THE GOOD SAMARITAN EXPERIMENT

INTRO

Good morning!

It’s so good to be here to open up God’s Word with you today to continue our study of the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10. If you’ve been with us you know we’ve been studying this parable of the Good Samaritan in this series about intentional neighboring—choosing to love people well.

Actually, we’ve been studying this passage, and this will be our fourth week talking about this idea. And at this point, we know a thing or two about it.

And so I wanted to start my sermon by sharing with you a story about some people who knew a thing or two about the Good Samaritan—and it’ll be in the form of an experiment that I came across as we’ve been in this series called The Princeton Good Samaritan Experiment.

This is an experiment that was conducted back in the early 1970’s at Princeton Theological Seminary.

And what they did was take seminary students—students studying to become pastors and church leaders—and they gave them an assignment. Some of the students were told to write a sermon on the Good Samaritan, while others were told to write a sermon on working in pastoral ministry.

So they were studying, practicing, and working on these messages, but then, when they showed up to give their sermon for class, they were told that they had actually showed up to the wrong spot, and now they needed to go across campus to a different building.

And so they’re stressed out, they’re heading to try and give this sermon, and what none of them knew was that, along the path to the new classroom, the researches had placed an actor slumped in a doorway—coughing, groaning, doubled-over in pain, and clearly in need of help.

So you can imagine the scenario! You have these highly motivated students who had been studying the Bible, and they wanted to know whether the students—who knew the parable—would actually stop and help someone in need. So the real test wasn’t how good of a sermon they had written, or whether they had interpreted it correctly. The real test was whether the truth was actually beginning to change their lives.

And in the end, what the researchers found is that very few students actually stopped to help the person in need.

In fact, those who thought they were late were far less likely to stop, with some students literally stepping over the suffering man on their way to give a sermon about the Good Samaritan.

This is such a tragic outcome! Students who knew the parable were literally stepping over someone in need!

And what’s so amazing to me is that they thought they had it! They were fully prepared to teach others about the love that God wants us to show! They had studied, they had probably parsed every Greek verb... But they failed the real test.

So what about us? [[How are we doing with this “Good Samaritan Experiment?”]]

We’ve been in this passage for four weeks! We’ve been studying it! We’ve learned so much! But has it begun to change us? Have we gained knowledge, but failed to gain love?

As we continue to reflect, I want us to recognize that, like these seminary students, we haven’t totally arrived yet. And so once again, we need to consider the example of the Good Samaritan.

And that’s what we’re going to do as we open up the Text again today. So, if you’ve got your Bible, open up to Luke 10, and to this parable of the Good Samaritan so we can read it together.

We’re going to finish up this story today, and as we do, you’ll notice that the passage doesn’t end when the parable ends—actually, Jesus immediately re-engages the conversation He’s been having with this Lawyer. And I want to read this whole conversation so that it’s fresh in our minds as we get ready to unpack the last two verses here.

So if you’ve got your Bibles open to Luke 10, find verse 25, and stand with me to honor the reading of God’s Word.

Read Luke 10:25–37 “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “ ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said... “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.””

This is the Word of the Lord! You may be seated.

BODY

POINT ONE

So as we pick things up, notice that the first thing Jesus does is to pose a question to the Lawyer to help him reflect on the parable. He asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man.” Jesus wanted him to wrestle with and think about not who should have been a neighbor to the man, but who actually was a neighbor—or as it says in the ESV, who “proved” to be a neighbor to the man in need.

And the answer is clear. Jesus has set up the story to perfectly confront the Lawyer, and the Lawyer sees this and says, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Now, notice with me that he doesn’t say, “the Samaritan,” even though that’s obviously what he means. Some have picked up on this and argued that it’s a sign of the man’s prejudice, as though he can’t even bring himself to formally admit that the hero of the story was a Samaritan. We saw a few weeks ago how much the Jewish people hated the Samaritans. And while that is possible, I actually don’t think that’s the case—and that’s because of this word that he uses here, the word “mercy.” If it is the case that this Lawyer is so flustered that he won’t even say the word Samaritan, then it would be even LESS likely that he would call the man “merciful” using this particular word, and let me show you why.

The reason I say this is because this word “mercy” in the Greek is the word eleos, one of just a few different words for mercy. But of the different Greek words for mercy, it is this one in particular that shows up the most in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures.

And of the almost 250 times that this word shows up, which our friend the Lawyer had studied and probably had memorized, in the the vast, vast, majority of cases, in something like 90% of the time, this word does NOT refer to the mercy of human beings. RATHER, it refers to the mercy of God—and specifically to God’s long-suffering love, His lovingkindness, His covenant faithfulness.

See, what I think is going on is that, when the Lawyer considered all the ways that the Samaritan loved the man that we saw last week—he came to the man, he bandaged his wounds, he poured on oil and wine, etc… I think he recognized that kind of love. I think he recognized the kind of love that pursues the lost, that heals the broken, and that lifts up the weary.

And so for him to say that the Samaritan “showed mercy,” it was like he was saying, “I’ve seen that kind of love before!” It’s all over the Scriptures! It’s the kind of love that comes from a God who said that I am “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness—and then here is our word eleos—maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin...” (Ex 34:6-7).

In other words, as the Lawyer listened to the parable, I believe he was reminded of exactly the kind of loving-mercy that God had shown to his people throughout the Old Testament for generations and generations. So you can write down that, in the example of the Good Samaritan, we see God’s kind of merciful lovingkindness.

It’s the kind of love that the Jesus Storybook Bible talks about when it says that God loves us with a never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. [And while I don’t expect many of you to be familiar with this Greek word eleos, I wonder if some of you will recognize the Hebrew word that it translates. Because if you go back and check the Hebrew in Exodus 34, and in just about every case where you find eleos “mercy” in the Old Testament, the word for God’s compassionate, loving, mercy is none other than the Hebrew word hesed—a word that is so rich that it is almost impossible to translate into English, but refers to the steadfast, rock-solid care that God shows to His people.]

And while we don’t have time to look at all 250 times that these words are used, I do want to show you a few things about this kind of love. And the first place I want to go is the chapter in the Bible where this word is used the most—and that’s Psalm 136.

This Psalm is a song of praise and worship to God for who He is and for what He’s done. And in the opening verse, the author writes “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love (eleos, hesed) endures forever” (136:1). And not only do we have our word, but we learn something about this love: that it is a committed, enduring kind of love. Which means that it’s the kind of love that is not bound by circumstances! Even when the circumstances are dire. Even when you’re dealing with someone like an enemy. Even when things seem hopeless, this is the kind of love that stops on the road. It doesn’t come and go with time, it isn’t affected by the wind and waves of culture. It’s a love that is solid, reliable, and unending.

And not only that, but as we keep on reading this Psalm, we find that this phrase is repeated over and over again—26 times! So for example, in verse 2 it says “Give thanks to the god of gods. His love endures forever.” And as it goes, we get this call and response in the Psalm, where you have a leader shouting out about the things God has done, and then the congregation responds and praises God for His love. So as the Psalmist says…

vs 4, He alone “does great wonders” vv 5-9, He created the world vv 10-12, He saved Israel from Egypt vv 13-15, He delivered Israel at the Red Sea vs 16, He led people through the wilderness vv 17-22, He gave his people victory over their enemies vv 23-25, He remembers, frees, and provides for His people

And this means that we know God’s love not simply because He tells us that He loves us, but because He shows us His love as He acts… in love… on our behalf! His love is grounded in his actions—just like the actions of the Samaritan! So not only is it an enduring love, write down that this kind of love is a tangible love.

And of all these demonstrations of God’s love, by far my favorite is found in this last section of the Psalm, verses 23 and 24, which say, all things considered, “[God] remembered us in our low estate, His love endures forever, and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever!” See, part of what makes God’s love and mercy so beautiful is the fact that He loved us while we were so far down. And this is the amazing thing about mercy: Just like God’s grace, which saves us, it is something that we cannot earn! In other words, and you can write down, this enduring, tangible love is a totally undeserved love.

Because just like it says just a few chapters earlier in Psalm 130, “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” But because God does not keep that record, because He has delivered and forgiven us, we can “...put [our] hope in the Lord, [why?] for with the Lord is (eleos, hesed) unfailing love...” (Ps 130:3, 7).

So as [we get this bigger picture,] we realize that God’s kind of love is not fragile or fickle, it’s enduring, even when things are difficult or inconvenient. His kind of love is not based on a feeling—it’s tangible. It’s a choice. It’s a decision. His kind of love is not something we could earn, it’s undeserved.

And on the one hand, that’s good news! That’s reason to worship!

But on the other hand, it also helps us to see what’s true about our love by contrast. See, so often our kind of love is this fair-weather, feeling-based, score-keeping kind of love. When it gets difficult, our love dries up. When we don’t feel it, it’s like it isn’t even there. And when we’ve been wronged, or slighted, we withhold it. But there’s something else going on with the Good Samaritan. See, what the Lawyer saw, and what we need to see, is that the actions of an other-centered neighbor reflect the love and mercy of a faithful God.

And this is what makes the example of the Good Samaritan so striking. The Good Samaritan didn’t wait until the time was right. He didn’t wait until He felt like it. He didn’t wait for the man to earn it. He just loved him.

And all this means that, when we are called to love our neighbor, God is actually inviting us to love others with His kind of love!

And I wonder, after four weeks, have we accepted that invitation? Is that the kind of love we have been demonstrating in our lives?

POINT TWO

Because back in our Text, Jesus wraps up His conversation with the Lawyer, and ends our passage by saying, “Go and do likewise.”

And if we look back over this whole passage, this whole conversation, this is the only instruction that Jesus gives! “Do this (IMPV!) and you will live.” And then, here, “Go and do (IMPV!) likewise.” Clearly, Jesus’ desire is not for us merely to understand this love, or to understand a theological point about life, or to understand the purpose of the Law. Rather, Jesus’ desire is for us to actually show this kind of love in our day to day lives. This is the command!

Even though the Lawyer knew the right answers, it is not enough just to know the right answers! It’s not enough just to answer correctly. Or, to put it differently, [[answering correctly doesn’t mean that we’re living abundantly]]. But in the church, we can get so good at answering correctly that we confuse the two.

And thinking back to the Good Samaritan Experiment, that was the problem. They had studied this parable! They knew all about it! But the real test is whether they lived it out. Because how we live demonstrates what we actually believe.

[[See, the problem is, we can study the parable all we want.]] We can become an “expert in the NT Law,” as it were… and in the process we can miss Jesus’ point completely.

And this is the last thing we need to see in this Text: in the example of the Good Samaritan, not only do we see God’s kind of mercy and love, but also, in the example of the Good Samaritan, Jesus wants to give us a blueprint SO THAT we can live it out in our everyday living. The purpose of the parable is not that we would understand, but that we would walk away changed.

So as we get ready to wrap up, I want to leave us with a couple of questions to help us actually apply the kind of love that we’ve seen.

And the first question I want you to consider is, “Where has God already placed me?”

See, I think sometimes when we talk about the story of the Good Samaritan, we have this tendency to want to apply it to people we haven’t met yet. Which makes some sense, because that’s who the Good Samaritan was loving!

And yet, the broader point here is not just to be ready for chance encounters. The point is that we are to prove to be a neighbor to everyone God brings across our path! And that includes the people that are already in our lives.

And while there are people we pass by all the time who need the light of Christ and the love of God, how often are those hurting people the people that we live with, work with, walk with, and worship with?

I mean, think about all the people, all the spheres of influence that God has entrusted to you. In every area of your life, you have been placed there purposefully, so that you can show God’s love and mercy to others. In every area! Your job. Your neighborhood. Your hobbies. Your LifeGroup. Your sports team. Your graduating class. Your school. Your co-op group. Your city council.

And friends, let’s be reminded this morning that this includes the local church. Actually, when you think about the biblical commands to love, the majority of them are specifically directed at loving one another in the body of Christ! Take, for instance, Jesus’ famous saying to His disciples, to followers of Jesus in John 13:34–35, where Jesus says ““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.””

And even though we like to use it this way, this is not a general command to love all people. This is specifically a command to love our brothers and sisters in Christ! Friends, the witness of the Christian church is not ONLY the way that we scatter and serve and share outside of these walls! Rather, and in addition to outreach and evangelism, it is the very love and community within the family of God that is supposed to be a witness to the world.

Yet we know that so, so many experience just the opposite of God’s kind of love from others in the church. We even have a word for this: we call it “Church Hurt.” We’re so used to seeing it happen that we have a technical term to describe it. See, so often it is those who are near to us, those who we rub shoulders with, who get our fair-weather, feeling-based, score-keeping kind of love the most.

The reality is that it’s so easy to overlook those who are closest to us. It’s so easy to take them for granted. It’s easy to go out once a week and hand out food at a shelter; it’s much harder to give our lives to sacrificially love those that are right around us. Because once a week at the soup kitchen I have all the control. It’s sort of like how we talk about being Grandparents. People like being grandparents because at the end of the day they get to drop the baby back off with mom and dad. In other words, they have some control. They can keep some distance. But if it’s where I sleep, and unwind, and live my life, then it’s not something I can turn off or on whenever I want.

It’s true in the church, but it’s also true in our households. Friends, we don’t choose our family; God does. He has given you these children. These brothers. These sisters. These parents. These roommates. These tenants. These in-laws—for such a time as this! Far be it from us to step over our children, and our spouses, and our brothers and sisters, so that we can pursue our own interests and love strangers.

Again, our love should not end in our own circles, but this week, I want to invite you to start there. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Even back in our Text, the Samaritan wasn’t going out of his way! He didn’t go hunting for needs! He was just living his life, and choosing to love. And so should we! Even when it’s difficult. Even when we don’t feel like it. Even when they don’t deserve it. These are the times when we need to learn to love with God’s kind of love! So, we ask “Where has God already placed me?” because that’s where we need to start.

And the next question has to do with actually being able to attend to the people, whether they’re a regular part of our lives or someone we meet by chance. And the question is, “Am I walking at the pace of love?” We’ve noticed before how the Good Samaritan was able to really see the man, and was willing to be inconvenienced, and was moved with compassion. But I think sometimes we get going so fast, and we get so busy that we schedule ourselves into self-centeredness. In America we are so quick to allow our pace to dictate our love. Because we want to be productive. Even when we’re not, we wish that we were. And so we live our lives between binging on productivity, and then crashing to refuel. But it’s not sustainable—and just like the Priest and the Levite, we pass by people all the time, because we’re trying to keep pace. But as believers in Jesus Christ, we need to remember that Jesus does not love us because it’s efficient. Actually, the most efficient thing that Jesus could do is leave us on the road, and continue running the Universe! See, we need to be reminded this morning of the gift of the inefficiency of love.

Along these lines I was reminded of a quote this week from a book called You’re Only Human, and it says:

Probably one of the most inefficient things you can ever do is love. Anything that you love requires your time, your attention, and your energy, and it makes demands on you. And so when productivity and efficiency become our highest value… that makes love hard, if not impossible.

If you think back to the Princeton Good Samaritan Experiment, it should bother us that their pace dictated their love. And while that’s hard hitting, it’s also something that we need to learn from. See, if we’re going to get serious about applying what we’ve learned, we need to be willing to create margin in our lives, so that we can slow down and walk at the pace of love. So, where in our lives can we slow down? Where can we create margin so that we’re really able to see the people God brings our way?

And the last thing I want you to see is that walking at the pace of love is not just about slowing down to see other people. Because the reality is that we can slow down to see other people, but still have nothing to offer to them. So not only do we need to make room to see others, but what I want to recognize as we get ready to close is that we also need to make room to be filled up again with the love and mercy of God!

So the last question I want you to consider this week as we go to live it out is, “Have I opened my heart again to the Gospel?” Have I been changed again by the radical love of God? Have I been amazed again at the love that led Jesus to take the cross in my place?

CONCLUSION

Because in the end, only when we have received the love and mercy of God can we give that love and mercy to others.

We only give out of what we have. And friends, in the Gospel, we have been given everything that heaven has to offer!

As I was studying this idea of mercy, I ran once again into this parable in Matthew 18 of the unmerciful servant. As the story goes, a servant owed a debt to his master that was far greater than he could ever repay. And that is a picture of us. This is our helpless estate. This is us: undeserving of God’s forgiveness.

But it says that the master showed mercy to the man, and wiped his debt clean. And then the parable ends with this scene where the servant who was forgiven went and threw his fellow servant in jail because he couldn’t pay a small fine.

And in the end, the Master asks the servant that he had forgiven, Matthew 18:33 “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’” And this is the question that confronts every single one of us who have been forgiven by Jesus this morning.

And the implication is that, if the servant had just paused to consider the mercy that had been showered on him, maybe he would have responded differently. And the same is true for us. And this means that there is no better thing we can do as we prepare to go and love than to pause now and consider what great love the Father has lavished, that we might be called His children.

That we were dead in our trespasses and sins! But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with Christ...

And I know I quote these verses all the time, but that’s because all these years later, I’m still amazed. I’m amazed by the love of Jesus. I’m amazed at the love that saw me in my helpless estate, and came running! I am amazed at a love that I know I could never earn. I’m so unworthy! But still, He loves me! He doesn’t love me for what I could do. He’s not after my performance. He just loves me.

And He loves you, too. With a never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. And He proved it when He took the cross—when He was forsaken, so that you could be forgiven.

And my prayer this morning is that you would encounter that amazing love of God. Because when we live a life amazed at God’s love, then we’re ready to pour it out onto others.

>Pray

Closing Song: Amazing Love