I’ve heard, read and spoken on the Good Samaritan story so many times. It’s a powerful story – but I keep reminding myself, particularly in the world we live in today, that it’s more than a good story. It’s a radical instruction. It’s a call to not embrace the message that those different to us are to be feared.

Jesus ends the story with this call: “Go and do likewise”. Love those not like yourself, pursue good for them, show mercy, get your hands dirty for your neighbour and stanger in need. Pursue justice for them. That’s what God’s love looks like with skin on Jesus says.

“Go and do likewise!”

That’s a constant challenge for me. I can’t say that I have fully embraced this instruction. It’s a work in progress. It’s easy to love people like me, people inside my “comfort zone”. But I need to keep moving beyond comfortable spaces. I need, like the Samaritan man in the story, to keep stepping into unfamiliar spaces to come alongside those not like me.

Yes Jesus, help me to embrace more and more of your radical love and compassion for others.