Luke 10:25-42 The Good Samaritan; Mary and Martha
Intro: Did this Easter sneak up on you? I have heard many say that this year. We have had a lot going on in our culture around us recently. I do find it funny though, knowing how important that the resurrection is to our faith that we can set it off to the side to celebrate once a year, yet if we were honest it seems to be what happens. Even when we think to ourselves, I love Easter because of what it means to us as Christians, we seem to be missing the point of the importance of what it means to us as Christians that Jesus rose from the dead. The Last few weeks we have been discussing, as a congregation a specific topic. Not because it's been on purpose but because that is where we are in the text. It was stated by Eric last week when he made the statement that as disciples we can have Jesus inside of us, but that doesn't always mean that we are walking in HIm. Today we are going to be covering two more attitudes that it is easy for us to get caught up in. We will cover them in the Good Samaritan and the incident with Mary and Martha.
1. Luke 10:25-37
2. Subject: The Good Samaritan
3. Objective: It's not about self-righteousness through ethnicity nor position, but through truly loving God and loving your neighbor.
4. Application: As Christians we can get caught up in an attitude that is not glorifying to God by thinking ourselves better than others. We are no better than a non-believer. The only difference is that we are saved through accepting Jesus as our lord and Savior.
1. What was the difference between a lawyer and the rest of the religious leaders?
1. A Lawyer in Israel was a bit different than what we would know as a lawyer. To us a lawyer is knowledgeable about a very specific field. In the Jewish culture, everything was wrapped around the Torah, or the Law of God. This being said, the Lawyer would normally also be a religious man, although not a priest nor a Temple worker. RSB
2. Why did Jesus answer a question with a question? jesus knows that he is dealing with a lawyer so He appeals to the Law, although it states that he just trying to test Jesus. This is not a situation where the Lawyer is asking an honest question but just trying to find something in what Jesus is saying to use against him.
3. Why was the Lawyer wanting to justify himself?
1. He was trying to prove his righteousnesses by excusing his wrong behavior.
1. As an expert in the law of Moses, this man was likely a Pharisee (see John 1:24 and note). As such, he viewed himself as both ethnically and religiously superior to others (see Jesus’ critique of Jewish legal experts in Matt 23). He was likely convicted about his demeaning attitude toward foreigners and condescension toward fellow Jews. Wanting to prove he was in the right for harboring these feelings, he pressed Jesus further for a definition of the word “neighbor.” Jesus’ conclusion in v. 37 demonstrated explicitly that the lawyer’s self-righteousness was untenable with a proper heart attitude before God. Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Lk 10:29). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
4. What was the purpose of using the Levite, Priest and Samaritan?
1. Notice how the Priest was used first then the lesser, just a temple worker, and then a detestable thing such as a Samaritan was used. This would have broken the thought process of the Lawyer all the way down. The Samaritan wasn't concerned about ethnicity nor religious status.
5. Luke 10:38-42
6. Subject: Mary and Martha
7. Objective: Serving is important, but we must not lose sight of what is the most important. We must always serve through a sense of worship.
8. Application: Can you imagine what it must have been like for Martha? We are all sitting in church. The service is over, and you see that you are the only person putting up chairs. Everyone else is just standing around maybe counseling or maybe praying or one another. We might think to ourselves, this is not fair. If someone else doesn't help then I am just leaving. We don't know what is being talked or prayed about. Instead, in a heart of worship we could take time to pray to Jesus for those conversations that are being held. We could also, instead of complaining take time to pray for all the people in the congregation in general. We need to have a heart of worship even while serving.
1. Vs. 40, How does serving cause distraction?
1. Serving can serve as a distraction when we serve without spiritual sensitivity.
2. Why was Martha concerned with her sister?
1. Martha was just concerned that she was not receiving help from her sister. Her issue seemed to be, not that she was making preparations, but her lack of sensitivity to what was the most important thing, worshiping Jesus.
3. What has Mary chosen that is the good part?
1. What mattered in this situation was taking the opportunity to listen to the word of God.
Conclusion: As we can see we are hindered in any type of ministry that we are serving with an attitude of self-righteousness or we serve without worshiping the Lord. The good news for us today is that we have the Good News. These last few weeks we have been discussing discipleship and some dangerous attitudes that we can fall into. It can be anything from Jealousy, envy and even self-righteousness and becoming distracted. Remember that there is a reason that this is in our instructional manual. It is because these are our tendencies. It doesn't make it ok, but it means that Jesus also forgives these sins. He died on the cross and was raised from the dead. He overcame death and sin... all of them. This is a reason to celebrate.