It Ain't What You Know, But How You Roll

During the NFL offseason, two men in the Denver Broncos front office were convicted of DUIs. Team president John Elway suspended both of them, but he did not fire them. When asked why Tom Heckert and Matt Russell were not fired, Elway replied, “Heck, I’ve made a lot of poor decisions too. I believe in second chances.

Law is unyielding, unrelenting, and unchangeable. I’m not referring to manmade laws established by fallen mankind; I’m referring to laws that are a statement of an order or relation of phenomena that so far as is known is invariable under the given conditions. Laws, then, that are established by God—the law of gravity, the law of motion, the law of thermodynamics. The OT law or the Torah is the this type of law; it is law that is unalterable. This is b/c it is the revelation of the true character of God. God cannot and will not change who and what He is, but He does give us mercy b/c He knows that we are but flesh.

Psalm 78:39 NASB95

Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.

I challenge you today, take inventory of your life and write down all the times God has been merciful to you.

His mercy and compassion are on us now not judging us as our sins deserve but giving us grace and time to repent.

Ps 103:8-14

Mercy/compassion are interchangeable, and compassion here is the same word in the LXX that Luke used in our parable.

Lamentations 3:22–23 NASB95

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Never fail means never come to an end.

The Parable

Jesus answers the lawyer’s question, that was meant to entrap Jesus, by telling this parable forcing the lawyer to answer his own question of “who is my neighbor.”

Some are like this lawyer; they quote you the word but pretend ignorance at the application of it.

The lawyer recites Deut. 6:5 in answer to Jesus’ question. The lawyer then wanting to justify himself (or make himself seem to have the upper hand in this conversation) asks a question revealing his ignorance of the command.

V. 29 “wanting to justify himself” indicates a less than sincere response on the part of the lawyer, reinforcing his negative attitude in v. 25.

The priest and Levite are fictional characters in this narrative and their reasons for not stopping are unknown and irrelevant.

Some have asserted that they couldn’t touch him b/c of fear of defilement (he was half-dead).

Others that they were afraid of the same fate from robbers.

To theorize their motives is to miss the point of the parable. The priest and Levite are a passing mention in this parable; the main player is the Samaritan.

The united kingdom was divided after Solomon’s death due to the foolishness of his son, Rehoboam (1 Kgs 12). The ten northern tribes formed a nation known variously as Israel, Ephraim, or (after the capital city built by Omri) Samaria. In 722 B.C. Samaria fell to the Assyrians, and the leading citizens were exiled and dispersed throughout the Assyrian Empire. Non-Jewish peoples were then brought into Samaria. Intermarriage resulted, and the “rebels” became “half-breeds” in the eyes of the Southern Kingdom of Judea.

These tensions only escalated when the exiles of Judah returned after the Babylonian captivity and began to rebuild the temple. The Samaritans sought to assist in its rebuilding but when their offer was rejected, they sought to impede its construction.

The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was so great that Jesus’ opponents could think of nothing worse to say to Him than:

John 8:48 NASB95

The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

It was not who he was that got the attention but what he did.

This hated Samaritan is set against the backdrop of the religious elite in Israel—a Levite and a priest.

God desires us to be merciful and compassionate

We are told in multiple places in scripture to be imitators of God; therefore, just as God has shown mercy to us, we should show it to others.

We love talking about the Lord’s compassion and mercy, but we are told to go and do likewise.

Jesus told the lawyer in our parable that if he showed mercy to his neighbor he would live.

Matthew 9:13 NASB95

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 12:7 NASB95

“But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death.

"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy."

"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.

"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."

"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son.

Our spirituality is in direct correlation to our compassion toward others b/c it is oxymoronic to say I’m born again and be unmerciful.

It doesn’t matter how spiritual you think you are; if you do not show compassion and mercy to others, it’s a good indicator that you don’t know God b/c His love is not operating in you.

James 2:13 NASB95

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

The Samaritan put aside his hatred of Jews to help another fellow-human being in need.

Love does not pick and choose who it obliges. Love is an inward condition that flows out to whomever it comes into contact w/ which is the point of the parable.

Why are we so quick to pass judgment on one of our brothers or sisters who have fallen when the Bible tells us in Gal 6:1 to restore such a one?

Like the debate in Westville.

Conclusion

Have you ever seen someone on the side of the road needing help but yet passed on by?

A certain woman went down from Washington to Richmond and ran over a spike which punctured her tire and left her stranded by the side of the road. After raising the hood of her car and tying a scarf to her radio antenna, she locked the door handles and sat in the car, praying for the Lord to send help!

By chance, there came a limousine that way with a bumper sticker that read, "Smile, God Loves You!" When the occupants saw the stranded woman, they passed by in the far lane-without smiling.

And likewise, there came a sports car with a CB radio and a bumper sticker saying, "Honk If You Love Jesus!" The man who was driving passed by in the far lane without honking and without using his CB to tell the Highway Patrol about the woman's dilemma.

But a certain working man, as he traveled to his job, came to the spot where the woman was and, when he saw her raised hood, white scarf, and flat tire, he had compassion on her. He stopped his old beat-up pickup-which had no bumper sticker-and crossed the four-lane highway, and offered to change the tire. The woman opened the door and gave him the key to the trunk. The man took out the spare tire, jacked up the car, removed the flat tire, and replaced it with the spare.

When he had finished, the woman tried to pay him. He refused the money, saying, "If my wife were stranded on the highway with a flat tire, I'd want some Good Samaritan to stop and help her out."

He returned to his bumper-stickerless truck, smiled, honked at her, and went his way.