“Will you be My Neighbor?”
Luke 10:25-37
Many of us can remember him. We may have watched him....or kids or grand kids may have watched him. Plain sweater, white canvass, sneakers, nice smile.....over the years not much changed with the show; it was always the same house-the same puppets and the same opening. And in every episode Mr. Rogers always asked the same question in his song: would you be my neighbor?
This morning I want us to look at a story that asks the same question.
Luke 10:25-37
This parable is introduced by a dialogue between Jesus and a scribe....the scripture calls the scribe an expert in the law. In those days there were no printing presses, the scribe would make copies of the scriptures by hand. Unlike most people in those days , these men were educated; they could read and write and because they were exposed to the OT over and over. They became very familiar with it. These men were scholars and teachers. Because of their expertise they were seen as authorities in matters of religious law. They were respected and carried a lot of influence.
This expert in the law comes to question Jesus and he stands up to test Him. Now why would you test Jesus? Perhaps he was hostile toward the teachings of Christ....maybe he wanted to prove a point...the Bible tells us in verse 29 that he wanted to justify himself. And we do the same thing...Jesus gives us the commandments...He tells u what we need to do....but we take it and we want to redefine it ....and we say Jesus didn’t really mean what he said...for instance God says to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. But we don’t do that...we fail, we slip, we fall...we sin and so we redefine the commandments to mean something else like we should just do the best we can.
And that is why the scribe asked the question...who is my neighbor? He wanted to limit the number of people he was required to love? You know...give me a list!!! He wanted a list of his neighbors so that he could love only those people and he could ignore everyone else. And that is just what we do today. As one fellow prayed, God bless me and my wife, my son and his wife, es four and no more! Let’s be honest....we look for the minimum requirement.
Now here is the difference between true Christianity and false Christianity. It is the difference between religion of the heart and a religion of works. Works religion wants to place a box. A fence around what God expects of us. A boundary. If I do these things then I have met my obligation to God. It is very me centered. Heart religion on the other hand is motivated by love and a desire to serve and bless as many people as possible. Now with that in mind let’s look at the parable.
Verse 30.
Notice we are not told anything about this man....we don’t know where he was from....we don’t know his occupation...whether he was rich or poor-apparently these details didn’t matter to Jesus because this parable applies to all of us. We then see two men who come by...the first i would call the Passing priest. The 2nd we might call the Looking Levite. Because that is all they do is take a look and pass him right by.
Verses 31-32
Jesus tells us that the priest saw the man but still he didn’t stop. And since he did see him, he also would know that he was hurt..still he didn’t offer him a thing. And not only did they pass him by they passed by on the other side...that is they got as far away from him as possible. We think this would never happen today. Did you see the news last week? A 27 year old woman was stabbed and she laid dying on the floor of a convenience store...5 shoppers stepped over the woman...all of this caught on video tape...one of the shoppers did stop for a moment to take a picture with her cell phone of the woman. It was horrible. By the time she got to the hospital she was critical and she died shortly thereafter. We say, how could this happen?
In this parable there are some things to consider. (1) this stretch of road between Jerusalem and Jericho was a dangerous area. Stories still circulate that people would pretend to be hurt and then when you stopped to help they would rob you. The distance was 15-20 miles. In the mountains...a deserted area. The priest was probably on his way home from a temple service in Jerusalem..the Levite also. They may have thought this man deserved what he got. Why should I go out of my way to help just because this man was too foolish to take a safer road.
Maybe they convinced themselves that what happened was due to God’s judgment-after all who were they to interfere with God. Have you ever done that? Refused to help someone because their problems were due to the sin in their life. Due to mistakes they made? Listen, when you see someone, hurting, in trouble before you judge them, stop and say to yourself, except for the grace of God that could be me.
(2) There was the fear of involvement. The priest and Levite might have been afraid that the men who robbed this fellow were still hiding in the area ready to attack them also. Better not take a chance. Let me ask you have you ever held back from helping someone for fear you would be pulled into their problems. Have you ever refused help to someone for fear that whatever got them might get them also? Perhaps that’s why they kept moving. It’s easier to do nothing.
Do you know what you have to do to change a garden into a desert? Nothing. Don’t water it, don’t fertilize it ...just do anything and the weeds will completely take over. You want your children and your grandchildren to grow up and throw their lives away..then just do nothing. Don’t train them, don’t take them to church, don’t discipline them...don’t spend time with them. You want to destroy your marriage? Then do nothing. Just take them for granted...don’t communicate, don’t share intimacy, don’t show love in any way and that’s what you’ll do. You will destroy it. It is interesting here to note that both of these men who did not stop had one thing in common: they were very religious.
Look at verse 33. Here is the Samaritan who has sympathy.
Now let me give you a Biblical definition of a neighbor. Because if I ask you this question in another setting you know what you would say> It’s the person next door. But that’s not what we’re talking about. A neighbor is anyone you can be a neighbor to. Anyone who has a need that God places in your path.
This man was not his physical neighbor. The man on the side of the road who was beaten was a Jew-the man who stopped was a Samaritan. Let me make a point here. The Jews and the Samaritans were enemies-the gospel of John tells us that Jews do not associate with Samaritans. They hated each other. This would be like a cowboy finding and Indian by the road...like Rush Limbaugh finding Bill Clinton...like a Florida Gator finding an FSU Seminole...well you get the idea...they hated each other.
But this Samaritan set all of their cultural and racial differences aside...all of the bitterness and hatred from the past and stopped and helped. Look what he did...
verses 34-36. What would you do? You might like this.
A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.
* A pessimist came by and said, you’ll never get out of that pit!
* a Democrat came along and wanted to tax the pit.
* a Republican came along and wanted to throw the democrat in the pit with him.
* a lawyer came back and offered to take them all to court.
* a Scientologist came along and said...you only think you are in a pit.
* a fundamentalist said...you deserve your pit.
* a Methodist came by and said here we brought you some food and clothing while you’re in the pit.
* an optimist stopped and said well things could be worse.
* a pessimist who stopped said things will get worse!
* Jesus seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.
Which one are you? What does it take to be a neighbor? Four things.
(1) Compassion....verse 33. Not feeling sorry for someone...it means you are motivated with a passion to do something.
(2) Contact...verse 34. This man had more good excuses than either of the other two men. But he didn’t let obstacles stop him.
(3) Care..care enough to act....verse 34. He actually did something. The scribe/lawyer was willing to talk about who his neighbor was...but that was all...just talk. Jesus said go and do likewise.
(4) Cost...it will cost you time and it may cost you money to be a good neighbor.
This man paid two pence which was about two days wages. We don’t know what it might cost. But we do know these two things....Jesus said to do it and we know it will be worth it.
Prayer/Invitation
