What I have belongs to my heavenly father and I will share it with you.
Luke 10:33-37
A man from Samaria then came travelling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.
The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”
Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”
The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.” Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”
The Samaritan brings to our attention the third attitude towards stewardship that we should all embrace. “What I have belongs to my father in heaven and I will share it with you.” Many of us would be willing to help if it did not cost us much or if it did not inconvenience us. When helping means we have to go out of our way, or if it will disrupt our routine, or if it will mean that we sacrifice some of our comforts, many of us will opt out. Consider how helping the stranger cost the Samaritan;
• He had to use his olive oil and wine to bind up the man’s wounds, meaning that if he needed the same on his journey to bind up any wounds, he would have none.
• He put the man on his donkey meaning that now he had to walk instead of having the luxury of riding on his donkey.
• It cost him money to book the man into an inn and to ensure that he was well taken off meaning that he would have to forego some important things on his journey.
• He had to take a detour on his journey just to help this man whom he knew nothing about. This cost him time and most probably delayed him because he was on a journey.
• It also meant that he had to come back and check on this man to make sure that all was ok and if the inn keeper had spent any extra money on our injured friend then he had to reimburse him.
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Honestly, how many of us would do all this for a stranger? For some of us, we may find it hard to do this for a close relative, yet Christ tells us to go and do likewise.
Do you show more kindness to believers’ than to those who do not confess Christ?
Or maybe you are kinder to those of the same tribe as you are?
The Samaritans attitude towards stewardship was:
“What I have belongs to my father in heaven and I will share it with you.”
He was not concerned that the man was not a Samaritan like him, all he saw was a fellow human being in need and he was more than willing to help no matter how much it inconvenienced or cost him.
I will be the first one to admit, it is easier said than done, but it is not impossible.
May we like the Good Samaritan first see the image of God in the strangers we meet as opposed to the other barriers that divide us.
