“But
a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him,
he had compassion on him … (Luke 10:33 KJV).
It is common to all of us, we need a bit of nudging to get us past our prejudices. Our eyes are often blinded by the appearance
of others. We cannot see beyond their
ethnicity, their clothing, their religion, their color and even their demeanor
or attitude. We do not see their heart,
character, motives, activities or even their abilities or generosity. We cannot see deeper because we have stopped
looking as we have chosen to shut our eyes to the person in front of us.
Jesus gives us the story of the Good Samaritan as a timeless reminder
that character, compassion and generosity are never determined by ethnic or
religious appearances but are matters of the heart, compassion and authenticity of faith.
Sometimes God simply has to intervene. He
came to Peter in a vision and sometimes He uses the Word and His Spirit to help
us to open our eyes to see others as they truly are and to see our own prejudices.
God had to tell Peter three times that
all foods were good to eat … literally giving him a great object lesson about
the universal nature of the Gospel. God
saw and honored the faithfulness, humbleness and desire of Cornelius to come to
Him. God moved Peter to go far beyond all that he could see and understand to both welcome and encourage
Cornelius on journey to find salvation in a God full of grace for any and all.
If we are honest … we do close our eyes to
really see those around us. A simple
prayer like the following prayer, might need to be daily offered up to our
gracious Lord to help us become like our Lord.
Dear Lord, Open our eyes to see like You
see and love like You love that we might become like You. Amen
“Then Peter began to speak: “I now
realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every
nation the one who fears him and does what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35 NIV).
Suggested Bible Reading … Luke 10 &
Acts 10
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