I KNOW YOU SEE ME! Luke 10: 30-33 Copy and Paste link to LISTEN NOW… Greetings! BlogFam, So now we find ourselves at The Parable of the Good Samaritan. We can actually all learn a lot from the Master’s handling of this expert in this passage – a few lessons have already been acknowledged in our previous posts; however, I do want to stress that, in LOVE we must react, retort, respond, or reply just as Jesus did. In reply to the expert’s pressing question – AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? Jesus tells a story. This might sound like a strange way to address any question but the stories that Jesus tells in the Gospels are stories that drive home a larger point always directing the listeners – and now the readers – to the Kingdom of God. These stories are called parables and the profound lessons in the simplistic details of these stories are a remarkable way of establishing God’s Kingdom in the hearts and minds of all people. 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 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. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. What a SAD situation!?!?! I cannot imagine being the man who was attacked, robbed and left to die alone. I do not want to imagine that for anyone I love, like, or even have a few issues with. I would not want that kind of experience to happen to anyone. BlogFam, I believe that many of you might just feel the same way. I think for the most part, most of you want others – whether they are strange or familiar to you – to be OK. I think we all feel some kind of sympathy for this man or any person who goes through devastating, depressing, or deadly circumstances. I mean, I am almost 100% positive that when you see the images of people who are starving or homeless or living with incurable diseases or orphans or blind or physically/mentally challenged, your heart feels some kind of way and deep down, maybe way deep down you want things to work out as best as they can for them. And you most certainly would not want the script to be flipped. At the same time, what do you DO with what you SEE? I know you see, I see, we all SEE dire situations of people all around us and while our hearts and perhaps our prayers, as well, go out to them, unfortunately, we most often choose to HIDE, IGNORE, WALK AWAY from what we know we have seen. A priest saw this wounded man and passed by on the other side. A Levite saw this wounded man and passed by on the other side. How many times have you seen the type of people your heart goes out to and STILL passed by on the other side? I know we really do not want to think of ourselves in this way. We do not want to admit that we more readily identify with the Priest and the Levite in this story. We do not want to admit it but our actions are strong indications that we do. Now, BlogFam, this is safe space and its just you and me so be honest, what if you were the man in this parable who was attacked and left for dead on the side of the road? What if YOU were that person and YOU were treated EXACTLY the way you treat those whom you have SEEN in horrific situations and you kept on walking? What if YOU were treated the way you DO treat others and not just the way you think you deserve to be treated? This makes one truly re-consider a lot of things because at some level, I think that we would want help from SOMEBODY, almost ANYBODY, if we found ourselves at the end of our rope! Friends, this is a sad story and the truth is that we too often treat people sadly. We do. It’s true. The mercy of the Samaritan is RARE and often limited to the confines of those we see and want to help because of what we might get out of it or to satisfy our egotistical need for public appreciation or because you owe somebody a favor or you want to be in a position to hold this good deed over someone’s head or maybe you just want bragging rights! Whatever your motive, it needs to be checked! And we ALL need to check our hearts motivation because our heart’s condition affects our eyes vision. I know you see, I see, we see so many things that we really would rather NOT see but the reality is, we do see and what do we do with what we see? Well, many times, we follow the lead of the Priests and the Levites in our own lives. We follow the lead of OUR Pastors, Ministry Leaders, Praise and Worship leaders, Deacons, Apostles, Bishops, Mothers, Prophets, Choir Directors, Teachers, Activists, Politicians, Economists, Doctors, Lawyers, and so on and so forth. We FOLLOW their lead as they lead us to pass by on the other side forgetting what we see or somehow convincing ourselves that what we see is NOT our responsibility!!! So, you see, I see, we see and we keep on walking by what we see and here, Jesus reminds us that what we see and what we have seen IS an opportunity to DO, to SERVE, to LOVE our neighbor as we LOVE ourselves. Jesus begins to remind us that YES she is and YES he is – WHOMEVER they are – THEY are our neighbor. I know you see me I also know you don’t want to see me But I’m here and you’re here And we are here because we see Each other We see the truth and We see the lies and We both see that you might be the next to walk on by But then again Perhaps you’ve changed Because I think you said you knew His Name So if He sees Which I do believe Then through your eyes My hope is not denied So I wonder if you will stop Or keep walking by what you see I wonder if on today God will get all the glory But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he SAW him, he took pity on him and so must we. And tomorrow we will see just how much pity he took… GOD LOVES YOU AND I DO TOO!!! Blessings, Delesslyn FOLLOW on Twitter @AudraSunshine or @SpiritedConcept SUBSCRIBE to get the blog updates sent directly to yoru email AND Listen online every Sunday to KIDS KORNER RADIO PROGRAM at 4:15cst/5:15est at www.wigoam.com