Love Your Neighbor (2)

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?”

I. There Are Needs All Around You

A. Parable of the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:30–33 TNIV

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of 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.

Luke 10:30 TNIV

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

Jewish man beaten (v. 30)

B. People Arn’t As Likely To Help As You Might Expect

Priest: The religious-acting people

Luke 10:31 TNIV

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

B. Priest (v. 31)

“Saw” = Led to self focus

The priest represented the religious-acting people. They talk the talk but rarely do the walk the walk. This priest went out of his way to avoid the man because as a priest, and we can assume it was a Jewish priest, he didn’t want to make himself unclean by associating with someone who may have had blood on them. He was likely on his way to perform his priestly duties and didn’t want to soil himself which would require him to go through the ritual washings again. Not only did the priest have to go around the injured man he went to the trouble of passing “by on the other side” indicating that he wanted nothing to do with the injured man. Incidentally, the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho so it was highly likely that this man was a fellow Jew.

The priest represented the religious-acting people.

They talk the talk but rarely do the walk the walk.

This priest went out of his way to avoid the man because as a priest, and we can assume it was a Jewish priest, he didn’t want to make himself unclean by associating with someone who may have had blood on them.

He was likely on his way to perform his priestly duties and didn’t want to soil himself which would require him to go through the ritual washings again.

Not only did the priest have to go around the injured man he went to the trouble of passing “by on the other side” indicating that he wanted nothing to do with the injured man.

Incidentally, the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho so it was highly likely that this man was a fellow Jew.

Levite

C. Levite (v. 32)

Luke 10:32 TNIV

So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

D. Samaritan (v. 33)

“Saw” = Led to self focus

Here was a Levite, an expert in the Law and sadly he ignored what Jesus had just said that the fulfillment of the Law was; to love God and then love your neighbor as yourself. The problem was that the Levite didn’t consider the man as his neighbor, even though he was probably a Jew. Even though he was quite literally his neighbor being Jewish, he didn’t have compassion nor did he want to stop and help. This may have been due to the fact that the robbers who had beaten and stripped the man might still be in the area and he didn’t want to risk it. The Law allows for a man to rescue an animal from a pit on the Sabbath and perhaps this occurred on the Sabbath and the Levite felt that it would be breaking the Sabbath (which of course it would not!). The Levite knew the Law yet refused to obey it which compelled the Jews to help someone when they happened to come upon an injured person. He surely knew that God is no respecter of persons and has regard for the alien or stranger who desires to obey God and that God accepts a person and that it’s not a matter race but as a matter of grace, but here the Levite refused to even help his fellow Jewish brother and he had the audacity to call himself a Levite.

C. Unlikely Help

Samaritan

Luke 10:33 TNIV

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

a. Samaritans - despised by Jews

Samaritans

Samaritans were despised by the Jews because they were known as half-breeds, half Jewish and half Gentile.

When the Northern Kingdoms were taken captive by the Assyrians, they intermarried with them to settle in the place that is called Samaria, just north of Judea.

As usually happens in such cases, they adopt the worship of their false, pagan gods, falling into idolatry.

When the Jews returned to Jerusalem and tried to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans would pour pigs blood in the temple area which was to make the temple unclean and the building project of the temple had to be stopped so that the temple area could be cleaned up again.

This was detestable to the Jews and polluted what they considered to be a holy place; therefore the Samaritans were hated even more than the Roman conquerors.

They would not even walk in Samaria but would go far out of their way, even if it was a longer trip, to avoid entering Samaria because they believed the Samaritans were unclean people.

This is precisely why Jesus mentioned the Samaritan in this parable because he would be the least likely to ever help a fellow Jew because the Samaritans also had a hate that was equal to that held by the Jews against the Jewish people because of the way that they were treated by them.

b. “Saw the man”

despised by Jews

“Saw the man…took pity” = Led to pity

If we simply look outside we can find needs all around us. The needs seem so urgent. The workers seem so few. If we don’t do something, who will? We want to be involved. We want to make a difference. We want to do what’s expected of us.

Sometimes caring is enough - In a 2010 missions gathering, John Piper made the statement that “we should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.”

“He chose the word ‘care’ quite carefully. He didn’t want to say we should do something about all suffering, because we can’t do something about everything. But we can care. This means when we hear about grinding poverty or legal abortion or biblical literacy, we are not indifferent. We think and feel that these things out not to be so. We don’t care about every issue in the same way, but there are some issues we should all care about, some issues that should at least prick our hearts and prompt us to pray. Not giving a rip…is not an option for the Christian. Not doing something directly to combat this particular evil is an option.” - Kevin Deyoung (Crazy Busy, pg. 49)

We cannot help everyone, champion every endeavor, etc. However

Transition: However, there are some needs that God places right before us, like the one in our story that, when we see the need, we should be willing and available to...

II. You Can Meet Some Of Those Needs

*Give of what you have

*Champion some

he went anyway and at his own risk he went to help this man…a Jew who was a natural enemy of the Samaritans.

A. Give Of Your Time

The number-one obstacle to neighboring well is time.

Luke 10:34 TNIV

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 number-one obstacle to neighboring well is time.

“It’s vital to take a step back and ask ourselves if we live at a pace that allows us to be available to those WHo live around us. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you must stop everything you’re doing right now. Instead it’s about taking a look at your commitments and being willing to reprioritize to be more present with your close family and friends, as well as make space in your life for [your neighbors].” - The Art of Neighboring, pg. 44.

It requires you make some difficult decisions about what you do, being intentional to do what’s best over what’s easy, convenient or most enjoyable.

Don’t know where the Good Samaritan was off too but his destination wasn’t soo important that he couldn’t stop to help someone in need.

B. Give Of Your Comfort

Luke 10:34 TNIV

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.

B. Give Of Your Treasure

Luke 10:35 TNIV

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.’

oil and wine on them for medicinal purposes and this was at his own expense because oil and wine were not cheap in those days.

So the Samaritan spends his own money and he also promises to come back, showing that he has compassion on this Jewish man even though the Jews hated the Samaritans.

Transition: Up to this point the parable has taught us how to meet our neighbors needs but it begs us to identify and answer with specificity the question that the expert in the law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

III. Who Is Your Neighbor?

A. Everyone Is Your Neighbor

Luke 10:36–37 TNIV

“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.”

-37

Luke 36-37

The Good Samaritan was actually the ‘true neighbor.’

That is why he told the expert in the law to go and do likewise

He was broadening the definition of neighbor to include everyone, not just the Jewish perspective of those of the house of Israel ( - “love your neighbor”)

Transition: However, we hear the story about the good Samaritan, we can easily be tempted to fall into the trap similar to that of the expert in the law. We want to define who is disqualified as our neighbor. In finding this loophole, we will miss the lesson Jesus is trying to teach, that everyone is your neighbor and this term includes...

B. Your Literal Neighbors

It’s easy to turn this story of the good Samaritan into metaphor and become numb to the power of the Great Commandment.

If we define our “neighbors” solely in the broadest of terms, then the people across town, the people who are helped by the organizations that receive our donations, the people whom the government helps are our neighbors.

Then we think, “we don’t have to feel guilty or take a personal responsibility for them. After all, we can’t be expected to really love everybody, can we, at least not in the way the good Samaritan loved the man in need?”

Result - “If we insist we’re neighbors with everybody, often we end up being neighbors with nobody.”

We become the lawyer looking for a loophole.

We tell ourselves that we’ve got a lot going on in our lives, so surely the Great Commandment applies only to the wounded enemy lying beside the road, doesn’t it? Since we haven’t come across many of those lately, surely we’re doing just fine when it comes to loving our neighbors.

Maybe not.

What if Jesus defining of the word ‘neighbor’ wasn’t the inclusion of everyone through the exclusion of our literal neighbors, the people most like us, who share the shame heritage and geography?

wasn’t the inclusion of everyone through the exclusion of our literal neighbors, the people most like us, who share the shame heritage and geography?

In Jesus’ definition He was stretching their concept of neighbor to include even people from a group they didn’t like.

Today, we go straight to loving the neighbor on the side of the road, a definition that doesn’t include the person who lives next door to us.

“If we don’t take Jesus command literally, we then turn the Great Commandment into nothing more than a metaphor. We have a metaphoric love for our metaphoric neighbors, and our communities are changed--but only metaphorically, of course. In other words, nothing changes.” - The Art of Neighboring, Pathak & Runyon, pg. 36

So, in addition to thinking of our neighbor metaphorically, as did the good Samaritan, we need to apply Jesus’ teaching to our literal neighbors as well - real people with real names, phone numbers and addresses.

Conclusion:

So, let me ask you again…Do you love your neighbor?

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