“Help other people.” When did you learn that lesson? That is one of the very basic lessons that we normally learn at a very early age. Someone drops something, you pick it up. Someone falls down on the playground, you help them up. If there is someone who is need, you share what you have been given with them. Hep other people. But if that’s the only lesson that we take away from the parable or the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told, I think that we’re missing something. In fact, if that’s the only point of Jesus’ parable, this could possibly be the shortest sermon I’ve ever preached, something like, “Go and help other people. Amen.” As appealing as a really short sermon might be, if that’s all that we take away from this account of the Good Samaritan, I think that we’re missing what is at the core and heart of this account. To get the full benefit of this story that Jesus told, I think that you need to back up and listen carefully to the conversation that took place leading up to this parable.
There was a man who approached Jesus. The man is identified as, “an expert in the law” (Luke 10:25). This man was recognized as a Bible scholar, someone who had thoroughly studied the Old Testament law of Moses in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and knew it well. He would have been one of those people that others went to when they had questions about what they were supposed to do in certain situations. This “expert in the law” walked up to Jesus and what did he intend to do? Well, his initial intention was, “to test Jesus” (Luke 10:25). He wanted to put Jesus on the hot seat and see how Jesus answered his carefully crafted question. So the man asked Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). It is not an extremely profound question, but it is a question that every person must wrestle with, and that every world religion attempts to answer on some level. So, what would Jesus’ answer be? But did you notice how this “expert in the law” begins with a faulty premise? Where does he put responsibility for inheriting heaven? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). He sees it as HIS responsibility to gain to heaven, something that HE must do.
To those who try to depend on themselves to enter heaven, Jesus asks a very simple question, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” (Luke 10:26). Jesus points the “expert in the law” back to what he was supposed to be in expert in. Jesus points him back to the Bible and what he had learned from studying it. He quickly responds by quoting the Old Testament, “’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’” (Luke 10:27). Jesus agrees with the man, “You have answered correctly” (Luke 10:28), but then adds, “Do this and your will live” (Luke 10:28).
Now who was sitting on the hot seat? Suddenly the expert in the law found himself in the hot seat. If this man thought he could gain heaven on his own, what would it require him doing? Jesus says, “Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). Simple isn’t it? Sure it is. What God demands for people to receive heaven is not complex. It’s simple. Just love God at all times, not just with your words and actions, but with your whole being! Pure motives and selfless attitude. And then love the people around you perfectly, never an angry word, no eyerolling or pursed lips, never a sexual thought towards someone who is not your spouse, always be patient with your kids and generous with your money. “Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28) Jesus says. Simple? Yes. Scary? Absolutely! Don’t these words of Jesus make you feel a bit uncomfortable? Like that nightmare of standing the middle of the crowd of people wearing only your underwear, the message of God’s law strips away any of those things that we might try to hide behind or hold up as making us right with God and worthy of to inherit eternal life. When we hear, “Do this and you will live” we realize that there is no hope of inheriting eternal life if it depends on us, and what we have done. We cannot love God completely! We cannot love our neighbor perfectly!
But the “expert in the law” wasn’t going to give up. He still hoped to find some way of justifying himself, of proving his worthiness before God, and so he asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). O how stubborn our sinful nature can be! The attempt to find loopholes in God’s commands, some excuse, some way of getting around what God demands of us. We can relate all to well to that “expert in the law.” We hear God tell us to hear his Word at every opportunity, and we respond, “Well, how often is often?” We hear God tell us to be content with what we have and we respond, “Well, how could anyone possibly be content with this little?” We are tempted to hold up our multi-generational Lutheran background, or the amount of time or money that we give to church as something that should make us worthy before God. But dear friends, an honest looking into the law of God leaves no loopholes, no reasons to claim that we are worthy of God’s approval, and that’s what Jesus’ parable was intended to show this man and us.
A half-dead man, mugged, beaten and left to die lay on the side of the road from Jerusalem, maybe having gone there to worship. A priest comes along and sees dying man and hears his groans. Certainly this “man of God” will help, right? Afterall this is someone who had been instructed in God’s Word, who heard the promise of God’s ultimate help in the promise of a Savior, who saw the sacrifices offered at the temple as reminders of the cost of sin that God himself would pay for him and for all. But the priest, maybe concluding that the man was going to die anyway or afraid he was going to be the next victim, quickly flees the crime scene.
Then comes a Levite, that group of Jewish people that God had chosen to help the priests in their work. The Levite follows in the priest’s footsteps and quickly goes his way.
Then comes a Samaritan. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they were what you might call “half Jews.” The Samaritans were the result of Jews marrying the original inhabitants of the Promised Land. And being a half-Jew was worse than not being a Jew at all in the eyes of the Jews. A “good” Jew would never talk to a Samaritan or acknowledge their presence. You might compare it to the relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians today. Vicious hatred of one another. But the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable did the unthinkable. The Samaritan picked up the man, who if he was able, would have probably refused his help, and the Samaritan personally cares for this man. When the Samaritan leaves, he provides enough money for two months of care and promises more money if it was necessary.
“Which one was the neighbor?” (Luke 10:37) Jesus asked. The answer was obvious, but did you notice how the “expert in the law” could not even bring himself to say the name “Samaritan?” He says, “The one who had mercy on him” (Luke 10:37). Jesus’ parable clearly showed that there are not loopholes for his command to love God and to love others. It is not merely a knowledge of the law which the priest and Levites were certainly all “experts” in, but DOING what the law says without exception. Such a message leads us to realize that there is only one thing for us to hold up before God that can possibly make us worthy of inheriting eternal life, and that is the one who stood before the “expert in the law.”
For this man who patiently taught this “expert in the law” was always patient, his words coming from a heart of perfect love. He longed for those who tried to trip him up by their carefully crafted questions. He mourned for the people who rejected him and his salvation. He prayed for those who pounded nails into his hands and feet. The love that Jesus has for us would not allow him to “cross over to the other side” of human history and leave us to suffer eternally for our sins. Instead, Jesus’ love would lead him to the cross. Jesus loved his Father with every fiber of his being throughout his whole live for us who have not. He loved God and loved those around him perfectly in our place, and in love was willing to sacrifice his life in order to give to us all that we need to inherit eternal life. Jesus makes sinners right with God, as he reaches down to us through faith and covers us completely with his perfect life and perfect love and declares us inheritors of heaven.
The amazing and perfect love of our Savior is at the heart and core of what leads us to be good Samaritans. In Jesus we find every reason to reflect to others the care and concern he has shown to us. While the main purpose of the Christian church is to provide for the spiritual care of others, Christians who have experienced the love of their Savior are naturally going to look to help others with their physical needs. Some of the first hospitals and orphanages were started by Christians and do you know why people found them so strange? Because they not only helped “their own”, that is fellow Christians, but they cared for those who were NOT Christians. Will people say the same of us? My prayer is that they will – that they will see you and me as people who are genuinely concerned about others – leading people through our care and love to see the perfect love of Jesus and the riches of heaven that Jesus has won for all. Amen.
