Who Is This Man? March 15, 2026

In this guided meditation, Jen Shoutta invites you to slow down, breathe deeply, and reflect on the message shared at Southeast Christian Church on Sunday, March 15, 2026. This episode offers a quiet space to prayerfully process the sermon, allowing its truth to move from head knowledge into heart transformation.

Through Scripture, reflection prompts, and moments of stillness, you’ll be gently guided to listen for God’s voice, notice what is stirring in your spirit, and consider how the message speaks into your everyday life. Whether you’re revisiting the sermon or engaging with it for the first time, this meditation is designed to help you encounter Jesus personally and carry His truth with you throughout your week.

Click here to watch the sermon.

You can reach Jen at jen.shoutta@southeastcc.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to a time of worship and prayer to connect with our Creator, heart, soul, and mind. In Matthew 22, the Sadducees ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is. His answer is twofold. He replies, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So, friends, this time is a time set aside for us to worship and pray, not only with our minds, but with our hearts and our souls, so that we can be transformed from the inside out and love our neighbors as ourselves. My hope with these weekly meditations is to give us space to reflect on what we heard in the sermon on Sunday. How do we take what we heard and know in our heads to be true and let it transform our hearts into the likeness of Christ? So wherever you are, I just invite you to take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out through your mouth. In through the nose, and let it out through the mouth. One more time, in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Inhale through the nose. Seal the lips and exhale through the nose. And then just continue breathing with your rhythm of breath in through the nose and out through the nose. Genesis 2.7 says, Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So as you're here, I just invite you to begin to notice your breath and take a moment to give thanks to the one who gave you that breath. And know that he is as close to you as your next breath. I invite you to begin to notice what your breath is like. Is it fast or slow? Is it high up in your chest? Or can you begin to let it come all the way down to the bottom of your belly? Let your ribs expand, let your belly expand with each breath in. And then as you breathe out, just imagine you're emptying a balloon, releasing that stale air that no longer serves you, making room for fresh life-giving oxygen. And then just begin to let each breath become a little longer and a little slower than the last. And now we're going to begin to notice our bodies. If you're seated in a chair, I invite you to plant your feet firmly on the ground and sit up nice and tall. Or maybe you're walking as you're listening to this. If so, just begin to notice your feet as they move along the ground. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, can you begin to relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, and continue to breathe deeply, the breath of life? To connect our minds to our hearts and our souls, we're going to practice breath prayer. The practice of breath prayer is the intentional linking of our breath with a word or a short phrase. Our breathing is something that comes naturally. It's automatic, continuous, and involuntary. And when we let our inhales and our exhales represent an intentionally chosen prayer, we begin to live out Paul's instructions in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 to pray without ceasing. So in the quiet of your heart, on your next inhale, whisper go. And on your next exhale and do likewise. Inhale, go and exhale and do likewise. Continue to breathe in through the nose and out through the nose with your rhythm of breath. Inhaling go and exhaling and do likewise. Diana shared a message on the Good Samaritan and challenged us all with the question of, would you stop? She explained that the expert of the law who was asking Jesus the questions knew that the answer was to love. But he wanted to know, who do I love and how do I love them? If we're honest, we still struggle with these questions today. I know that I do. Jesus responds to the expert of the law by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. So today I'm going to read the parable of the Good Samaritan to you in the style called Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading. It's an ancient Christian practice of prayerfully reading scripture so that it becomes a conversation with God rather than just a study of the text. Its emphasis is listening deeply with the ear of your heart. So I'm going to read scripture over you a few times. The first time I read it, just let the words wash over you and through you. Don't try to analyze them or apply them. Just soak in the word of God. Luke 10, 25 to 37 says, On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? He replied, How do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. In the pause after, let that word or phrase land and take up space. Let the Holy Spirit breathe on it, and then begin to notice its impact on you. Luke 10, 25 to 37 says, On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? He replied, and how do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came up where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. For how you can apply his word to your life. Like a puzzle piece, how does it fit in your life and in your heart? And in the pause after, reflect and ask yourself, how then will I live in the light of God's truth? Luke 10, 25 to 37 says, On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test to Jesus. Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law, he replied, How do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. Father God, I thank you for the reminder to go and do likewise. Father, forgive us for the times when we rush past people and don't care for them. Thank you that you are a God who is rich in mercy. May we, as your image bearers, reflect your mercy to those who we come in contact with on our journeys from Jerusalem to Jericho. It's in your name I pray. Amen.