“Who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10:25-37
A sermon for 2/8/26 – Scouting Sunday
Luke 10 “25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””
This is Scout Sunday. It’s great to have our scouts here with us today. I grew up in Scouting and have great memories. I am glad the church supports the scouting program for what it stands for and what the children can learn from being part of it. This morning, they all repeated The Scout Oath and The Scout Law.
The Scout Oath
On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
The Scout Law
A Scout is:
• Trustworthy,
• Loyal,
• Helpful,
• Friendly,
• Courteous,
• Kind,
• Obedient,
• Cheerful,
• Thrifty,
• Brave,
• Clean,
• and Reverent.
Part of the Oath & Law is about how the Scout treats self, and part is about how the Scout treats others. Listen to a description of certain parts of the Law:
TRUSTWORTHY. Tell the truth and keep promises. People can depend on you.
LOYAL. Show that you care about your family, friends, Scout leaders, school, and country.
HELPFUL. Volunteer to help others without expecting a reward.
FRIENDLY. Be a friend to everyone, even people who are very different from you.
COURTEOUS. Be polite to everyone and always use good manners.
KIND. Treat others as you want to be treated. Never harm or kill any living thing without good reason.
OBEDIENT. Follow the rules of your family, school, and pack. Obey the laws of your community and country.
CHEERFUL. Look for the bright side of life. Cheerfully do tasks that come your way. Try to help others be happy.
https://www.scouting.org/
All those parts of The Scout Law are about how a Scout is to treat others. It seems to me that Scouting makes treating others as important as Jesus Followers do. Jesus made this really clear in the story we call The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Just in case my folks here don’t know, parables were stories that were told to make a point. They were not like stories of things that actually happened, but were meant to help explain a truth the speaker was conveying.
Here’s an example by the storyteller, Max Lucado: “Once there were a couple of farmers who could not get along with each other. A wide ravine separated their two farms, and each constructed a fence. To keep the other one out.
In time, however, the daughter of one met the son of the other and – wouldn’t you know it-the couple fell in love. Determined not to be kept apart, they tore down the fences and used the wood to build a bridge ACROSS the ravine.”
I think we all get the point of that one!
Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan because he lived in a world just like ours:
• Folks only trusted the ones who believed what they believed and looked like them
• Folks tended to look out only for themselves
• Folks said it was ok to hate the “other”
Does that sound familiar? Here’s what we see in our world:
• We distrust others who don’t look like us or smell like us
• We make sure we get it before the next person
• We hate the other tribe and call them the worst names we can imagine
That’s why I believe this Parable of the Good Samaritan still speaks to us today!
So, what’s going on in this reading from Luke 10? Jesus gets a question from an expert in the religious law. Most translations call him a lawyer, which would open the door for lots of jokes I could tell. Just one problem – my son, who is a lawyer, might be here today. 😊You see, that’s why Jesus asks for the lawyer’s interpretation. He gives the same answer as Jesus gives when asked to state the greatest of the commands of God: “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
The lawyer and Jesus agreed at this point. I think we live in a world that works so hard to find every point on which we disagree. We need to focus on the wonderful things we can agree on.
The next question, “Who is my neighbor?”, goes even further to ensure Jesus agrees with the religious folks of his day. Let’s talk about the word - Samaritan. It was a loaded word! There was a long history between the Jews and the Samaritans that went back hundreds of years. They hated each other. How much? As much as white folks hated black folks when I was a kid. As much as the residents hated the migrant farm workers when I lived on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. As much as people today hate Jesus Followers for claiming that Jesus is the only way to be saved.
Now we can dive into this story about a man who is attacked, robbed (even took his clothes), and left for dead on the road. Jesus always told parables with stories people could understand, so it must have been dangerous to travel the road back then. Now come the first two men on the road – a priest and a Levite.
The Tribe of Levi was given responsibility for worship: first in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. They did not have a portion in the promised land, so they lived in the areas around Jerusalem and traveled to serve. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer, was a Levite who served as a priest in the temple. There were many jobs in the Temple, especially related to the sacrifices, that were performed by other Levites.
That means both these guys in the parable had good reasons NOT TO HELP. First, remember I told you it was dangerous to travel the road back then. Both these men could be thinking, “If I stop to help, I will also become a victim.” Think about today, don’t we expect it to be a scam, and aren’t we surprised when it’s real? Second, they both had a concern about being made “unclean.” Back then, there were lots of “purity laws.” If you worked in the temple, you had to be ritually clean. One of the big NO NOs was contact with a dead body. I guess most of us would prefer NOT to have contact with a dead body. My Dad told me that when he was a kid, when a family member died, they all had to kiss the person lying in the casket. Times have changed! Btw – the ritual to make you clean again was expensive.
So, both these guys passing by on the road had a couple of good reasons NOT TO HELP, but what they lacked was mercy for the one in need.
The third person to come along the road was a Samaritan. Do you remember how much Jews hated Samaritans? Every Sabbath service ended with a prayer of the Rabbi for God to curse the Samaritans. Samaritans hated Jews just as much, maybe more. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to help. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to risk getting robbed. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to spend his money to take care of this guy.
Can you see the difference between the two religious folks (the good guys) and the hated Samaritan (the bad guy)? The folks who were expected to be the good guys in the story think only about themselves and have no compassion for the one in need. The one expected to be the bad guy in the story puts the one in need before himself and shows compassion and mercy.
Are we so divided in our world that the good guys and bad guys only depend on where you get your news or what your friends on social media are saying every day? Do you think that matters?
I heard about a high school class studying the Salem Witch Trials, and their teacher told them they were going to play a game. "I'm going to come around and whisper to each of you whether you're a witch or a regular person. Your goal is to build the largest possible group that does NOT include a witch. At the end, any group found to include a witch gets a failing grade."
The teens dove into grilling each other. One fairly large group formed, but most of the students broke into small, exclusive groups, turning away anyone they thought gave off even a hint of guilt. "Okay," the teacher said. "You've got your groups. Time to find out which ones fail. All witches, please raise your hands." No one raised a hand. The kids were confused and told the teacher he'd messed up the game.
"Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they'd been told?" And that is how you teach kids how easy it is to divide a community.
I say this to both Scout and Jesus Follower in this place: take care how you treat others, especially those in need and those who are so easy to hate. Amen.
Homework:
• Try reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan every day this week. Consider all the ways you tend to categorize people whom God created into groups of US & THEM.
• When you have a chance to help someone in need, do you first consider the reasons NOT TO HELP? Pray for compassion and mercy to be your first thought.
• Next week: 2 Peter 2:10b-16 / Jude 8-12 “The Wisdom of a Talking Donkey”
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TEACHING SHEET
February 8, 2026 - Scouting Sunday
Luke 10:25-37
“Who is my neighbor?”
Scout Oath: On my honor, I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Law: A Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.
Scout Slogan: Do a Good Turn Daily
Scouting makes treating others as important as Jesus Followers do. Jesus made this really clear in the story we call The Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan because he lived in a world just like ours:
• Folks only trusted the ones who believed what they believed and looked like them
• Folks tended to look out only for themselves
• Folks said it was ok to hate the “other”
Does that sound familiar? Here’s what we see in our world:
• We distrust others who don’t look like us or smell like us
• We make sure we get it before the next person
• We hate the other tribe and call them the worst names we can imagine
That’s why I believe this Parable of the Good Samaritan still speaks to us today!
So, what’s going on in this reading from Luke 10? Jesus gets a question from an expert in the religious law. The lawyer and Jesus agreed at this point. I think we live in a world that works so hard to find every point on which we disagree. We need to focus on the wonderful things we can agree on.
There was a long history between the Jews and the Samaritans that went back hundreds of years. They hated each other.
Jesus always told parables with stories people could understand, so it must have been dangerous to travel the road back then. Now come the first two men on the road – a priest and a Levite. The Tribe of Levi was given responsibility for worship: first in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. That means both these guys in the parable had good reasons NOT TO HELP. First, remember I told you it was dangerous to travel the road back then. Both these men could be thinking, “If I stop to help, I will also become a victim.” Second, they both had a concern about being made “unclean.”
The third person to come along the road was a Samaritan. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to help. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to risk getting robbed. The Samaritan had NO GOOD REASON to spend his money to take care of this guy.
Salem Witch Trials: “ A “witchcraft craze” rippled through Europe from the 1300s to the end of the 1600s. Tens of thousands of supposed witches—mostly women—were executed. “ In January 1692, several young girls began having fits of strange behavior. They originally named three women for the spiritual attacks, and in the end, 19 were executed, and hundreds were jailed.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/
Are we so divided in our world that the good guys and bad guys only depend on where you get your news or what your friends on social media are saying every day? Do you think that matters?
Homework:
• Try reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan every day this week. Consider all the ways you tend to categorize people whom God created into groups of US & THEM.
• When you have a chance to help someone in need, do you first consider the reasons NOT TO HELP? Pray for compassion and mercy to be your first thought.
• Next week: 2 Peter 2:10b-16 / Jude 8-12 “The Wisdom of a Talking Donkey”
