The Good Samaritan
Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In Genesis 12, God called Abram to leave the people of Ur and go where he would lead. Obediently, Abram left and God took him first to a place called Shechem. It was in this place that God promised that the land of Canaan would be given to him. Thus, Shechem seemed to play a key place in the Promised Land. It was in Shechem that Jacob’s daughter was raped and Levi and Simeon slaughtered the men there and plundered their goods and families.
Ironically, Shechem became a city of refuge for those who had committed manslaughter.
When Moses was preaching his last sermon to the people of Israel, just before they went into the Promised Land, he told them
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Mt. Gerizim borders the city of Shechem. And later in Joshua, just after defeating the city of Ai, we read:
And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.
When the people of Israel took control of the land, Manasseh had territory that went up to Shechem. Ephraim did as well, thus the city of Shechem was in the middle of the two tribes. And it was in Shechem that Joshua made his famous speech about choosing this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. And Joseph, having been taken out of Egypt, was buried in Shechem.
By the time we get to the kings of Israel, we read about Rehoboam, Solomon’s son who refused to humble himself and so the kingdom of Israel was divided between the ten northern tribes and the two southern. It was in Shechem that Jeroboam was crowned King of Israel—the ten northern tribes.
All in all, Shechem was an extremely important place in Israel’s history. It was considered by all accounts a holy place.
Though the ark of the covenant was never placed in Shechem, the presence of the LORD was said to have been there. So when the temple was built in Jerusalem and the ark was moved from Shiloh to Jerusalem, some felt disenfranchised by it all. If we were to read from the Law of Moses only, we would probably have assumed that Shechem would be the place for the site of the temple.
That’s the way the Samaritans thought it should be. You see, the Samaritans saw themselves differently than the Jews did. The Jews saw the Samaritans as half-breeds. They were Jews who mixed with the Assyrians and interwoven Assyrian practices with Jewish. They didn’t celebrate Purim or Hanukkah like the Jews did and they even opposed the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Thus, they were seen as hostile to the Jews.
But from the Samaritan point of view and what they were taught about their history, they saw themselves as purists. They believed in the Pentateuch, but not the prophets or the writings. And their version of the Pentateuch was changed a bit to focus more on Shechem than even the original Law of Moses. They believed that God’s proper dwelling was in Shechem and on Mt. Gerizim; after all look what took place in that city in the Law! Jerusalem was never even on the radar until Joshua. Mt. Zion wasn’t mentioned until way later in Jewish history. Only once in the law was Jerusalem alluded to and that was Mt. Moriah (Mt. Zion) when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac. Unless you count the Jebusites being named among the other “ites” in passing. Thus, Jerusalem played no major role in Israel’s early history, but Shechem played a major role.
The word Samaritan is often thought to have come from the city of Samaria. But it actually comes from the Hebrew word: Shamarim which means keepers or guardians. Thus, they thought themselves to be the keepers of the true law. The Samaritans didn’t see themselves as syncretists or half-breeds. They saw themselves as descendents from Manasseh and Ephraim and guardians of the law.
Which means, when you have one group that sees themselves as exact opposites of another group, there’s not a lot of compromise that going to happen. There’s going to be a lot of hostility between the two groups. And so by the time Jesus walked the earth, the two people hated one another. It was so bad that the word Samaritan was a racial slur the the Jewish people. Hence, in John, we read
The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
That’s a lot of background that I’m not going to bring up again, but as we study this famous parable, keep in mind the hatred between the two groups. Keep in mind how the Jews and Samaritans really could find no common ground to stand on. But as we study it, I also want us to learn four lessons:
Attitudes Matter
Answers Matter
Angles Matter
Applications Matter
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
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.”
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
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.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
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.
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.’
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Attitudes Matter
Attitudes Matter
The first lesson I want us to look at this morning is that attitudes matter—especially when we are talking with Jesus. You may remember that last week, we saw how Jesus was rejoicing with abundant joy that God had hidden “these things” from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. The people who had thought they had arrived, and really had nothing more to learn, were the ones who would go away without this revelation from God.
And now Luke wrote about one of these very people. He was a lawyer. And that doesn’t mean what we would consider it to mean today. He didn’t argue in a court of law like we would think of a lawyer. He wasn’t a prosecutor or a defense attorney. He was an expert in the law of God. Think of him more like a modern day theologian with his expertise being the Law of Moses. He’s a smart man, a studied man. Hearing Jesus talk about the revelation of God would be right up his alley, but Jesus said some pretty harsh words when he said God would hide his revelation from the wise and understanding. That’s saying that God opposed the wise and understanding.
A man, like this lawyer, couldn’t let such an accusation stand and so he stood. And we need to get that his standing shows as much about his attitude as his words. When rabbis taught, they did so either standing or sitting on a chair, while the disciples would sit on the floor to listen. It was a humbling tribute that was paid to the teacher. So when the lawyer stands, he is refusing to be taught, and desires to be the teacher. He’s going to teach this Jesus a lesson.
And so he asks a question to test Jesus. Can he make this Jesus look foolish? Can he cause him to make a mistake? Can he discredit him? Can he get him back on his heals and on the defensive?
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus’s response is perfect. This man’s a lawyer. He knows it better than just about anybody.
He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”
The man doesn’t hesitate. He gives him the answer. Which means the lawyer had asked a “gotcha question.” It wasn’t a genuine question. He wasn’t really trying to figure out if he was on the road to heaven. His attitude was everything. He knew the answer and wanted to show how smart he was and how foolish Jesus was. But pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. Because once he answered correctly—Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself—Jesus came back with his follow-up.
We’ll get to that in a moment. But for now, I want us to see that this lawyer still doesn’t back down upon receiving Jesus’s follow-up comment. Instead, we read
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
There’s the attitude again. It shifts subtly but distinctly. At first he wanted Jesus to look foolish and himself wise. Now he wants to vindicate himself in front of the crowd. Jesus ended up actually making the lawyer look foolish. And so he doubles down by asking a follow-up question. This entire time, the lawyer is not interested in an answer. He is only wanting to make himself look good. The first time was to make himself look wise and the second to make himself look virtuous.
It’s often that when we read this second question that he asks, we read it like this, “And who is my neighbor?” But in reality, we should read it more like, “And who is my neighbor.” That’s the emphasis in the original. It’s on the “my.”
This is how many justify themselves. They look for technicalities. If we can narrow the scope to technicalities, then we can do whatever is not in said technicality. How far is too far when it comes to dating? What is the definition of work when it comes to the Sabbath? We want technicalities because we think we find freedom and vindication in those technicalities.
Our attitude is about looking virtuous and not about being holy.
Answers Matter
Answers Matter
This leads us then to the second lesson. The first was that attitudes matter and the second is that answers matter.
The reason that we need to learn this lesson is because often times we know the answer. The lawyer knew the answer to his question. It would seem that he actually asked the question, knowing what his answer would be, ready to point the finger at Jesus if he got it wrong.
In some instances, we know the answer, but we don’t like the answer. We’re hoping for a different answer. We’re hoping that we might be the exception to the answer. When in reality, we know what the answer is.
In the case of the lawyer, Jesus actually never needed to answer the question. He simply asked the lawyer about his own thoughts and let the lawyer answer the question himself. He knew the answer. He got the answer right. The problem was that he had not thought through the answer.
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.”
Remember the original question. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? The answer is given in verse 27 by the very one who asked the question. Everything would have been fine if Jesus had just responded with “Good job. You’re right,” and left it at that. But he didn’t.
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
The first response Jesus gave was fine. It was the second that cut so deeply. “Do this, and you will live.” The lawyer, being an expert in God’s law, probably didn’t have an issue with thinking he loved God in such a way. But it was the second law that seems to have given him trouble. There were three thoughts in Jewish understanding as to who a neighbor was. One, the most encompassing thought, was that all Jews were neighbors, but no non-Jew was a neighbor. The Pharisees and Essenes make up the other two. Fellow Pharisees were neighbors or fellow Essenes (children of light) were neighbors, but no one else—not even Jews.
We have no idea which of these this lawyer believed, but he would have been of one of these camps it seems. I only need to love a certain number of people, but not everyone.
Christians today can easily fall prey to this mode of thinking. We are more influenced by the world’s idea of love than Jesus’s. We love certain sects of people and ignore others. That can be religious sects or ethnic sects or political sects. We close our hearts to certain “types” of people because they are not like us. They don’t worship like us. They don’t think like us. They don’t vote like us. They don’t look like us.
And, like the lawyer, Christians will seek to justify ourselves so that we can look virtuous. But Jesus will have none of it. Answers matter. They don’t only show our minds, but they also can expose our hearts.
Angles Matter
Angles Matter
Which leads us to the third lesson. Attitudes matter, answers matter, but so do angles. Angles matter.
This is where we get to the heart of this passage. We get to the parable itself. Again, this is one of the most famous parables in the history of all parables.
And I want us to see the angle at which Jesus takes because it is different than the angle the lawyer was taking. But to get there, let’s take a look at the parable itself.
It starts off with a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho. In fact, Jesus states a certain man was going. That’s not to indicate necessarily that it was a particular man, but more like, a hypothetical man. Jesus uses this same language for everyone in the story except the Levite but says that the Levite is similar to the priest, so we can include him as a hypothetical.
So, let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that man is going from Jerusalem to Judea and runs into a band of robbers who rob him, strip him, and beat him into an inch of his life. Now, hypothetically speaking, a priest just happens to be going down the same road and sees this man lying there and crosses over to the other side. Similarly, a Levite, hypothetically speaking, is going on his way and sees the man as well, and crosses to the other side.
Before we go on, we need understand what Jesus has said about this priest and Levite. First we know that both were supposed to be the most religious of the people. The priest represented man before God and vice versa, and the Levite was in charge of the temple and its belongings. But we also need to see that neither the priest nor the Levite had anywhere to go. They just happened to be on the road as well. It could be translated that they were there by chance. Nothing important was going on. They weren’t in a hurry. They weren’t trying to get to the temple to perform some religious rite. In fact, they were going away from the temple.
We see this in contrast with the Samaritan.
Let’s just say hypothetically speaking that a Samaritan was on a journey. He wasn’t there by chance. He didn’t just happen to be there. He was there on a journey. He had plans. He had to be somewhere. Something was going on in his life. So, hypothetically speaking, a Samaritan was on a journey and he saw the man and he had compassion.
This hypothetical Samaritan bound the man’s wounds and poured oil and wine upon them to start them healing. He put him on his own donkey, willing to walk himself rather than have this suffering man be left in the street. He took him to an inn and took care of him all night. We aren’t told what he did and it isn’t the point, but we can imagine him redressing the wounds and cleaning him up better, getting him some clothes to wear, perhaps even quieting him if he had some bouts of PTSD.
Then in the morning, we saw to it that the man was well-cared for. He paid the innkeeper two denarii. That’s enough, depending on the cost of boarding in the area, from a month to two months worth of care, which probably indicates how long this man’s journey was. He wouldn’t be back for at least a month. And then he promised to pay the rest if there were extra expenses.
And here is the angle Jesus took.
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
The angle that the lawyer took was, “Who is my neighbor?” and Jesus’ angle is “who proved to be a neighbor?” The lawyer came from the angle, “Who must I love?” Jesus came from “Who will you love?” Angles matter. The lawyer had come at Jesus with arrogance trying to test him and then came back with arrogance trying to vindicate himself so he looked virtuous. It caused him to ask the wrong question. It caused him to see things at the wrong angle.
As one commentator said, “One cannot define one’s neighbor; one can only be a neighbor.” And the lawyer then was trapped. Jesus had come at him at such an angle, the lawyer had to meet him there.
Luke 10:37 (ESV)
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
I find it interesting, though it probably doesn’t mean much as the words can overlap in some ways. Jesus accepted the man’s answer and so must we. But Jesus pointed out that the man felt compassion and the lawyer said he showed mercy. A few weeks ago, I spoke on Jesus showing compassion. I talked about splanchnovision—looking upon people with compassion. And perhaps it is that it is only through compassionate eyes that acts of mercy can be done. They are linked in that way.
And so looking at things from a different angle matters. The priest and Levite looked at the man from one angle, while the Samaritan looked at him from another. The lawyer looked at the topic of neighbors from one angle while Jesus looked at it from another.
Application Matters
Application Matters
But this takes us to the fourth lesson to learn. Application matters.
Luke 10:37 (ESV)
And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Did you notice how similar Jesus’s second response was to his first.
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Both answers imply the man got it right. His problem was application. Application matters.
Love your neighbor by showing mercy.
Let’s face it; we’ve all said it. There are a lot of stupid people in the world. Not us of course; just about everyone else though! Stupid so and so cut me off. The stupid clerk didn’t ring me up right. The stupid delivery guy left my package in the rain. Lots of stupid people in the world that don’t deserve our love. That’s an interesting angle to take on those issues, wouldn’t you say? Probably not the typical angle Jesus would see things from. Of course, we don’t mean what we say. We’re just venting is all. But out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Our mouths betray our own attitudes. And in doing so, proves that we have not yet applied the Samaritan principle to our lives.
Application matters. Who in your life receives your wrath rather than your compassion? Who gets justice and not mercy?
How are you to apply this in your life? How do you go and do likewise when it comes to your family—your siblings, your parents, your extended family, your in-laws?
How do you go and do likewise when it comes to your job—your fellow-workers, your supervisor, your managers, your underlings?
How do you go and do likewise when it comes to your public servants - congressmen, senators, governors, librarians?
How do you go and do likewise when it comes to other races or ethnicities or religions and denominations?
How do you go and do likewise with people in your own church family—brothers, sisters, pastors, deacons, those whom you get along with and those whom you tend to avoid?
Application matters, doesn’t it?
Conclusion
Conclusion
Beloved, we have seen that attitudes, answers, angles, and application all matter when we come to this famous parable on the good Samaritan. But there is one more thing that really matters. The understanding that apart from Christ this is impossible. The final application that we need to see is that Jesus is the Good Samaritan. Jesus was not teaching about himself in this parable, but we can certainly take what he revealed about this Samaritan and apply it to Jesus. Jesus who looks upon us with compassion and binds our wounds and cares for us in the darkest of nights. Jesus who pays the price that we may live.
Like the lawyer, it needs to dawn on us that if the answer to eternal life is to love God with all we are and to love neighbor as ourselves, we had better hope there are some technicalities; otherwise, we are condemned where we stand. And so we are. But Christ, in compassion, saves us. And abides in us. The only way we can love others is because Christ abides in us.
We love because he first loved us.
Love is not easy. It’s easier not to love. Thus John, in his first epistle makes a big deal about loving. Our default is not to love. It is to hate. It is to be aggravated and seek to vengeance and to be angry and hold grudges. And so John reminds us over and over again to love. Love is hard. Yet it is what we are called to do—but in and through Jesus.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.