Radical Neighborliness

Bible Passage: Luke 10:25–37

Radical neighborliness is required, RN is costly, Jesus is the Ultimate RN.

1. Radical Neighborliness is Required

The man speaking with Jesus is a lawyer. By his desire to put Jesus to the test and his question, he is clearly a biblical lawyer. And the summary of the law he gives Jesus is interesting. It’s the same summary that Jesus gives. This was the common Rabbinical understanding, but the implications were much broader than they thought.

Most rabbis taught that neighbor was restricted to only the Israelites, as well as the sojourners who were with them, excluding the Gentiles.

Leviticus 19:33–34 ““When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Now, the lawyer’s motives are clearly given in the text, but if we want to be obedient to God, we need to know what exactly it is that we’re supposed to obey. We know that we aren’t called to obey all 613 of the laws in the Torah, but Jesus clearly says in the Great Commission, that we are to go into the nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Jesus repeats many of the laws from the Torah, but the scope is different, often radical when compared to the contemporary understanding of Jesus’ day. Jesus reemphasizes that the Law is good. He says that the He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17-18). He says that it contains weighty matters like justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt 23:23). He says that the Law is permanent (Luke 16:17).

He says that the Law isn’t just about actions of the hands or the lips, but actions of the mind and the heart too in His Sermon on the Mount. The Law was always about the heart, but in our zealous desire to obey God, we just want someone to give us this mystical way of life that we can follow. Magical boxes that, if we check, we can know that we’ll be saved.

That isn’t what Jesus says, He says, Matthew 11:28–30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

Our rest is found in Jesus alone. Our hope is found in Jesus alone. He promises to come alongside us. He offers us His yoke and His burden in place of our own. We cast our cares upon Him, the one who accomplished the work.

But when Paul says in Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Our spiritual worship, or our reasonable or logical response is to give our lives as a living sacrifice, because of God’s mercy. The goal isn’t simply obedience in action, but transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s role in our life is to constantly conform us to the image of the Son. If we seek our own will, our own pleasure, and our own kingdom, we resist the transformation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But when we seek communion with God, we can hear the voice of our Shepherd more clearly. We are convicted of our sin. We are driven to our knees in repentance. We trust Him with our lives. We give our lives as a living sacrifice.

We often talk about our desire to be obedient to God. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, they clung so tightly to the observance of the Law, and protecting it’s observance with new laws, that they missed the main point. God’s Law is all about the heart.

In our modern day, we have the opposite problem. We think that obedience is optional. We’ve been sold a cheap gospel and cheap grace. We’ve believed the lie that we can have our cake and eat it too. We think we can utter the magic words, and that’s it, God doesn’t expect anything else from us.

I want to be clear here. Our salvation depends on God’s grace, through faith in Christ alone. Our only hope and our full assurance of our salvation rests in the loving hands of our Savior. We can’t do anything to merit our own salvation, but there is a responsibility that you bear to respond to the Gospel. It is an imperative that you repent and believe. Paul gives his two conditions from a few weeks ago.

Romans 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Now, I am fully convinced that your ability to respond to the Gospel message, and your ability to obey God’s voice is fully dependent on the Holy Spirit who is ministering to you and interceding for you constantly. Even so, we can resist the transformation that the Spirit is doing in our hearts. Likewise, we can lean in. We can absolutely do things that make the Lord’s inaudible voice in our life even more clear.

When we spend time in His word. When we live with a posture, like Daniel mentioned last week, that is prostrate before Jesus. When we sit at His feet and learn from Him as His disciples, through His word, through study, through prayer, through worship, through community with our fellow believer, though service, we draw closer to the Father in our relationship with Him.

So, we can’t just say the words. We can’t just do the thing, and show up to church, then leave this room and go on living as we were. If that’s you, you are not being transformed, you’re an imposter.

Praise Jesus that every time I walk into this gym on a Sunday morning, I feel like an imposter, and He reminds me of my identity. I am His. I am a son of the living God, because of what the Son did for me.

When we recognize the mercy that’s been given to us. When we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit. When we hear the voice of the Shepherd calling us, we have a responsibility. Respond. And how do we respond? Our only reasonable response is to give our lives as a living sacrifice. To give our hearts over to loving God above anything else in His whole creation. To love the fingerprint that He’s left on every element of His creation. To praise Him, give Him all the Glory, and enjoy Him forever.

And the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. To find your joy and your fulfillment in the joy of your brother or sister or spouse or child more than you seek your own carnal joy and pleasure. And what’s the greatest love that you can give your neighbor? The Good News. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. That He is seated on the throne. That He died on the cross to conquer sin and death so that you can live forever in perfect communion with your Father. Repent, and believe the Gospel.

If we want to obey God’s voice, we obey His Law. I’m not telling you to go build a parapet around your roof, but I am telling you to run from sin, and run toward the Father by loving Him and loving your neighbor. It is your only logical response to His mercy.

2. Radical Neighborliness is Costly

Now, back to the story. Why does the lawyer ask this follow up question? To justify himself. So that he can say, “I have loved my neighbor.” But Jesus gives this radical story to show that your neighbor isn’t your fellow Israelite, but any man in need.

Now, there is an assumption that much of the biblical community makes here. Because Jesus is talking to a group of Jews, and the first two people he mentions that pass by the man on the road are Jews that probably the man on the road is a Jew, but we are not told that directly. Jesus gives a clear description of the other men. The priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan, but the man who fell among robbers is just that, a man. More than that, ethnically, all of the men in this area would have looked very similar, so the detail that the robbers took his clothes is important. Clothes were the major racial or ethnic distinguisher, so without his clothes, not only are we not given a description, but the men passing by wouldn’t have anything to judge whether or not he was an Israelite without further investigation.

This is how we ought to judge needs. By just that, need, not any other distinguishing factor. This parable teaches that all mankind is your neighbor, so you owe them all this selfless love equally. It doesn’t depend on who is in, “your group.” Whether thats racially, ethnically, nationally, or by socio-economic status. We are called to love all mankind and see them for who they are. Men and women created in the image of God.

Now, I also hear you, qualifying this further, yeah, but what if it’s their fault that they’re in this situation? What about those people who have done this before, and this is a cycle for them? How much more does that person need to experience the love of a good neighbor, and be pointed to the only one who can truly break the cycle? How much more does that person need Jesus?

You might explore the lawyer's question, 'Who is my neighbor?' and Jesus' response through the actions of the priest and the Levite, who pass by the injured man. This segment challenges preconceived notions of neighborliness and introduces the idea of seeing all people deserving of compassion. By addressing these biases, you can encourage listeners to reflect on their own impediments to serving others.

And this radical neighborliness that the Good Samaritan exercised? What made it so radical, other than the fact that the other two men passed him up? Well, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was particularly dangerous. There were plenty of caves and caverns in this mountainous region that made great ambush points for robbers. Stopping to aid the suffering man came at great personal risk, but the Samaritan man stopped.

Now, the priest and the Levite were temple workers. Their job is to help those who are in need, even the sojourner, but when no one is looking, when no one else would know, what you do with those private moments with no phone, no book, that is where your heart really is. And that was the heart of those man who passed the man in need. Their actions reflected obedience, but their hearts did not.

The Samaritan man, with no law that required him to stop for his neighbor, the one who worshipped pagan gods, that man acted more neighborly than the other two. What Jesus is saying is that the action doesn’t matter if the heart isn’t aligned.

And the Samaritan man doesn’t just stop, but he nurses the man’s wounds with wine and oil. After nursing his wounds, he loads him up on his donkey, surely delaying his arrival into town. And when he gets there, he pays the man’s stay. Two denarii was the equivalent of two days wage, plenty for the man to stay multiple nights, then gives the innkeeper a blank check.

That is radical neighborliness, and it comes at great cost. We’re quick to say that we’ll give later, when we’re more comfortable. We’ll give after we meet our financial goals, or once we get this new job, or we’ll serve when we have more time, or when the church starts this ministry.

Being a radical neighbor looks like sharing the love of Jesus by whatever means possible, not whatever means necessary. We have been given a great. The greatest gift. And we get to play a part in God’s story of redeeming His creation though the blood of Jesus.

Conclusion: Jesus is the Ultimate Radical Neighbor

The Law must penetrate our hearts without limit.

And for the lawyer, he knew the Law. He answered Jesus’ question correctly by word, but his word didn’t make it to his heart before he had minimized the law as to justify himself. If you change the law around, and say that your neighbor is just your fellow believer at church, that feels a little more doable. All we need to do is wait for someone at church to stand up front and make a need known.

We aren’t called to a limited neighborliness, but unlimited. A radical neighborliness. We need to see our obedience as deeply intertwined with the Law. Without the Law, there is nothing to be obedient to. We have been freed from the punishment of the Law, but the Law is still good. Study of the Law still reveals God’s character. If we read the Law looking for God’s heart, it will greatly benefit your understanding of His love and His mercy.

We need to take not here, though, that legalism is not a part of God’s heart. A works based salvation, where your salvation is based on what you do is not what we find in Scripture, but a salvation that is based on the finished work of Christ alone. So that as we are taught by Paul in Romans 12, our motivation to love God and love neighbor in this radical way is not guilt, but as our only reasonable response to the mercy that has been shown to us by the King.

Our response to those is not pity, but compassion

According to Tim Keller, excellent author and pastor, the most common emotion that Jesus is recorded expressing is compassion. Compassion is to be inwardly moved by something. When the priest and the Levite walked by, they both saw the man. They saw him suffering, and probably had pity on the man, but didn’t feel compassion enough to move them to action.

The Samaritan man, on the other hand, Jesus specifically says had compassion on the man, sufficient to move him to act. The man acted at personal risk and expense to himself to care for the man in need.

Then Jesus, speaking to the lawyer says, “you go and do likewise.” You, believer in Jesus, go and do likewise. Go and have compassion. Go and love God above all other things, praying, Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours. Burden my heart for those whom your heart is burdened.

Radical Neighborliness comes at great earthly cost to you.

Your time, your money, your effort, your prayer, that you exercise in Radical Neighborliness are not promised back to you on this side of heaven. But the heavenly reward is glory with Jesus, and as we serve those who Jesus calls, “the least of these,” we serve Jesus Himself.

Matthew 25:31–46 ““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.””

Radical Neighborliness is required, Radical Neighborliness is costly, and Jesus is the Ultimate Radical Neighbor. He is King. He paid it all. He came down from heaven, took on human form and was hated. He suffered, he was beaten, and killed. But three days later, He rose again, He ascended into heaven, and conquered sin and death forever.

He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He is the only way to the Father. Repent and believe the Gospel, and you will inherit eternal life as sons and daughters of the living God.

For the believer in Jesus, consider the price that was paid for you. Consider the sacrifice, and let the love, grace, and mercy given to you be the engine that drives you to Radical Neighborliness.

For you, hearing these words, never having accepted Jesus as your Lord and your Savior, know that those two things are both necessary. You can’t accept Jesus as Savior without also accepting Him as Lord. His salvation comes through hearing the word and believing it, but if you believe it, obedience is not optional. You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and your soul, and your mind, and your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

You won’t ever do those two things perfectly on this side of heaven, but Jesus did, and it’s because of His obedience that, once you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, Paul says, you will be saved. It’s not because of you, but because of Holy Spirit working in you that, if you hear God calling you, you desire to respond.

If you hear the voice of the Shepherd calling, that’s because you’re one of His sheep. The sheep know the voice of their Shepherd. If you hear his voice calling you, repent and believe the Gospel. Be baptized. Then come and join the host of believers as we stumble towards heaven with Jesus as our Guide and the Holy Spirit as our Helper.

Now, for all of us, as we end this Go series, lets Go. Let’s go as Spirit-sent neighbors, showing the love of Jesus though our Radical Neighborliness.