Today in Church
Whoever wants to become great, must be a servant to others.
Mark 10:45 Jesus says, “For even I didn't come to be served but to serve others and give my life as a ransom for many.”
You were created to serve, you are saved to serve, and serving others is the way to serve God!
There are many parables in the Bible about serving others but one of the most popular, and my favorite is the parable of The Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:25–37.
The parable starts with a Jewish expert in the law asking Jesus, “what must I do to receive eternal life?”. Since the Jewish expert was an expert in law, he thought he already knew the answer but wanted to know what Jesus would say. But Jesus knew what he was thinking, so Jesus asked, “what is written in the law?”.
The expert said,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus agreed with this but the expert wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
So, Jesus told him a story.
A man was traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. These robbers stripped him of his clothes, beat him and left him to die. While this man laid on the ground half dead, a priest happened to be traveling down this same road, and when he saw the half dead man, he passed him on the other side of the road to avoid him.
Then a Levite (an assistant to priests) came down the same road and saw the man, but he passed by on the other side too.
Finally, Jesus said, a Samaritan (a person from Samaria) came along. But Jews and Samaritans didn't get along. You would never expect a Samaritan to help because they could not stand each other. But Jesus said, when the Samaritan saw the man, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, put the man on his donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, the Samaritan paid the inn-keeper to look after the Jew until he was able to come back.
Jesus then asked the expect in law, “which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
The expert did not want to admit it was the Samaritan but he replied, “the one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
In other words, go and love everyone, even people we don’t like or people we want to avoid.
