to miss: if those of us who claim to know God fail to practice justice and mercy, God is not limited to using them. He will raise up others who are willing to love their neighbors.
This is something that has always bothered me. That God would have to use someone else because I wasn’t willing to respond. God invites His people to be His hands and feet in a hurting world, but His work will not stop if we refuse. The question is not whether God’s compassion will reach the wounded. The question is whether we will be part of it.
Today, ask yourself: Who is lying on the side of my road? It may be someone who is hurting physically, emotionally, spiritually, or socially. Don’t let religious activity replace a compassionate response to someone in need. Cross the road. Show mercy. Become the neighbor Jesus calls you to be.
Prayer
Lord, forgive me for the times I’ve been so busy being religious that I’ve missed opportunities to show Your love. Open my eyes to those who are hurting around me. Give me the courage to cross the road, the compassion to stop, and the willingness to act. May my faith be seen not only in what I believe, but in how I do the work of love.
He has pastored for forty years in Iowa. After pastoring in predominantly white spaces for several years, he began to realize the need to bring about racial healing in the body of Christ. For the last 30 years he has worked to bridge ethnic and cultural divides, a work that has led him into confronting the churches complicity in upholding systems of racism.
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