Being Neighborly Christians

Selective Parables: Lessons from Jesus, Message Two

Luke 10:25-37.

ETS: The Samaritan was neighborly towards the injured man.

ESS: We should live neighborly towards other people.

OSS: [Ethical] {I want the hearers to commit to living neighborly towards others around them.} Cognitive: I want the hearers to realize the difference between being sympathetic and empathetic/compassionate. Affective: I want the hearers to feel the urge to help others in need. Psycho-Motor: I want the hearers to act neighborly towards others.

PQ: How do I live as a neighborly Christian?

UW: Ways

Intro.: [AGS]: There was a hospital chaplain who was visiting patients, and he was listening to one of their stories while in a visit. When the patient was finished sharing his story, the chaplain responded, “Bless your heart!” He meant no ill with it; in fact, he meant good with it. However, the patient responded asking, “Do you know what you just said to me?” The chaplain, startled, responded with a genuine, “No, I don’t guess I do.” The patient responded, “When you said, ‘bless your heart,’ you basically just said you are glad it was me and not you.” The chaplain proceeded to apologize expressing his ignorance of the meaning behind the statement. Yet, still the message was communicated and received, even though it was unintentional. [TS]: It is almost as though the first two characters who passed by the injured man that they murmured this statement as they passed by- little compassion or care. However, the one that stopped to help demonstrated the kind of neighborly love that should characterize believers.[RS]: Perhaps it is that we often “feel sorry” for people, but we have no compassion that compels us to do anything about the situation. We need to be neighborly Christians, people who love and care for others.

TS: Let us examine together a few ways to live as neighborly Christians now:

Notice: The expert of the law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” but Jesus proved through both His teaching in the story and the question at the end that the more important question was, “How do I live neighborly?”

We have to set aside our own convenience and comfort. [vv. 31-32]

The major concern of the two, the priest and the Levite, was fear of being robbed and beaten themselves.

Often, robbers would lay in wait, even setting up decoys of sorts, to attract people whom they could prey on. [1]

APPLICATION: It wasn’t that the first two were necessarily unconcerned, but perhaps they allowed the fear of what could happen distract them from being neighborly. Are we guilty of that?

We have to set aside our own cultural preferences and traditions. [vv. 31-32]

The priest, especially, would have been concerned with the individual being dead. The only way he could have known for certain was to touch him; however, in touching him, according to the practices of the of the law for a priest, he would have defiled himself as unclean by touching a dead body.

Thus, the priest (and perhaps applicable to the Levite, too) valued tradition and ceremonial cleanness more than he did the opportunity to be neighborly and help someone in desperate need.

APPLICATION: Perhaps it is that you and I are often too caught up in rituals that we may miss opportunities to be neighborly because we worry about maintaining reputation or something else that may be at stake for helping someone.

We have to show compassion. [vv. 33-35]

The Samaritan would have been the least likely of those expected to help, especially since the injured man was likely a Jew. [2]

Yet, he is the one who inconvenienced himself to help. He helped in the following ways:

He bandaged his wounds

He put him in an inn/shelter

The Samaritan’s compassion compelled him to action. Barnes wrote, “That it is not he who professes most kindness that really loves most, but he who will most deny himself that he may do us good in times of want.” [3] Thus, it is not as much about profession as much as it is about practice. That, indeed, involves denial of self. Neither the priest nor the Levite practiced denial of self in order to prove their profession.

The kind of love compelling the Samaritan was that which overcame and disregarded cultural, ethnical, and racial boundaries in order to care for and love their neighbors.

Jesus’ question shows that it is not so much about who our neighbor is (exclusive, calculative) as much as it is about who we are neighborly towards, concerning which there are no limits. [4]

Jesus urged the expert in the law: Go and do likewise!”

APPLICATION: We should adopt a heart of compassion which compels us to love others around us beyond feeling sorry for them. We should set aside selfish, cultural practices in order to show the love of Jesus to all.

Conclusion:

[1] What hinders you from “going and doing likewise?” Is it that you find racial preferences within your heart? Religious preferences?

[2] How might the Gospel be furthered if you set aside your personal preferences in order to embrace your neighbor with compassion? Being neighborly rather than seeking neighborship.

Bibliography:

[1] William Barclay, “The Gospel of Luke” in The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017), 165-166.

[2] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 3, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 208.

[3] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Luke & John, ed. Robert Frew (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 70.

[4] Thomas R. Schreiner, “Luke,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 821.