Luke 10:29-37 (3)

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-Please turn back to Luke 10.

Last week we began that long section...

…that begins in Verse 25...

…and goes down to Verse 37.

And, I told you then, that...

…it is most known for the...

…Parable of the Good Samaritan...

…that takes up most of its content...

…but I submitted to you then, that...

…we didn’t tend to be as familiar with...

…the foundationally important context...

…leading up to the Parable...

…found in Verses 25-28.

And so, we spent our entire time last week...

…looking at those verses...

…and trying to understand what they were telling us, about the...

Complicated

but Important...

…relationship between...

The Moral Law of God

The Gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ

(If you weren’t here for that...

…you may want to check that out on Sermon Audio)...

…Because we only have the time this morning...

…to do a very minimal review...

…of those crucially important verses.

-This morning, we’re going to focus our time on Verses 29-37.

And that’s a lot of ground for us to cover in one sermon...

So, we’re going to jump on in.

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

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.”

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Pray

-It’s important for us to remember...

…that this had all begun...

…with a Jewish “Lawyer” (Old Testament Scholar)...

Standing up...

Seeking to discredit Jesus’ authority as a teacher...

…and asking Him:

Luke 10:25 (ESV)

25 ...“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

And then Jesus responded...

…by putting the onus back on the man.

He points the Lawyer, back to the Law and asks...

Luke 10:26 (ESV)

26 . . . “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

i.e., How does the Law answer that question?

Give me your interpretation!

The man obliges in Verse 27.

He answered:

Luke 10:27 (ESV)

27 . . . “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 my premise to you last week, was...

…that the man was...

Summarizing the entire Moral Law of God...

…into two over-arching precepts:

Our duty to God (First Four Commandments)

Our duty to those who bear the image of God (Last Six Commandments)

-And then, somewhat to our surprise...

…Jesus had agreed with the man in Verse 28, saying...

Luke 10:28 (ESV)

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

Ultimately saying that to inherit eternal life...

…the Moral Law must indeed be kept PERFECTLY.

And my thesis to you about the whole thing was...

…that Jesus was using the Law...

…to show the man...

How unlawful he really was

His own inherent unrighteousness

And to...

Drive him to look outside of himself...

…for an alien righteousness...

…that only God (the righteous One) could provide...

…through the person and work of his incarnate Son.

Philip Ryken says it like this:

At this point, the lawyer should have prayed for grace.

He should have fallen to his knees and said something like this: “Help me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.

I cannot love God the way he demands to be loved, and I have never loved anyone nearly as much as I love myself.

Tell me how a sinner like me can be saved.” — Ryken

-But, in Verse 29 we see that this is...

…not at all how the man responds.

And again, Luke begins by...

…telling us the very motivations of his heart:

Luke 10:29 (ESV)

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

So notice that, in a sense...

…the Law has already done...

…what it was designed to do.

The man is already convicted by it.

And rather than responding with...

Brokenness

Humility

Confession of his sin...

…He tries to “nuance” the Law away into oblivion!

(Is this pretty common… even today?)

(Where the Word of God condemns the immorality of the culture...

…the culture simply re-interprets the Word of God...

…in order to take away its offense)

i.e., homosexuality, biblical gender issues, etc.

This is how the unregenerate heart...

…almost always responds to the moral obligations of the Law:

By looking for...

Excuses for their particular situation

Exceptions to the rule

-And that’s what the man appears to be doing here.

And notice, that he focuses on...

...the “lesser” of the two tablets (elaborate)...

…and he’s looks for a way to reduce it...

…to where he has some chance...

…of meeting its requirements on his own.

He tries to lessen the scope...

…of its obligation...

…to where its not so all-encompassing.

-Now, here’s where it gets tricky.

The Law DID, in a sense...

…delimit the scope of a neighbor.

(Perhaps this is what the Lawyer had in mind?)

In fact, the very text that gives the over-arching command...

…to love your neighbor as yourself...

…seems to make that differentiation clearly:

Leviticus 19:13–18 (ESV)

13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him....

15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Do you see what I mean?

And by Jesus time...

…the Oral Traditions seemed to...

…declare such a dichotomy outright.

Remember Jesus’ words of correction, in...

Matthew 5:43–44 (ESV)

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies...

Now, was Jesus teaching contrary to the Law?

May it never be!

That had always been...

…the essence of the Law!

In fact, Leviticus 19 goes on to say...

Leviticus 19:33–34 (ESV)

33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.

34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself...

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So, while the Law did define the scope of a neighbor...

…it didn’t delimit the scope of...

…the love they were commanded to show...

…to ALL their fellow men!

-But... rather than engaging the man...

…with a proper exposition of the Law...

(as he had done in the Sermon on the Mount)

…Jesus, perhaps as an act of Judgment,...

…illustrates to the man, the Law’s essence...

…by the means of a parable:

He begins it like this:

Luke 10:30 (ESV)

30 . . . “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho...

Luke doesn’t tell us much about the man, here.

But, it’s probably safe to assume, that since...

He was speaking to a Jew

The man was returning (presumably) from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem...

It’s probably safe to assume...

…that the Lawyer would have assumed the man to be...

...one of his own ethnic kinsman...

i.e., his neighbor!

-Now, here’s a matter of history and geography...

…that we need to keep in mind:

Sproul tells us:

It is only a few miles from Jerusalem to Jericho, but the road goes through some of the roughest, most barren and desolate terrain on the face of the earth.

It was an area notorious for thieves who preyed on travellers making the trip from Jerusalem to Jericho — R.C. Sproul

Not surprisingly, then...

…we see this happening to our Jewish pilgrim...

…at the end of Verse 30:

Luke 10:30 (ESV)

30 ...he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

So, the man is...

Robbed

Stripped Naked

Beaten to within an inch of his life

Left for dead!

(this presumably pious neighbor to the Jewish Lawyer)

Is there much hope for this man?

Not at all!

He’s out in the wilderness

Naked, Unconscious, and Alone

-But, then this happens:

Luke 10:31 (ESV)

31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road...

One thing I intentionally withheld from you before...

...Was the fact that Jericho was FULL of...

…inhabitants that worked at/around the Temple.

You might could say that...

…it was, at this time...

A City full of ministers!

Because of that...

…a good portion of the travelers on this path...

…would have been either:

Priests

Levites (temple workers)

-Now, if you’re a Jewish Lawyer...

…and you hear this story about this Jewish Worshiper...

…who has fallen into peril...

…and then you hear that...

…a priest “just so happens” to come down the road...

…what are you going to think?

He’s Saved!

God has sent his servant to deliver him!

A neighbor has come to show him love!

-But, that’s not what happens:

Luke 10:31 (ESV)

31 ...when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

Wait, what?

This man is a shepherd of Israel.

He was commissioned with the watch-care of the people.

Why would he do this?

Why would he...

See the man...

Recognize his plight...

Turn and go the other way?

-Well, there’s a lot of speculation about that:

Some say:

He was in a hurry

He feared being ambushed himself

He may have thought he was already dead

I think the more likely reason...

…is that he, like the Lawyer in our text...

…found a way to justify his not getting himself involved.

Remember this:

Numbers 5:2 (ESV)

2 “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is. . . unclean through contact with the dead.

Furthermore:

Leviticus 21:1–3 (ESV)

1 ...the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people,

2 except for his closest relatives...

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He could tell that this man wasn’t that...

...And, it’s possible (as far as he could tell)...

That he was already dead

That he could die on him while he was trying to help.

So, I imagine the logic would go something like this:

Since I’m needed to serve in the Temple

Since I would have to be unclean and out of service for a week

I had better just steer clear of this man...

So I don’t risk putting in jeopardy...

…what’s most important!

In other word… you might say...

My duties to the...

First tablet of the Law

(i.e., serving God)

Don’t permit me to perform my duties to the...

Second tablet of the Law

(i.e., serving my fellow man)

Sounds pious, doesn’t it?

(We’ll see what Jesus thinks about it in a minute)

-But first, look at Verse 32.

It’s nearly the same exact scenario:

It begins with hope...

And ends in bitter disappointment:

Luke 10:32 (ESV)

32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

It would appear that the Levite...

(also a religious leader of sorts)

…came even closer to him...

(close enough to see that he was alive)

…and he also, chose to...

Leave him to die!

-Both of these men...

Were professional ministers

Knew the Law better than most

Set it aside for the sake of self-preservation!

Is what they’re doing, by definition, loving...

Luke 10:27 (ESV)

27 ...your neighbor as yourself.”

Quite the opposite!

They are loving themselves...

…at the expense of their neighbor...

And probably using the Old Covenant Ceremonial laws...

…as their justification for it!

-Let me show you how obvious this should have been to them:

Deuteronomy 22:4 (ESV)

4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

Exodus 23:4–5 (ESV)

4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.

5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

Do you think, perhaps, they ought to have assumed...

…that God was more concerned with...

Humans

Than Oxen?

This was the fundamental precept of the Law...

…and many did not/do not understand it:

Hosea 6:6 (ESV)

6 ...I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Now, some did understand it:

The Scribe in Mark 12 was one of those:

Mark 12:33 (ESV)

33 ...to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

-Now, with nowhere near enough time left...

…let’s look at Verse 33:

Notice the obvious contrast.

This time, he doesn’t begin with hope:

Luke 10:33 (ESV)

33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was...

This man wasn’t the man’s neighbor (in a technical sense).

He was his enemy!

Ryken, reminds us of the history this time:

A Samaritan was just about the last person that anyone in Israel would expect to stop and help.

In centuries past the Samaritans had defied God’s law by intermarrying with the Assyrians.

Over time they had developed their own version of the Torah and set up their own center for worship.

Thus, as far as the Jews were concerned, the Samaritans were half-breed heretics.

By the time of Christ, there was a settled animosity between the two people groups — Ryken

-Would the Lawyer have seen this man...

As the wounded man’s neighbor?

As his own neighbor?

Yet… We see this:

Luke 10:33–35 (ESV)

33 But a Samaritan . . . when he saw him, he had compassion.

He responded in keeping with the essence of the Law

He loved his enemy!

Would a Jewish man had felt the same way about him?

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.

He was willing to risk his own life...

He was willing to sacrifice his time...

He was willing to be inconvenienced and delayed...

…for the sake of a sworn enemy!

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.’

(several weeks worth of care provided)

Even pledged to pay the man’s “hospital bills!”

(instead of making the robbed man responsible for them)

This man… this Samaritan man...

Loved his neighbor as himself!

Loved his enemy as himself!

This man… more than the Priest and the Levite...

Was fulfilling the Royal Law of Love...

And that was Jesus’ point.

-Look at what he asks the Lawyer in Verse 36:

Luke 10:36 (ESV)

36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

Remember, the Samaritan was the one...

…who was the acceptable exception to the rule.

He was NOT the man’s...

Brother

Friend

Neighbor...

…in any technical sense.

Yet, Jesus points to him and says, essentially...

Which of these men...

actually TREATED the man the way a neighbor is required to treat him?

actually fulfilled the duties of a neighbor to the man?

actually WAS a neighbor to the man?

-The answer is undeniable.

Even to the Lawyer who was...

…trying to diminish the Law...

…in the hopes of being able to satisfy its demands.

He answers Jesus in Verse 37:

Luke 10:37 (ESV)

37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” . . .

He wouldn’t even say the word “Samaritan”

-You know what this does for us?

It shows us what the concept of “a neighbor” is all about.

To be a neighbor...

To have a neighbor...

…are undergirded by the same basic principle:

It means to...

Love

and be loved

Help...

and be helped

Show compassion...

and be shown compassion

Be self-sacrificing...

and be sacrificed for

Show mercy (NOT deserved)...

and be shown Mercy.

This is what the Second Great Commandment entails.

This is its essence.

And Jesus bids the Lawyer...

(and us by extension):

. . . “You go, and do likewise.”

And brethren, he didn’t do so hypocritically.

That’s exactly what he himself went on to do.

And if Jesus hadn’t...

Loved his neighbor as himself

Loved his ENEMIES...

…you and I would be eternally worse off...

…than the Jewish pilgrim in our story.

If Jesus had sought the path of Self-preservation...

We would ALL have perished in the wilderness.

I’ll give the final word to Mike McKinley:

Jesus is the true Good Samaritan. He came to us while we were still his enemies; he met us when we were dead in our sins and trespasses.

He fulfilled the requirements and paid the price so that our soul’s wounds might be healed.

It is only by trusting in Christ’s death and resurrection for us that we can inherit eternal life.

Once we have understood that truth, we will find that we are able to truly extend ourselves in love to those in physical and spiritual need around us.

A heart that has been touched by the unmerited love of Christ will be moved to show that love to others who may not deserve it.

Jesus has loved you; go and do likewise! — Mike McKinley

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