WHO'S MY NEIGHBOR?

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: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “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.”

“Innocent enough question, right?”

The key to what’s behind the question is found in the opening statement

-A lawyer, expert in the law and tradition, stood up to ask Jesus a question as a test

What was he testing? Why was he testing him?

-A reason to accuse Jesus of unorthodoxy, to embarrass him, and more likely to find a reason to accuse him to the religious authorities of blasphemy

-There are a number of instances in the gospels of this kind of thing happening to Jesus during his ministry

-Let's be clear, this is not an altogether honest question!

-The lawyer was not asking because he wanted to know how to inherit eternal life."

The question assumes two things, that Jesus preached a message of eternal life to those who put their faith in God and that the community which the lawyer represented had some doctrine of salvation and eternal life

-What is in question is how eternal life might be obtained or given

-Is it by what Jesus was teaching or the tradition of the law?

What provoked the lawyer to ask?

-Jesus taught about the kingdom of God and from scriptures, but the kinds of people who are responding to his message were not those that the religious leaders would consider good subjects for eternal life!

-And yet Jesus offered them reconciliation to God and eternal life through faith!

Some of these are not savory people… There are tax collectors, prostitutes, rough and ready fishermen, in short a very unlikely group of people indeed

-Is it possible that such people could really think that they are justified with God, or will receive eternal life

-Especially when you compare them to the Pharisees and religious rulers with their exemplary piety, and of course experts in the law like the one asking the question!

There is an impulse among religious people, people who view themselves as Christian or who think they have found the secret of reconciliation to God, to see others as unworthy or unsuitable, based on observation

-Religious people can easily apply a litmus test to others and deem them unworthy of entrance into their number or the kingdom of God

Jesus’ claims to be the Son of Man, the Messiah, were constantly evaluated against the company he kept, with the inevitable conclusion that he could not possibly be God's Messiah because he hung out with the wrong crowd!

-So, for the lawyer to "test" Jesus, it is obvious he is seeking to prove him in some way, to sound him out

-But this testing is not neutral or merely inquisitive, it has as its object tripping Jesus up, of making an accusation against him! Jesus' Development (Text: NIV)

1. What Does the Law Say?

A. Jesus responded to the lawyer with a question of his own, "What does the law say?"

-Lawyer is made to answer his own question!

-It underscores the lack of sincerity, because it is inconceivable that an expert in Jewish law would be ignorant of such a fundamental point

B. The lawyer is really asking how to be saved or right with God, because eternal life is the final reward of the finally righteous.

-He is constrained to answer the question honestly and even sincerely, that the righteousness of the law can be boiled down to two fundamental commands, to love God supremely and others as yourself (; )

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18 NIV

“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

-This is no exaggeration

C. To love God supremely no one would question… But this is not the end of the lawyers statement, he added, "...and love your neighbor as yourself"

-To be intellectually honest, the lawyer had to acknowledge that the law requires justice, the right treatment of others

-God's people were to put the welfare of their neighbors right up there with concern for their own ()

D. Jesus told him that if he did this he would live ()!

2. Who’s My Neighbor?

A. The next line is critical, "...the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, asked, 'Whose is my neighbor?' "

-"Do I really have to love certain people to fulfill the command of God? There must be a limit to what kind of people I am required to love."

B. To his objection Jesus applied his famous parable about the Good Samaritan )

-The lawyer had no problem loving God, but he had a problem loving some people

-Inferentially, when he looked around at the sort of people who Jesus attracted and cared for, he could not imagine that the law might require him to love these sorts of people!

C. His hesitation over loving his neighbor betrayed that his heart was not truly right with God, as the law required, definition of true righteousness

-The Good Samaritan was neighbor to someone who considered him an enemy and rejected by God!

Conclusion (Text: NIV)

The application of this to us today is not heard to see. "Who is my neighbor?" "Who do we want to invite to church?" And that negative question, "Do we really want those kinds of people in our church?" Our reluctance to share the gospel with people who need Christ, and to grade people as suitable or unsuitable candidates for hearing the good news, or receiving an invitation to church, says more about the condition of our hearts than it does about the condition of theirs. We know they are sinners, but if we do not love people enough to freely and sincerely invited them to church, what does that say about us?

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