Who’s Neighbor Are You?

Scripture reader: Trudy Seward

Luke 10:25–37 ESV

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 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.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 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. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 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. 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.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Introduction:

Today we come to one of Jesus’ widely known parables. Even among those who have never read the Bible, they have heard this parable either quoted or simply referred to. This happens of course in sermons but even secular speakers and politicians will use this parable or in many cases misuse it. They misunderstand it. I’d say it’s often misunderstood.

A lot of times lately, it’s used as a way to get at some form of the social gospel. They’ll use it as evidence and say this is the base line of Christianity. They’ll say that loving your neighbor is the highest value of Christianity. They try to argue that we don’t need to worry about doctrine and right beliefs, conversions, sharing the Gospel, making disciples, or mission work. They try to justify it as a reason to toss out doctrine and the mission of the church and just go on to the business of helping people. They believe and preach that it’s the essence of what Jesus says to do in this parable. They. are. wrong.

This story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus tells is not Him summing up the core tenants of His life and teaching. This story is told by Jesus in response to a question from a lawyer to show him the deep hole in his own heart and his need for a Savior.

Many people will use the Good Samaritan to get to the idea of “love your neighbor” and that idea is definitely there. But that is not all that is there. These people often show by their interpretation that they don’t truly understand the context the story was first presented in. They will often use it as I mentioned previously to prove some point that they already knew they wanted to make. This is one reason why we preach expositional sermons here at Hope. We don’t come up with a point we want to make and then search for a verse and rip it out of context to prove “our” point. No, in expositional preaching we open the Word of God and expose the meaning of it to the people in proclamation and we apply it to the life of the hearer. Expository preaching should be the regular diet of the church.

When we approach this familiar story in this manner and plumb the depths of what the message really is, we see the hidden depths that God has placed here for us to swim in. And we actually get a clue that more is going on here by the initial question that the lawyer asks.

In this sermon we are going to take a look at three main truths. First, eternal life is an inheritance that you can not earn. Second, we will see the truth that neighborly love that we see here is different. And thirdly we’re going to see what a perfect neighbor looks like.

I. Eternal life is an inheritance you can not earn.

Luke 10:25 ESV

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

The lawyer is not asking a sincere question. He’s putting Jesus to the test. Of course he did not realize who it was that he was testing. Not really. He asks this question about what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Eternal life means forever life with God. It’s life as it was meant to be, with God. It’s life to the fullest extent possible. And here is this lawyer playing games with the most important question in the universe.

He assumes there is one thing that he can do to earn eternal life. Most people in our world think this. Like there’s something that you can do that will somehow in-debt God to you so that He would have to grant you eternal life. Or that God judges based on a scale of good and evil. As if the weight of your good deeds on one side could somehow outweigh the weight of your bad deeds on the other. It simply doesn’t work like that.

This dude is a lawyer. He’s someone who studied the law and interpreted it for people. So Jesus points him to the law.

Jesus trusts the Word of God as the place where we can find the answers to the questions we have. Therefore, we should also trust the Bible. You can not follow Jesus and reject the Word of God. So either this lawyer will recite what he knows and we will see if he’s doing it or not.

In response to this the question, the lawyer summarizes the law.

Luke 10:27 ESV

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.”

We can see that he’s summarizing from Deut and Leviticus.

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Leviticus 19:18 ESV

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.

Jesus confirms the answer the lawyer gives as correct. But then there’s a twist or a point on the end of it.

Luke 10:28 ESV

And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

You know what, you’re right. That’s the right answer. But then comes the stinger. He tells him to do that and he will live. So, it’s got to be perfect obedience to the law. Spoiler alert: You can’t do that. And he couldn’t do that. He knew in that moment that there were times he had not kept the law. Imagine his mind racing back to the last time he failed.

You see, if perfect obedience is the way to inherit eternal life then we will all die in our guilt. We are all guilty of sin. We all deserve death and the wrath of God rightfully because none of us have obeyed that law perfectly. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We fall short of God’s standard of perfection. We needed someone to be perfect in our place. This guy was an expert in the law but didn’t realize that the law was given to expose our sin and lead us to the Savior.

And how does he respond to Jesus? He wants to justify himself.

Luke 10:29 ESV

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

He’s looking for an excuse. He’s looking to fudge the law a little because he knows that he doesn’t measure up to the standard. And this, my friends is what people do all the time. It’s how people respond when they realize they’ve broken God’s law. They do with God.

To illustrate it: Imagine you got pulled over by the police. You were speeding. You broke the law of the land. And the office walks up to your window and asks if you know why he pulled you over. All of sudden you’ve got the excuses. “Yeah, I guess I was going a little fast. The kids were yelling in the back.” Or, “I didn’t notice the sign,” and on and on… We’re hoping to fudge it and get off easy. This guy is doing that very thing.

They lawyer didn’t understand that there is a big difference between answering correctly theologically and living perfectly in your day in and day out life. He’s trying to shrink the neighborhood so to speak. he knew he couldn’t do all of the law but maybe if he could limit or make his circle tighter of those he was responsible to love, he could somehow get it done. No again, man.

He’s about to find out that neighborly love looks different.

II. Neighborly love looks different.

Jesus answers this question with a story that would greatly expand the definition of neighbor. As I read it again, I want you to remember that this story is given to answer the question. The point of the parable is the answer to the question.

Luke 10:30–35 ESV

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. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 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. 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.’

This story is so familiar to many of us that we have trouble seeing just how shocking it really is and how scandalous it would have been to those hearing it.

The man was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. This was a winding journey of seventeen miles. It passed through limestone crags and dropped in elevation from 3,400 feet to 800 feet below sea level. There were a bunch of caves along the route which made for perfect ambush points for thieves. It was so dangerous that not many people would make the trip alone. When Jesus gives that as the setting, people would have understood the significance. One scholar said it’s like today starting a story with, “a man walked down a dark alley alone…” You can guess where it’s going.

He gets attacked and robbed and left for dead.

Three people happen along the road and see the half dead man.

A priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan travel down a road… sounds like the beginning to a bad joke…

The priest comes by first. He sees him and passes by on the other side. Then a Levite, comes by and also passes by on the other side. We get after these two guys quite a bit because we assume why they didn’t stop. They may have been concerned that they would be deemed unclean if they touched the man and he was dead or died in their hands. They may have been afraid that they too would be attacked and beaten. Whatever their reasons, they should have stopped when they saw the need. To make matters worse, there’s a pretty good likelihood they were coming back from worshipping. Can you imagine after church this morning you’re heading home and you see a beaten and bloody man in the road and you just make a wide swath and keep heading to lunch? So they go on down the road.

But then, Jesus tells us a Samaritan arrives. He saw the man and this Samaritan had compassion on Him. We have seen a bit of the ethnic and religious tension between the Jews and Samaritans. As Mike McKinley notes, “For a Jew, Samaritans were the kind of people on whom you hoped fire from heaven would fall. In the ears of Jesus’ audience, he would have been roughly like an Islamic extremist operative would be to someone in the West. Surely this is going to be the villain in the story.”

This is what makes the story so scandalous. This Samaritan, the enemy, takes pity on the beaten man. He has compassion on him. Even though there might be danger close by, he stops and tends to the wounded man. He puts him on his donkey. When they get to the inn the Good Sam spends his own money making sure the man’s needs are met. This is someone the people would have hated showing extreme kindness.

According to Thabiti Anabwele, this story blows all the categories of the day:

In the brokenness of this sinful world

Exposes the emptiness of religion without love

challenges racism and prejudice

requires sacrifice and risk

“It would have rocked this guy’s world to have God define his neighbor as a hurting man in a rough part of town, from a different ethnic group who needed compassion.” T.A.

Through this story Jesus reveals the sin in the heart of the lawyer and in our hearts as well.

III. The Perfect Neighbor

Jesus finishes up with a mic drop moment.

Luke 10:36–37 ESV

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Again we see that you must believe right and that right belief should change your actions. Your faith in Christ will change your life. It changes how we display compassion to people.

Don’t put yourself in the wrong place in the story.

Most of the time… the passers by and should be more like the good sam.

but in reality we are the nearly dead man on the side of the road…left for dead in our sin…

We can’t be a perfect neighbor. But we need a perfect neighbor.

This story is not an allegory. Some preachers have tried to say this but you can’t take every little part and say it stands for something else. However, we can for sure see a picture of the gospel here.

God the Son came into this world and lavished perfect neighborly love upon us.

We were not half dead on the side of the road. We were dead, dead, in our sin and rightfully due eternity separated from God. But He came in fulfillment of the law. He lived the perfect life we could not, perfectly living out the answer to the first question. And He sacrificially gave, not just income, but His very life itself on the cross in the place of those of us dead in our sin. And He rose from the dead three days later. He offers us His righteousness.

Do you understand: The perfect neighbor is right there in front of this lawyer and he doesn’t realize it. He’s too busy trying to justify himself and misses Jesus.

Imagine standing before the Savior and trying to justify yourself… yet we do it too…

The Neighbor sees the need of another, has the resources to meet the need, and meets the need without prejudice and regardless of circumstances.

The point of the parable is to answer this question: Who is my neighbor? It’s Jesus. He’s the neighbor to you and you should show that kind of love to those you cross paths with.

Tim Keller comments on this in his book Generous Justice. He wrote this:

“We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people whom we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need-regardless of race, politics, class, and religion-is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother or sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.”

Now, there are many in the previous few years who have taken this and used it to say you have to do blank and blank to love your neighbor. That is not what Jesus is saying and that is not what Keller is saying in that quote. The point is that we shouldn’t be asking how small of a circle we can have of people to serve. It seems that instead of asking who is my neighbor, we should ask “whose neighbor am I?”

We should love those we encounter with selfless, neighbor love, because Christ has loved us in this way. We see in this parable, our responsibility but also our deep need for a Savior.

Being a good neighbor… exhibiting neighborly love to those in need who cross our path is the way of the Christian but not to the exclusion of Jesus’ other teaching. Helping someone is what we should do, but not without keeping with the whole counsel of God. Feed people food who need it, yes. But feed them the gospel so we don’t just have more full people in hell.

Whose neighbor are you?

The good neighbor:

notices people in need

performs practical deeds of mercy

refuses to draw artificial boundaries

willing to make costly sacrifices of time and money

J.C. Ryle wrote this,

“The kindness of a Christian towards others … should be a practical love, a love which entails on him self-sacrifice and self-denial, both in money, and time, and trouble. His charity should be seen not merely in his talking, but his acting—not merely in his profession, but in his practice.”

You go and do likewise.

PRAY