Parables: The Good Samaritan

You know, we live in a generation that is a me generation. We're focused on ourselves. we're focused on our needs we're focused on our circumstances and it is so hard for us to get the focus off ourselves and look out and see the needs of others but today our Lord Jesus Christ is going to challenge us to do just that the year was 1731 it was a cold wintry day as the chambermaid at Oxford University cleaned his room. And when John arrived at his room, he noticed that as the chambermaid was cleaning, she had an inadequate cloak against the cold. It was threadbare, had holes in it, and he knew that as she went back out into that cold, wintry day, she would experience difficulty and coldness. So John reached into his pocket to pull out some money to give this poor chambermaid with inadequate clothing. But there was no money in John's pocket that day because John had spent all of his money buying pictures to decorate his apartment.

So that day John made a covenant with himself and with the Lord that he was going to live differently. He was going to change his lifestyle. And I will tell you what he did at the end of our Today, I want us to challenge ourselves to ask, what attitudes and actions should we take in response to the great needs of others within our world? And Jesus Christ is going to help us answer that question today. Jesus is going to call for us to have a new paradigm, a new outlook, as we see other people in need.

So if you have your Bibles, let's turn to a familiar story. Luke chapter 10.

as we look for lessons for life in a familiar parable of Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 10.

And let's start at verse 25. You know the story, but let's read it again. 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, Jesus replied, how do you read it?

The lawyer 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 the lawyer 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 fell into the hands of robbers they stripped him of his clothes beat him 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 to 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, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins, that was two denarii, 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. Let's pray.

Lord this day as we come to your word open our hearts and minds to understand the truth of your word help us to examine our own lives and see how we measure up to what you have called us to be and to what you have called us to do let us not be the same but help us to be different to be more of what you have called us to be Lord it's in Christ's name we pray and for his sake Amen The characters in the story are familiar characters. We have the lawyer. Lawyers have been causing trouble for centuries. And it was true in Jesus' day. The lawyer was the scribe.

He was the Jewish expert in the law. He knew the law. He knew the intricacies of the law. He could expound the law. And when particular case situations could come up, he could tell you what the law required you to do or to say.

And here today, this lawyer is going to take on Jesus Christ. Always a mistake to take on Jesus Christ. The other character in the story of the Good Samaritan is the priest. This is a Jewish man, as was the lawyer. The lawyer was a Jewish man.

The priest was of the tribe of Levi. All the priests came from that tribe. And because he was a priest, he was also most likely a descendant of Aaron because the priest came out of Aaron's line. The priests were the ones who each day in the temple offered sacrifices in the temple. They would be responsible for encouraging the people.

They would be responsible for teaching the people the law. They would maintain the temple treasury. And on days of special feasts, it would be the priest that would blow the trumpets calling the people to worship Jesus Christ. They were to be the holiest among the holy, among God's people. They were to be the examples.

They were to lead the way. We also have in our story another Jewish man, a Levite. The Levites, who were not priests, were responsible for helping care for the tabernacle. In the days as the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, it was the tribe of Levi that had the privilege and also the responsibility of transporting the tabernacle through the wilderness. And in Jesus' day, these Levites would actually work in the temple.

They would serve in the temple. They would clean the temple. They would assist the priests in their duties. They would be sort of like the deacons of the church who were to serve and help care for the affairs of the church. And they too were to be examples for the people of what it meant to be one of God's children.

And then we have the Samaritan in the story. The Samaritans were racially and religiously different from the Jews. And for that reason, the Jews despised them. Is it not true in our world that so much of the difficulty we face is because of racial prejudice or religious prejudice or religious differences? You see, the Jews viewed the Samaritans as half-breeds.

The Samaritans were those people who came from the intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles after the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians. The Assyrians transported Gentile people into the land of Israel. And there were Jews in the land that intermarried with these Gentiles, and out of that intermarriage came these half-breeds, half-Jew, half-Gentile, and they were viewed as inferior by the Jewish people. They were also religiously different.

The Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerizim, not in Jerusalem. They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim where they worshipped. The Samaritans had their own Bible that consisted only of the first five books of the Old Testament, not the whole Old Testament. The Samaritans, when the children of Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity, the Samaritans were so despised that they were not permitted to help in rebuilding the temple of Solomon that had been destroyed by the Babylonians. The Samaritans would also be persecuted by the Jews.

In fact, in 128 B.C., the Jews would send a contingent little army to Mount Gerizim where the Samaritan temple was, and the Jews in 128 B.C. would tear down and destroy the Samaritan temple. There was a lot of hostility between these two groups. And then lastly, the character in the story is the injured man. The question I want you to ask, and we'll answer it in a minute, what nationality or race was the injured man in the story?

We're not explicitly told in the text, but his nationality or his race is important for understanding the story. So ask yourself that question as we go through the story. Here's the story of the Good Samaritan. And as we go through the story, I want us to be asking, what attitudes and actions should shape my response to those who are in need? Do you understand the question?

This is not a story that is designed just to be a sweet story. that is designed to make us different, to change our attitudes and to change our actions. Well, here's the opening dialogue. It's the lawyer versus Jesus. And the lawyer begins with a test question.

The lawyer knew the law. He didn't need Jesus to tell him the answer to the question he is asking, but he wanted to test Jesus to see what kind of teacher he was. So the lawyer asks a very basic question, a fundamental question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? You sense the Jewish idea that it's by works one would inherit eternal life.

But it's a very important question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Does Jesus know what he's talking about? The lawyer wants to know. Is he an orthodox teacher of Judaism?

Does he teach the truth or does he not? So the lawyer tests Jesus with this question. But then Jesus, instead of responding by giving an answer, he responds with a question. Now I want you to watch Jesus' technique in dealing with this lawyer who was testing him. He asks a question in response to a question.

I submit to you it's a good technique for when we deal with people about Christian faith. Sometimes we are too quick to give the answer without first understanding where the person we're talking with is coming from. And by asking a question, what does Jesus do? He makes the lawyer go first, in effect. He makes the lawyer expose where the lawyer stands.

He makes the lawyer take a position. And by doing so, Jesus begins to understand where that lawyer He knows what he is thinking. He knows that lawyer's attitude. He knows his perspective about things. And sometimes before we really get into the meat of things with people, we need to know where they're coming from, right?

So I think it is a great technique in dealing with people about Christian matters. Think about asking questions first rather than always starting out with the answers. Well, the lawyer is asked by Jesus, What is written in the law? the law. So Jesus is talking to the expert and the expert responds and he responds appropriately.

The answer is, if I want to inherit eternal life, I must love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And I must love my neighbor as myself. Those are two passages from the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6, 5, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. Leviticus 19, 18, love your neighbor as yourself.

Salvation, folks, is found by total devotion to our Lord. And on this side of the cross, it's devotion to Christ. But it's devotion to the Lord. But it is a devotion that is displayed and demonstrated in acts of love and kindness towards those in need. real faith saving faith is a faith that always is active it is always demonstrated by what we do and so these two great commands two commands that Jesus at another point in scripture would say summarizes the whole of the law love God and love your neighbor as yourself are integrally related. If you genuinely love God with all your heart, soul, and might, you will demonstrate that by acts of love toward your neighbor. Conversely, you can say all you want about loving God, but if it is not proven by what you do in response to the needs of your neighbor, one would have to question the reality of the love of God. You cannot separate these two things.

They're two sides of the same coin. Well, the lawyer gives a correct answer, and Jesus tells him, you have answered correctly, but then Jesus charges him, do this and you will live. The lawyer should have shut up and gone home at this point. But he made a mistake they teach us never to make in law school. You never ask one too many questions.

You should always stop when you're ahead. the lawyer now knew the answer to the initial question he now just must do it and live but you know what the law has a way of exposing our sin and when Jesus said you've answered correctly love God, love your neighbor the lawyer knew that he did not meet the standard he knew he fell short of what the law required That's what the law does to us, folks. It shows us how we fall short of God's requirements on our lives, and it helps us understand our need for forgiveness. It helps us understand our need for a Savior. And the lawyer knew he didn't always love his neighbor.

So he's going to try to justify himself by getting Jesus to clarify, well, who really is my neighbor? That's the self-justifying question. Who is my neighbor? to know is that the Jews of this day, particularly the teachers of the law, limited the circle of folks who were considered neighbors. And the neighbors, the Jewish experts in the law taught in this day that your neighbor was all your other Jewish friends. That was who your neighbor was, the folks who were like you, had the same religious outlook, the same racial background.

Now, those were your neighbors. Those are the ones you had to love. And conversely, you didn't have to display that love to others who were not in that little tight-knit circle of friends who were like you racially and religiously. In fact, they would permit you even to display hatred toward those who were not in the circle. So the lawyer knows he needs to try to justify himself by getting Jesus to buy into this limitation on who the neighbor is, limiting it to a particular racial or religious group.

You see why he asked the question? Well, this is when Jesus tells the story. It's a clarifying story, the story of the Good Samaritan. And let me give you another suggestion here about dealing with people who are skeptical about the Christian faith. The use of stories is a powerful technique.

Instead of always just giving principles in teaching, sometimes telling a story is the best technique to use. Stories have a way of drawing us in, don't they? They teach us the truth without preaching at us. Stories allow us to discover the truth for ourselves as we listen to the story and the truth becomes obvious.

and the stories help those truths just jump out and obvious truths we can then embrace as we hear the story. So I encourage us as people of faith to learn how to use stories to draw people in to what we are teaching. And that's what Jesus does here with the story of the Good Samaritan. There's an injured man who's going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You see Jerusalem on the map here?

And here's Jericho. It's a distance of about 15 miles. Jerusalem was up on a mountain, 2,500 feet above sea level. Jericho is 800 feet below sea level. So it's over a 3,000-foot drop in elevation.

So when it says the injured man was going down from Jerusalem, it's a pretty clear indication he was going from here in that direction. He was headed downhill. And as he travels, it was a rocky, treacherous terrain, noted for being a dangerous territory because of robbers and thieves. And this man is attacked, stripped, robbed, and left, the text tells us, half dead. Well, what happens next?

Here come the priest and the Levite, you know, those holy people. They too are going down the same road, going from Jerusalem to Jericho. is this. A lot of the priests and Levites lived in Jericho. In fact, we believe from research that about 12,000 priests and Levites lived in Jericho. And the way service in the temple worked, the priests and Levites didn't work every day in the temple. They rotated service in the temple. And you would be called upon to serve for a certain period of time, but then you would go home and not be at the temple for a period of time. So apparently the priest and Levite have been at doing their appointed service, and now they're returning back home to Jericho.

They finished their duties at the temple, and now they too are going down, back toward Jericho. And both the priest and the Levites see the injured man, and what do they both do? They both get as far away as they can from him on the road. It says they pass by on the other side, and the sense is they see the injured man, and they just get away from him as far away as they can. Why did they do that?

that. Some commentators will say, well, the reason they did that is the Jews were worried about being defiled or being made unclean. And it is true that in the Old Testament, priests were told not to touch dead bodies because if they touched a dead body, they would be made ceremonially unclean.

But you know what? I don't buy it in this story. There was no excuse for what this priest and out to the man to say, are you okay? Did they even try to find out if he was dead or alive? No. They weren't worried about ceremonial uncleanness. They had finished work. They were on the way home. They didn't want to stop and be delayed. They knew if they had to help this injured man, it was going to take time and money and effort. So they just get as far away as they can and just walk by on the other side. You ever done that? Anybody ever stopped you? Wanted a a little help? Are you walking down the street and you saw somebody and you knew that person was going to stop and ask you for something so you kind of walked on the other side? Or maybe you read a story in a newspaper about somebody in need and you quickly turned the page so as not to have to think about that or deal with it. We pass by in all sorts of ways, folks. We know about all sorts of needs. We may not walk right by them, but we learn of them and what do we do?

We read about it in the paper. We hear about it on the news. Maybe somebody even in our community. We shut the paper and we go on with our lives. We often pass by.

We've all been priests and we've all been Levites. Have we not?

Yes, we have. Well, they pass by on the far side. But then comes a Samaritan.

And you've got to understand, you know that the lawyer is going to be offended by this story. Because now the hero of the story is going to be this good Samaritan. That racially inferior, religiously different person. But the Samaritan, unlike the holy men, who should have, after just leaving the temple of the Lord, where they were encouraging people to follow the Lord, ignore an injured man, this Samaritan, racially inferior, religiously different, stops. He gives of his time by stopping to see what the problem is.

He gives of his possessions. He bandages the man, apparently tore his clothing to make bandages. He took wine out and poured it on the wounds. Wine would be sort of like an antiseptic, the alcohol in the wine. He took oil out and rubbed it on the man.

The oil would have a soothing effect on the injured man. The Samaritan gives of his effort.

up and puts the man on his donkey and then the Samaritan walks the rest of the journey while the injured man rides and then the Samaritan gives of his money. He gets to the temple, he stayed, excuse me, he gets to the inn, he stayed all night with the man in the inn and took care of him, the text said, all that night. And then the next day he left two denarii with the innkeeper. Two denarii would have probably paid for about two months in the inn. And not only does the Samaritan pay for up to two months in the inn, he says, I'll come back by and if this man owed you any more for his stay in the inn, I will pay it out of my own pocket.

What was the nationality of the injured man most likely? He was an injured man. The one who was injured was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was most likely Jewish. And this had to rankle the lawyer.

The hero in the story is not only Samaritan, but he's helping a Jew. Someone who typically would treat the Samaritan without respect. Yet the Samaritan is friendly toward him.

Jesus asked who was a neighbor to the injured man do you see how Jesus changed the question and this is the key to the parable folks what was the question of the lawyer who is my neighbor

Jesus says not who is my neighbor but who was a neighbor to the injured man The question is not who is my neighbor, folks. Everybody who is in need is our neighbor. The question is, will we be a neighbor to the injured person or the person in need? The lawyer is cornered because the answer in the story is obvious, is it not? Who was a neighbor to the injured man?

Which of the three? The priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan? But the lawyer can't bring himself to say the Samaritan. He just says the one who showed him mercy. isn't that interesting he wouldn't even use the word samaritan and jesus says go and do likewise

what are the lessons we need to learn from this story of the good samaritan here's lesson number one we need to recognize that our love for god is directly proportional to our love for other people, particularly people in need. And I want you to read a couple of passages with me. I've given you several references here, but let's turn to 1 John. And let me just read two or three passages with you. 1 John

chapter, let's start at chapter 3.

And I like John. John, you remember, he's one of the sons of thunder. John doesn't mince words, folks. 1 John 3. Let's look at verses 17 and 18.

John says, If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. All right, look at chapter 4, verse 8.

whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. And now look at verses 20 and 21. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. this command whoever loves God must also love his brother I used to say in my mind Lord I love you but you're a lot more lovable than these folks you're telling me to love so can't I love you but not necessarily love others no we cannot because number one love of God is shown by our obedience to God and God has commanded us to love others. Also, Jesus loves others so we should love them and he has given so much to us by his love we should spread that love onto others. So we need to recognize our love for God is directly proportional to our love for others.

Lesson number two, love is not love until it takes action.

love can be a noun but from the christian's perspective until it becomes a verb in our lives we don't know what biblical love is love is always concerned about others and it is always reaching out to help others the opposite of love is not hate the opposite of love is not lukewarmness The opposite of biblical love is self-centeredness. Biblical love says instead of loving yourself as you're doing, take that love you're directing toward yourself and turn it out to others. And love them in the same way that you're now pouring out this love on yourself. Love is always directed toward others and it always takes action if it's biblical love. Third lesson, love should never be limited by its object.

We all suffer from our prejudices,

but biblical love does not care whether the person who is to be the object of our love is rich, poor, educated, uneducated, is white or black. Is Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist. Biblical love is not limited by the object of the love. Biblical love loves the other person regardless of who they are. Regardless of their nationality, their social standing, their education, their racial background, their ethnic background, their religious background.

And this hits us right at home, folks, because so often we love one another right here. But how much do we display that love to those who don't look like us, who don't talk like us, who don't live in our same neighborhoods? Biblical love should never be limited by its object. D, we must allow ourselves to be interrupted in order to help other people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it this way.

ourselves to be interrupted. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. I was with Atu in Ethiopia in January and we were walking to the Mercy Center there to do some work and as we walked by there was a woman on the side of the road. You remember Atu? And she was just weeping. She had her cloak up over her head, just weeping, just weeping.

And we stopped and we talked with her and found out that she had a child who she had taken to get medical treatment. Her child had an eye injury. And because she did not have a very small amount of money, she couldn't get treatment for her child. And she was absolutely without hope. She had nothing, no money, how she was going to help her poor child.

God will constantly send people like that across our paths, folks, and we have to stop and help. And we stopped and had to talk with her and we figured out how to help her in that situation. E, the gift of the gospel is most attractive when wrapped in acts of love and kindness. Mahatma Gandhi said, Mahatma Gandhi said, I like their Christ. I hate their Christian.

because Mahatma Gandhi saw British rule and he saw how those who professed to be Christian treated those who were poor, those who had nothing, how the Indians were so often treated by the British. I love their Christ, he said, but I hate their Christian. Folks, if we're going to have this thing we call the Christian faith embraced by others, wrap the message up with acts of love and with acts of kindness. The best evangelism comes with a cup of cold water, a helping hand. Thank you, Honduras mission team. We have more people profess faith in Jesus Christ in one week on a Honduras mission trip than we will have profess faith within four years within the walls of this church. We ought to be out there helping people in need.

That's how we bring them to faith in Christ. We go where they are, we meet their needs, and we present them the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's how we bring people to faith in Christ. It is not within the walls of this church. It is out there where the needs are that we need to be preaching the gospel.

And until we get that right, folks, we need to meet less and we need to go more. We need to spend less on ourselves and spend more there. That's how we change the world, where we go and wrap the gospel up with love and with kindness. We must live more simply that others may simply live. The Lausanne Covenant says, those of us who live in affluent circumstances must accept our duty to develop a simple lifestyle in order to contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.

His name was John Wesley. That's the guy who went in to see the chambermaid

against the cold. And Wesley, after finding he didn't have enough money to help that poor chambermaid because he had spent it on pictures to decorate his apartment, made a covenant. He said as his income increased, he would not allow his standard of living to increase. And he would give the extra money to help the poor. So in 1731, John Wesley made 30 pounds, lived on 28, and gave away two.

In 1732, John Wesley made 60 pounds. He lived on 28 and gave away the rest. In 1733, he made 90 pounds. He lived on 28 and gave away the rest. In the next year, he made 120 pounds, a pretty substantial salary in his day.

He lived on 28 and he gave the rest away. At one point in Wesley's life, for four years, he ate mostly potatoes because meat was expensive. and he said the money I save on meat I can give to someone else who would not have any meat. Wesley argued that as the Christian's income increased it is not the Christian's standard of living that should increase but his standard of giving.

In the United States, what do we do? We get more income so we build a bigger home, buy a bigger car, get more stuff. Is that biblical? It may be the American dream I submit to you, it is absolutely unbiblical. It is not our goal in life to have more stuff or bigger homes.

It is not. It is an unbiblical perspective on life. It is our goal to take the name of Jesus Christ wherever and to help those in need. We need to change our perspective. How about this for a suggestion?

How about this for a suggestion? How about if we have a church budget that gives 40% to missions, 40% of the total budget, 30% to help those in need, and 30% to just take care of ourselves?

Okay, I know that's too hard. Let's do this. We'll spend 50% on ourselves, but let's use the other 50% to go evangelize the world and help people in need.

Okay, how about, let's just talk personally a minute. How about this? Next year when you get your pay raise, all the pay raise will be given to help those in need. Or how about this? How about this year spend an amount on helping the poor, the disadvantaged, that is equal to the amount you spend on your own vacations this year?

oh how about this we go out to eat so much how about for every dollar we spend eating out we'll set aside a dollar to help the poor and disadvantaged these are just suggestions folks and i can see by the looks on my face as you're going is he crazy what is he thinking i'm thinking that Jesus Christ wants us to be different. To quit acting like the culture. And let's live the way He wants us to live. I close with a story, or last note. Beware churchgoers.

God will one day ask us to give an account. If we have not shown love to those in need, we will not inherit eternal life. answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you? Jesus will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. And he banishes them to eternal punishment.

so when a young man on Thursday as I was at the back door of Josh's way stopped by it's amazing how a cross in front of a building will attract people when they are in need something about the cross and this young man stopped and he said I have no place to live I just got out of jail I have no money and I haven't eaten can you help me

I said, what do you like to eat? He said, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I said, let's go get a bucket of chicken. So we got in the car, and we bought him a bucket of chicken and a Mountain Dew and a Sprite, because he liked them both. We took him to a friend's home where he could stay, and we gave him some money and we said we did it because we work for Jesus Christ. That preaches, folks. That's a message that will be heard.

Let's pray. Lord, help us to feel the burden of others. Help us to feel their need.

but help us not simply to pass by on the other side. By your Spirit will you awaken us. By your Spirit will you help us to be different. By your Spirit will you give us the courage and the boldness to trust you and to use our resources for the purposes for which you have given them to us. may we not treat our resources as if they are our own may we know that they are yours Lord entrusted to us to be used for your purposes may we see with the eyes of Christ and may we live with the love of Jesus Christ as we reach out to a hurting world for it's in Christ's name we pray and for his sake