Luke 10:25-37

Luke 10:25–37 KJV (WS)

25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Introduction

Is there anyone you do not want to see at our church?

Like if they walked in you might roll your eyes?

Or maybe there is a certain type of person that you would avoid talking to or you would move to the other side of the auditorium if they showed up.

How can we have a church whose doors are open to everyone that needs to be here, if our hearts are closed to specific groups of people?

We are really good at saying the right things, but when it comes to time to proving it, we often fall short.

In today’s passage, we meet a man whose prejudice was exposed in a conversation with Jesus.

Jesus interacts with a lawyer.

Lawyers were supposed to be experts in the law.

Today’s lawyers study and apply the laws of our country.

In Jesus time, lawyers studied and applied the law of Moses.

If anyone should have known what was required to attain eternal life, this man should have.

Yet, here we see him asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.

We are already given a clue that this man is not sincere.

Vs 25 says he asks this question to tempt Jesus.

Any audience members that opposed Jesus would be very happy to see this conversation take place.

Lawyers were the smartest members of the Jewish spiritual world.

What the pharisees had in passion and devotion, the lawyers had in intellect and wit.

Jesus, of course isn’t bothered by this.

He answers the lawyer’s question with a question of his own.

What does the law say, in your interpretation?

Jesus does not challenge this man’s knowledge of the law.

Instead, he plans on using this man’s knowledge to teach a lesson.

The man answers Jesus with a very pious and spiritual answer.

He actually gives an answers that Jesus himself used when asked what the greatest commandment was .

Love the Lord thy God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind.

The lawyer even includes the second greatest commandment.

Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Jesus commends the lawyer.

He says this is the right answer.

Do this and you will live.

Now, Jesus knows, and so does the lawyer, that this is an impossible task.

The law was never intended to lay out a roadmap for humans to earn salvation.

Instead, it was meant to show us the extant of our sins.

This lawyer is a good example of how so many of us think.

He’s desperate to justify himself.

He feels like he has done all these things.

Well, at least to the people that he felt deserved it.

This man felt the same prejudices that other people of his day felt.

Surely, the loving your neighbor part didn’t apply to everyone.

He blurts out, maybe without fully thinking about what he was saying…

And, who is my neighbor?

In my mind I picture Jesus starting to return to his teaching when this man makes this statement.

At this question, Jesus smiles as he turns back to the lawyer.

He immediately begins talking to the lawyer and to all that have witnessed this interchange.

The story Jesus tells is not identified as a parable.

It does not have the typical markers of a parable either.

I believe that this story is true.

You know it well.

Jesus begins to tells the story of the Good Samaritan.

It’s the story of a man who was traveling away from Jerusalem towards Jericho.

We talk a lot about the business of this route.

We talk about the danger of this road as well.

You may remember during Christmas we talked about how oftentimes travellers would wait for a group to travel with.

Safety in numbers and all that.

It seems this man did not have the time to wait.

Or, maybe he felt pretty comfortable with his ability to protect himself.

Regardless, the man is way-laid by thieves.

The man is robbed, wounded, and left for dead.

If the man was passing through this route on his own, it may have been because of the lack of travellers during this time of year.

Now that he’s been beaten nearly to death, it’s probably pretty unlikely that anyone will pass by to help him.

Whether it’s the weather or it the wildlife, it seems like nature will soon finish what the thieves had not.

This man will soon be dead and there’s no telling how many people will see his dead exposed body on the side of the road decomposing.

How long will it be before his family figures out what happened to him?

What will happen to him without a proper burial?

How has his life come down to this.

But, then, the impossible happens.

Jesus tells about two men who found the victim on the side of the road.

As the man slips in and out of consciousness, he hears footsteps.

Faint at first.

But then more certain.

Someone was coming.

Was it the thieves coming back to finish the job?

NO! It was a priest.

Here was a man that had dedicated his life to loving the Lord with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Surely this man would show love to his neighbor as well.

With as much strength as he could muster the man tried to make himself known.

He was alive, he could still be saved if someone would help him.

The priest was still a ways away when his eyes fell on the man.

He had definitely seen him.

But what was he doing?

He was moving to the other side of the road.

HELP…he gasped.

HE tried to raise his hand, but now the priest had moved to the opposite side of the road.

He had quickened his pace.

It was obvious the man wasn’t going to stop.

Sure enough, he didn’t.

He passed on and around the corner.

He was out of sight.

The beaten man was despondent.

That was his one chance.

As he slipped back into unconsciousness, he doubted if he would ever wake up.

By some miracle, though, he did.

As his eyes fluttered open, weakly, he looked up.

To his surprise, he was looking up into the eyes of another man.

The man standing over him was startled to see the wounded man move.

He thought the man was dead.

The wounded man’s mind was filled with the implausibility of a second traveller finding him.

Through blurred vision, he could see that this man was a levite.

A man who’s life was meant to be spent among the people teaching and demonstrating holy living to the people.

Surely this man will have compassion on him.

But, no.

The levite shook his head and began to back away.

No, please don’t go.

The levite sheepishly and with a great deal of embarrassment shrugged and moved away from the poor victim.

Well, that’s it.

One passerby was improbable.

Two was impossible.

There was no hope anymore.

Jesus tells them about what happened next.

The beaten man was laying on the side of the road with his eyes swollen shut.

He was thinking back on his life.

He was thinking about his parents, siblings, his wife and children.

He cried silently as he thought about them.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he did not notice the sounds of an approaching beast.

Nor did he hear the rider dismount and walk over to him.

He could not see the look of compassion on the face of the stranger as he approached the man carefully.

But, then, all of a sudden, the beaten man felt the gentle touch of hands lifting his head up off of the harsh rocks.

He felt water pouring on his wounds.

What was this?

Was it angel come to take him to paradise?

He could not see, but then he heard.

It was a distinct accent.

One that he had mimicked many times throughout his life.

To add insult to injury, he was being handled by a Samaritan.

As oil and wine were applied to his wounds, the man couldn’t muster enough prejudice to pull himself away.

He was just grateful for the soothing touch of someone who cared.

He felt strength returning to his body as hope washed over him.

Slowly the Samaritan lifted the man off the ground and walked him to his donkey.

With great effort, they are able to get the man up to the saddle.

Though weak, the beaten man is able to stay on the animal as the kind Samaritan led the donkey down the road.

Eventually, they make it to an inn.

In the morning, the Samaritan man leaves money to provide for the care of the wounded man.

He even promises to pay any extra expenses that may be incurred while the man recovers.

Jesus asks the lawyer a question.

Jesus does not humiliate the lawyer, instead he talks to him, maybe ironically, as he used to being talked.

He asks the man, “Which of the three, in your interpretation, was neighbor to the man that was robbed?

Well obviously the “hero” of the story is the Samaritan.

In his answer, the man exposes his sin against the law.

He harbors so much bitterness towards his neighbor, he can’t even bring himself to refer to the man appropriately.

Instead, he just mutters, the one that showed mercy to him.

Jesus tells him to go and do the same.

Application

I believe there is a serious warning for us to consider in this passage.

This man held so much prejudice towards another people group.

He couldn’t stand to see them painted in a positive light.

He tried to present himself as righteous to Jesus.

Jesus simply told a story and the man’s response revealed that he was not living according to the law.

God doesn’t give us the liberty to pick and choose who our neighbor might be.

No matter how much you may want to justify yourself, Jesus knows exactly who you harbor the most disdain for.

Remember, the standard is not that you would put up with someone or that you would be civil towards them.

The Bible teaches us that the standard is to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves.

Who are your Samaritans?

It could be a group of people that have a certain last name.

It could be people that have a certain skin color.

It could be people that vote differently than you.

Or, maybe people that sin differently than you.

Regardless, we have a responsibility to love them.

If they are unsaved, then as a Christian, you should treat them the way that you would want a Christian to treat you if you were unsaved.

If they are saved, then they are part of the family of God and you would expect your brother or sister in Christ to treat you.

Conclusion

How can we ever claim to be an open door church if we pick and choose who qualifies to receive our love?

It’s not always racial discrimination that we have to beware of.

Sometimes it’s worldview discrimination that prevents us from reaching our neighbors with the gospel.

It has no place in this church or in the life of a Christian.

If we are going to be an open-door church, then we have to people whose hearts are open to our neighbors.