← 04 · LoveDay 23 of 40

Go and do likewise

Which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers? He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."Luke 10:36–37

The lawyer asked "who is my neighbor?", a question about the boundary of obligation. Jesus told a story in which the religious people walk past and the foreigner stops, and then he turned the question inside out: not "who is my neighbor" but "who acted as one." Neighbor is a verb. And the story is about the Samaritan's seeing rather than the wounded man's deserving. He saw, and was moved, and stopped.

Today's practice

Today, stop for one person you would normally walk past. Something small and real. See them first; the rest follows.

The fast

Daily fast. Tomorrow is a full fast day whose meals go to someone else; decide tonight who.

Kept on this device only.