“The Unlikely Hero”
I want to share a story about a man by the name of Karl Marx. (Has anyone here ever heard of him?) He is known as the father of Communism. He had one agenda and one agenda only and that was for communism to replace capitalism. Let me explain. Today, in USA, we live in a capitalistic society where our economy is made up of privately owned and operated businesses. This means that distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined by business people. What Marx wanted to do was shift gears from a capitalistic economy to a communist driven economy where the government is in total control. What this did was eliminate the class system our society was divided into: the lower, middle and upper classes. There would be no poor people and no rich people, all would be equal. Sound’s good in theory, but this type of government would neutralize the economy. This meant that the government would have their hands in everybody’s pockets. This would make them more powerful and the people less. This meant the government would tell you what to eat, how much money you made, what to listen to, what to watch, and the list goes on. They would virtually control everything and everybody.
When Marx was in the public, he would defend the working class people to the end, but I learned that he never have had a single friend among them. He lived his life building a government structure for people that he hated. That sounds like an oxymoron. His life work was for a group of people he is said to have never conversed or lived amongst. People were a vehicle that helped him get to where he wanted to go in life. I learned that he verbally abused anyone and everyone. His actions never lined up with his words. He was a complete hypocrite.
The lawyer who stood up one day to argue with Jesus would fall some where in the same category as Karl Marx. Most likely, this lawyer was a Pharisee. Pharisees could talk the talk but could not walk the walk.
This particular Jew was trying to push Jesus’ buttons. The Bible records that the man stood up and tested Jesus. He literally tried to bully Jesus around. In ancient times, “standing up,” meant you were in a position of authority and on top of that the wording of this question had a hostile echo to it.
So he asked, "Teacher, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus could have given him a nice little Sunday school answer, but Jesus said, two can play at this game so he shot him back with not one but two questions. He said, (1) "What is written in the Law?" & (2) "How do you read it?"
The man responded with a classical Jewish answer typical in the first century. People quoted this verse like we quote John 3:16 today. He said,”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind & Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then said, "You have answered correctly.” “Do this and you will live.” But the Pharisee could not control himself. One thing about Pharisees is they always want to get the last word in so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" I thought what a perfect question for a sermon series on loving your neighbor.
What the lawyer was looking for was a definitive answer. He wanted Jesus to give him names. He wanted a nice little short list with people he liked on it.
I think what he was really looking for from Jesus, was for Jesus to say “your neighbors are the Jewish people and ONLY the Jewish people. He would have wanted him to say that because in those days a Jew would only consider another fellow Jew their neighbor and nobody else. I mean nobody.
This guy must have been hard headed because after Jesus blasted him back, this guy kept coming and coming and instead of listening to what Jesus just said and loving his neighbor, who at that moment was Jesus, the Pharisee wanted to get the last word in again. So instead of Jesus answering back with a question that he could have responded to, He began to tell him a story.
The story goes like this: “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.” Doesn’t that sound like a news paper headline from somewhere in Newark, NJ?
This man was a victim of an “Ancient Day Mugging.” This guy was at the wrong place, at the wrong time without a gun. He really never had a chance. The crime rate is reported to have been through the roof on that road.
The same thing happened to me. In my B.C. days (before Christ), I was walking back to my car after trading video games for cash and two gang members saw the transaction and followed me back to my car and guess what I did? As we were walking, down the side street where we were parked, I felt the urge to go to the bathroom, so I opened the door for my girlfriend and went in the alley to go number #1. Bad mistake! So as I was buttoning up my pants. Boom! I got hit. So we begin brawling. My girl comes from around the corner, maces the one dude and then I hooked the other dude. They didn’t get the money that I just got from the store, what they did get was the money that was in my other pocket which fell out in the fight so as they were running away they were able to pick it up. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time like the man in the story.
Where our stories are different is, the man was a victim of an organized band of highwaymen that I like to call the “Jerusalem Mafia” and I was mugged by two random dudes. I know it might be hard to believe but Jerusalem had organized crime; instead of the Sopranos they had the “Jerusalemo’s.”
The route from Jerusalem to Jericho was a hike, especially when you didn’t have a car and your only mode of transportation was your feet. (JOKE) It was a 17 mile stretch. This road was lined with caves and the caves made good hide outs for robbers. This road was notoriously dangerous. I would say it is equivalent to an inner city crack spot where you never know what’s going to happen. The man did something everyone knew you are not supposed to do. He broke the law of the land that said Jews are not suppose to go in the ghetto past dark. Since this was a place where trouble was expected, travelers actually carried weapons with them for protection, but from the looks of it, this man didn’t use one if he had one.
And as the man lays there all beat up . . .
31 “A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.”
When the lawyer heard, that the priest, a prominent religious leader of the day, did not make any attempt to help out, he would not have been surprised since the lawyer was probably a Pharisee and Pharisees were not so fond of priests even though they both worked in the religious business.
I learned that Jericho was known to be a popular place for priests to live. This priest was probably returning from the temple where he worked. What I gather is that this priest was afraid of touching a dead man because that would make him ceremonially unclean and would disqualify him from his job. What this says is that he cared more about his reputation then helping someone get back on their feet.
I believe that since the priest was a person of the people, established and recognized as one who communicates with God, he let the pressure to perform publicly go to his head and cause him to think of himself before others. He would not have gotten any public recognition if he helped this man, so he kept walking. If your motivation is to do whatever it takes to build your reputation in the eyes of man and in doing so neglect the needs of man, you will not make it to far in life. We are to put aside our reputations and titles, so that we can help our neighbor get back on track.
A couple weeks ago, I went to Washington D.C on a Leadership Trip with 9 students from VFCC. We toured the Capital Building in Washington DC. We had a meeting with the Chaplin of the Senate and the House of the Representatives. We talked to an AG missionary who works in the Capital Building as an assistant to the senator of Oklahoma. We went to an undercover house of prayer called the CEDARS. I would say, we met some pretty influential pastors, business men/women and people in politics and out of all the people we met, one man, stood out to me the most and it wasn’t because of his accomplishments even though he has accomplished too much to list. This man’s name is Rich Newburgh. He is the senior pastor of Arlington AG.
What I saw, when I looked past all the glitter and gold of Pastor Newburgh’s ministry, was his willingness to humbly serve us 9 students despite having accomplished so much. He was a veteran pastor who has been at the same church for 27 years. That in itself is a great accomplishment today. His church was very influential with the county government. He was on a board with the local government and they looked to him to spend lots of their money, which he said, he loves doing. With the help of the Lord and a lot of the county’s money, his church built a building with 100 apartments for low income senior citizens. They are presently building 3 Learning Centers for the homeless and immigrants and the list goes on.
And guess who personally drove from VA to PA and back to VA to pick us up in a big bus, and then guess who taxied us around VA the first night and then bought us all dinner and who was feeding the poor side by side with us? Pastor Newburgh. This man did not let all his accomplishments go to his head. He did not grip his position and think he was better then us little college students. Unlike the priest, Pastor Newburgh, does not worry about his reputation. He serves poor needy people as well as rich powerful people and God has blessed him for that.
I want to challenge you to never let your reputation or position in life (Or your month here) cause you to miss an opportunity to help someone get back on their feet. The priest would rather save face then jeopardize his status among his religious friends. I don’t care if you are a CEO, CIA, or the President of the USA, nobody is better than anybody. I believe that a person with fewer needs has responsibility to help those with greater needs. So the story continues . . .
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Again, when the Pharisee heard that a Levite didn’t expend any energy to help this beat up man, he would not have been surprised one bit. I leaned that Pharisees were also not too fond of Levites, even though they too were in the same business like the Priests. Levites were not as high ranking as priests, but were highly privileged and respected. Levites wore many hats. They were like assistant pastors. They did all the grunt work around the temple and this made them extremely busy.
The phrase, “when he came to the place and saw him,” implies that the Levite was inches away from this man and made a conscious decision to walk across the street. It looks like he wanted to get as far away as he could. He left him for dead and didn’t even think twice.
I came across a story about a CBS anchorman/reporter, Hugh Rudd. Mr. Rudd was brutally mugged outside his very own New York City apartment complex. He lay conscious with his eyes open, unable to move. All he could do was moan and mumble. He lay on his doorstep from 2:30 till dawn watching his life pass him by as returning theater goers walked right by him into the building. I read that even the milkman came and went and didn’t do a thing. No one even stopped to see what was wrong for hours upon hours till someone rushed him to the hospital. These people were too busy to help. They would not interrupt their schedules. They let busyness deter them from helping this man get back on his feet.
Today, most people have way too many responsibilities with extremely tight schedules. I have to admit I fall into that category. Even when I was in TC, at times I was too busy for people and today I am fighting the same battle, I just can’t find enough hours in the day to get everything done I want to do. I try to do as much stuff each day so I get the most stuff accomplished. Yes, there are days I get a lot done, but I fail when it comes to making time for people. Instead of slowing down and coming along side of my neighbor and helping them get back on track. I’m like superman, flying around like a speeding bullet. This causes men to miss priceless opportunities. God has been constantly reminding me to revaluate my motives, so now; I ask myself, who am I being a neighbor to? And if I am not, what can I knock off my schedule so that I can be a neighbor?
So the story continues . . . and Jesus said,
33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
At this point in the story, the lawyer must have been shocked and heated at the same time. A Samaritan would have been the last person in the world the lawyer would have thought Jesus would use as the hero. A Jew like the lawyer would expect Jesus at least to have made the Samaritan the person in need of help, not the hero who saves the day and puts the priest and the Levite to shame.
The Jews and Samaritans had major problems. They hated each other with a passion. The animosity we see the Jewish man have for the Samaritan is a result of hundreds of years of hatred for each other. You see, today, when we compliment somebody and say you are a “Good Samaritan.” Immediately, we think of somebody who went above and beyond the call of duty, but during the 1st century a Jew would not be caught dead using good and Samaritan in the same sentence. To the Jews the Samaritans were promise breakers.
Samaritans were Jews who broke a vow of purity and got it on with the Assyrian invaders while the rest of the Jews stayed celibate. So for Jesus to select a Samaritan to be the hero of the story would have been completely offensive and degrading to the lawyer and the Jewish people as a whole and that is exactly why, I have called the Samaritan man, the unlikely hero.
In the NIV, the translators said the Samaritan “took pity on the man.” To take pity means to be compassionate. This word is not your normal word used in the NT to describe someone who helps somebody. Out of the 12 times this particular word is used, 10 of them are used to describe how Jesus Himself responded to hurting people. The word literally means to have compassion that results with action. The compassion is the fuel behind the action. To have compassion means to feel an urgency to tangibly meet the needs of those who are needy. You don’t have compassion for someone and do nothing. Compassion makes us stop dead in our tracks and reach out to give what we can so that we can help get somebody back on track.
I want to share a story that has changed the way I view compassion. If I was a Hollywood film producer, I would make a movie out of it. It is a true story about a man named Bulus Tsetu. He and his family felt the call of God to start a Bible school in Nigeria, Africa. So after they had been there for sometime, the local Muslims learned that they were Christians trying to manipulate their people to leave Islam for Christianity. So one day when his daughter was walking home from school, a group of Muslims abducted her and raped her in a park. They told her to go back home and tell her dad that if he did not leave that they would find her everyday and do the same thing.
Soon Brother Tsetu’s wife became very ill. She was taken to the hospital, but as the doctors were taking tests she was left for three days without treatment. This caused her kidneys to fail. As a result, she desperately needed dialysis five times a week, but she was only able to get about two per month because of the shortage of machines for the great number of patients needing dialysis. The missionaries who they were there with called a friend in the United States who had great success getting things donated. Within two days, he had 11 dialysis units sitting in his garage. He shipped a container over at his own expense. It arrived in record time. All the paperwork was in order. Only one signature was needed. The man was ready and waiting for Brother Tsetu to bring in the paper. The secretary to this man, however, was greedy and kept Brother Tsetu waiting for three months because he would not pay a bribe. The very day one of the machines was finally setup and ready for his wife’s use and she died.
You would think he would go back to the States, but the story continues. Some who called themselves Christians came to him and said, “Either you are for us or you are against us.” These so called Christians told Brother Tsetu that, if he did not fight for them, they would kill his family.
HE LATER SAID HE DID NOT KILL ANYONE, BUT HIS ARM WAS SO TIRED FROM SWINGING A MACHETE TO DEFEND HIS FAMILY THAT HE COULD NOT LOOSEN HIS GRIP NOR LIFT HIS ARM FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS AFTERWARD.
His fellow missionaries soon lost contact with him during the riots. After four days, he came to their compound. He had just pulled an arrow from his side. He had wrestled a knife away from his neck and his leg was cut where someone tried to cut off his foot. You might be thinking to yourself, why were the Christians so angry with him? This going to blow your mind but they knew that he was harboring Muslims in his house! The man who had suffered so much at the hands of Muslims was now harboring Muslims in his house and he was paying a great price.
The people who took part in his wife’s passing and his daughters abuse were the very people he was risking his own life to protect. He was compassionate like the Samaritan. Just think how the Muslims might have felt when they realized that the missionary they wanted to kill was risking his neck for them.
So Jesus continues . . . by saying. .
34 He (the Samaritan) went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins 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.’”
It looks like the Samaritan man was certified in Ancient First Aid. He did not just stop and acknowledge the man’s problems but he put his money where his mouth was and opened his wallet and began to help the man find healing. Sometimes a person’s healing depends on our willingness to give whatever resources we have, to help, get them back on their feet.
Let’s look at what the Samaritan gave. . .
(1) The Bible tells us that the Samaritan sacrificed his dinner! The text said he used his oil and wine to help assist with the man’s wounds. That was his dinner for the day, but he was willing to sacrifice his appetite. What is more important, feeding your appetite or somebody’s recovery?
(2) Next, he put the man on his donkey. Think about that for a second, he put this beat up dude, who was dripping blood on his brand spankin new donkey. Imagine if that was your brand new car, would you do it? What is more important you’re possessions or somebody’s recovery?
(3) Then, once he got to the Holiday Inn, he spent the night, taking care of the man’s injuries, helping him regain his strength, probably hand feeding him and doing whatever else he needed, taking him to the outhouse and washing him. He sacrificed a whole day to personally sign the check. It is one thing to give money to help some body; it is another thing to help them personally. What is more important your time or somebody’s recovery?
(4) He paid the Inn keeper 2 silver coins. I found out that the going rate for the local Holiday Inn at that time was 1/12 of a denarius. This means that the man had about 3 ½ weeks to recover. Today, if you were going to stay at a hotel/motel for 3 ½ weeks at, $60 per night which I would say is an extremely reasonable rate, you would spend a minimum of $1,440.
When I calculated that number, the Holy Spirit convicted me. I thought about all the times I helped people out financially and I think if I added all of them together they would not equal the amount of money the Samaritan man sacrificed in a single day on one person.
What is more important your bank roll or somebody’s recovery?
(5) And on top of all of that, he left his Credit Card there as well so that the man could order some room service and stay as long as it took to get back on his feet. What is more important your credit or somebody’s recovery?
This is what I like to call “Radical Generosity,” giving to the point that it makes a dent in your wallet. We should not give in light of what we have to spare but in light of what people need. We need to learn a lesson from this unlikely hero and take a risk with our time, talents and treasures because you never know when your dinner, car or credit card can change somebody’s life and help them rebound from a bad day.
At the conclusion of the story, Jesus asks, now . . .
36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
My question is, where is the Samaritan’s props in the lawyer’s statement? The lawyer would not even say the word Samaritan when Jesus asked him, who do you think is the neighbor? That’s how much, Jews hated Samaritans, he would not even say the word, so he said the next best thing, “The one who had mercy on him.”
If I were Jesus, I would have said, I told you so, I told you so, like a 100 times, but Jesus doesn’t do that. He treats this man as His neighbor and lets him off the hook with out verbally blasting him and says, just be like the Samaritan and “Go and do likewise.”
We must not get caught up trying to classify who our neighbor is and isn’t and must simply be a neighbor to all. Jesus made it clear that to be a neighbor, we must show un-endless mercy. Mercy that is not limited to our bank account. Mercy that thinks with our hearts and not with our wallets.
If we spent more time meeting needs and less time thinking about who we want to help, we would probably help twice as many people. I have decided that I am going to try my best to help as much as I can when needs arise. My philosophy is to do what I can and ask questions later. Because for me I know once I start asking questions, I start thinking from the balance of my bank account and not my heart and since I am human, I can get greedy, so now I just give and then find out the details later (this gets me in trouble with my wife).
If I were to give you one sentence that summarizes the moral of this story, I would say it is this:
“Being a neighbor is not necessarily defined by seeking out those who need help, but rather it is becoming a person who is able to reach beyond themselves to help someone get back on track.”
Neighbors can come from surprising places. I hope you realize how much it cost the Samaritan to help this man. He literally risked his life and possessions to reach beyond himself so that the beat up man would have a chance to get back on his feet.
If it were not for a Good Samaritan, I would not be here today. You can probably say the same thing. Our lives have been changed by men and women, unlikely heroes, like the goof Samaritan, who sacrificed their time and resources to help us get back on track and we are to take the baton and do the same for others.
Imagine with me what the manager of the Holiday Inn was thinking when the Samaritan man brought a Jewish man to the hotel and said, can I get a room for my neighbor, here is some cash and my credit card, just charge all his expenses to it.
If I was the hotel manger I would have been shocked. Think about all the hotel mangers who are watching you. Right now, you have about 250 watching you. You can either shock them by helping those in need around you or you can be like the priest and the Levite who cared more about themselves then others.
What if the Holiday Inn manager had the Priest and Levite as his guests and he heard what happened before they got there? What do you think the manager would have thought about these two religious leaders? People who were paid to help and they didn’t. They were the likely hero’s and did not respond and live up to their status in society. If I was the hotel manager, I would have lost all my confidence in these religious people and that is exactly what the world does when Christians don’t live up to the legacy the Samaritan man left for us to follow.
We have to rise to the occasion and become the unlikely hero. We have to be sensitive to people in need, whether they have a spiritual need that prayer can remedy, or a physical need, our resources can meet, all of us have something to offer our neighbor. Being a neighbor does not start after you graduate TC, it starts right here and right now. You guys have a lot of time right now to learn and practice this principle so that when you leave it will become a natural habit in your life. Your neighbor is sitting right next to you, so make the most out of this opportunity, train yourself to be sensitive to needs and be willing to respond and play the role of the unlikely hero.
Action Points
(1) Don’t gauge the amount of help you can give by what you have to spare. I am not telling you to act foolishly and give the clothes off your back, although sometimes that is necessarily. What I am saying is not to limit yourself to what you can comfortably sacrifice, but at times give so that your sacrifice makes you uncomfortable. What you are doing is sacrificing your comfortability so that someone else can be comfortable and in doing that you are being a neighbor.
(2) Make sure your life is not so busy that helping someone becomes a burden. If your schedule is so rigid you have no room for flexibility to help others. Rethink your schedule. Being a neighbor should be the second most important thing you must get done each day next to meeting with God and being a husband if you are married.
(3) Don’t let your position, status, influence, job or month on the MOUNTAIN cause you to pass by those in need. If that is the case, something is wrong. Our position in life should never exclude us from being a neighbor. Jesus was a neighbor everyday of His life. He majored on helping people reach their full potential and we should do the same.
ALTAR CALL:
As we come to a close, I am going to invite Travis back. If you are here and you feel beat up like the man who was left for dead, I want to invite you to come up here. We want to be your neighbor tonight and pray for you. Also, if you are here tonight and you struggle with being a neighbor, I want to invite you to come up here.
