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Luke 10:25-37
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii1 and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We're gonna be continuing our study through the parables. So, if you will turn to Luke 10 with me. Luke 10 verse 25. We're gonna read God's word together. Luke 10 25, it's also in the worship guide.
Speaker 1:And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, you shall 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 your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you've answered correctly.
Speaker 1:Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, oh, and who's my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Speaker 1:So, likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But, a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out 2 denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.
Speaker 1:Which of these 3 do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, the one who showed him mercy. And, Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God.
Speaker 1:Pray with me. Lord, we come to you right now needy. We acknowledge that we are not God, and we don't even have the ability to understand about what You have for us today apart from Your Spirit working to bring these words to life. So, we ask You right now that You will speak to us, Lord. We are ready and we are listening.
Speaker 1:In Your name, amen. Even though this is one of the more familiar parables, if you aren't familiar with it yourself, it seeped its way into our modern culture. I mean, most of us probably have heard of a Good Samaritan. It's someone who helps someone else out who is in need. This is even reflected in our laws.
Speaker 1:There's a Good Samaritan law to protect those people who help others who are in need. But, in all of its familiarity, do we really understand what Jesus is saying in this parable? And what He's saying to us today? So, today we're gonna look at this passage and we are gonna look at it from 3 different perspectives. Each of these perspectives is vital for us to really understand what's going on here, what Jesus has for us.
Speaker 1:These three perspectives are that of the lawyer, the passersby, and the man in need. So, as we look at this text through those three perspectives or lenses, I want to ask you this question. Where do you tend to place yourself? Through which lens do you tend to see yourself in this story? So, let's dive in with the lawyer, Jesus' original audience at this time.
Speaker 1:Now, to place ourselves in the position of the lawyer, we need to Jesus, he's been teaching and he's been taking everyone's previous view of God and he's kinda flipping it upside down on his head. He's confusing people because he's saying a different type of thing than they thought they understood about who God is. He's revealing a counter cultural kingdom, one which brings a new definition of power, of authority, and of love, and it's gonna culminate in His self sacrificial death. As you can imagine, this was threatening for the religious establishment of the time and the religious leaders, which is why we see Jesus having this interaction with a lawyer who was a religious leader. That's what sets up this parable.
Speaker 1:The lawyer is a scholar in the Old Testament law, And so, he comes to Jesus here and he asks this question about eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, Luke clues us in here that though he's asking a good question, he's not genuine. He's trying to test Jesus. And, Jesus doesn't take the bait.
Speaker 1:He turns that question back on him and says, well, you're the Old Testament scholar. What does the law say? And then Jesus affirms what the man says. He says, well you should love God completely, and you should love your neighbor. Now, all Jews knew these two laws, the first and second.
Speaker 1:The greatest and second greatest commandment. Love God and love people. They said it all the time. The fact that Jesus directs this man towards the law as an answer for eternal life, it doesn't mean that Jesus is teaching a works based righteousness. Instead, this answer affirms that a total, all consuming love of God must be central to who you are.
Speaker 1:And then when that changes us, it affects how we treat others as well. Now, the lawyer, he is not satisfied with this. He wants to still re exert his superiority over Jesus. So he he clarifies himself. He says, well well, okay.
Speaker 1:But just who exactly does this mean that I have to love? His question reveals his motive. He's simply trying to justify the way that he wants to live and act. Now, this question, it kinda reminds me of the same type of question that was familiar in middle school and high school. You might remember it.
Speaker 1:It's the question, how far is too far? It really reveals the motive. It's basically saying, what can I get away with? And clearly, the lawyer, that's what he's doing. He doesn't get what Jesus means by love God and love others.
Speaker 1:So in this story that he tells, Jesus is going to clarify true neighbor love, and he's gonna dismantle the self righteousness of the lawyer who thinks that he's good with God. The lawyer thinks he's setting a trap for Jesus, but Jesus is really kind of setting a trap for him and his evil motive. Jesus says, you want to have eternal life? You want to know God, love him, and love others perfectly. And the lawyer is, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I got that. I'm good. But what exactly is this gonna require of me? So Jesus tells this parable to primarily demonstrate the lawyer's need. So this brings us to our second perspective from the characters in the parable itself, which is really where the heart of this teaching is.
Speaker 1:We just read the story. You've got a man who's traveling from Jerusalem, he gets beat beaten up and robbed. 3 people come by. The first two, a priest and a Levite, pass him by. The third, a Samaritan, stops and gives him help.
Speaker 1:So we basically see 2 responses to the man in need. That of the priest and the Levite are the same response. They pass him by. Now, both of these men were important religious figures in this time. The priests were the ones appointed by God to offer sacrifices in his temple, and the Levites were the assistants to the priests.
Speaker 1:So we could say they're both clergy or they both worked for the church. So at faith value, their response to this man in need is a little bit startling to us. We would expect them to help. I mean, if you were to leave right now after this service and you were to come upon someone in need, wouldn't we hope that it'd be the Christian who would respond in kindness and especially a pastor, if a pastor is there? There's a study that was done a long time ago that actually sheds a lot of light on this.
Speaker 1:Princeton Seminary in 1970 took 40 seminary students, split them in half, and gave them each tasks. The first half of the class of seminary students were told to go teach a class about the parable of the good Samaritan that we are studying right now. And the second half of the students were told to teach the class about something totally unrelated to the Bible, and they sent them to go to the classroom. But on the way, they had placed a homeless man in their path. Now, this is in the middle of winter, 5 degrees outside, And of the 40 seminary students, 16 offered any sort of help whatsoever to this man.
Speaker 1:And the majority of them who offered help only did it by notifying the secretary who was inside the building that there was someone in need outside. There was no difference between the group that was teaching about helping people in need and the group that wasn't. In fact, the only difference that they saw in the study between those who helped and those who didn't was that those who were in more of a hurry were less likely to help than the others. This is sobering and it's not something limited to just seminary students or church professionals. It's something we're all prone to.
Speaker 1:This study shows us that this parable says the same thing, that we shouldn't be surprised that religious knowledge doesn't necessarily equate to Christ likeness. We're all prone to believe that we know God, but somehow miss obeying him and living like him. Though we are surprised by the way that these 2 first men responded, the early Jews, they probably wouldn't have actually been as surprised. Now, these guys the priests and the Levite, they get a bad rap. But, let's take a moment and look at some of the potential reasons why they may not have actually helped.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest is tied up in this idea of Jewish purification and cleanliness. In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God lays out a specific law that says that any Jew who touches a dead body is unclean. And they have to be removed from the community for 7 days, for a whole week, before they can be pure again after going through a purification process. Now, you gotta bear in mind that these guys who are passing the man in need on the road, they don't know if he's dead or not. Jesus lets us know he's half dead, but the men who are looking, they they don't know.
Speaker 1:So they're bearing this law in mind. And, particularly, as religious leaders, it was important for them. Now, at minimum, if they touched a dead body, they would be impure, unclean for 7 days, and it would be a costly process of purification for them involving sacrifices, involving time away from their family, from their community, likely a stigma of religious leader who is unclean. In addition, priests in particular, if they did not follow the purification process exactly, they could actually be put to death. And so, for this reason, there's Jewish tradition for church leaders that said, don't even get close to a dead body.
Speaker 1:Stay 6 feet away. In fact, don't even let the shadow of a dead body touch you. In addition to the issue of purity, their job could be on the line. These guys, depending on which way they're going, may have been on the way to Jerusalem to help perform sacrifices on behalf of God's people. Think of all the people that were there waiting for them to perform their duties.
Speaker 1:What if they stopped and all those people didn't have sacrifices done on their behalf? In addition, their family would be affected. Their reputation would be affected, their very safety was called into question. This road was actually known as the Bloody Way because this was so common for people to be mugged and murdered. So let me ask you, what if you were in their shoes?
Speaker 1:Would you stop in a dark, remote, dangerous alley to help someone who has clearly just had a crime committed to them, and you don't know if the criminals are around anymore? These guys don't seem quite so terrible now, do they? I mean, what would you do? It's it's tricky. This isn't just a question for priests or pastors, it's for all of us.
Speaker 1:Maybe you've found yourself in a situation like this before where you've been put in an uncomfortable position and you don't know how to respond. Someone asks you for money or for gas or for a ride to get somewhere. I mean, on the one hand, you remember, I did just hear that sermon. Dwight said, we should help people in need. So I probably shouldn't ignore that.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, you probably have a long list of reasons that make you hesitant. Maybe you're on the way to something, your job or commitment. You don't want to be rude to the person who's waiting for you. Maybe you're concerned about your safety. This isn't exactly the best part of town and after all I don't have any cash on me right now and they need a ride, but I do have a lot of stuff in the back of my car.
Speaker 1:So I'm not sure if I have room, or maybe I have my kids in the car with me, and it's a little concerning for me. Or maybe I'm a single woman, and I don't know if it's wise to bring man into my car. All of these are really valid questions, good things for us to consider and think about. So what's the right thing? Loving others is difficult, it's messy, and there usually aren't clear cut answers.
Speaker 1:Now, Jesus does shed light on their decision in this situation, but before we get there, let's look at the contrasting response of the Samaritan. Now while the Jews would not have been shocked to see what the priest and the Levite did, they would have been absolutely floored by this third character. Jesus introduces a villain in the Jewish mind, the enemy. There is nothing but pure hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans. So it would have been mind blowing that Jesus would even dare to introduce him into the story, much less make him into the hero figure.
Speaker 1:One commentator says that the best way for us to wrap our minds around what's happening here is to think of the Samaritan as a Muslim extremist behind the 911 attacks. That's what's going through the Jewish mind. That's the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. There are massive racial and ethnic components to the scenario, massive religious components. Now while this parable is not primarily about race, I think it's worth us pausing for a moment and saying with all that's going on in the world around us, there are certainly implications here for us, how we interact with people that have a difficult history amongst us.
Speaker 1:So what will this enemy to this Jewish man do? Will he kick him as he goes by? Spit on him? Ignore him? Kill him?
Speaker 1:Jesus says, no. This guy is the one who embraces Jesus' kingdom love. Now, the Samaritan had all of the same excuses as the first two and more. This is his enemy, but he didn't buy into the us versus them mentality that was prevalent then, and that's prevalent now in our context, he helps and at great cost to himself, his time, his safety, his belongings. It says that he uses precious oil and wine to heal the man.
Speaker 1:His donkey, his money, his reputation. And what's the limit for this? There is no limit. It's open ended. He goes to the innkeeper and says, whatever it costs, you just spend it, and when I get back, I'll pay it.
Speaker 1:He's opening himself up to extortion. Can you imagine how humbling this would be for a pious Jew who would never help a Samaritan and wouldn't dream of God asking him to help a Samaritan. Even more humbling, the roles are reversed. The Samaritan is helping him. And this is the picture that Jesus uses to define loving God.
Speaker 1:To be like the Samaritan. Jesus closes the parable by flipping the original question that the lawyer had asked Him. The lawyer had basically said, what's the minimum that I can do and still be okay? I mean, who who is my neighbor? And Jesus flips it and says, who proved to be a neighbor?
Speaker 1:The man kind of mumbles, the one who showed mercy. And Jesus, in this kind of mic drop moment, says, go and do likewise. So as we look at this perspective from these two types of responses, what do we learn? It's possible to know about God, to even have a form of religiosity, and to totally miss God's heart. We try to manipulate God's law into something manageable, something attainable, so it's a box that we can check off, and then we compare how we're doing at that by looking at others around us.
Speaker 1:Instead, a true, personal, intimate relationship with God must work itself out in love for others. Especially those who are not like us. Jesus is saying, you want eternal life? You want to truly know God and love Him? Start by laying down all of your preconceived opinions, your prejudices, your us them mentality, your inferiority complex, your superiority complex, your anger, your resentment.
Speaker 1:Lay it all down, and then go intentionally find someone who's different from you, who it's difficult for you to love, and love them. What's the limit? At what cost? It's open ended. There's no limit.
Speaker 1:How do we embrace the role of the Samaritan and avoid being the religious people who miss it? How do we go and do likewise? There's a lot that could be said here. When I reflect on this in my own personal life there are a couple of practical applications I'm just gonna very quickly bullet point out for you. 1st is proximity.
Speaker 1:We see in the story that the first two went out of their way to avoid being near the man, whereas the Samaritan, he went to him. Who do you have proximity to in your life that has needs? Would you even know of those around you who have needs? Secondly, your schedule, your time, your pace of life. If you did see someone who is in need, would you even have the capacity in your schedule to stop and help them?
Speaker 1:3rd, preparation or readiness. We could even call this desire to help someone. How are you prepared to do that? It requires a lot of different things. It might look like listening, learning, giving of yourself of your resources, maybe having things that you are ready to give on purpose.
Speaker 1:4th, compassion. This is where the heart of it really is. It says that this Samaritan looked on the man in need with compassion. This is the same phrasing we see that Jesus has, when He looks on the crowds. He looks on them with compassion.
Speaker 1:We need to ask God to give us that heart of compassion for those in need around us. So how do we do these things? How can we be the Good Samaritan with a heart of compassion? Only when we see ourselves in this third perspective. The third perspective is the man in need.
Speaker 1:And the less common, but the most accurate way to read this text is to see us as that man in need, and Jesus as the Good Samaritan who comes to us. On this side of the cross, we can see this especially clearly. We aren't just half dead like that man on the side of road of the road. The Bible says that we are fully dead in our sins. Romans 5 says that, similar to the Samaritans and the Jews, we're the enemies of God at the moment when He reconciles us to Himself.
Speaker 1:Like the man, we are poor and helpless and hopeless. No chance of survival. We can't even get up onto that donkey ourselves. Jesus comes to us and picks us up and he does all the work. He doesn't just risk harm in the process like the Samaritan.
Speaker 1:Jesus actually dies. He lays down his life for us. And the word says that by his wounds, we are healed. Instead of oil and wine, He uses His own blood to save us. He says to the father, like the Samaritan said to the innkeeper, take His debt and put it on my account.
Speaker 1:I'll pay all of it, whatever the cost. He gives us a future and a hope, and he promises his return. The lesson that Jesus lays out for the lawyer is His need for Him. And this is the same lesson He lays out for us, our need for him. We can't keep the law.
Speaker 1:We can't love God with our whole hearts. We certainly can't love our neighbors or our enemies, but Jesus did. He obeyed the Father. He kept the law. He died for His enemies.
Speaker 1:He is not only our motivation and our guide, He's our empowerment. He is the way that we can go and do likewise. We can only ever show compassion and mercy for others because of what he has done for us and his spirit at work within us. Guys, when we look at the state of our world around us right now, what does the world need the most? It needs people to love the other.
Speaker 1:Someone who's different from them. Maybe someone you are so adamantly opposed to, to love them as Christ loved us. The world needs selfless, true, humble love of the other. And, we, of all people in the world, have the reason and the power to do this because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. So Jesus, help us to do that.
Speaker 1:Pray with me. Lord, we are overwhelmed when we realize our neediness before you. We're dead. We are dead. No hope.
Speaker 1:We can't do anything for ourselves. And, you, in your mercy and compassion and love, you saved us while we were sinners, while we were your enemies. God, may that change us to the degree that we will want to love others. That it will change us, so that we will love our neighbor. We will love our enemy.
Speaker 1:We will love those that it's difficult to love. God, only you can do this in our lives and our hearts. Make us a people who live in this way by the power of your spirit. Amen.