Daily Bible Reading 26th August 2026 // Luke 10:25-37
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
We spoke earlier of the fact of the compassion of Christ, and that this parable illustrates the kind of compassion we need to show if we are to be true Disciples of Christ. But what we must recognize is that compassion in disciples has a source, and that source is the compassion of Christ. And, whether it was intended or not, Jesus, in the parable of the Good Samaritan gives a perfect description of Himself in the words He uses of the Samaritan: 'When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine'. Look at the sequence: He saw - He had compassion - He came. That is the gospel, the gospel of redeeming grace. These simple words underlie the whole mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. It was not man's merits, but his misery, that drew Him forth from the glory into the brokenness of the world. It is surely fanciful to seek an allegorical meaning for every single phrase of the parable, but this message about compassion is, at all events, scarcely open to question. For one thing, it stands in what is almost a direct line of succession to a notable passage in Ezekiel 16:5-14, which also mirrors the redeeming grace of God in the gospel and the faithful, covenant God reaching out, in love and compasssion, to lift up broken lives and transform them. As for the self regarding attitude of the priest and the Levite which prevented them acting with the compassion that the poor victim's need demanded, it is the gospel alone that can deal with such self-centredness. This is why He came to die for us, to break the power of self in our lives, to give us a new heart and a new spirit, to plant a spirit of love and compassion in us, to live His life of compassion in us. And that is a more important lesson for us to learn than to be able, with whatever ingenuity, to find improbable allegories in the simple words of Jesus.