Kindness: The Not-So-Secret Code to a Better World | 7/13/25
-
When have you experienced kindness that made a lasting impact on you?
Jesus used a Samaritan—a cultural outsider—as the model of mercy.
What does that say about who God can use to teach and inspire us.
Think of a time when you had an opportunity to help but chose not to.
What held you back? How might the Samaritan’s courage challenge your future responses?
Where do you see injustice or harm in your world that needs a compassionate response?
How might God be calling you to move toward, rather than away from, that pain?
How does understanding God's kindness (or chesed) toward you influence how you treat others?
Where do you need to open your heart more fully to the Spirit’s work of compassion?
Transcript:
The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We are at the midway point today as we go through these characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. Today, we look at kindness. And boy, does the world need kindness right now. So this is going to give us an opportunity to reflect on what kindness looks like when it shows up in the world, when we choose to be people who are kind.
I saw this quote this week: “Kindness is more important than wisdom.” And the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. We need kindness. Kindness has a way of changing the atmosphere, doesn't it? When people show up in kindness.
One of the things that we have been doing in recent weeks is thinking about ways to communicate these characteristics of the Fruit of the Spirit with kids. And so, a couple of weeks ago, if you were here, I shared a resource—a kid's book by our friend and colleague, Reverend Doctor Latricia Scriven, called “When Jesus Laughs,” when we were talking about joy. This morning, I want to recommend this one to you: “Kindness is My Superpower.” Great book for sharing with kids to talk about the concept of kindness.
Well, this morning we're going to look at a story from the Gospels, and it's a story that is likely very familiar to you. The parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells that story in response to a question that comes to him from someone about “who is my neighbor?” As we listen to the story today, let's pay attention to the way kindness shows up. So, as I read through this in just a moment, I'm going to pause along the way just to give some context for what is happening in the story as we hear it. Before we do that, let's take a moment and offer a word of prayer.
Come, Holy Spirit, and breathe life into the words that I speak that they might carry a word from you into our hearts and lives this morning. Amen.
The story begins this way: a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, when it says a man went down, that is quite literal. The distance from Jerusalem to Jericho is approximately 18 miles. And over that 18 miles, if you were to travel that way, you would descend about a half a mile, 3000 feet. Jerusalem being a city that's about 2500ft above sea level. Jericho being several hundred feet below sea level. Now, if any of you have ever done a hike that changes significantly in altitude, you know that that's not an easy thing, whether you're going up or down.
It's a challenge. And especially in those times, in the times when Jesus was telling this story, the route that people would have traveled would have taken them through a canyon where the terrain would have been uneven and unsteady. It would have been difficult for them to follow. And not only was the terrain itself treacherous, but there were often bandits along the way who might be hiding out behind any corner or nook or cranny in the rock formations, ready to attack unsuspecting travelers on the road.
So people who would hear that at the beginning of a story, knowing what the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is like, would not be surprised by the next thing that Jesus says in the story. He encountered thieves who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now, it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road.
Now, a lot of ink has been spilled about the priest and then the Levite that we're going to hear about in a minute, and the decisions that they make. What I want to pay attention to today is not the specificity of who they are, but the way that in this story Jesus sets up two different responses to a person who is in need, and the word that shows up in various forms over the course of this story is the word erkhomai, which is the Greek word for to come or to come by.
So in this part of the story, we hear that the priest was going down the same road, and when he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side. The version of erkhomai that shows up there is a version that literally means he went opposite to where the man was. He went to the opposite side and he went on his way.
He sees the man. He knows the man is hurt. He likely knows that there is still a risk present for himself. And so he makes the decision to cross over self-preservation. Maybe. Who knows? But he continues on his way and doesn't get involved. Likewise, the story continues. A Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road, and that same version of erkhomai was used again.
He went opposite from the man and went on his way. Two travelers, two sightings of a man who is desperately in need of help. Two decisions to go opposite from where that man is and stay clear of danger themselves. Then the story continues with the introduction of a third person, a Samaritan, and just the hearing of the word Samaritan might have caused a little disruption for those who were listening to this story.
Now, the complexities of the tension between Judeans and Samaritans are way too broad to delve into in the context of this morning, but suffice it to say that there was significant animosity between these two tribes of people separated as two parts of the Kingdom of Israel after the time of Solomon.
They have significant hatred for one another, and a Samaritan is introduced at this point in the story, who also was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. He went to him. And here, a different version of that word, erkhomai, is used. And it's a version that means to move toward, to go closer. And the story continues.
Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days' worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper.
Now I want you to think in your own head for just a moment, two days' wages. Do a quick calculation of what that is and what this Samaritan, whose people are at significant odds with the people who this man lying on the side of the road is a part of. And the Samaritan spends two days' wages of his own to make sure that this man is cared for.
He said, take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. And God's people say, thanks be to God.
I'm sure that many of you are familiar with a saying that I see pop up from time to time: “Kindness doesn't cost a thing.” Now, there are some situations where that statement rings loud and clear. There are things that we can do to be kind that don't cost a thing. As we listen to this story today, though, I want us to dive in and hear what the Samaritan can teach us about kindness, and specifically how in order to show up with kindness, sometimes it may be quite costly and therefore particular lessons that I think we can draw from this story about kindness.
The first is that kindness sometimes demands courage. Kindness is not always the path of least resistance, or the most expedient, or the easiest, or the most convenient way for us to choose. I see and hear a lot of voices showing up today, where the first response is not kindness at all. There's a lot of ugliness in the world, and so it takes courage to show up with kindness.
In our story today, the Samaritan takes a significant risk in order to help– in order to show kindness. He could have followed the same way that the two before him have chosen, but instead, the Samaritan chooses to move toward the man, knowing what risks are involved on that road, knowing the potential danger that he might even be putting himself in at that moment.
We need more courageous kindness in our world today, friends. We need to be able to take risks sometimes to go toward somebody instead of moving away from them or going opposite of them. A friend of mine in ministry talks about this idea of leaning in toward another person to learn more about them, to understand more of who they are. And that kind of kindness demands courage.
The second lesson we might draw from this story of the Samaritans' action is that sometimes kindness looks a lot like mercy. Now there's a word in Greek that is in this story today that you get to learn today, and we're going to have a little fun with because the word is: splagchnizomai.
Splagchnizomai gets translated to “move with compassion,” and the literal translation of that is “moved within his bowels,” which in New Testament times was the understanding of the seedbed of all of our strongest feelings and emotions, the place from which love and empathy and compassion emerge.
So when the Samaritan sees the man on the side of the road, this man who is not one of his own, this man who is different, but this man who is in pain, the Samaritan is splagchnizomai, moved with compassion. The Samaritan sees another human being in need and recognizes their shared humanity. And in that moment, nothing else matters.
Compassion is closely related to mercy and to help see the connection between kindness and mercy we only have to go as far as the Hebrew Scriptures and see how many times a word is used there to describe the character of God that the prophet Micah also calls us to emulate. The word is chesed, a word that sometimes gets translated to kindness, sometimes mercy, sometimes steadfast love.
It's the word that is used in that famous verse from Micah chapter six, verse eight, where he says, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love”– chesed, which, depending on which translation you're reading, may say in your Bible, kindness or mercy or loving kindness. “Kindness,” Robert Green Ingersoll says, “is the sunshine in which virtue grows, and when kindness is offered in the form of mercy, good things happen.”
Have you noticed that when you are kind to others, it's not only good for you, but it may change the outcome of a situation. Another person is more likely to respond positively to kindness than they are to ugliness or to mean-spiritedness. Kindness is a gift that we can offer one another, and kindness as mercy does not keep score.
Roy T. Bennett says this: “Treat everyone with kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.” The kindness to which we are called is not contingent on another's practice. It is supposed to come up from deep within us as the response that we choose.
The third lesson from this story we might take is that kindness does not look past or ignore evil, injustice, and oppression. Kindness does not practice avoidance. The first two people who come along that road choose to go to the opposite side. The Samaritan chooses to go toward, because what he sees is distressing, and he will respond to it. The Samaritan sees a victim, and he moves into action. It doesn't matter that he's not a member of his tribe. What has happened to him, to this man on the road, is wrong, and he needs help.
Sometimes, there are easy ways, simple ways for us to extend kindness to someone and help someone in need. Sometimes it can be challenging, and it requires significant risk on our part not to look past what we see and to instead approach it and respond to it. I think of some significant examples from the past century. I think of German Christians who stood up for what was right and chose to provide hiding places for Jewish people living in Germany at the time, trying to shield them from the horrors that were happening.
I think of those Hutus in Rwanda in the early 1990s, when their Tutsi neighbors were being persecuted by those who were seeking to eliminate Tutsis and tried to harbor them as best as they could. I think of white South Africans who denounced apartheid as sinful and as wrong, and sought to establish a more just society in their country.
And I wonder, in our own time, where might we be asked to show up and to speak up out of kindness on behalf of people who are being harmed? Kindness does not look past or ignore evil, injustice, and oppression.
And lastly, kindness shows up even when it's unpopular. The impetus for Jesus telling this story was somebody asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” And when he asked the question, he wanted to put some boundaries on who he had to consider as his neighbor. He wanted to know the limits to which he had to go in order to be neighborly. And the story that Jesus tells about a Samaritan being the one who shows up, blows the top off of any limits that might be put on that category.
Jesus essentially is saying, everyone is your neighbor because everyone is a child of God. And that means that kindness shows up in spaces where others might not expect it, even when it's unpopular, even when it may be for someone else that others might want to choose to ignore.
The world needs more kindness today. The world needs us, the church, to show up in kindness. There's a movement that started some 30 years ago called Random Acts of Kindness. I'm sure many of you have seen or read something about that and maybe even put some of those ideas into practice. And what I would say today is that every random act of kindness is a wonderful act of kindness.
We need to be more than random. We need to be intentional. We need to make conscious decisions to show up in kindness, to decide that we are going to be people who model kindness for others. Sometimes we can set the example in simple ways. We can open a door. We can say “hello" with a smile and eye contact.
We can learn people's names. We can help a neighbor with a home project. We can help a stranger on the street. We can deliver a meal. We can visit someone who is sick or shut in. We can see people, really see people. And sometimes kindness will mean recognizing that there is a cost and courage required to show up and to speak up on behalf of people who are being harmed.
Henry James says this: “Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind.”
Friends, be kind, and may your kindness to others be a blessing that finds its way back to you. Amen.