Who is my Neighbor? (The Good Samaritan)
Luke 10:25-37
CHCC: February 5, 2012
Video – Mr. Roger’s neighborhood song through the years (Youtube video)
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vV_we0kSls
INTRODUCTION:
Did you ever wonder why that song was popular for so many years? There’s something in human nature that loves the idea of having a good neighbor! The subject of neighbors came up one day when Jesus was having a discussion with some of the Jewish religious leaders.
One of them tried to trip Jesus up by asking, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus turned the question back at him and said, “What is written in the Law?”
The religious leader quoted two verses … from Deuteronomy and from Leviticus: “‘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.’”
Jesus said, “Good answer.”
Then the religious leader, wanting to justify himself, asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29)
Once again, Jesus turned the question right back at him. The religious leader was basically saying, “Well, sure I should love my neighbor as myself … but who is actually worthy to be counted as my neighbor?”
This set Jesus off on one of the most well-known sermons ever preached. Instead of answering the question,“Who IS my neighbor?” Jesus asked the question, “Are YOU a neighbor?” Are you a neighbor to …
1. The undeserving
Luke 10:30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. …
The man in this parable had traveled what is called the “Bloody Way.” They called the road from Jerusalem to Jericho by that name because of all the robberies and murders committed on that desolate stretch of highway. Perhaps it was night, and it looks as though he was traveling that dangerous road alone. If all that was true, then … he was an idiot.
You could say he brought all his troubles down on his own head. You could say he made his bed, now he has to lie in it. You could say, You have only yourself to blame. You could get Biblical and say, well, you reap what you sow…
You could say all kinds of things we tend to say when we don’t want to help someone! Does God call us to love even the undeserving … even the ones who brought trouble on themselves by their own bad choices? The answer is an obvious “YES!”
And aren’t you glad? Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t require an I.Q. test for those HE helps? The Lord is gracious. He extends mercy to the wise and the foolish alike. Like our Lord, we need to be grace-givers, even to those who created their own troubles by their own bad choices and even the ones who are OVERLOOKED.
2. The overlooked
A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. Luke 10:31-32
The victim was overlooked by two religious men who saw his wounded body … cringed … lifted up their priestly robes … and walked away. Now, keep in mind that these weren’t evil men. They were well respected leaders … probably known for their wisdom and their compassion. If those two guys could step out of the story and explain themselves, they could probably sound pretty convincing.
Maybe they had religious duties and knew that if they touched a corpse they would have been excluded from temple duties. Maybe they didn’t think they would know how to help someone in that condition. Maybe they knew this could be a trap. Sometimes robbers would pretend injury so they could lure people to the side of the road then ambush them. Whatever their reasons, the response of these leaders leads to this question:
Am I a neighbor to people when others have turned away from them? It’s a temptation to follow the lead of the people around us instead of following the lead of the Holy Spirit. It’s possible that God may call you to help someone that everyone else has overlooked. You may be chosen by God to be the conduit for His love and help someone that no one else can or will help. Sometimes that’s why God has you walking on that particular road on that particular day. God may place it on your heart to help when others won’t.
And that even applies to YOUR ENEMIES.
3. Your enemies
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. Luke 10:33
Jesus addressed the issue of enemies on two levels here. First, we consider the injured man. We don’t know his Nationality – in fact, we know nothing about him except that he was injured. But chances are the man was a Jew- the avowed enemy to the Samaritan who helped him.
The second way Jesus brings up enemies would have hit his Jewish audience at gut level. Jesus made the hero of the story a Samaritan. The Samaritans were half-breed Jews who had inter-married with the heathen Palestinians. The hatred between the two groups was so intense that most Jews refused to even travel through Samaria. Instead they would cross the Jordan River and go miles out of their way rather than walk through Samaritan territory.
Jesus wasn’t of that mind-set. He often traveled through Samaria. That doesn’t mean he was treated well. In fact, the Samaritans had just refused Jesus lodging in the last chapter. Why would Jesus paint those people as the good guys? He had a point to make, so he made the hero a member of a group that no one liked.
To put the story in modern day, it might be something like:
• A Priest, a Pastor, then a Shiite Muslim came along …
• A Pastor, an Elder, then a tatoo’d Biker roared up on his Harley …
If we’re honest, most of us have a category of people where we have a visceral reaction to them. It might be a nationality, people in some profession, a political party, vagrants, or people that dress a certain way.
That’s what Jesus was doing in this sermon-story. He was asking, “Are you a neighbor to people you don’t trust … people that don’t like you … people who have done you wrong?” And are you a neighbor to the UNATTRACTIVE?
4. The unattractive
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Luke 10:34
Jesus didn’t give the gruesome details, but let’s just say, the victim didn’t look very good. That’s probably why the other two passed him by. In spite of the blood and guts, the Samaritan acts medicinally and compassionately. He was willing to bend down and get dirty helping out a total stranger. Consider the question this poses to us:
Do we have to love those who might turn our stomachs? I’m the first to admit my own squeamishness when it comes to medical emergencies. It’s not that great an idea to put me into the emergency room --- unless there’s a stretcher available for me, too! But does that exempt me from helping someone who needs help? We have no way of knowing if the Samaritan was skilled in nursing or not. He simply did what needed to be done at the moment.
This doesn’t just apply to physical maladies. More often people’s lives are just a big ugly mess! It’s tempting to think, “This is too messy for me I’m going to stay out of it … I’ll leave it to trained professionals.”
Maybe it’s true that some problems are too messy for us to fix, but that doesn’t give us permission to look the other way and walk on by. We can do what we can do to help a neighbor, even when it’s INCONVENIENT.
5. The inconvenient
Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii 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.’ Luke 10:34-35
I seriously doubt that the Samaritan’s day-timer read, “Help a bloody guy on the rode-side today.” The Samaritan interrupted his entire agenda. He sacrificed big bucks and many hours of his time to help. He did all this to help a total stranger, and … I might add … to help a man who probably would never have helped him.
We don’t need to ask the question, “Who is my neighbor?” In Jesus’ Kingdom my neighbor is any person I come in contact with. The story of the Good Samaritan cuts us to the quick. It forces us to ask what kind of neighbor am I?
Are we like the priest and Levite; too busy to get involved? Too clean to get dirty? Too preoccupied to alter our schedule? Too stingy to give our money? Too careful to risk the unknown?
Back in the 1960’s a missionary named Doug Nichols was hospitalized in India with a complication of TB. He wanted to share his faith with the suffering people around him, but they resented a rich white American taking up a bed in the free clinic.
He woke one night with a fit of coughing and saw an old man nearby struggling to get off his pallet. The next morning it was evident why the man was trying to get up because he had soiled his bed. Everyone in the ward was angry at him and the nurse even slapped him.
The next night when Doug woke up coughing, he saw the old man trying to get up again. Even though he himself was almost too weak to walk, Doug got up and helped the man get to the bathroom and back. When Doug woke up the next morning, several patients were standing around his bed. One at brought him a cup of hot tea. From that point on, his fellow patients befriended him and were willing to hear about the Gospel.
This is true all over the world: We need to BE good news before we SHARE the good news.
CONCLUSION:
Jesus preached one of the most effective sermons ever preached … in the form of a simple story. It didn’t have 3 points, but it did end with an invitation:
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:36-37
Jesus offers you this same invitation. Will you be a neighbor to anyone God brings across your path … anyone who needs a loving touch from a gracious and merciful God?
