Tim’s Daily Bread Devotional 10.15.21

By October 15, 2021Daily Bread

Good morning!

I hope this day finds you and your family well. I invite you to take a few moments with me to read and reflect upon today’s scripture selection — and to carry these thoughts with you into your day.

Today’s Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Several historical details from ancient Judea help to illuminate the rhetorical force of this famous example story. The most important is Jesus’ choice of location to set the story — the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

In antiquity, this road was known to be treacherous with dangers both natural and human. The Greek word for the type of “inn” to which the Samaritan brings the wounded man was a public lodging place with hired servants, a step up from the informal type of “inn,” which was really a guest room, in which Mary and Joseph could not find room (Luke 2:7).

And the amount of money provided by the Samaritan, “two denarii” (v. 35), would have been more than enough to take care of the wounded man. A denarius was equivalent to one day’s wage, so we can imagine in our modern world how much money that would be to spend on a stranger. Roman historians confirm that since two denarii could provide a month’s food for a healthy adult male, the amount could probably have provided food, lodging, and special care for this man for well over a week.

The Samaritan had several good reasons not to stop. First, the wounded man is apparently not a Samaritan. The man on the side of the road would likely hate the Samaritan under normal circumstances. Second, this traveling Samaritan has a valuable beast of burden— a mule or horse or ox — and third, he has enough money on him to give two denarii to the innkeeper and promise him whatever more he may need. In all likelihood, there is a gang of robbers in the area who could attack him at any moment.

The Samaritan not only stops to help the wounded man, but he also takes the time to do what he can there at the roadside before moving the man to safety. He administers first aid —  wine as a cleansing disinfectant, oil as a soothing healing aid, and bandages for comfort and cleanliness. Only then does the Samaritan carefully move the traveler to the safety of the inn.

After Jesus told this story, he asked his own questions again: “What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”

Then the legal expert said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus simply said, “Go and do likewise.”

Without doubt, Jesus urges the legal expert to assist those in need as did the Samaritan. At the same time, Jesus also forced the lawyer to make a revolutionary admission and to change his perspective on Samaritans.

The admission is that a Samaritan can be good. (Remember, Jews and Samaritans hated each other.) I wonder if the lawyer left scratching his head and asking, “What just happened here?  I asked him ‘Who is my neighbor?’ and he told me to go and BE a neighbor to others and he even gave a dirty, rotten, filthy Samaritan as an example of being a neighbor!”

I would guess that if Jesus were talking today to Israeli Jews, he would have the good neighbor be a Palestinian. If he were talking to Palestinians, he would have the good neighbor be an Israeli Jew.  Either way, the message is about as clear as it could be: don’t waste your time and energy trying to figure out who is in and who is out, who God loves and who God doesn’t, who is acceptable and who isn’t. 

Oh, the time and energy we’ve wasted on that question!

Instead, Jesus says, go and do what the Samaritan did.  Take the time, energy, effort, and our own resources to help another person in need—even a person very different from ourselves. Even a person whom our culture, traditions and religious norms all say we’re supposed to hate — or at the very least with whom we are to have no contact at all.

In other words, Jesus’ answer to the question, Who is my neighbor? Is Don’t worry about that — just go and BE a neighbor.

Thank you for sharing this moment of your day with me, with God, and with these words of scripture and reflection.

Grace and Peace,


Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor