Parables, Luke 10- The Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

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 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.’ 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.”

When it comes to what it takes to have eternal life, many people are worried less about what they have done and more about what they haven’t done.

This is the situation we find in Luke 10:25-28

A lawyer is seeking to test Jesus, and this isn’t a nice test… this is an attempt to discredit Jesus. The goal would be to catch Jesus in blasphemy or a false teaching.

But, the question he asks is one that we all need to know the answer to:

Lawyer: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

Lawyer: “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.”

Jesus: “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Jesus did not answer the question… but instead Jesus asks the man what the Law says. The lawyer knew the answer. He didn’t ask from a of sincere desire to know, he asked the question to test Jesus. His motives are not pure, his intent is to discredit Jesus.

‌During this exchange Jesus teaches the lawyer that it is not just a matter of knowing what the Law says… It is a matter of doing what we know. And when we begin to evaluate the way we have lived, we see the things that we did right, and we see the things that we did wrong, and typically we begin to evaluate whether or not we have done all the things that we could have done.

The issue on our conscience is rarely what we believe, instead it’s related to what we have done, or as we see in this instance, it’s related to what we haven’t done.

Eternal life hinges on your love for God is evidenced in your love for Jesus.

In John 8:42 (ESV) “42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”

You cannot love God without loving and receiving Jesus.

John 5:39–44 (ESV)

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

A rejection of Jesus is a rejection of God and means you do not truly love God. This applies to all people and to all religions.

To love Jesus is way more than to do what he says. Loving Jesus is to treasure Him and delight in Him above all else. To have the approach we see Philippians 3:8 (ESV), it says, “8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ."

This is what it means to love with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It’s to truly love Jesus with all that you have… and why?

1 John 4:19 (ESV) says, “19 We love because he first loved us.”

And how has He demonstrated his love to us? He has demonstrated his love for us through sacrifice… in particular through his sacrificial death on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.

Romans 5:8 (ESV) says, 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Your relationship with God is evidenced by the way you love others.

1. Your love for one another is testimony of your salvation.

“One another” means your brothers and sisters

Jesus points out in John’s Gospel that, 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 (ESV)

When guests and those interested in joining Harrisburg attend our Discover Harrisburg we teach them that local church is your “one another’s.” We use the term meaningful membership to help set apart what it means to belong to our church. There are many churches with a large percentage of members who do not ever attend and as a result membership has been watered down and ceased to have a real meaning in the local church. But, we walk through the many “one another’s” in scripture…

Love one another

John 13:34 (CSB)

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

1 Peter 1:22 (CSB)

22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly.

Honor one another

Romans 12:10 (CSB)

10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another.

Romans 12:16 (CSB)

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Serve one another

Galatians 5:13 (CSB)

13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

Bear with one another in love

Ephesians 4:2 (CSB)

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Submit to one another

Ephesians 5:21 (CSB)

21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

Encourage one another

Hebrews 10:25 (CSB)

25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (CSB)

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

A church with meaningful membership…

Worships together

Serves together

Shares the Gospel together

Gives together

Struggles together

Celebrates together

The many members of Harrisburg Baptist Church are the primary brothers and sisters in your life. But, the answer to the question was not love god with all that you have and love other Christians like you love yourself. The answer was straight from the Word, and he used the word neighbor… and though many people, including the Jews in the time of Jesus get this wrong, the word neighbor means something different than brother.

“RC Sproul points out that the Bible never talks about a universal brotherhood of man. Only those who trust in Jesus alone for salvation are God’s beloved children, so a non-Christian cannot, theologically speaking, be our brother. But the Bible does talk about the universal neighborhood of man. All men and women are our neighbors regardless of whether they are Christians. And we are to love them all.” (Ligonier Devotion)

2. Loving your neighbor is testimony of the change Christ has made in your life The use of the word neighbor means that our relationship with God impacts all of life, and the lawyer has just revealed that he falls short from the confession that he just made.

Luke says in verse 29, “But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Because his life didn’t match up with what he knew to be true. He knew that he was to love God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He also knew that he was supposed to love his neighbor as himself. But, now he had lost his confidence. He was no longer trying to catch Jesus with a tricky question, he is now trying to justify his current way of life in relation to the answer he gave to Jesus.

‌Justifying our current circumstances goes against what Jesus requires of His followers. The reality of doing what Jesus demands involves substantial if not even radical change. Jesus knows what is in the heart of a man. Therefore, what began as an inquiry of Jesus has now become an examination of the lawyers love for God by Jesus himself.

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In his effort to justify himself the man asks the following question: “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responds with a parable in verses 30-37.

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 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.’ 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.”

In the parable the man going down the road could be anyone, but I think its safe to assume that when he hear a story we often substitute someone who looks a lot like us in as the characters unless we are told otherwise. Since the man was a Jew, it’s safe to assume that the man going down the road is a Jew as well.

The priest avoided the man for godly intentions, he was trying to keep the law. The Levite avoided the man for godly intentions, he was trying to keep the law so he could help the priest. The Samaritan is the one who doesn’t fit. (One of these is not like the others.) Samaritans are not Jews, they are by their nature unclean. Jews would have had nothing to do with a Samaritan because they were half-breeds who worshipped in the wrong place and in the wrong ways. But, in our story the man who a Jew would walk miles out of his way to avoid is the hero.

Look at the way the Samaritan responds to the man in need… a man that in the minds of those hearing the parable envision as a Jew mind you. (verse 33-35)

The samaritan cares for others than he does his own welfare… and through the Samaritan in the parable Jesus is teaching is the depth of what it means to love our neighbors.

Loving our neighbors requires three things:

Compassion for others rather than concern for yourself

You cannot be compassionate toward others while at the same time worrying about yourself.

This is one of those truths that we should learn early in the context of our homes. Kids can’t show they care for their siblings if they are always trying to take care of themselves.

The Bible doesn’t say that God helps those who help themselves… the Bible does teach that God loves and helps those who sacrifice to help others.

Humility because it comes at great cost to yourself

Jesus demonstrated humility in the incarnation, then he took humility to an even deeper level when he suffered, and then to an even deeper level when he was crucified.

You cannot be humble and selfish at the same time… Just like you cannot lie and tell the truth at the same time… and how you cannot worship God and anything else at the same time.

I find it’s safe to assume that you could be more humble… if you feel like you are humble enough, then you probably aren’t humble at all… for Jesus didn’t just come to earth, and he didn’t just suffer, he died… humility will eventually mean the emptying of everything for the sake of others and the glory of God.

Commitment because it is modeled after the love God has for us

The man in the story was committed to finish what he had started. Jesus illustrates what we experience in the Holy Spirit. Jesus has come to save, the Holy Spirit is here caring for us, teaching us, convicting us, and guarding us until He returns.

These three are also required in our relationships with one another, and it’s through the love we receive from the Lord and from our brothers and sisters that God encourages us from growing weary of doing good.

The Bible teaches us in Philippians 1:6 (ESV), “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

What God has begun he will see through to the end, and we are to follow and imitate his example in this!

All three of these things requires the transformation that happens when you give your life to Christ and are saved.

And there’s one more point that I believe the Lord wanted me to make today…

Christianity is not compartmentalized religion, it’s the religion of those who give their entire lives to God.

You cannot love God with all that you have and all that you are with a compartmentalized approach.

It means wherever you are and whoever you are with matters.

The longer you follow Jesus the less compartments to your life and faith you shield have.