Who saves who?

Luke 10.25-37

25 There was a scholar of the law 11 who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"
27He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
28He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live."
29But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
32Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
33But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
34He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.
35The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.'
36Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
37He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Reflection "For the ride home" by Ted Burgh

•Does the Good Samaritan save the man attacked by robbers, or does the man attacked by robbers save the Good Samaritan?

•Consider how Jesus saves you by “the blood of the cross” and how you save others and others save you through “the blood of the cross.”

•Who are we called to save? How is it possible?

He says: It is a joy, a bliss, an endless delight to me that ever I suffered for you. And this is the bliss of Christ’s deeds, and this is what he means when he says: We are his bliss, we are his reward, we are his honour, we are his crown. For he still has that same thirst and longing which he had upon the Cross, which desire, longing and thirst, as I see it, were in him from without beginning…

For as truly as there is in God a quality of pity and compassion, so truly is there in God a quality of thirst and longing and the power of longing; and the power of this longing in Christ enables us to respond to this longing and without this no soul comes to heaven. And this quality of longing and thirst comes from God's everlasting goodness, and this is the characteristic of spiritual thirst, which will persist in him so long as we are in need, and will draw us up into his bliss.