Storytellers: Week 6
Student Ministry Director Shawn Colacchia focuses on the parable of the Good Samaritan September 3rd for our final message in the Storytellers series.
The story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most beloved and well-known parables Jesus ever told. But it’s easy to allow our familiarity with this story to obscure its radical nature. In Jesus’ day, the Samaritans and the Jews were enemies culturally, politically, and ethnically, and it would have been scandalous for a Jewish teacher to make a Samaritan the hero of any story.
Keep this in mind and read the parable (Luke 10:29-37) with fresh eyes, Then, discuss the following questions:
Who are your neighbors? Name some people who have shown great kindness to you, and some to whom you have shown great kindness. In what ways are you alike, and in what ways are you different?
Would any of these neighbors qualify as “enemies”, or at the very least, as people who are different from you culturally, politically, ethnically, or socio-economically? If the answer is no, why do you think this is the case? If the answer is yes, reflect on what you have in common.
Do you find it easier to come to the aid of someone else, or to receive help from someone else? How might giving and receiving help both be neighborly acts?
Where in your life can you actively engage in being a neighbor to someone who appears different from you?
Close in prayer: “God, we ask that you would place us in such situations, giving us both the wisdom to recognize them, and the strength to love others well. Amen.”
