Neighborly Love Luke 10:25-37
Notes
Transcript
Neighborly Love
Neighborly Love
On February 19, 1968, Fred Rogers debuted his show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.
Would you be mind?
Could you be mine?
Won’t you be my neighbor?
For 33 years and nearly 900 episodes, Mr Rogers was the face of what it looked like to be a neighbor.
He taught Kids how to have compassion, how to show love, and what kindness looked like.
Generations of children tuned in to watch this man simply be a kind and loving person.
Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister and though his theology wasn’t perfect, he did demonstrate a love for others that is demanded of us by Jesus.
There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Rogers took this morning’s text seriously as he developed his show.
This morning we are going to look at one of the most popular and maybe most famous parables of Jesus’ entire ministry.
The story of the Good Samaritan.
Now, we don’t need to abandon the context of this passage.
Since I wasn’t here last week, let’s recap what just happened in Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus just sent out the 72 to go and proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom.
And yes they have already returned, but when he’s gone they will need to keep this teaching in mind.
Also in v. 21, Jesus praises the Father that he has revealed the truth to the “infants” and kept it from the wise.
The person who approaches Jesus to ask a question is one of the wise men.
He’s a man who has spent his whole life studying the scriptures, but the truth about Jesus and some of his teachings have been hidden.
So Let’s pray and ask that the Lord open our hearts and eyes so that we may know him more fully and what he desires from us as his followers.
25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
Jesus is out teaching and preaching, when he is approached by “an expert in the Law”
Your bible might say Lawyer, but don’t get confused.
This isn’t like the type of Lawyer we have today.
This man was an expert in God’s Law.
He’s a bible scholar and Theologian.
His very job is to study God’s word.
So he approaches Jesus.
Now we must know from the beginning that this isn’t a normal approach of Jesus.
This Lawyer, though he has a question doesn’t have the purest of motivations when approaching Jesus.
Luke lets us in on this when he said that the expert in the law “stood up to test him”.
The religious leaders were still not sure what to do with Jesus and his followers.
They didn’t know how to categorize them.
But they did know that Jesus was going around preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God.
And so this man is testing Jesus’ theology.
Which is foolish since we know that Jesus is God incarnate, but remember they were still trying to parse this stuff out when it comes to Jesus.
Just real quick, Jesus doesn’t mind us approaching him with our questions or concerns.
He’s readily available for us to come to him and seek understand.
The problem wasn’t this man’s question, the problem was his heart.
He wasn’t seeking understanding, rather his desire was to trip Jesus up or trap him
The Lawyer’s question had a fundamental flaw.
He asks “What can I do to inherit eternal life?”
Logically this question doesn’t follow.
An Inheritance isn’t something that one earns.
It is a gift.
But this man wants to know what he can do to earn the gift.
He doesn’t see the ridiculousness of his question.
This is no different from us saying, what can I do to earn God’s Grace.
Grace is a free gift.
It is given by the King of the Universe at his great pleasure.
But too often what we think is that we can earn his grace rather than simply accept his grace.
Rather than simply receive his grace.
God’s grace and our inheritance isn’t up for sale.
It’s a gift.
Even though the question is ridiculous from the lawyer, Jesus isn’t going to be caught up in his games.
He does what every good Jewish rabbi would do.
Instead of answering this man’s question, he responds with a question.
Jesus points this lawyer back to his own expertise.
The Law.
Now we must remember that the foundation of our faith, the foundation of our knowledge of who God is and what he does is through the scriptures.
It’s no accident that Jesus points this man back to the word of God.
But he also does the same thing for us.
When we have questions, doubts, or concerns Jesus wants us to run back to his word and see what it says about God’s providence.
About his work in the world.
And in order to have this foundation, we must know the word of God.
It must take root in our hearts.
It must transform the way we live and the way we love.
Jesus asked the lawyer, “how do you read it?”
He’s asking, how do you understand the scriptures.
This is as important for us as it was for this lawyer.
How we read and interpret the Scriptures will inform how we live.
Are the scriptures a moral guidebook?
Then we will try to do good and feel shameful when we fail.
Are the Scriptures about me?
Then I will read myself into the different stories in the bible and try to find myself in them.
Are the Scriptures about God’s work in history and the salvation made available through Jesus?
Then I will understand who God is and what he has accomplished for his good and his glory.
The response from the lawyer was to quote scripture.
It’s a combination of two scriptures.
Deut. 6.5 and Lev 19:18.
This is that perfect Sunday School Answer.
The answer that would have been expected.
However, there doesn’t seem to be any conviction in the answer given.
Rather, it was just a rote memorization of commandments.
Yet, Jesus responds, that the man is right.
This is the heart of God’s instruction for his people.
We love him with all that we have and we love our neighbors as ourselves.
In Matthew’s Gospel account, Jesus even responds with this as the response to the greatest and second greatest commandment.
So the answer is the right answer, but then Jesus goes one step further for this man and he tells him “do this and you will live.”
All the lawyer had to do was love God with all he has and all he is, and love his neighbor as himself.
If he did this he would have eternal life.
In fact, if we did this we would have eternal life.
B/c doing this perfectly, without any missteps means that we have kept God’s law perfectly.
But the reality is, it’s impossible to do this perfectly.
Who have you ever known to live a completely selfless life?
One wholly devoted to God and his mission.
I can only think of one and his name is Jesus.
Jesus isn’t telling the man to have one good day and then he’s covered.
No this is living perfectly and consistently loving God and people.
It’s impossible.
It can never be done.
Jesus is hinting at the reality that keeping the law and commandments will never accomplish eternal life.
The inability to save ourselves through our actions should drive us to the beauty of our savior.
But the lawyer thinks he has this all together.
He thinks he’s pretty good at loving God and loving his neighbor, but he needs some clarification from Jesus.
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Who is my Neighbor?
Who is my Neighbor?
The clarification that is sought here by the Lawyer is the question of “who is my neighbor?”
It seems like a pretty logical question.
If we are to love our neighbor as ourselves then we need to know who our neighbor is.
On the surface it seems like a good question.
But what underlies the question is this… Who do I have to love?
Who do I have to seek the good of.
Who is worthy of my compassion.
The lawyer wants to draw boundaries around who he has to love.
He wants to divide people into categories of “worthy of my love” and “unworthy of my love.”
What does he miss in this division of people.
He misses the heart of God.
Though he has the knowledge about God.
He has the degrees.
He has the credentials.
He misses the heart of God.
The Jewish people usually only considered those within their tribe to be their neighbors.
Members of their covenant community were their neighbors.
Outsiders weren’t their neighbors.
The Lawyer wanted to categorize people into either “neighbor” or “non-neighbor”
It’s impossible to love everyone.
So if we could limit the size and scope of those who we give our love to that would be better for me.
We do the same thing at times don’t we?
God says love your neighbor as yourself.
Which neighbor?
The one who votes differently than I do.
The one who worships differently than I do.
The one who lives differently than I do.
The one who looks differently than I do.
We can all say that we do a decent Job of loving people who look, vote, worship, and live like we do.
But those who are different we struggle with.
Like this lawyer, we proclaim that our love has limits.
That we can’t love everyone, so we try to justify ourselves before Jesus and make qualifications for who can be considered our neighbor.
Now when the lawyer asks the question, Jesus doesn’t respond with a question but responds with a story that will lead to a question.
30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Bad Neighbors
Bad Neighbors
Jesus begins his parable by talking about a man who travels from Jerusalem toward Jericho.
The setting of this story is important.
This road is roughly 18 miles long.
It takes almost a whole day to travel from Jerusalem to Jericho.
The reason this is such an important key to the story is b/c this road is extremely dangerous.
In ancient times people even called it “the bloody way”.
There were so many robbers, bandits, and dangers that one came across that traveling quickly was imperative to try and avoid these dangers.
This man ends up getting attacked by some of these robbers.
Not only do they take his money, but they stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead.
However, there was some light on the Horizon.
A priest, coming from Jerusalem, most likely leaving his temple service, is coming down the road.
But instead of helping this man, he crosses the road and passed by him.
Then a Levite, also coming from Jerusalem, passed by without lifting a finger to help this man.
These men, both coming from Jerusalem would have just participated in worship of God and reciting the law of Moses.
They had spent their time and energy serving and worshiping the Lord.
They hadn’t taken their knowledge of God and applied it to love of God.
They were bad neighbors.
Though they knew about God they neglected obedience to God.
Don’t miss this, the man lying in the ditch is a Jewish man.
He is one of those that they believed they should love as a neighbor.
Yet they couldn’t be inconvenienced to help him out.
To paint a picture for you, Imagine that me and one of the deacons were leaving from a Sunday Morning worship service.
We were walking down Hackberry Street and we saw a man bleeding, broken, and naked lying in a ditch, but instead of helping him we walked past never giving him a second thought or glance.
You would think that is ridiculous.
In the face of evil, we should do what’s right.
That’s what Jesus is trying to convey.
The men who had devoted their lives to the service of God.
Who knew that they should help those who are hurting.
Who were aware that God called them to have compassion on people, didn’t do the right thing.
They didn’t help.
They ignored.
But you may be thinking…maybe they had a good reason to not help.
What if they were concerned about becoming unclean b/c they thought the man was dead.
Maybe they were afraid b/c they didn’t want to end up like that man.
Perhaps the robbers were still around and if they stayed then they would become victims too.
Maybe they were in a hurry to get back home b/c they were tired and wanted to rest.
Jesus doesn’t tell us why they didn’t help.
Why?
B/c it doesn’t matter what their excuse was.
They were guilty of not doing what they could to save that man’s life.
How many times do we see the hurting and anguish in this world.
Those who are far from God.
Those who are struggling to put food on the table.
Those who are fighting just to stay alive.
And instead of lend them a helping hand we come up with an excuse to avoid their suffering and pass by on the other side of the road.
This isn’t the way we are supposed to live.
As those who have been saved from the pit of hell.
Those who have been granted new life and desire to follow after Jesus when we see pain, heartache, and hurt and to ignore it we sin.
We are to be agents of God’s goodness on this earth.
But to ignore someone when they are down violates the very character of God.
Look, I’m as guilty as the next guy.
It’s easy for me to see someone hurting and think.
I’m too busy, I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it.
I just don’t need that type of negativity in my life.
I’ve got other things to do.
Or here’s the favorite among many of us, someone else will come along and take care of that.
We will leave this mess for someone else.
But the reality is, What kind of Jesus follower am I if I neglect doing what He has called us to do.
To care for those who are hurting.
We are the kings of excuses...we can find any reason to avoid doing some things. It doesn't take much to justify our negligence in doing the right thing
But they are all lame and insufficient when it comes to our calling to be and do good in the world around us.
We are bad neighbors when we see evil and we stand back and do nothing about it.
So let’s not be bad neighbors, let’s be good neighbors.
But what does a good neighbor look like.
33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.
34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
Good Neighbor
Good Neighbor
Jesus has no shortage of shock value in his teaching, especially when he’s trying to make a point.
I’m sure you remember, but a few weeks ago, I told you how much the Samaritans and the Jewish people hated each other.
There was some tension and conflict between these two ethnic groups.
So for Jesus to tell us in these verses that the good guy of the story is a Samaritan would have sent shock-waves through the minds and hearts of the lawyer he was talking to.
The one seen as the villain is portrayed as the hero in Jesus’ Parable.
As far as the Jewish people were concerned there weren’t any good Samaritans.
And yet the person they demonized, the person who they thought to be the scum of the earth, was the hero of Jesus’ story.
To go back to our previous analogy of me and one of the deacons walking by the injured man.
Imagine it like Jesus is saying, while those you revere as holy passed the man by, the Muslim stopped to help the injured man.
So what can we learn from this Samaritan that will help us be a good neighbor.
First, a good neighbor notices someone in need.
The Samaritan wasn’t caught up in his own agenda.
He wasn’t flippant on the road to Jericho, he was looking out at the world around him.
He wasn’t isolated, but his eyes were focused outward so he saw the man laying in the ditch.
For us, we need to be more intentional on looking for opportunities to do good in our world.
Many of us are so focused on ourselves and our own problems that we never take the time or make the effort to look to see if someone needs help.
A good neighbor looks for and notices people in need.
But he didn’t just notice the man, he had compassion on the man.
We need to be compassionate with those who suffer.
One of our default states is to look at people suffering and ask, did they bring that upon themselves.
Why did it happen? Is it their fault?
Which then leads to us thinking, they made the bed so let them sleep in it.
But that’s not compassionate.
We need to know that we could have been in the same position.
We could one day face the same hardship and would we want someone to look at us and say…you made the bed, now sleep in it or would we want someone to have compassion on us?
Yet it’s not enough to have compassion, the Samaritan also demonstrates compassion.
He makes sacrifices for this ma.
Remember the road was just as dangerous for the Samaritan as it was for the Priest and the Levite.
The robbers were no respecter of persons.
They would have just as easily stopped and robbed the Samaritan as they would have the priest and Levite.
But the Samaritan didn’t care.
He was willing to put his life on the line for this man he didn’t even know.
He bandaged this man up.
Pouring his wine on his wounds to allow the alcohol help prevent infection.
Pouring his oil on the wounds to soothe and aid with the healing process.
Pouring out the oil and wine was a physical demonstration of him pouring out his love on this man.
Then he takes the man on his own animal, to the nearest inn.
So that he could heal up.
Did you notice how much money the Samaritan gave to the inn keeper to make sure this man was taken care of?
Two Denarii.
Two days wages.
That would have covered nearly 3 weeks in the inn.
And then the Samaritan was willing to come back and reimburse the inn keeper anything else that was spent on this man.
Do you see how extreme this man’s love and compassion was on a person he happened to come across on the road.
The Samaritan is exhibiting the radical love that Jesus calls his followers to.
The good Samaritan is not just a good neighbor he is the best neighbor.
Why b/c he poured himself out for the good of someone else.
He displayed the ethic of God’s compassion, love, grace, and goodness to a man who presumably wouldn’t have done the same for him.
Now, obviously this is a parable, but the principle is there.
In fact, Jesus addressed the lawyer in the next 2 verses.
36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
Be a Good Neighbor
Be a Good Neighbor
Out of option a) the priest, b) the Levite, or c) the Samaritan, who was a the good neighbor.
The lawyer didn’t even want to answer the question.
He couldn’t even be bothered to say “the Samaritan”
He could only muster the phrase “the one who showed mercy.”
But notice that Jesus never answers the lawyers original question…the original question was, who’s my neighbor.
Yet Jesus flips the script and tells the man not to worry about who you neighbor is, instead go out and be a good neighbor.
Don’t worry about who to include or exclude.
Don’t try and draw boundary lines around those who you want to love.
Instead, go out and show mercy, compassion, grace, and love to everyone.
To say it a different way, a person becomes my neighbor when I treat them in a neighborly way.
We need to get busy helping those who are right in front of us.
Those who are hurting.
Those who are broken.
Those who are hopeless.
We don’t need to look for reasons to avoid others.
Instead we should be looking for reasons to help others.
Why is that?
Well first, it is commanded by Jesus.
But even more importantly it is a response to the gospel.
Knowing Jesus should stir within us a desire to show the same kind of mercy to others that he has shown to us.
Many view the story of the Good Samaritan as a parallel to Jesus.
And though I agree with them the chasm that Jesus crossed was so much greater than that of the Samaritan man.
Think about it.
Jesus came to save those who are by nature children of wrath.
Those who by nature are God’s enemies.
He wasn’t just traveling along a road and happened upon us.
Instead he came to us.
He incarnated and became acquainted with us.
He sought us out to provide life giving aid.
You see we weren’t nearly dead on the side of the road, but in our sins and trespasses we were fully dead.
Jesus didn’t just provide healing, but he breathed new life into us.
He didn’t just spend a couple of days saving us.
No he lived his life in obedience to the father so that he could save us.
He didn’t simply pay a few days worth of wages so that we could survive.
No, he paid with his life.
Died so that we could be saved.
Jesus suffered on this earth.
Bled from his wounds.
Died on the cross.
And rose again so that we could experience his unending mercy.
This is the mercy of our savior.
Entering into human history and giving his life for ours.
And out of our gratitude for his mercy.
He expects us to show mercy to.
What does it mean to show mercy?
It means looking for an opportunity to help those in need.
Keep your eyes peeled for a chance to be a blessing in someone’s life.
Showing Mercy means offering forgiveness to those who have offended you.
It can also be as simple as making new visitors feel welcome in the church.
Skip sitting in you seat and sit next to them so that they can know that you see them.
There are multiple ways that you can be a good neighbor.
And that’s what we are called to do.
It will be uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, it must be done.