Open your bibles with me to Luke at chapter number 10 commencing in verse 25 through verse 37. Thank you, you may be seated.
The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God shall stand forever!
I want to talk this morning about the danger of losing our empathy …empathy is our ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes!
We live in a country that discourages empathy, a culture that too often tells us that our principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, muscular, young, good looking, blue or green eyed with a small nose, tanned, famous, safe, and always entertained!
The church is certainly influenced (For Better or For Worse) by the cultural environment of the day… we live in a society that has normalized political hostility, racial tension, domestic violence, gender confusion, abortion, divorce, and social slander!
Worsened, intensified, exacerbated by an over exposure to Media information, and violence…. And the emotional distance of social media and self-absorption concerning being popular and successful!
As I was preparing for this sermon, I found this story In 1964 at 3 AM in the morning, a 28 year old Woman by the name of Catherine Genovese was stabbed to death while returning to her apartment in New York which shocked the world, because as many as 38 Witnesses saw and heard the attack as it occurred over a 30-minute span of time, and not one of them stepped in to help the victim… social psychologists has labeled this and other disturbing events of the same kind as “bystander apathy”, or the Genovese Syndrome, which attempts to explain why someone witnessing a crime would not help the victim..
Also, a study from 1973 students training for Ministry at a Theological Seminary (bible college)…with the subjects of an experimental study on empathy (compassion, sympathy).
They got half of them to read the parable that I just read to you in Luke chapter 10…and they were told after having heard the parable, to leave that building go to another building and do a mini sermon on the parable that they just heard read, the other half of the students in the control group… were not told anything about Luke chapter 10 but to go into the same building and make a speech on a totally different subject…
there was a man staged in the study, who was in the middle of the road with bandages and fake blood to make it look like he had been attacked… and the students who had been read the parable of the certain Samaritan on their way into the building to preach a mini sermon… step over the man, totally neglected that man headed toward the building to preach their sermon…
We don't have to go to 1964, we don't have to go to 1973… a few weeks ago in October 2022, we went to the city for a day out with the family, a little kid fell over in front of us and dropped a box of stuff in it, we watched him along with many other bystanders as he gathered his stuff… feeling sorry for him… but only Julia went and helped him… then he said to her this is an experiment on TikTok to see if people will put themselves in someone else's shoes! If people care or not.
People today are so unempathetic that we see people in trouble, we see people in distress, we know people who are struggling, and we are so self-absorbed…so self-centered that all we care about is me, my and mine!
You don't have to take my word for that, look at what we have in our hand, in our bags, in our pockets…an I phone, I pad, Facebook, YouTube, preceded by my space… we have been acclimatized to think and to feel mostly about ourselves… because all of us are familiar with a selfie… you love yourself so much that you take 10, 15 pictures of yourself until you get the one that you think looks most like the movie star you want to be!
We retain it, we crop it, we filter it, we feather it, we smooth it over, and now we have an app on our phone where we can get people out of the picture if they're not cute enough… somebody ought to help me preach here this morning…. we can't even go to a restaurant to eat without taking a picture or a short video of the food first… because we can't control ourselves when it comes to gadgets… some of you here are looking at your phone right now trying to make me think that you're taking notes! You can’t fool me… no you are not taking notes…you are texting, or checking your emails, or on your Instagram or TikTok or Facebook checking your likes!
Church, this morning through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit… I want through this message to retrain, restore, and reboot us to our original default position of empathetic and compassionate design imprinted on each of our souls… because we are made in the image and the likeness of God!
And contrary to the devaluation, deconstruction, and dismissal of absolute truth… let me say it out loud here…yes we are our Brother’s Keeper!
When Cain killed his brother Abel and was asked where about of his brother… he replied to God “am I my brother’s keeper? That is a sign of no empathy! We use this phrase today to walk away from our responsibilities toward our brothers in Christ…
Earlier in chapter 10, Jesus characterized his disciples as
little children, to whom God had revealed great truths…and he contrasted them with the wise and understanding from whom God had hidden these great truths…
The parable of the certain Samaritan, dramatizes the contrast of a wise lawyer, and two wise intelligent men who passed
by on the other side… and they are contrasted with a lowly Samaritan who stops to render Aid, and if that man who had fallen among Thieves who was a Jew… had known it was a Samaritan who was helping him, he wouldn't even have
allowed him to put his hands on him!
Brothers and sisters the Majesty of parables, is that they give us a glimpse of the divine through the lens of the ordinary! Something odd happens in the story that jolts the expectations of the listeners, and points to something about God that is transforming!
The main idea of this pericope, or passage of scripture from
verses 25 through 37 in Luke chapter 10 the main idea is loving God…which means that you cannot Place limits on love for other people!
If you love God, you can't decide who your neighbor is!
If you love God, there are no people that you cannot love and people you love because you know them … you've got to love everybody because if you love and you say you are of God and hate your brother the Bible says you are a liar, and the truth is not in you… how can you love God whom you have never seen and hate your brother who you see every day?
Matthew chapter 22, and Mark chapter 12 parallel this text in the gospel of Luke… but the story of the certain Samaritan is found only in the Gospel of Luke…
In the torah, or the first five books of the Bible… Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy… there are 613 laws given to man…
248 of them are positive, and 365 of them are considered negative in nature… these laws formed the basis for Jewish belief and practice… especially the religiously Elite Jews, the scribes, and the Pharisees… However, Jesus takes all of these 613 laws and sums them up in two great statements of divine truth… Love God and love your neighbor as yourself!
This young lawyer, this this man skilled and trained in the Torah… stands up to tempt and test Jesus!
He wants to ask Jesus a question not because he wants information, but he wants to test Jesus, to get an advantage and so the academic method of asking questions and receiving a response was common in that day!
And asking questions and receiving a response was what this lawyer did all day long, and he had been in competition I'm sure with other lawyers of his stripe, competing about how much they knew… and so he hears that there's a new Rabbi in town, and he wants to test Jesus’ knowledge!
So he comes to Jesus, listen to that… he comes to Jesus, and he says to Jesus, rather sarcastically… teacher, master… what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Now the question is wrong…
Not because he wants to tempt Jesus which is really what he wants to do…but there's a word in the question, there's a verb in the question that makes it wrong from the beginning… because he asked what must I do…That's the wrong question!
Because there's nothing you can do to inherit eternal life!
See, an inheritance is in the hand of the person who owns it… and if you receive an inheritance, it's because of the generosity of the person who owns it!
If your parents (your mother your father) die and leave you an inheritance, you didn't work for that… you didn't earn that car, house, money, jewelry… that does not belong to you… you got it in your hand only by their generosity!
God does not owe us eternal life, because what can you do that will impress God? you think going to church impresses God?
you think singing in the praise and worship impresses God? you think reading the Bible and teaching Sunday school impresses God? you think being a nice person impresses God? You think casting out demons, healing the sick, serving, ushering, evangelizing impresses God? No my friend… God is impressed by a humble spirit; God is impressed by people who submit to him and to the leaders he appoints, God is impressed by people who repent, people who cry out and say God I need your mercy, I need your grace… I failed miserably, I've fallen so many times, I'm embarrassed to even come in your presence, have mercy on me oh God…
Some people come to church with their heads up in the air like they’re sinless, and more spiritual, and better than all of us… I came here to see and meet the only person…Jesus Christ my lord and my savior… so I can ask him for mercy, and grace!
He’s the subject and the verb of Christianity!
He's the center of everything we do and say!
He's the first and the last, living and was dead… behold He's Alive forevermore!
He's the only one who deserves Glory!
He's the only one who deserves honor!
He's the only one who deserves praise…
So next time you come to church, leave your ego…leave your I… leave yourself in the car… leave your degree on the Shelf… leave your self-importance at home… because the only one Worthy of all the praise is God alone!
What must I do to inherit eternal life? and when you read it, Jesus is rather sharp, rather cutting, and biting in his response… because Jesus reads this lawyer's heart and knows that he's trying to trip him up… as if that's at all possible!
Jesus is probably saying to himself, now I wrote the law… I am the law, and you trying to test me on the law?
Jesus said all right, I'm going to play this game with you… you're a lawyer, you've read the Torah from cover to cover, you know very well, so what did you read in the law?
The lawyer has to come with the answer, he says the Shema says: love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, or your mind, or your strength… any Orthodox Jew would know that that's the character of empathy!
The character of empathy brothers and sisters is to love God with all your heart!
We are to love God with all our heart… and all your heart means to love God without pretense, to love God genuinely not because of what he does… but because of who he is!
A little child asked his mother for an egg for breakfast peanut butter sandwich, and his mother went in the kitchen made a peanut butter sandwich put some jam on it, and brought a hot glass of milk, set it down in front of the child and the child with the biggest grin on his face… said Mom thank you, I just wanted peanut butter sandwich… but you gave me peanut butter and jam and some hot milk … Mom thank you!
This morning when you prayed, when I prayed, we just asked God for some peanut butter… but God added some jam, a glass of milk, a nice table to sit down and eat it… somebody ought to help me preach it!
You just asked God for Grace, he gave you a new car… you asked God for Mercy, he gave you a promotion on your job…
you ask God to be good to you, he gave you a brand-new house… there's some stuff God gave you that you didn't even asked for, nor did you deserve!
Because what I deserve is hell, what I deserve is eternal damnation… what I deserve is death, but he didn’t give me what I deserve, God gave me mercy and substituted his only begotten son on my place… and God gave me what I don’t deserve… that is his grace… a brand-new life…and salvation from my sins… and eternal life, God gave me a new determination!
Listen, you have some stuff right now that you know you don't deserve… God's just been good to you! God has just showered some blessings on you… you asked for one thing he gave you
Twelve! Ps 91:14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
That is all your heart, and then all your soul… it means not only should you love God without pretense, but it means you need to love God emotionally… emotionally!
The bible says…Make a Joyful noise… Church ought to be Loud, filled with praises and shouts to the lord… you ought to leave church tired! All you can do is go to the restaurant and eat your meal, and go home and go to bed… go take a nap because you are tired from worshiping God …because it's enthusiastic, it's movement, it's excitement, it's emotional, it's clapping, it's getting out of your comfort zone… the voice of rejoicing in the tent …
I know some of you will shake your head when I say this… saying it doesn't take all of that…brother, sister… please!
If anybody ought to give God some praise, if anybody ought to clap their hands in the sanctuary, if anybody ought to open their mouths and give God praise is you… because God brought you through the middle passage, God brought you through the brutality of life, God brought you through renewal… Every Act of legislation said that you do not matter, you are just a number…and they tried to shut down the churches through the lockdowns…but God opened the church back again and He let us go to church, and He let us meet Jesus again as a congregation…
And since I’m in the presence of Jesus, I'm not going to let them, or anybody determine how I give God praise… you don't know what God has done for me… Let the redeemed of the Lord say so…
22 years ago, my Church was much different than now… we didn’t have that many people on the instruments, or good backup singers, the sound was echoey, the pastor would sing out of tune with a loud mic, some sisters would pray in the middle of the songs for 30 minutes… but we would go home with anointing on us, we would go home and pray their prayers
after them…
I would hear them saying… Lord here I am once more and again, knee bent, and body bowed… thank you for a reasonable portion of my health and strength… I used to pray that prayer…
and now that I'm in my 50’s…still praying: Lord here I am
once more and again, knee bent, and body bowed… thank you
for a reasonable portion of my health and my strength!
Somebody here who's getting wiser, climbing up in years you’ve got to be able to tell these young people… it hadn't always been like it is right now, God helped us to fight some battles, He opened some doors for us… God has made a way for us…we worked hard and still work hard for our walk with God, we cried and still cry for His presence, we prayed hard and still pray hard for his favor and mercy…It didn’t come easy!
I'm trying to leave that point, but I’ve seen the young ones and the older generation support their team and watch them score goals… you could hear people’s scream in Melbourne! and all of that shouting and screaming is over a football team…
Listen, Ronaldo didn't wake me up this morning…Messy didn’t provide for me, Neymar didn't put food on my table…Firmino Didn’t heal me… it was nobody but Jesus!
Love him with all your heart, with all your soul, and then with all your mind…which means that the Christian religion is a thinking religion!
Many of us have religion in our hands and feet, than in our hearts and Minds… when you come to church, don't leave your brains outside….
The religion of Jesus Christ is a thoughtful religion, and we make a conscious decision to give our lives to Christ…
Faith is not blind; faith is as rational and reasonable as the science of mathematics… because faith is based on empirical evidence (information that researchers generate to help uncover answers to questions that can have significant implications for our society)… What God did before, He can do again… and if God Did It Before God can do it again…
And with all your strength, not just in word only but your faith, your belief, your empathy comes from your physical strength that you give to God in service and In Worship!
Brothers and sisters the lawyer said is that it? I know all that since I was a child… what new thing do you bring?
Jesus said Well …28 “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” do that and you'll be all right… 29 But the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” He thinks again that he has Jesus on the horns of a dilemma… and Jesus however has him right where he wants him… and it is there that Jesus tells a little story that every one knows as a Good Samaritan!
He says a man was headed down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among Thieves who stripped him, beat him, and left him half dead… this man was ruined, and as luck would have it…a priest who knows the rights of religion, he knows when all the feast days are held, he knows how to serve the Lord's Supper, he knows how to receive an offering for the temple, he knows all the rights of Christian or of being an orthodox Jew… came by, saw this ruined man and went over on the other side!
A Levite who knows all the rules, in other words… a pastor, a deacons, a director, and praise and worship members, an usher, a Sunday school teacher came by saw this ruined man and went by on the other side… A Levite came by, saw the man ruined and reject him… because they're so busy going to church, that they fail to be the church!
And you can be so busy being churchy, that you forget to do Church…you look holy on Sunday, you dressed up… you’re clap when everybody else claps… you stand when everybody else stands but what are you on Monday? who do you help on Friday? do you go out of your way on Wednesday? it's not about what you do, it's about who you are!
They see this ruined man and they reject him, and then this Samaritan… this hated Samaritan comes and sees the man and he can tell by the way he's dressed that he is a Jew…but it doesn't bother him that he's a Jew, he's a man in need!
Climbs down from his Beast, gets oil and wine… oil to sanitize his wounds, wine to disinfect it… pours it on the man, fixes him up as best he can, he puts him on his Beast, and he walks… takes him into an inn and tells the people at the front desk take care of him, I'm on business and when I come back if there's anything that I owe you… don't charge him, he doesn't have any money put it on my bill!
And Jesus says 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbour to him who fell among the thieves?” and the lawyer
can't even bring himself to say the word Samaritan…he won't even let that come out of his mouth, 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Jesus said now go and do likewise!
The completeness of empathy is that when you see somebody in their ruined condition don't reject them… because God didn't reject you!
But now let me finish with the cost of empathy… from character to completeness to the cost of empathy… is you've got to inconvenient yourself!
You got to put yourself out to help people in need… who cannot return the favor back…because you’re not blessed if you're inviting me to your house to eat, so I can invite you to my house to eat…
The blessing comes when you see that homeless person, and if you don't invite them in… you don’t turn a blind eye to them and pray lord send someone to help them…YOU need to at
least make sure you meet their needs… because before Jesus could heal, before Jesus could save, he served!
Remember the people who were famished… because they'd listen to Jesus teach all day long, and they follow Jesus… he had compassion / empathy on them, He asked the disciples where can we buy some bread to feed all these people? and one of the disciples said Lord we just got a little bit of money in the treasury, and a little bit we got is not enough to feed all these people even if we could… Jesus said you feed them!
They said: all we have is two fish, and Five Loaves… he says bring them to me… He lifts them up to heaven and multiplies by dividing and adds by subtracting and gives it to the disciples to feed the multitude… because little becomes much when you place it in the master’s Hand!
But the cost of empathy is the Samaritan man had to go out of his way, use his visa card, walk while he rides the man on his beast… and brings him and says take care of everything he needs, and when I come back… if there's some overcharge don't charge him, I'll take care of it!
The last thing I want to say is… one day you and I were ruined, we were on the side of the road, beaten and left half dead, and then some church people passed by and saw us in our ruined condition… and said get yourself together, then you can come join my Sunday school class… pull yourself up by your own and maybe you'll be able to make it…
But then Yonder comes a Galilean stranger, a man by the name of Jesus who sees us in our ruined condition, not only does he not reject us, and not only does he go out of his way to help us, but he becomes sin for us…. he dies in our place and becomes the substitute that God needs for our sin…so we can be to other ruined souls what he became to us!
If you didn't get that maybe you'll get this… the problem is not the priest, the problem is not the Levite, and the Samaritan is not good… the scripture calls him a certain Samaritan not a good Samaritan… that is what the theologians and church people calls him… what he did was good, but he was not good! What you and I may do… is good, but we are not good… because there's only one good, and that one is God!
But listen, the problem is not the priest… or the Levite… or the Samaritan… the problem is they needed to fix the road because if you fix the road, the man wouldn't get robbed…
If you fix the road you get rid of the thieves and the robbers…how do you fix the road pastor? put some lights on it! you are the light of the world, if you get on the road and be a light, the man won't get robbed, the thieves (politicians) going to have to go hide, the drug dealers going to have to find another corner because there are some lights on the road…
And you can never put the lights on the road, you can never be what God called you to be if you have no compassion, and empathy… be careful don’t lose your compassion and empathy church… we are called to love like Jesus loved… love God and love our neighbors the same way… we are called to be our brother’s keeper! Holy spirit ignite our compassion, bring back fire and light up our empathy… let our light shine!
