"Unhurried To Care"

ILLUSTRATION:

Kneeling to Pray

A young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do.

“Well,” said the chaplain, “you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t provoke them.”

For weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one day he met him, and asked —”By the way, did you take my advice?”

“I did, for two or three nights.”

“How did it work?”

“Well,” said the young man, “I felt like a whipped hound and the third night I got out of bed, knelt down and prayed.”

“Well,” asked the chaplain, “How did that work?”

The young soldier answered: “We have a prayer meeting there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the rest.”

Oh, friends, I am so tired of weak Christianity. Let us be out and out for Christ; let us give no uncertain sound. If the world wants to call us fools, let them to it. It is only a little while; the crowning day is coming. Thank God for the privilege we have of confessing Christ.

Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 73-74

Read Today’s Passage:

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “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.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Love does not rush

In 1 Corinthians 13, when Paul describes the nature of love and loving, the first trait he lists is patience.

Patience is an unhurried virtue, and this first descriptor of love highlights the unhurried nature of love.

Patience doesn’t give up easily.

It doesn’t lose its temper quickly.

It doesn’t quit at the first sign of trouble, rush to judgment or run away from an uncomfortable or difficult situation.

Neither does love.

The older English word for patience is long-suffering, a word that communicates patience is willing to bear with hardship awhile.

It does so for love and in care for another.

Consider, for instance, that the God of the Scriptures is in no hurry to become angry with us.

But do you truly believe that he is not quick to lose patience with you?

When you imagine God having a human face, is he smiling? Or do you picture him as stern or angry?

Does he roll his eyes at your frequent falls?

Frankly, my gut image of God is often a pretty impatient one.

I expect him to have little patience with my slowness to understand him and follow his ways.

He seems quick to lose his temper with me.

But if, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, then God is patient, and he is patient with me.

Kosuke Koyama, a Japanese theologian of the last century, wrote these wise words about God’s pace in this world and reason for that pace:God walks “slowly” because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is “slow” yet it is lord over all other speed since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.

* The speed of love is an organic speed, not a mechanical or technological speed.

* When it comes to machines and technology, faster is always better.

* When it comes to love, the same is not true.

* After all, love has a rather constant speed. It is a slow speed, a spiritual speed.

*“Hurry up and love someone” just doesn’t work.

Koyama goes on to say, “Jesus is too slow! We want to run before him. . . . The way of Jesus is too slow, inefficient and painful. Jesus’ resourcefulness is love. Ours is money.”3 We want Jesus to step it up, to make things happen at our pace, rather than slowing down our pace to match his. Yet his is a pace of caring and concern, not an arbitrary pace of productivity or so-called efficiency

2. Slow Down Enough To Care.

*Jesus’ familiar story of a Samaritan man who cares for the wounded stranger he encounters on his travels models beautifully for us the unhurried nature of those who slow down enough to care for others.

* The priest and Levite may well have been returning from temple service and were concerned about becoming ceremonially unclean.

* They were about to be engaged in doing God’s work and were, perhaps, in a hurry to remain faithful to it.

* They saw the severely wounded man as a distraction from what they were supposed to do for God.

* Furthermore, their schedules may have been too full to accommodate a wounded person on the way.

* Maybe they were hurrying along to their next religious duty.

* I try to imagine this story set in the present.

USE AN ILLUSTRATION OF A MAN ON HIS WAY TO LAS VEGAS:

* Much more is going on in this story Jesus told than people making excuses for not helping someone in obvious need.

* This parable is a powerful illustration of how hurry keeps us from stopping or even noticing when God puts a bleeding, hurting, lost, desperate, hopeless soul in our path.

* We are on the road.

*We have somewhere to go.

* We have a full schedule.

* The needy person along the way is an inconvenience, an interruption.

* I may complain that loving everyone in the world is impossible, but that’s not what Jesus commanded.

* Our Lord and Savior directs us to care for the person who is actually crossing our path.

* Proximity provides an opportunity to love.

3. Be The Expected Hero.

* Consider now the hero of Jesus’ story—the Samaritan who traveled the deserted and notoriously dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the road nicknamed the Way of Blood.

* Jews viewed Samaritans as compromisers and half-breeds who had intermarried with the locals and failed in every way to keep the Jewish race pure. Unfaithful. Contaminated. Unclean.

* Yet we see evidence of unhurried love in this Samaritan’s response to the wounded stranger.

The Samaritan saw the wounded man.

* The priest and Levite noticed the wounded man, but they didn’t let themselves truly see him.

* Love looks long enough to be affected by what it sees.

* Love doesn’t look away from what is hard to see.

The Samaritan had pity on the wounded man.

* The Jewish leaders who walked by didn’t let the reality of the wounded man’s situation touch their hearts.

* They were unwilling to be affected by his condition, much less get involved.

The Samaritan was different: he was willing to be affected and willing to act.

The Samaritan went to the wounded man.

* The priest and Levite didn’t. Wouldn’t it make sense that the Samaritan had plans for his day just as the two Jewish leaders did?

* But the Samaritan’s agenda for the day didn’t keep him from responding with unhurried love to the man in need.

* Love stops when it encounters human need. Love doesn’t just walk by.

* He went to him is very different from he passed by on the other side. Love makes time to investigate and to serve.

* According to Jewish storytelling tradition, the priest should have been the good guy in this story.

* Instead, he was heartless and perhaps even fearful.

* He saw the half-dead man with eyes of judgment and/or fear.

* Perhaps he was also thinking, The guy is probably a sinner. He had it coming to him. It’s not my place to help.

* Instead of going near the wounded man, the priest took a wide path around him.

* That kind of avoidance is a strategy of hurry.

* It’s one thing to notice someone. That can be done in a moment. Hurry glances.

* Love gazes and often stays and acts.

* In sharp contrast to the priest, the Samaritan saw—but he saw not with judgment, but with mercy.

* He let the broken man’s desperate plight touch his heart.

* He didn’t harden his heart toward the man.

The Samaritan bandaged the wounds with oil and wine.

* The Samaritan sought to comfort and care for the wounded man.

* He offered more than a basic exam and a quick bandage.

* He offered intensive care.

* Love is willing to slow down enough to bear the cost of caring.

The Samaritan carried the man to a nearby inn.

* The Samaritan took the time to travel from this wilderness location to an inn in a nearby town.

* Who knows how far away it was or how long it took to get the man there.

* Love doesn’t measure care in terms of time. The Samaritan took the initiative and acted on this wounded man’s behalf.

* He traveled a journey for the wounded man’s sake.

The Samaritan stayed overnight with the man.

* The Samaritan might have been able to entrust the man to someone else, perhaps a first-century professional caregiver.

* After examining the wounded man, our hero could have had someone else do the rest—but he didn’t.

* The Samaritan was unhurried enough to stay overnight and care for the man.

* And staying overnight must have affected his plans.

* Who, for instance, had been expecting him to arrive that evening?

* What item on the Samaritan’s agenda went undone in the name of his love for a stranger?

* The Samaritan gave two days’ wages so that the wounded man could rest and recover in a more comfortable place. *

* The Samaritan provided for the man the time he needed to recover from his injuries.

* Too often I want wounded people around me to hurry up and get better because they are inconveniencing me; I want to get on with my life.

* But what is God’s invitation for a given season of my life?

* Does what I am so hurried to return to really matter? Is it the Lord’s priority for me? Or could regaining or retaining a sense of control over my life be more important to me than loving those around me?

* One more detail to consider: in the story, the innkeeper seems nothing more than a bit player.

* But if I were a hotel owner, would I really want a visitor in such bad shape left behind in one of my rooms?

* The innkeeper—who may well have had little more than mercenary motives—nevertheless did more for the wounded man than the priest or the Levite.

The Samaritan planned a return trip.

* He intended to check in on this wounded man to see how his recovery was progressing.

* The Samaritan was also willing to pay any further expenses the man incurred.

* He cared enough to find out how the man’s recovery was going.

* The Samaritan was unhurried enough to truly care for others.

* When Jesus asked the expert in the law, “Which of these was a neighbor to the man?” he hadn’t left any doubt as to the right answer.

* But the legal expert just couldn’t bring himself to admit, “The Samaritan.”

* Instead, he simply said, “The one who showed mercy.”

* Samaritan is only a category in the law expert’s mind, so he isn’t about to admit that a Samaritan would be more virtuous than a Jewish leader.

* In fact, it’s also clear that the legal expert who asked Jesus about the meaning of “loving your neighbor” was more interested in justifying himself than in recognizing and caring for his neighbor.

Conclusion: Do I Follow or Keep Moving On?

* Do I choose to learn from and follow the good Samaritan’s example?

Or instead am I sometimes so hurried in my efforts to accomplish everything on my agenda, even on my God agenda, that I don’t have time to care for someone in obvious need?

You and I have perhaps never encountered this exact scene in our everyday travels, but I know I have chosen to walk on the other side of the path and pass by someone with a real need.

Perhaps that person was emotionally wounded or spiritually broken.

Did I walk by in order to remain faithful to my agenda for the day?

And when have I used my sense of God-work and God-calling as an excuse to avoid the God-opportunity to love that is right in front of my face?

Clearly—and this truth is worth repeating—love is unhurried.

And since the greatest commandment is to love God and love others, and if genuine love is patient and unhurried, is our hurried life costing us even more than we realize?

Does our hurry force us to miss what matters most in life? As I said earlier, Jesus’ greatest commandment remains the primary commandment.

Nothing preempts it.

Nothing supersedes it.

God is love. Period. Are we love?

Do we love?

Love is the bottom line.

Love is what matters most.

Love is the primary measure God uses to determine what is valuable and what is worthless.

Love lasts.

And love requires from us a more unhurried approach to life

.I remember a church magazine article that proclaimed the virtues of hurry by using the athletic term hustle. But that seems quite at odds with growing in a lifestyle of unhurried love. The greater need we Christ-followers have is to walk at his pace. We want the activity of our lives to bear the holy and rich fruit of communion with Christ. May we avoid the kind of frantic busyness that bears little resemblance to the pace and focus of Jesus’ life and ministry.

We don’t have to try to figure out how to live at this pace alone.

As I think about loving God unhurriedly, John 1:10-11 comes to mind:

Jesus made the world, but the world did not recognize him.

Jesus embraced the world, but he was not embraced in return.

So am I recognizing Jesus’ presence in my daily journey?

Am I receiving him as the One who is the way, the truth and the life, or am I so driven by my own agenda that I am running right past his open arms?