20. Who is Jesus?
January 16th, 2010
Who is your Neighbor?
Well I am back from a little vacation with my wife and we are back to study into our series through the Gospel of Luke. We are in Luke 10:25. This is a story most of you are probably familiar with. It is one of the most powerful stories ever told. You know it as the story of the good Samaritan. Here is what happens: an expert in Mosaic Law comes to test Jesus with a complex question about eternal life. We are getting closer to the end of Jesus ministry and opposition against Him is pretty high at this point.
The religious leaders have viewed Jesus as a threat for awhile. They have tried to catch Him with questions and discredit Him but so far have been unable to do so. Well now Jesus is heading from the boondocks to the big city. What was once a threat on the horizon has now come to their doorstep. Jesus is menacing. He is a revolutionary and He threatens the power the religious leaders are enjoying. The religious leaders get their power from the people. Jesus is popular. If they publicly stand against Jesus they will lose their power. So they take a more devious approach.
Jesus is a teacher. He travels teaching people about the kingdom of God and answering their questions. As genuine followers are honestly asking Jesus questions it would be easy for Him to drop His guard. So the religious leaders send in spies to test Jesus. Amidst all the questions being asked, they toss in their little traps trying to snare Jesus into saying something inaccurate that they can use against Him.
Lk 10:25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Lk 10:26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” Lk 10:27 He answered: “ ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’’” Lk 10:28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Lk 10:29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Now we don’t know that this expert in the law is a spy seeking to catch Jesus off guard but we have good reason to be suspicious of him. There are hundreds of laws in the Old Testament and thousands of oral traditions. How can we know which ones are essential for gaining eternal life? His intention for asking may not be known but the condition of his heart is made apparent by how he responds to Jesus.
It is would be very easy to answer this question incorrectly. Jesus responds very wisely. He has the man answer the question himself. This is not a cope out, Jesus knows the answer. Jesus is merely turning the question around on the man to show him the answer. The man answers his own question very adequately. In fact this guy’s answer to the question is the same answer Jesus gives for the most important command of God: which is to love God with all your heart, mind, and strength. The Jews would have considered this the greatest commandment and it was known as the Shema.
The second greatest commandment, which this legal expert mentions, comes from Leviticus 19. This passage is essential in our understanding how we can love God. What does it mean to show God love? You follow religious rituals? You go to church and read your Bible religiously? Are these really the things we do to show God we love Him? There are plenty of atheists who are well versed in Scripture but hate God in their hearts. Reading the Bible doesn’t mean you love God. The thing about religious practices is that you can complete all of them without having any love for God in your heart. Works don’t require love. So how can we practically demonstrate our genuine love for God? By loving His people. We cannot see God, but we can see the people He loves. Therefore if we do not love the people we can see, how can we love God who we cannot see? Loving people is perhaps the best way in which we can express our love for God.
So our lawyer dude answers his own question correctly revealing that he didn’t ask it because he seeking an answer. He has some other purpose. This is one of the things I love about Jesus. So many times people ask Him trick questions with no discernable right answer and every time Jesus manages not only to answer their question but to turn it around on them. Like the woman caught in adultery in John 8. If Jesus says let her go then He is denying Mosaic law. If He says stone her then He is unmerciful and either way He will lose popularity. It is a question without a right answer. Somehow Jesus manages to throw it back in their face. That is what happens here. Jesus says: yes your answer is correct, now go do it. It is not this man’s understanding that needs to change but his behavior. We often know the right thing to do the problem is we don’t always do it. Jesus says: good you know the answer. You do need to ask me, you need to go do it. If you want life, go live it.
When forced with such an obvious demand we two ways to respond: repent and follow what Jesus has instructed us or try to justify ourselves so we don’t have to change. This guy knows he has failed to live up to the demands of the law so he tries to reduce the size of the law so he can better keep it. He has not truly loved his neighbors so he seeks to reduce the understanding of neighbor. If he can make it ambiguous he can remove any measurable response and thus justify his failure to follow the law. The one who sets the definitions wins. So Jesus responds:
Lk 10:30 In reply Jesus said: “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.
Now the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was known as “the Pass of blood.” It was an extremely dangerous journey due to the many curves of the road and caves along side it that made it easy for robbers to hide and ambush passing travelers. So the fact that a guy got brutalized and left for dead is not really surprising. It would be like hearing of someone getting the stereo stolen from their car when they parked it in a big city overnight. It’s sad but not unexpected.
Lk 10:31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. Lk 10:32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. Lk 10:33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. Lk 10:34 He 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. Lk 10:35 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.’ Lk 10:36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Lk 10:37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The first two guys to pass by were clergy: a priest and a Levite. If anyone was going to be kind and selfless enough help a man in need we would naturally expect one of these guys. They represent the religious leaders and a group of well respected “pious” people. The audience hearing this would think: ahh, good help has come. It is obvious the right thing to do is to help the man in need.
Neither of these two men have a good excuse not to help this man. The priest is going down, which is to say away from Jerusalem. He is not running late for work. He is not going to fulfill some spiritual duty. The only reason these two men have for passing by is selfish fear. They either do not want to be inconvenienced by caring for a brother in need or they are afraid of what might happen to them if they stop to help. They see a man lying beaten, bloody, maybe dead on the road. How can they know it is not a trap? Maybe the thieves are still around. If they go help this man they may be attacked in return. So rather that risking it they just carry on leaving the man to die. The two guys we would expect to be the heroes of the story pass by. They knew the right thing to do better then most. They just didn’t do it.
Then a Samaritan comes along. Remember Jews and Samaritans don’t get along. They hate each other. So now the audience will assume this guy is going to pass by as well. If the ‘holy men of God’ don’t stop to help then certainly a dirty heathen isn’t going to. He does. The Samaritan stops to help the man. This is hugely controversial. Jesus has just made a Samaritan the hero of a story. This would be like making Bin Laden the hero of a story in America it is not going to go over well.
This Samaritan comes along and starts helping the man. He disinfects and bandages the wounds and put the man on his own donkey to take him to town. He paid for the man’s food and recovery. Why? He didn’t know the guy. They weren’t friends. In fact their people hated each other. This guy had probably had some negative encounters with Jews in his past. He has no reason to help the man who was beaten, and every reason not to. Of these three, which of them acted in love? Which of them was a neighbor to the man in need? The religious guys saw the need and kept on walking. This man’s own countrymen left him for dead.
Who was the man’s neighbor? The expert in the law had been attempting to justify himself and reduce the demands of the law. He wanted to make the definition of neighbor smaller. Jesus turns around and expands it drastically. Where a neighbor may have been considered someone who lived in the same town or was of the same people Jesus expands it to include anyone we come in contact with. Neighbor then is no longer about nationality or the location or residence, neighbor is now the way in which we are expected to treat anyone we come in contact with.
When it comes to life: we don’t get to set the definitions. Jesus does. Jesus defines neighbor as anyone we meet. It is easy to be the object of love: to receive it. That is what this guy is asking about, what we ask about. Who is it I have to love? How many of those rotten people around me do I have to put up with to get eternal life? Jesus is not focused on the object of love but on the one who offers it.
We are to love regardless our perception of the worthiness of the person we are offering it to. Loving your neighbor will mean loving people who do not deserve it, who did not ask for it, who may not even want it. Loving your neighbor is our expression of love to God. It is not conditional on the worthiness of the object that needs it but on the worthiness of the God who commands it.
Jesus has already pointed out that this guy knows what the right thing to do is. He just isn’t doing it. Correct theology does not grant you entrance to the kingdom of God. In fact knowing all the right things is meaningless if we do not act on that knowledge. If I know it is wrong to steal and yet I steal what does that knowledge change? Nothing. If we don’t do what we know is right, then knowing all the right answers to Bible questions doesn’t get us any closer to God.
If you don’t do it, screw it. There is no point in amassing knowledge of what is right if you are not going to do what is right. Don’t try to justify, don’t try to rationalize, don’t come up with excuses why you shouldn’t have to or why you have done it enough already. Shut up and do what you are told. Jesus tells us what to do. Love God and love other people. Jesus says: I don’t care if you know all the right answers. I care about what you do with those answers. Eternal life is not about what you know it is about who you love. If you want the life of God good new: you don’t have to perfect. You don’t have to memorize and follow thousands of rules and regulations. You just need to love God with your life. How do you do that? You love His people. You treat them well. You share His love with them. It is about living your life with the love of Jesus flowing from your heart. You know what is right: now go do it. If it is something you wish someone would do for you, then go do it for them. Think how do you receive love and go do that for others.
