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The Chibi News Daily Reflection
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Hi, I'm Chris Tufnell, a vicar in the Church of England. If people have heard of any of Jesus' parables, his stories
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they've probably heard of the Good Samaritan. It's worked its way into our language
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We might call someone a Good Samaritan. The Samaritans are an organisation you can call on the phone if you need help
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But the original surprise in Jesus telling that story is that the people he was speaking to didn't think there were any good Samaritans
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It would be like telling a story today about the generous banker or the unambitious politician
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And that was the genius of Jesus' story. His audience had very strong and deep disagreements with the Samaritans about things that mattered
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And yet, in the story, when one of their own was beaten up and left for dead
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the only passerby who went out of his way to help him was a Samaritan
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It's a powerful story displaying the beauty of loving those we disagree with
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I think it's right to say that as a society, we're not very good at loving those we disagree with
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By loving, I don't mean feeling warm and fuzzy. I mean treating people with love, kindness, honour, generosity
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giving the benefit of the doubt, that kind of thing. We're allowed to disagree. It would be pretty boring if we never did
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But Jesus taught that it should be possible to profoundly disagree and profoundly love at the same time
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And when Christians think of Jesus dying on the cross for us
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we're reminded that Jesus practiced what he preached
