Seinfeld was a popular sit com featuring the humor of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. In an episode called “The Fire,” Jerry's friend, George attends a child's birthday party at the request of his girlfriend, Robin. Take a look (show video: George and the Fire, Seinfeld, Season 5, Episode 20).
George, standing alone, says, "What's that smell? Is that smoke?" As he walks into the kitchen, he is startled. "Everybody! I think I smell some smoke back here! Fire! Get out of here!"
George runs out of the kitchen in a panic, knocking over the clown, an old lady with a walker, and a couple of kids. “Get out of my way!” he yells, as he opens the front door of the apartment and runs away.
In the very next scene, George is outside getting oxygen from a group of paramedics. “It was an inferno in there!” he tells them.
Suddenly the clown runs over to George and says, “There he is! That's him!” Several angry children and Robin's mother gather round. “That's the coward that left us to die!” cries Robin's mother.
George tries to explain his actions: “I was trying to lead the way. We needed a leader, someone to lead the way to safety.”
Robin objects: “But you yelled, 'Get out of my way!'’”
“Because as the leader,” George continues, “if I die, then all hope is lost. Who would lead? The clown? Instead of castigating me, you should be thanking me. What kind of topsy-turvy world do we live in where heroes are cast as villains, and brave men as cowards?”
“But I saw you push the women and children out of the way in a mad panic,” someone yells. “I saw you knock them down. And when you ran out, you left everyone behind.
“Seemingly,” George refutes. “To the untrained eye, I can fully understand how you got that impression. What looked like pushy, what looked like knocking down, was a safety precaution. In a fire, you stay close to the ground. Am I right? And when I ran out that door, I was not leaving anyone behind. I risked my life making sure that exit was clear. Any other questions?”
In the final scene of the clip, George is in a restaurant with Jerry. “She doesn't want to see me anymore,” George says, referring to Robin.
“Did you knock her over too, or just the kids?”
“No, her too. And her mother.”
“So you feel 'women and children first' in this day and age is somewhat of an antiquated notion?” Jerry says.
“To some degree, yeah.”
“So basically, it's every man, woman, child, and invalid for themselves?”
“In a manner of speaking,” George replies. “She should be commending me for treating everyone like equals.”
“Perhaps when she's released from the burn center, she'll see things differently,” Jerry says (Seinfeld, Season 5, Episode 20, NBC, 2005, directed by Tom Cherones; www.PreachingToday.com).
The more George tried to justify himself, the more ridiculous he sounded. That’s why we laugh.
So it is when we try to justify ourselves or make excuses for less than perfect behavior. We put ourselves into a self-imposed trap from which we cannot escape.
So how do you avoid the trap of self-justification? How do you keep from putting yourself into the ridiculous position of having to defend yourself? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Luke 10, Luke 10, where Jesus addresses a lawyer who tried to justify himself.
Luke 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (ESV)
This lawyer is an expert in the Mosaic Law, thinking he knows more than this simple rabbi from Nazareth. So he is going to put Jesus to the test, not only to find out what Jesus knows, but to try and trap Jesus in a debate with him.
His question, in itself, is an oxymoron: “What must I DO to inherit eternal life?” You don’t DO anything to “earn” an inheritance, because an inheritance is not “earned.” It is received as a free gift from the one who passes it on. Even so, Jesus plays along with this young lawyer, trapping him with his own words.
Luke 10:26-28 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live” (ESV).
Instead of correcting the lawyer’s misunderstanding of inheritance, Jesus answers the lawyer’s question with a question: You’re the expert in the Law, what does the Law tell you? To which the lawyer answers correctly, summarizing the law with two commands: love God and love your neighbor. Jesus simply replies, “Do this and you will live.”
Now, the lawyer is not interested in doing anything. He just wants to debate Jesus, but now he knows he’s trapped.
Luke 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (ESV)
The lawyer knows he is not doing all that the law requires, so he wants to justify himself by defining terms. You see, if you can limit the extent of the law’s demands, you can limit your own responsibility (Liefeld, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1984).
Besides, the lawyers in Jesus’ day debated the meaning of the Hebrew word for “neighbor” in the Mosaic Law. It literally means someone who is close, but does that mean someone who is close emotionally, as in a friend? Or does that mean someone who is close in proximity, friend or foe?
Well, Jesus’ answer will put this lawyer on the spot and expose him for the fraud he is. This leads me to my first point. If you want to avoid the trap of self-justification…
DON’T DEBATE GOD’S CLEAR COMMANDS.
Don’t try to define terms or discuss the meaning of certain words. Don’t make excuses for your disobedience.
It reminds me of a story I told over five years ago (2020), in which Lee Strobel asks us to imagine a daughter and her boyfriend going out for a Coke on a school night. The father says to her, “You must be home before eleven.” It gets to be 10:45 p.m. and the two of them are still having a great time. They don't want the evening to end, so suddenly they begin to have difficulty interpreting the father's instructions:
What did he really mean when he said, “You must be home before eleven”? Did he literally mean us, or was he talking about you in a general sense, like people in general? Was he saying, in effect, “As a general rule, people must be home before eleven”? Or was he just making the observation that “Generally, people are in their homes before eleven”? I mean, he wasn't very clear, was he?
And what did he mean by, “You must be home before eleven”? Would a loving father be so adamant and inflexible? He probably means it as a suggestion. I know he loves me, so isn't it implicit that he wants me to have a good time? And if I am having fun, then he wouldn't want me to end the evening so soon.
And what did he mean by, “You must be home before eleven”? He didn't specify whose home. It could be anybody's home. Maybe he meant it figuratively. Remember the old saying, “Home is where the heart is”? My heart is right here, so doesn't that mean I'm already home?
And what did he really mean when he said, “You must be home before eleven”? Did he mean that in an exact, literal sense? Besides, he never specified 11 p.m. or 11 a.m. And he wasn't really clear on whether he was talking about Central Standard Time or Eastern Standard Time. In Hawaii, it's still only quarter to seven. As a matter of fact, when you think about it, it's always before eleven. Whatever time it is, it's always before the next eleven.
So with all of these ambiguities, we can't really be sure what he meant at all. If he can't make himself more clear, we certainly can't be held responsible (James Emery White, Christ Among Dragons, IVP Books, 2010, page 177; www.PreachingToday. com).
Now, that daughter and her boyfriend knew exactly what her father meant when he said, “Be home before eleven,” and debating his terms will not excuse their disobedience. In fact, their attempts at self-justification only makes them look and sound ridiculous.
So, if you want to avoid the trap of self-justification, don’t debate God’s clear commands.
JUST DO THEM.
Obey God’s clear commands to love Him and your neighbor. Submit to what God has clearly told you in His Word.
The lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor.” So Jesus answers him with the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. Take a look.
Luke 10:30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead (ESV).
Now, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, just north of the Dead Sea, descends almost 3,000 feet in about 17 miles. It was a dangerous road to travel, because robbers hid among its hairpin curves.
Luke 10:31-32 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side (ESV).
The priest served in the temple, offering sacrifices and teaching the Law. The Levite was the priest’s assistant, both of whom knew and taught God’s law. Yet they find an excuse for disobeying God’s law.
Perhaps, they feared becoming “unclean” if they got near what could have been a dead body. Or perhaps, they feared being attacked by the same robbers that attacked the man lying by the side of the road. Whatever it was they feared, it kept them from loving this neighbor.
I like what the English author P. D. James once said: “Perfect love may cast out fear, but fear is remarkably potent in casting out love” (P. D. James, Time to Be in Earnest, Ballantine Books, 2001, p. 45; www.PreachingToday.com). Please, don’t let your fear keep you from loving your neighbor in need like it did for this priest and Levite.
Luke 10:33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion (ESV).
Literally, he was moved in his inward parts. He felt the man’s pain in his guts.
New Testament scholar and professor D. A. Carson puts this in more contemporary terms. He says:
The Evangelical Free minister passes by. Then a local Catholic priest sees the injured man and he goes by. And then along comes a Muslim imam, and he stops. You're not supposed to tell stories like that. The wrong guy wins. But it's that kind of shock value that is going on in the story because Samaritans in Jesus' day were despised. They were half breeds racially, and theologically they were really suspect… As far as the Jews were concerned, the Samaritans were a bunch of half-breed heretics… But it's the Samaritan here, a despised Samaritan, who stops (D. A. Carson, The Parable of the Good Samaritan, www.PreachingToday.com).
He has compassion for the half dead man, and he puts that compassion into action.
Luke 10:34-35 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back’ (ESV).
D. A. Carson says, “Now that's not just generous, it's also potentially saving this man from slavery. Because in the ancient world if you owed a debt and you couldn't pay, then… the required legal thing was to sell yourself into slavery. [But since the Samaritan paid all the man’s expenses], he'll be able to leave freely without any debt and without selling himself into slavery.”
The Samaritan helped this poor man at great personal cost. It not only cost him two denarii, or two day’s wages, and maybe more! One commentator said, “It’s likely that the Samaritan used pieces of his own clothing to make the bandages” (Liefeld, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 1984). Not only that, it also cost the Samaritan his own time, his own wine and oil, and his own ride. By putting the man on his own donkey, the Samaritan had to walk up to 17 miles. But that’s what true love does. It sacrifices itself for the benefit of the one loved.
Jesus tells this wonderful story about true love. Then He springs the trap on this lawyer who tried to trap Him in a debate.
Luke 10:36-37 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise” (ESV).
Don’t debate what the term “neighbor” means. Just BE a neighbor to anyone with a need that God puts in your path.
One summer in the 1940s, the Russian born novelist, Valdimir Nabokov and his family stayed with James Laughlin at Alta, Utah, where Nabokov took the opportunity to enlarge his collection of butterflies and moths. One evening at dusk he returned from his day's excursion saying that during hot pursuit near Bear Gulch he had heard someone groaning most piteously down by the stream.
“'Did you stop?” Laughlin asked him.
“No, I had to get the butterfly,” Nabokov replied.
The next day the corpse of an aged prospector was discovered in what has been renamed Dead Man's Gulch (Clifton Fadiman, The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes; www.PreachingToday.com).
How often, in our own pursuits, do we ignore the needs of those God puts in our path? While people are dying around us, we chase butterflies. As James in the Bible puts it, “My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be” (James 3:10).
Don’t debate God’s clear commands. Do them! Truly love your neighbor as yourself. That is, be a neighbor to anyone with a need that God puts in your path.
If you want to avoid the trap of self-justification, just do what God says. If you want to earn the inheritance of eternal life, just do what God says. Just do what God says perfectly, every time. In other words, whenever you are presented with a need, sacrifice yourself to meet that need like the Good Samaritan did.
So, how are you doing with perfectly obeying God’s command to love your neighbor every time? If you’re like me, you might say, “Sometimes, I reach out to help people in need. But a lot of the time, like that priest and that Levite, I ignore the need to pursue my own agenda. The truth is I can’t obey God’s law perfectly every time even if I wanted to.”
Like that man who was beaten and robbed, left half dead by the side of the road, all of us are in desperate need of a Savior! None of us can justify ourselves in the presence of a Holy God.
So, what can you do to inherit eternal life? The answer is nothing. There is nothing you can do, except to receive the inheritance God freely offers to anyone who believes in His Son. In your half dead state (physically alive, but spiritually dead), all you can do is receive the help God provides through Jesus Christ His Son. So…
TRUST JESUS WITH YOUR LIFE.
Stop making excuses for your disobedience and depend on Christ to rescue you from your half-dead state. Rely on the Lord to bandage your wounds, heal your sores, and pay for your freedom.
For like that Good Samaritan, Jesus sacrificed Himself for you. He left the glories of heaven to experience the pain of your existence. The eternal, almighty God emptied Himself into a tiny baby. Then He grew up and obeyed God’s law perfectly on your behalf, helping and healing everyone along His path. After that, He died on a cross to pay for your disobedience. Then He rose again from the dead, offering eternal life to anyone who depends on Him.
Please, if you haven’t done it already, trust Christ with your life. Look to Christ to rescue you from your helpless state and give you eternal life. Depend on the One, who sacrificed Himself for you!
The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
Please, call on Jesus today and let Him save you! Then, in His power and with His strength, be a neighbor to those in need.
When Tyler Moon lined up for a 10-mile race, he decided to write an inspiring message where other runners normally placed their name. So, he printed the words “Jesus Saves” on his bib. As he approached mile eight, the otherwise healthy 25-year-old collapsed. He had suffered a heart attack.
Fortunately, Moon had someone right behind him who could help. A certified registered nurse anesthetist was hot on his heals. And when Moon collapsed, he rushed over, accessed the situation, and began CPR. Several other runners stopped to assist till paramedics arrived.
Ironically, the name of the runner who saved Moon's life was Jesus Bueno (Helen Murphy, “Man Wearing 'Jesus Saves' Bib Collapses During Race, Is Given CPR by a Man Named Jesus,” People, 10-30-19; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, Jesus certainly does save!—not Jesus Bueno, but Jesus Christ. Please, let Him save you today. Then let Him use you to save the dying people He puts in your path.
