I want to ask a question this morning and that question is do you ever think about how your life could be parallel to the unfortunate destiny of this brother who is lying in the streets of this particular scripture. If I were to speculate, there are countless of us that would admit, acknowledge, confess, and raise our hands and say I was on the brink of falling into the same snare, the same trap, and the same ruse as this man. It could have been me, it should’ve been me, and in fact in some instances it was me.
As I look cruise the neighbor of this scripture, our text concentrations implements four people to make up the narrative of this story. Here we’ll find a man that is in trouble, a priest that is running late, the Levite seems not to care and the Samaritan who cares.
In this parable Jesus is teaching and showing us that God is a God that requires us, teaches us, mandates us, to love and have kindheartedness towards one another, regardless if we know them or not.
As we investigate this parable, Jesus says, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell”. When I first read this outline I thought this that this man was a victim who were out taking a stroll or just enjoying himself as he is passing through the neighborhood of the hood, I thought that this man was a target, and a mark that was scoped out, setup, and looked upon as an easy target just right for the pickings, but this is not the case, as I read and reread the story this man knew, and was cognizant of his surrounding and of those whom he encountered. He knew the people that jumped him, turned on him, and assaulted him. He knew these people that abused him and left him for dead. Now that’s a sermon all by itself they left me for dead. And some people will wonder why is it that the people who I thought were my friends all of a sudden turn on me, why now all of a sudden have they changed and turned on
me?
But, baby let me tell you something, those people that you thought were so nice and kind, they didn’t all of a sudden just change, they just stop pretending. They stop pretending to like you, they stop pretending to care about you, and they just stop pretending to be your friend and showed you their true colors, they showed you who they were from the beginning, a raving wolf in sheep clothing.
Let’s look again, “a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell (among thieves)”. Jesus suggests in this parable that this man was not a thief himself. He goes as far as suggesting that the experience of being with people of such low character was new to this man. Listen again, “a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell”. It’s been my experience that one cannot fall into something that he or she is already doing. You didn’t just fall into the drug house you were participating. You don’t just fall into the gambling house; you show up there trying to hit a little Joe. The scripture said that he went down to Jericho and fell among thieves.
Now I was wondering, how is it that some people that I know or has met. They look sweet, they talk sweet, they might even walk sweet but after you get to know them for a little bit you would find out that they hearts are like the city dump.
Watch me now because I’m going somewhere with this. I wonder how is it that this sweet church going person. Bible believing, bible toting, sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, tongue talking, toe tapping, hip slapping, hand clapping, foot patting Christian becomes so hateful, so mean and such a lair? And it’s amazing that you can talk to God in tongues, but can’t speak to me in English.
Is it maybe because they fell among! I mean just lie all of the time, and we call our self their friend and you won’t even tell them that they are lying.
I wonder how is it that we know that some of our churchgoers are good people, we know that they would help in any of the capacity of the church that you may need them in, but they are such a hell raiser. They wasn’t raised like that, but maybe, just perhaps they wasn’t originally a not hell raiser but they fell among some other hell raisers.
Pastor God knows I don’t means to be on the phone gossiping but every time that I pick it up it seems just like that I have fell among the gossiping crowd, I try to stay out of the arms of that married man, I try to keep from clubbing down at the Tigers Den, and Lounge 114 but it seems like when every I try to distance myself from them, I fall among them.
This man is not in the area of his home-based, and he has connected with some unseemly, uncouth, and uncivilized crude characters, imaginably thinking that he would have a good time.
This man made an unconscious decision that he would hang out with some people that were of suspicious oddity, that were of a twisted character. He was hanging out with people that the neighbor kept an eye on, he was hanging out with people that the police were building a case against. He were hanging out with thieves, and robbers, bandits, outlaws, crooks, thugs, hooligans, gangsters, racketeers, and mobsters, and the choice that he made almost cost him his life, because the thieves turned on him, because there is no honor among thieves.
A thieve is hard change, they are like a Moose. It is said that on one attempt of trying to domesticate moose is well known to all historians, and it includes King Karl XI of Sweden. He wanted to ride an animal that would be more ferocious than a horse and would put fear in the bones of his enemies, so he decided that the moose was that animal. You can already guess how that turned out. The moose was just too dangerous and could not be approached. However, scientists in Russia are still attempting to domesticate this magnificent animal, but so far their attempts have been unsuccessful. Moose are approachable, and they will come near you, but trust and believe that they will attack anything or anyone that they see. They can’t help it, it’s in their nature. [the frozen snake story] A thief is no different. It’s their nature to steal and they don’t care what they have to do, they don’t care who they have to hurt, they don’t care what they have to do to get what they want.
He fell among thieves, now I was confused at this point thieves, robbers.
This man didn’t understand this, and because he had befriended these men, he thought that he could trust them. He truly believed as the owners of those raccoons believed, “Oh no, he would never hurt me”. But I’m here to tell you that folks are like today they will turn on you.
When we look at the story here in Luke, notice that there were two character of this narrative that just blew me away; there was the priest and the Levite, the church folk. And Jesus selected these two men to pass by the injured man.
I believe that Jesus chose this story to show us that familiarity breeds contempt. In other words, the priest and the Levite, the church people, knew the man that was in trouble and that he was laying in the ditch. And they most likely tried to minister to this man before, and they probably said well I tried to tell him but he wouldn’t listen, he should have made better choices.
In other words, they knew that this man had made a bad decision to befriend these devils. And they probably tried to warn him about them, telling him this ain’t what you want. The moral of this story is when you hang around the devil you will do devilish things.
Therefore when they saw him lying there, they probably said, I told you so, and with a judgmental attitude, they left him right where he was. They probably said he chose to hang with the devil. So it’s his-own fault. And to many of us, like this man, we have to dance with the devil, and sleep with the enemy just to find out he’s not playing, because we don’t believe the voice of reason, and the voice of experience. It seems like we have to find out for the hard way, and many times it can be disastrous, and devastating. And some has even lost their lives.
So then there was the priest who placed his religious work and ceremony services before the well-being of the man. Notice that this man profess to be a religionist, and he did not even make a move toward helping the man. He "passed by on the other side" which means he rushed away.
The priest was probably trying to get to his evening duties, and the trip was a day's journey, and he would have to rush to make it, and the priest knew that he couldn’t stop if he was going to be on time for his paid duties. Also, he knew that there was also a religious rule that made a person unclean for seven days after touching a dead body, and this ceremonial ritual could have caused a priest to lose his turn of duty at the temple, and the priest was not about to sacrifice his primary work and privilege for the man. And my question is how many people have you pasted on your way in this morning?
Then there was the Levite who placed safety before empathy. The Levite was touched with enough feeling to walk over and look upon the man. But he didn’t help. And too many of us as saints will look but won’t do anything to help our brothers and sisters. We’ll be nosey, but that’s it. We’ll complain, but that it. We’ll make accusations but that’s it. some are lookers but the will leave you for dead.
But then there was the Good Samaritan who seemed to place concern before everything. He sees that the man was injured and he was concerned. He sees that the injured man was a Jew. But the Good Samaritan didn’t care. All he seen was a man that needed help.
And what’s so amazing about this is that he stops to help someone that he knows don’t care for him. We know that the Jews didn’t like the Samaritans because the Jews cursed the Samaritans, but regardless of how the Jews felt, the Good Samaritan seen a human being in need, and he was motivated with consideration, compassion and a concern for him.
This Good Samaritan decided to miss work, to help the man
He checked on him, He bandage his wounds, He poured oil and wine into his wound. He offered him a ride on his animal as he himself walked. He gave up his own comfort for another one to be comfort. He nursed him, and He even provided rooming and board for him. This Good Samaritan saw to it that even after he was gone away that this man’s care would continue on.
He gave the inn keeper two denarii which amount in the neighbor of somewhere between twenty-four to forty-eight days of room and board, which a great amount to pay for someone that don’t even like you. And then this Good Samaritan said, I’ve got to leaves you but if it cost please take care of him and when I return I will take care of it when I return. This Samaritan seen a person in need and did all he could to help.
Now can I tell you that this is how the Master wants us to treat our neighbors, love on them, watch out for them, pray for them, provide for them, and to aid them.
I’m reminded of a story about a man that would normally take walks down the street reading his newspaper, and one day as he’s taking his normal stroll he falls into a hole. He cries out for help to everyone that passes his way, and the first man to pass by is a rich man.
He decides that he’s rich and so because of his wealth, he can help this man. He walks over to the hole, pulls out a $50 bill, throws it down to the man, and shouts, "Buy yourself a ladder!" and walks on. Well, that doesn’t get the man out of the hole.
The second person to pass by is a Christian. He decides that he’s a righteous man of God and because of that, he can help this man. So, he walks over to the hole, and he says a prayer for the man, and he says I’ll see you in church, and walks on. Well, that doesn’t get the man out either.
Finally, the man’s friend walks by. The man calls out, Hey, Billy is that you, and he said yes it’s me George, and he cries out can you help me out? So, his friend, Billy, walks over to the hole and jumps down in with the man. The man is astonished. What did you do that for? Now, we’re both stuck down in this hole!
Billy replied well, I jumped down, Joe replied, "because I’ve been here before, and I know the way out.
May I tell you all this morning that the Lord knows a way out, and he can help you.
