Luke 10:25-37

Intro

Something Something Intro

Read-Through

Read Luke 10:25-37

This is not an uncommon story, if you have spent time in church before then you should be familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan

What’s the question that this parable is answering?

Who is my neighbor?

That’s your Big Question

BQ: Who Is My Neighbor?

The Lawyer asks this to Jesus, trying to justify himself in his actions, in his following of the law

Who is my neighbor?

I love Luke’s writing here

But he, desiring to justify himself

The desire is to prove, that he does these things:

The prevailing thought among Scribes and Pharisees was that your neighbor was the righteous people around you

The wicked were not

The Gentiles were not

Definitely not the Samaritans who were seen as half-breeds

They would cite Psalm 139:21-22

Psalm 139:21–22 ESV

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.

I should probably make it clear here, that the righteous position is the hatred of wickedness and evil things

Not a personal hatred towards one another

Here’s the lawyer’s mindset, and desiring to justify himself he asks the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Probably wholly unprepared for what Jesus is going to say

Read 30-35

Now, in this parable, there are three attitudes towards someone else

Three Attitudes

The first two that we find is that of selfishness:

Beginning with the robbers

What’s Yours Is Mine (30)

This attitude sees another and desires his goods

The robbers waited in the clefts between Jerusalem and Jericho for someone to rob

This was a dangerous area as you were either traveling up in elevation or lower and the path wound around bends and corners in the cliffs, creating prime areas for robbers to hide

Robbers were common here and would certainly attack someone traveling alone

Along whatever they might have gotten from the man in this scenario, extra sets of clothes was not something that many people owned, so stripping him and leaving the man naked was not surprising either.

They beat him, stripped him, and left him: What’s yours is mine

After they leave him, the attitude shifts. It is still one of selfishness, but one shared between two separate people

The first, being a priest

He is traveling and upon seeing the man he goes to help him

Wait… no, that’s not what happens

He actually passes on the other side of the road

What’s Mine Is Mine (31-32)

Read 31

A priest is traveling next, heading down to Jericho

But he passes on the other side

Read 32

What’s wrong with this picture?

Couldn’t they have helped the man?

Surely they could’ve done something!

Well, you see, the priest was supposed to avoid impurity

Certainly from a corpse

Remember that the man appears to be dead

Passing on the other side of the road might not tell him that the individual is still barely clinging onto life

He was supposed to avoid impurity, and the Pharisees thought that you could contract impurity if even their shadow came in contact with the corpse

To check and see if the man was truly dead would have been too high of a risk, so he protects his own, and passes on the other side

The Levite may not have had rules as strict for them, but also desired not to be defiled

They protected their own, they protected what was theirs:

What’s mine is mine

But they were not the last people to pass by the man, for there was another

Read 33-35

Can you imagine the lawyer’s face when the third player is a Samaritan? How about when Jesus says that he’s the one who helps the man

The Samaritan is the one who doesn’t pass on the other side

The Samaritan is the one who came to where the man was

The Samaritan is the one who had compassion

The Samaritan is the one who bound up his wounds, dressing them with oil and wine

The Samaritan is the one who places the man on his own beast

The Samaritan is the one who took care of him at the inn until the next day

The Samaritan is the one who paid two full days of wages to the innkeeper to continue taking care of the man, and tells him that if he somehow pays more that he would repay him

That’s the third attitude:

What’s Mine Is Yours (33-35)

He doesn’t know the man, all he has to go off of is his compassion for this stranger

Doesn’t just ask if he’s okay, but gives him what he owns to help him

“What’s Mine is Yours”

Jesus uses this story as an answer to answer the Lawyer’s question, finishing with His own question

Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?

And the man cannot bring himself to say the Samaritan, he can, however, muster

The man ho showed him mercy

So, who is your neighbor?

Your neighbor is those who are in need around you

This parable is a model for those of us who would seek to help those who are afflicted

What do you desire? What’s in your heart? Do you want to help your neighbour? Do you know who your neighbour is?

Who Is My Neighbor?

This is the Big Question tonight, who is your neighbour?

But that’s not the first question, is it?

No, we start somewhere else:

Read 10:25-28

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

What must I do?

There’s your new Big Question

How Can I Inherit Eternal life?

What’s Christ’s response to the question?

He asks another question:

I love that, I do that all the time with my students and they get so frustrated it’s amazing

But to do this you need to know the answer first of all

Jesus, I would imagine, knows the answer

Knowing the answer yourself you need to know where you are also heading

So, he asks the question, “What’s written in the Law? How do you read it?”

Jesus points back to the Law

Well that’s interesting, right?

I thought that the Law doesn’t save us, that it’s the evidence of our condemnation

Alongside that, the lawyer responds by giving a specific law?

No, he summarizes the entirety of the Law in the same way that Jesus summarizes it

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.

So, we are not just dealing with a specific law on eternal life or salvation, but we are dealing with the whole Law

And Jesus, knowing this, tells him to do this and he will live

This line, do this, and you will live

Is the lynchpin for this passage, everything hangs on this one line

Jesus is answering his question plainly

What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

Do you hear it?

What must I do? What works must I perform

If it’s works that you are asking about then what is written in the Law?

Matthew 22:38–40 ESV

This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This is Jesus’ line, this lawyer is sharing in the summary of the Law, though Jesus is going to summarize the entire Old Testament on these two commandments

Can you do these things? Can you truly do them? Then you will be saved

I’m guessing here that no one feels like they have truly done either of these every day, every moment of their life

And you should also know that if when you break one aspect of the Law you have broken the whole of it

A murderer is condemned just as a liar is, just as someone who doesn’t love their neighbor as themselves

But this, this man, this lawyer. He hears do this, and you will live and desires to justify himself, asking the clarifying question, who is my neighbor

You see, the Good Samaritan is not just an answer about who your neighbor is, it’s also an accusation

Read Luke 10:30-37

Do you think that this lawyer lived like the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan?

Breaking the second commandment, the second commandment which summarizes the Law and the Prophets, according to Christ is pretty bad

I’m also guessing if we’re honest with ourselves that we don’t do great with loving our neighbors as ourselves, neither do we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind

In that, the Law is used in what it was made for

For by it we see that we have broken the Law and are ourselves in need of mercy

And while we were lying in the death of our sins Who stoops down to mend our wounds?

Philippians 2:6–13 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

What must you do to be saved? NOTHING! You’ve done enough!

You’ve got one role in salvation and it is that you need it! You have sinned and it is Jesus Christ who stepped down from heaven to die for you, to pay the price for your sins and three days later defeated death by raising to life again so that you and I could live with Him forever

What must you do to be saved? Believe in Him

Believe! God is working in you!

And in that belief what will happen?

For those of us who believe that Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself for us and rose from the dead three days later will love the Lord with all our heart mind soul and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves as a byproduct

The Law is the path of righteousness, but seeing that we cannot keep it Jesus kept it for us, and gifts us life as a divine gift of grace

In that gift you and I will love our neighbors as ourselves

We will not live as the priest

We will not live as the Levite

We will live as the Samaritan, being filled with compassion and use what is mine for you

Who is my neighbor? Those who are in need

What is their need? Jesus Christ

For while the Samaritan gave this man medicine, the true medicine comes from Christ and He will heal our hearts

So who is your neighbor? Everyone, because there is not a single person on this planet who doesn’t need Jesus, and those who have Him know their need for Him even better

Just because we are Christians does not mean that we don’t need Christ, it means we see our need for Him with open eyes

Help your neighbors in their earthly needs, that’s showing the love of God to them, but do not forego their spiritual needs, for that death will be far worse than an earthly one

If we live like this, then our love for God and neighbor will become the evidence of our faith

You are saved not by works, that’s Christ’s point, but your works will be the evidence of your belief

James has a beautiful letter on that lesson specifically

Where Do You Go From Here?

Find your neighbors

These are your literal neighbors

Your coworkers

Your classmates

The people sitting right next to you

The people you see at the store or in line for coffee

Find those people

Ask yourself the question,

What does my neighbor need? And what can I do for them?

We are in the season of Christmas, the idea of giving and loving the people around you should not be a foreign one

Who then gave mercy to your neighbors? Jesus

You go and do likewise