The Compassionate Samaritan
Luke 10:30-37
Introduction: The story known as the parable of the Good Samaritan is found only in the book of Luke. This most familiar parable has inspired painting, sculpture, poetry, and film. Many have allegorized this story to represent Christ as the Good Samaritan reaching out to redeem a lost soul. This application does fit and is a proper application of its illustrated truths. Others have seen the parable merely as a story to encourage helping others. But the parable of the compassionate Samaritan is more than that; it is a story that speaks about attitudes and true faith demonstrating itself in action.
I. The Confrontation of the Lawyer – verses 25-29
A. An expert in the Jewish law confronted Jesus Christ with the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?" To which Christ replied “What is written in the law?” The lawyer answered by saying, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself” Jesus said, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”
B. Christ said on another occasion in Matthew 22:40 "On these two commandments the whole law hangs, and the prophets"
C. Galatians 3:10 “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.”
D. Eternal life depends completely upon keeping perfectly the entire law of God. But man with his sinful nature has never nor can keep the law absolutely. What has always been impossible for every man, the God-man, Jesus Christ has kept the law inviolate, all of it.
E. These two commandments go hand in glove and sum up the Christian experience.
F. Loving God completely can only be accomplished through a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ as one’s personal Redeemer and Lord.
G. When one loves God completely it is evidenced in a love for others.
H. 1 John 4:20 “If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
I. Seeking to justify himself and trying to save face the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” He knows that he doesn’t possess eternal life. He knows that he does not properly love – at least not all men.
J. Christ answers the question in the story of the compassionate Samaritan
II. The Plight of the Traveler – verse 30
A. A traveler journeyed along a seventeen mile downward stretch of road from Jerusalem to Jericho known as “The Way of Blood”. It was called such because it was a perilous road as highwaymen, violent robbers, often attacked those who traveled it. As the traveler journeyed we are told that this man was encircled by the thieves, who stripped him of his clothing and beat him to incapacitate him from seeking help or going after them. They left him half-dead. There he lay on the side of the road alone and helpless.
B. Like this man there are people who along the highways of life that we traverse that have genuine hurts and pain needing someone to care.
C. Again, this man was not unlike so many in this world who are spiritually helpless having been left to the die at the side of life’s road at the hand of sin and the devil’s legions.
D. The sense of this futility is seen in the words that Jean-Paul Sarte wrote: "Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth." - H. Lindsell
III. The Disinterestedness of the Priest – Verse 31
A. A priest coming from worshipping God at Jerusalem. Seeing the man he for whatever reason is disinterested, doesn’t bother to take time to see whether this man is dead or alive, and simply passes by him without a thought or moment’s hesitation. He saw the man but didn’t take time to notice his condition or need.
B. The priest, who knew the Law, knew what was required in the law.
C. You would expect the priest, of all people, who knew the command to love your neighbor as yourself, would do that which was required. Externally this priest was religious but appeared to be merely a hearer of the word and not a doer.
D. A Tampa, FL, man was brutally attacked, bound, shot, and left inside his automobile to die. Later, a parking meter officer happened by the black BMW (which was parked only a block from police headquarters) ... and dutifully wrote a parking ticket and left it on the car’s windshield! He never noticed the victim inside the car. The man was discovered only after ANOTHER meter officer had written a second parking ticket and was in the process of placing it on the windshield alongside the first one.
Likewise, there are folks all around each one of us who are "dying" — emotionally, spiritually, even physically — whom we never take time to notice. Truly, caring for the needs of those around us requires that we make an extra effort to be observant. - Source: Infobeat, 4/22/98.
E. Matthew 13:13 “...seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
F. Like the priest, are we religiously superficial never truly seeing the needs before our eyes?
IV. The Callous Heart of the Levite - Verse 32
A. “...likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.”
B. The Levites assisted the priests in their religious duties. It was the Levites job to take care of the temple. They were expected to know the law.
C. The actions of the Levite are more heartless than the priest because he didn’t just see him from a distance but he looked on him. That is "he came up to him, quite close, looked at him, saw his condition and state, and passed on"
D. 1 John 3:17 “But whoso hath this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
E. "Some folks are like Easter eggs -- decorated on the outside and hard-boiled on the inside!" - Pulpit Helps, 1981
V. The Compassion of the Samaritan – Verses 33-35
A. Love and compassion overcomes excuses and takes action.
1. The Samaritan had every reason for making excuses to not help. They were a people who were rejected by the Jews. To denigrate or slander another the Jews would call him a “Samaritan”
2. The Samaritan looked beyond all the differences – religious, ethic, racial, moral – and saw the need and it moved him with compassion.
3. The word compassion means that deep inside his inner parts he had sympathy, pity for him. He was overcome with compassion.
4. 1 Peter 3:8 “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;”
5. But that compassion must go beyond the four walls of the church.
B. Love and compassion seeks to meet the immediate need.
1. He bound up his wounds and poured in oil and wine as a medicinal disinfectant and healing ointment.
2. As believers we must become vitally concerned with meeting needs, healing hurts, developing relationships and reaching out not only to our community of faith but into the community where we live our daily lives.
C. Love and compassion is costly and not convenient
1. Vs. 34-35 “And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay thee”
2. Love is willing to be inconvenienced. In The Grace of Giving, Stephen Olford tells of a Baptist pastor during the American Revolution, Peter Miller, who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, and enjoyed the friendship of George Washington. In Ephrata also lived Michael Wittman, an evil-minded sort who did all he could to oppose and humiliate the pastor. One day Michael Wittman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller traveled seventy miles on foot to Philadelphia to plead for the life of the traitor. “No, Peter,” General Washington said. “I cannot grant you the life of your friend.” “My friend!” exclaimed the old preacher. “He’s the bitterest enemy I have.” “What?” cried Washington. “You’ve walked seventy miles to save the life of an enemy? That puts the matter in different light. I’ll grant your pardon.” And he did. Peter Miller took Michael Wittman back home to Ephrata—no longer an enemy but a friend. - Lynn Jost
3. 2 Corinthians 12:15 “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”
4. William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child’s breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, “Momma, kiss me!” Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn’t count the cost. The Bible says, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”
D. Two men had no love, one did. Two men were religious but had no love; therefore their religion did nothing, meant nothing, and was worth nothing. One man had love and it showed the reality and value of it in action. - adapted
VI. The Moral of the Story – Verse 37
A. Two commands – Love God completely and demonstrate the reality of that love in obedience by loving others.
B. “Go and do likewise.”
C. Do you love God completely?
D. Are you completely sold out for Christ? Can we truly say with the Apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ”?
E. Are we demonstrating it through our loving our neighbors as ourselves?
F. How Long Has It Been Since You...?
Took the time to go see someone who lives alone?
Wrote a letter to someone who crossed your mind?
Read the Bible to someone too ill to read for themselves?
Encouraged someone who was having a hard time being a Christian?
Prayed earnestly for someone who was faltering?
Tried to have a Bible study with someone you knew was lost?
Told a teenager that you were proud of his efforts to live for the Lord?
Spent more time on your knees praying than on the telephone talking?
EVERY CHRISTIAN CAN DO SOMETHING TO ENCOURAGE SOMEONE ELSE! – copied
G. James 2:18 “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
