The Avengers is the top grossing movie of the summer, and Batman and Spiderman are always incredibly popular, though engineering students at a University in England determined that even if Batman could fly, due to the size of his cape he would crash and probably be killed or severely injured when he landed.
Our culture loves its superheroes whatever the reason. But when we get home from the theatre we are still left with our life and no Batman or Spiderman to take care of our personal or societal problems. The truth is, many would put their faith in a fictional superhero before they would put their faith in a real superhero, named Jesus Christ. But today we’re going to see what kind of person Jesus sees as a superhero, and it certainly isn’t what most of the world would expect.
Luke chapter 10 is very interesting because it has three scenes that illustrate the threefold ministry of every Christian. In the first 24 verses we are Christ’s ambassadors in the harvest field, spreading the Good News representing God. In our parable today we are neighbours showing mercy and God’s love to people in the name of Christ – imitating Jesus. And in the last 4 verses of the chapter we are worshippers who take time to listen to Him, commune with Him, and surrender to Him.
Last week we finished with the parable of the sower in chapter 8 of Luke. Today I want to quickly set up what is going on before we move into our parable today. Between last week’s parable and today’s, we see Jesus perform several miracles, some healings and calming the storm on the sea.
Then in chapter 9 the first thing we see is Jesus sending out the twelve disciples to do the same, spread the word and heal people. This is a great example of how Jesus discipled people. He teaches them, spends time with them and demonstrates what to do. Then he sends them out. Take note of verses 1 and 2 of chapter 9.
“He called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases”. Whose power is it? Jesus. “And he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal”. He gives them power, and he tells them to do two things, proclaim the gospel and heal people.
Then as chapter 9 began with Jesus sending people out, chapter ten does as well, this time 72 people. And look at how he refers back to the theme of the last parable again in verse 2 saying, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.”
He says to these 72 labourers to pray for more labourers. Notice these are not spectators that are to pray to send out more labourers. Maybe too often we pray for someone else to be the labourers because we’re not willing, when God wants to use us.
Just a little note here. The first time he sends out 12 which represents the spreading of the gospel to the Jews, the 12 tribes of Jacob. The second time he sends out 72 or 70 depending on the translation, which represents all the nations as listed in Genesis 10. The point being that Jesus wants the gospel spread first to the Jew and then the Gentile, all nations. Again the seed is to be spread everywhere. And whether Jew or Gentile, if they refuse to welcome the gospel, they are to be left to the coming judgment. Our job is only to bring the gospel to people, spread the seed, the fruit is up to God.
The 70 or 72 go out healing and proclaiming the gospel and they come back having had great success. Notice in these two commissions that Jesus gives, he empowers and commands them to both spread the word and heal the sick. Notice in our great commission the healing ministry is not mentioned. The spiritual healing is more important than physical healing.
Continuing in chapter 10 now, Jesus gives glory to the Father for the success of the 72, but there’s a sceptic in the crowd who barges in and wants to test Jesus. This just comes out of nowhere and the guy asks Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus throws the question back at him knowing this is another test based on the law in Deuteronomy, pointing the lawyer right back to their law of works. And the lawyer completely traps himself without knowing it. Jesus even asks how do you interpret the greatest commandment?
Love, plain and simple. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and oh oh, love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus says “yep you got it, go do it”. Yes you are to obey the commands of God, but not out of religious duty, but love. And you can’t just get away with loving God because that’s easy to do in private your own way. You are also to show God’s love by loving others. But the guy comes back with, “who is my neighbour?” See what he’s doing? “Surely that just means people who are like me, who are lovable right”.
And this is where Jesus launches into the parable of the Good Samaritan. The last parable of the sower was about hearing and responding to God’s word, and here it’s followed up by clearly demonstrating what comes from that hearing and becoming a Christian.
Read… vv 30- 37
V 30 - Notice the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho? This symbolizes how man has fallen from God’s house into the world. And the effects of the world are to steal from us and kill us. Now here comes the first of the three people. By chance a priest went down the road and when he saw him he passed on the other side of the road. So did the second person, the Levite. Now these are basically the same titles. And in their Law they could not serve in the Temple if they were made unclean by touching a dead body.
Now that’s fine, because the ritual for getting clean again was a big hassle that took days. So it was really inconvenient. But did either of these guys even go get help? No. For these two guys it wasn’t just about inconvenience.
The fact that they were heading away from Jerusalem suggests they were done with their temple duties, and even priests had an obligation to bury neglected corpses. But they didn’t even check to see if this guy was dead. It demonstrates how so many people put religion over and above doing the will of God, and how rare true compassion is even amoung religious people.
Perhaps a good example would simply be that one of us was coming to church on Sunday morning wearing our good clothes and we see someone who has crashed off the road into a muddy ditch. Here’s what the religious person in this parable would do. “Oh my, if I stop and help, I’ll probably be late for church and get my clothes all dirty. I’m sure someone else will stop”. And they go off to church and do their church rituals, and head off for lunch afterward.
What is the attitude there? It is above all a self centered attitude, which is the complete opposite of the love that Jesus talks about which is very much self-sacrificing. But it is also an attitude that a lot of religious folks get into, that the traditions, rituals and rules of religion are more important than the heart that is behind all those things. That was Jesus’ main criticism of the Pharisees. What would be the more Christian thing to do in the situation I just described? Get to church and keep your clothes clean, or ruin your clothes and miss church to help the person?
Now of course, we’re sitting here thinking, well duh, but if you think about it, when it comes right down to it, don’t we sometimes make the choice that we are judging here. The circumstances might be different but the attitude can be shamefully similar. My convenience and comfort and familiarity over their very desperate needs.
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Now before we talk about the next person to come walking by, I want to point out the other real life short story that is told right after this parable at the end of chapter 10. Most of us are familiar with the Mary and Martha story and here the message is the same and relates to loving God. Mary sat at Jesus feet and listened to his teaching, spending time with him. While Martha was kind of bitterly working away to make Jesus a meal.
Mary gets commended while Martha is gently rebuked. I think this a huge message for us and the main point of both these stories. We love the Lord out of gratitude by spending time with him and learning everything we can from him, and worshipping Him, he doesn’t need us to serve him. But we obey Him and love our neighbors by serving them out of compassion.
Remember the thorny soil from last week? The first things mentioned there that keep us from being fruitful are the cares or worries of the world. Look at what Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her”.
Of course service and hospitality are important, but with Jesus, being a disciple submitting at his feet is more important than staying busy doing what you think he wants, or what you want to do for him. He is basically saying, “Martha, sit and listen to me rather than keeping yourself busy doing things that are not really that important for my sake. I don’t need a big meal, I want you. After you sit with me a while then you can go make supper if I ask you to”.
Martha’s behaviour wasn’t bad but it was actually self-serving, and coming from an attitude of wanting to impress her guest rather than give her guest what he really wants? Mary’s desire was more real, based on heart felt devotion to her Lord, while Martha’s was more forced activity that actually works against authentic faith. It’s about her and she is more concerned about getting his assistance for her plans, than to learn from His.
This one thing that Mary is concerned with is the presence of Jesus and His word, the Kingdom of God. Her salvation, her citizenship as a child of God in this Kingdom can’t ever be taken away from her. But when we are anxious and focussed on many other things we get distracted from the main thing, and those other things are perishing.
This includes even the church. We have a tendency to focus on the activities of the church, the building, the Sunday services, the programs, and often in that we neglect the really important things like His word and spending time with Jesus becoming disciples. This church will one day not exist, but our relationship with Jesus as his child is the one thing that is the good portion that can never be taken away.
Ok, so how is this principle played out in the rest of our parable today? The third guy walks by and he is a Samaritan. Samaritans are the hated half-breed people living up north of Jerusalem. They also hated the Jews and you wouldn’t expect one of them to help a Jewish person. And as the priest and Levite were likely coming home after their work, the Samaritan was off on a business trip, yet he is the one that sacrifices his valuable time for this wounded stranger.
So right off the bat, as Jesus surprisingly used Mary as the one to emulate in the story of Mary and Martha, he now really offends the Jewish lawyer here by pointing out that the Samaritan’s behaviour is the one to be proud of. And what did the Samaritan have when he saw the man on the side of the road? Compassion. He is acting not out of moral obligation, but out of compassion.
This Samaritan who probably doesn’t have as much as the priest and Levite and is out trying to make money, uses his own oil and wine to clean the man’s wounds, his own animal to carry the injured man instead of himself, and his own money to get the man a room. He even spends the night taking care of the man. So not only did he use his resources, he wasted a whole day and night of his business trip where he could have been making money, actually losing money. And in verse 35 he even let the innkeeper know that he could take care of the guy as long as he needed to and this Samaritan would pay the cost.
This is a very risky move because the possibility of the innkeeper using extortion to get more money from this Samaritan is huge. These inns had a notorious reputation and the innkeeper could say it cost him a whole lot more and the Samaritan would never know because he wasn’t there.
Now in verse 36, Jesus has turned the test back to the Lawyer who has no choice about his answer. Who is the neighbour, Jesus asks. He was now trapped and had to say the one who showed mercy. Notice he can’t even say the word Samaritan. Jesus dissolves the original question of who is my neighbour based on status or cultural ties, and defines a neighbour as one who acts like one regardless of race or status, or religious affiliation.
Remember this is an expert in the law and this question is a direct reference to Leviticus 18 where laws about dealing with your neighbour are plentiful. They had a very limited view of who their neighbors were and here Jesus expands that definition of neighbour by His own authority as the great expert and giver of the Law.
Then Jesus jabs it in even farther saying now go and do the same. Do what the Samaritan did, not what your religious leaders do. Do you see what Jesus is saying there? This hated foreigner who shows love and compassion is more acceptable to God than your rule laden religious leaders who show no love, but bind people to rules and rituals that have no relevance in the Kingdom of God, and in fact keep people from being true disciples.
This made me think of the idea of the priesthood of all believers. According to the New Testament who are really the priests today? (Hold up mirror and say this is what a priest looks like). The question for us shouldn’t really be who is our neighbour? I think we all know by now that all mankind is our neighbour. The question should really be who are the priests? And the answer is anyone who is really a saved believer.
1 Peter 2 captures this very well. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
And that of course reminds us of Romans 12:1 where Paul appeals to us by the mercies of God, to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Also in Romans 15 Paul goes on, “I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
This parable is the spark for these apostles writing those verses. A real priest is a believer who practices Christ, who offers acceptable sacrifices to God which are ourselves, so that we can bring the message of Jesus and present others acceptable to God.
One of the Muslim converts I heard from in Vancouver a couple weeks ago said that when he got out of Iran and found himself in Turkey. He went to six Muslim mosques asking for food and a place to stay. None of them helped him. He said I’m glad they didn’t because someone told me to go to the Christian church around the corner and they did help him.
That got him thinking that maybe the Christian God is better than the one in my religion, the gospel was shared with him and he became a believer acceptable to God who now is a priest to Muslims in our country. This probably wouldn’t have happened if the mosques would have helped him.
Let’s go back to where we began this morning. I said there are three basic superhero ministries of the Christian that are detailed in chapter 10 of Luke. We are Christ’s ambassadors like the seventy two that were sent out. We represent him and his Word to the world just like an ambassador represents his country in another country. The world is not our home so we go into the harvest field and share the message and love of Jesus as foreign ambassadors.
We are also neighbours to all mankind, which means to the best of our ability, we go out of our house and provide mercy and help for those in real need. And we are worshippers who spend devotional time with him at his feet learning from him and surrendering to him. Very simply, what do all these things accomplish? They represent in a tangible way our love for God and other people as we are commanded in the great commandment that this lawyer recites.
Jesus ministry was incarnational, he brought God to earth through his physical body and what he did with that physical body. If we are truly being transformed into his image and are his body, our spirituality has to be incarnational as well. As long as it’s an intellectual, internal belief system spirituality, we are not being Christ-like. We carry the label Christian, just like the priests who walked by the wounded man carried the label priest. We don’t want to shame that label.
I read a story of a guy who tried to sue a well known Cola Company because he bought a soft drink labelled Cola but inside was a lemon-lime soda instead. Must have been in the US right? The label does not necessarily tell you what’s inside, and the only way to confirm the label is to pour out what’s inside.
The label doesn’t make you a Christian as that video showed, what’s inside does, but until what’s inside becomes incarnated, poured out, it can’t be proven. Jesus could have been God on the inside but if he had never done anything, nobody would have ever known. What would the point have been? “Hey God walked amoung us but no one ever knew”.
I hope that’s not said of our church. “Hey God lived in that building on Mountain Avenue, but no one ever knew”. I guess He didn’t care about us. Why would they say that? Because we represent Him on earth.
“Did you hear me?” Have you ever asked that of your kids or spouse? What does it often mean? Did you do what I said? These parables are about authentic hearing of the Word of God. Jesus is saying “did you hear me”? The implication is that if his word just goes in your ears, you have not really heard it until you do it.
This one in particular is about doing the great commandment with the motivation that God has, namely compassion. God cares and so should we, and caring can only happen through doing. Don’t say you care if you’re not willing to do something about it.
Jesus is doing his best to put these theological concepts into practical stories relevant to the people of his time, so that they can do what he is saying. And that is real hearing. I know a prominent Christian who regularly throws out verbal “f bombs” and other not so good words publicly. I know we’re human, we get mad, and I suppose it’s not a great sin, but it certainly is a bad witness. It’s disappointing.
Don’t say you’re a Christian and represent Jesus publicly if you are not doing your best to be a Christian. He doesn’t need anymore bad PR. If you do mess up, be a Christian by confessing it and letting people know you regret your actions and are willing to make amends for them if you can. And for God’s sake be graceful when others mess up.
But most of all check your heart, is it being transformed? Are you overflowing with compassion? I’m speaking to all of us but especially to men here, do you see it as weak to show love and compassion to people, especially other men? To look like a goody two shoes? To apologize and make restitution when you mess up? Then your heart still needs work. You need to spend more time at Jesus feet listening to His word.
As the body of Christ, Jesus needs us so he can be the superhero He is through us, until he takes his rightful place here on earth once again.
