October 8, 2000 Luke 10:25-37
"Pass me not, O gentle Savior"
INTRODUCTION
For the last several months, as you are well aware, we have been studying the Ten Commandments. Now that we have spent so much time on this part of the Bible, I’m going to give you a chance to re-take the test that I gave you when we first entered into this study. We’re going to see if we can name off all ten and do it in order. This is going to be an oral test, and it’s going to be a group effort, but it is not an open book test. Make sure that your Bible is closed at this point. [name off the 10 commandments] How many of you could have done that without the help of the group? How many of you think that you would have done better than you did the first time that you took that test? Thankfully, remembering the 10 command-ments in order is not a requirement for entering into heaven. But remembering what they are - in or out of order - is necessary to helping make sure that I follow them on a daily basis. Over the last couple of months, I have asked a lot of people a question that is very similar to the one that Jesus was asked in the encounter that we will be examining today. I’ve been asking, "In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to go to heaven?" Most people have responded with an answer that was something along the lines of being good or keeping the commandments. If I was to ask those persons to name the 10 commandments, I believe that they would have a very hard time of it. My question then would be, "How can you obey commands that you don’t even remember?"
Admittedly, 10 Commandments is a lot to remember. Most of us need things to be as simple as possible if we are going to remember them so that we can act on them. I am that kind of person. Tammy can do and think about 100 things at one time. I am a "one-thing-at-a-time" kind of person. I believe in the K.I.S.S. philosophy. That doesn’t mean that I’m romantic. KISS is an acronym that stands for an old saying that someone taught me a long time ago - Keep It Simple, Stupid! Jesus, knowing that when our brains get too full they leak, boiled down the 10 commandments into two. In Matt 22:35-40, we have the account of a man who came to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest - the most important - of the commands was. Maybe he was having trouble keeping all of them, so he figured that he would just concentrate all his energy on the most important one and let the others take care of themselves. I don’t know which command that man thought Jesus would say, but Jesus responded, "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." Jesus went further and told him what the 2nd greatest commandment was: "You will love your neighbor as yourself." Then Jesus made this statement: "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Everything that is recorded in the pages of the Bible from Genesis to Malachi have as their foundation and their goal love for God and love for people. If you want to be right in God’s eyes, then love God and love people. I want you to repeat that after me: "If you want to be right in God’s eyes . . . then love God and love people . . ." In fact, fulfilling these two commands is our whole purpose for being on this planet.
Later on in Jesus’ ministry, another man came to Him one day with a slightly different question: "What must I do to inherit - or gain - eternal life?" Jesus’ answer to that man’s question centered around these two great commands. This morning, I want us to take a look at the discussion that took place between Jesus and a lawyer one day to discover what it actually means to love God and love people. I want us to see how doing those two things will enable us to better be able to fulfill all of God’s commandments including the 10 that have been the focus of our attention over the last several months.
1. I can fulfill the law by loving God with everything that I am.
- with all my heart ( motivation, feelings
The man that Jesus was speaking with on that day was a lawyer or what might better be termed a scribe. He was responsible for recording the law which would have included both the biblical texts as well as laws that were made by the Jewish authorities. Since his job was so closely associated with the law, he would have known what the law said, and he would have made a conscientious attempt to keep every segment of that law. But it was in this area of the heart that the lawyer and most of the other religious leaders of the day had failed in. They kept the law in order to look good. They were in right, but they were not in love. (Mat 15:8 NIV) "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. God wants us to keep the law, but He wants us to do it for the right reasons. He wants us to have the right motivations. Husbands, wives, parents - would you rather your spouse or your kids do something nice for you because they are afraid that you are going to be mad at them if they don’t do it or do it because of the level of their love for you?
That even applies to the attitude that we have when we come to church. We have already sung several songs here together this morning. We have spent time in prayer. You are now listening to me and hopefully listening to God’s Spirit speak through me and through His Word. How was your singing this morning? Did you put your heart into it? How about the prayers? Were you listening to the person praying out loud and even joining in with them as they prayed, or was your mind wondering whether or not you remembered to turn off the stove this morning? How about now as you listen to me - are you listening with expectation and with desire that God will show His glory to you? (John 4:23 NIV) ". . . true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." Your body may be here this morning, but your spirit - your heart - may still be home in bed. As I knock on doors each week in the city of Bridgeport, I conduct a short survey with the people that come to the door. One of the questions says, "Why do you think people come to church?" One lady said that they come out of guilt. Another one said that they come because that’s the way that they were brought up. I hope that those are not the reasons that you came this morning. I hope that you came this morning because your heart said, "That’s where I come to worship the God I love, and out of my love for Him, I will meet with His people and give Him my praise."
In his letter to one of the churches in Asia Minor or modern day Turkey, Jesus praised the church there for holding onto the truth and standing up to persecution. They weren’t going to let anything turn them away from believing or teaching the truth. But in their battle for the truth, they had lost their love for God. (Rev 2:4 NIV) "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." They had forgotten what their motivation for teaching the truth and following the truth was supposed to be. Their faith had become dry because their heart no longer belonged to God. The law without love will do that.
- with all my soul ( spiritual, eternal, life
Every morning, when I get up, one of the first things that I do is to spend time with God. I sit down at home or first thing when I get to church and read the Bible and spend time in prayer. The reason that I do that is to get my spirit in tune with God’s Spirit. It is my way of devoting my life for that day to God before the day even begins. In Romans 12:1, Paul talked about our responsibility to commit ourselves to God as a "living sacrifice". That means that I’m suppose to turn my life over to God and let Him live through me. It means that when it comes to a choice between me doing what is safe for me or doing what will show love for God, I choose to turn over my life to God and throw caution to the wind if He calls me to do so.
I believe with all my heart that every mother in this place, if called upon to do so, would willingly give their lives for the protection of their
children. I remember a conversation one time that I overheard. Someone asked a woman if she had to make a choice between jumping in front of an oncoming truck to save her children or her husband, which would she save. She responded that she would save her children. When asked why, she said that her husband could take care of himself.
Christian, you have given your life to God for eternity. Have you given your life to God for tomorrow morning at your job? Have you given Him the right to tell you to do life-threatening or self-image threatening stuff with the full assurance that you will obey? Have you given Him that extra 15 minutes of sleep or TV time that it would require for you to tell God that you love Him and spend time with Him in conversation? (John 15:13 NIV) Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
- with all my strength ( physical action
(1 Cor 10:31 NIV) So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
- with all my mind ( thought-life
(Rom 12:2 NIVa) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Basically, Jesus is saying that we are supposed to love God with everything that we are. Our love for Him is supposed to be an emotional love, a spiritual love, a physical love, and a mental love. He is supposed to have control and access to every area of our lives. There is no area that is off-limits. There is no area that we hold onto for ourselves. We give it all over to Him. When we love God with that kind of love, then we will have no problem fulfilling the commands that dealt with our relationship to Him - the first four. I will have no problem keeping Him as not only the premier God in my life but the only God in my life. My love for Him will motivate me to devote all that I am to Him. I will have no problem with substituting idols for a faulty picture of Him either. My love for Him will cause me to spend so much time getting to know Him and accepting Him just as He presents Himself, that I will never want to change a thing about Him in order to have Him match what I think He should look like. I will have no problem with keeping His name sacred. Since His name points to who He is, I will treat it with the same amount of love that I give to Him. And I will have no problem devoting time to Him for worship and rest. He is the love of my life. How could I not take time to spend with Him developing and strengthening our relationship together?
Question: DO YOU? The way that you will know is whether or not you keep His commands. (Jn. 14:21)
2. I can fulfill the law by loving people with no reservations.
When Jesus confirmed that what the lawyer had said concerning his obligations was accurate, he desired a little bit more clarification. He wanted to know what the law or what Jesus meant by "neighbor". From our perspective, we might think that a pretty silly question, but it is an important thing to consider. To the Jew, a neighbor was someone who was of the same nationality and religion as himself. My neighbor is someone like me. That makes it pretty easy to love my neighbor. Anyone who is not like me - of a different religion, a different nationality or even a different social class - I am justified in treating like an enemy. We need to ask ourselves that same question? Who is my neighbor? Who is it that God requires me to treat with as much love and respect and protection as I treat myself? Is it just the guy that lives in the house next to me? Is it just my family? Is it just people that believe and dress and act like me? In order to answer that man’s question and to help us wrestle with who we are supposed to love, Jesus told a story. It may be that you have heard this story many times before, but don’t let that stop you from seeing the truths that are recorded here and that must impact our hearts.
vs. 30 - the situation ( a man, probably a Jew, attacked by robbers, beaten, stripped and left for dead
vs. 31,32 - the potential help ( a priest and a Levite who were also traveling on this road came upon the man, saw what had happened to him but did not choose to intervene in the situation. It was not unusual for these two men to be traveling this road. The road was the connector between Jerusalem and Jericho. Jerusalem was the place of the temple where the priests performed their duties, and Jericho was the home of more than 12,000 of these priests and Levites. Would you expect them to be willing to help? The priests were the ones who were responsible for communicating God’s truth to the people, praying for the people and administering the worship of God at the temple. The Levites were the group of people in Israel that were the servants to the priests. They would have been around the temple while the priests were ministering. They would have been in the homes of the priests. Both men who passed on the same road as the beaten man were very religious. They had professed their love for God and their complete devotion to Him through their acts of service and through their mouths. They should have been willing to help, but instead they got as far as they could to the other side of the road and quickly passed by. They avoided all contact. Why? Part of the law said that Jews were not allowed to touch a dead body. If this man was dead, and they touched him, then they would not have been able to perform the priestly duties that awaited them at the temple. So rather than even get close enough to check to see if he actually was dead or not, they just chose to pass on by. They put their religion above their responsibility to love people. It would be the same as you refusing to stop and help a stranded motorist on the side of the road because you were on your way to church, and you were afraid helping would make you late or might get grease on your suit pants.
There was another potential reason that they did not stop. Why was that guy in the ditch to begin with? He was there because of robbers. Robbers were a common thing on this particular road. Because it was so well-traveled, people with money would come along often, and they were often alone or in small groups. Who’s to say that the robbers that attacked this man weren’t still around? The priest and the Levite weren’t taken any chances. They didn’t want to endanger themselves by getting involved in the life of a stranger. From a distance, they couldn’t tell if he was a Jew, a Samaritan, or a Gentile. He was so badly beaten that they couldn’t make out any facial features. And his clothes had been stripped from him, so they couldn’t tell his nationality that way. So they may have said within themselves, "Probably just a Gentile" and walked on by. Those who were religious, those who claimed to love God with all their heart and all their soul and all their strength and all their mind, those who were in church, just passed on by on the other side. They were right though. Robbers or no robbers, it is dangerous to get involved in the lives of strangers. You never know what you’re going to face, but you also never know what opportunities you are going to have.
The Samaritan saw him. That in itself did not produce the compassion. The priest and the Levite had also come to where he was and had seen him. They had responded in a totally different way and just passed on by. I don’t know what was different in this man’s life that caused him to respond differently to the same sight. Maybe he had been robbed, beaten and left for dead on this same road some time in the past. Obviously, that’s just a guess. Seeing people where they are and seeing what their condition is is going to produce different reactions in different people. Some are going to respond with judgment. "It’s his own fault for traveling on this road at the wrong time of day." Some are going to respond with disgust. "Look at all that blood! Blood makes me sick. No way I’m getting involved in that mess!" Upon seeing the mess of someone else’s life, different people are going to respond in different ways. But I’ll tell you this. There was no one in the city of Jerusalem who felt compassion for this man’s situation. There was no one in the city of Jericho who felt compassion for this man’s pain. Why? They were not where he was, could not see his pain, didn’t know about his pain. It is impossible for anyone to develop a compassion for the pain of someone else until they get where the hurting people are and see their pain. That’s why the airways are flooded with those "Feed the Children" ads - so that you can see the hurt of people and you can feel compassion for them so that you will act in their behalf.
Do you want a passion for your neighbors? It won’t happen while you are within the walls of your house. It won’t happen if you don’t take the time to go where they are, learn their names, and discover what their wounds are. Do you want a passion for the people of Bridgeport, or Lost Creek, or Flemington? It won’t happen while you are here within the walls of this church. It will only happen as you go out, meet them, see their pain and get involved in their lives. What CAN happen here is that God can prepare your heart so that when you do go where they are, you will react with compassion rather than fear or judgment. This Samaritan loved his neighbor with his heart.
- with my soul ( he endangered himself
In stopping to help that beaten man, the Samaritan endangered his own life. The priest and the Levite had been right to be afraid. This was a road that you traveled as quickly as possible so that robbers would not have time to set their sights on you. Ministering to a badly beaten man would take time and would make him an easy target. Plus the fact that there was no sure that this whole set-up was not some kind of trap. How did he know whether or not this man was really hurt or just playing possum to get him to come over and rob him? There was no way that he could know.
Thursday night, as Mike, Terry and I went out to meet people in Bridgeport, we came to one house and heard at least 3 dogs begin barking as we rang the door bell. We began to hope that no one would come to that door. As we left, we saw what looked like a German Shepherd staring at us through the window. You never know what you are going to encounter when you get involved in the life of someone else. Several weeks ago, when we were taking prayer requests, Dan told us about a pastor that stopped to help someone who had just been involved in a serious accident. The pastor pulled a bleeding man out of one of the vehicles. He found out later that that man had AIDS. Now he has full blown AIDS.
There is danger when you involve yourself in the lives of other people and the messes that they are in. There’s danger of dogs, disease, getting cussed out because someone doesn’t want your help, getting sued because you didn’t help the way they wanted you to. Then there’s danger to your self-image. What if they slam the door in my face? What if they refuse my help? What if I don’t know what to do or what to say? Then there’s the danger that the dishes might have to wait another night to get done, the laundry won’t get folded, the check book won’t be balanced, the favorite TV show won’t get watched, the grass won’t get mowed. Of what eternal significance are all the things that I just mentioned? So what if the house is a mess! It’s a whole lot more important to help clean a life than it is to clean the house! A clean house will only last a week or maybe just a day if you have kids. A balanced checkbook will only last until that next check you write. But a clean life will last forever. Isn’t it worth it to live life on the edge if we get to impact someone for eternity?
- with my strength ( he acted in love
"went to him" - he took the initiative. He was the only one who could. The hurt man couldn’t come to him. Jesus told His disciples to pray that God would send forth laborers into the field not that the field would uproot itself and come into the barn. Do you know that it is foolish of us to think that all we have to do is open the doors of the church and say, "Ya’ll come!" Anyone in here farmers or been around a farm at harvest time? Farming would be a nice easy job if all you had to do was open the barn doors and watch all the wheat just walk right in. But farming is hard work because you have to go out and harvest the crop. Likewise, we have to get outside the walls of the church. Loving people is not just about being receptive to those that come in. That’s passive love. God wants us to have active love. That’s the kind of love that goes out into the field and meets people where they are.
"bandaged his wounds" - that would have been messy. He probably got the man’s blood on himself. You’ll get messy when you involve yourself in the lives of people. Some people might even get the false impression that you look like the people you are helping. It happened to Jesus. He was falsely accused when He got involved in the wounds of prostitutes and thieves. What do you think the Samaritan used to bandage the wounds? I doubt that he was a walking medicine cabinet. The only thing that he could have used was fabric torn from his own clothes. He lowered his own appearance in order to bandage the wounds of someone else.
"pouring on oil and wine" - the wine would have been an antiseptic, and the oil would have helped to close the wounds. He used what he had available even though these things might have been intended for another purpose - to sell or to give as offerings once he reached Jerusalem.
"put the man on his donkey" - He gave up his personal comfort.
"took him to an inn" - The inn would have been either in Jerusalem or Jericho - the two closest cities. Both of these cities were Jewish cities, and he was a Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews hated each other. He was again putting himself on the line to help this man.
"took care of him" - instead of giving the injured man just a quick fix and then being on his way, he stayed with him during the night. He watched over him until the danger had passed. He listened to his groaning during the night. He wiped the sweat from his brow. He changed the blood-soaked dressing on the wounds. He listened to the crazy words that came from his feverish mind through the night - words that didn’t make any sense maybe even words of anger toward the Samaritan. He took care of him.
"gave two silver coins" - that was the equal of two day’s worth of wages. Caring for the injured man had already cost him a day and night, and now, it cost him the money which he had earned on two previous days. Beyond that, he was willing to pay any costs that might be incurred if his recovery took longer than was expected. He was willing to pay whatever it cost in order for the man to be healed and restored.
Love that is true is more than just an attitude or a feeling. True love is filled with action aimed at benefiting the other person.
- with my mind ( he changed his thoughts)
"Caring for someone’s needs is more important than whatever task I had originally intended to accomplish" - "as he traveled" That Samaritan was on his way somewhere to accomplish some goal. He changed his plans and readjusted his schedule in order to help someone in need.
"I must be the initiator" - "He went to him."
"It doesn’t matter if the other guy is different from me" - "Samaritan"
"The rewards are worth the costs" - "gave two silver coins"
"The other guy is my responsibility" - "when I return"
The lawyers question that prompted the story was "who is my neighbor". Jesus’ response was two-fold. One, your neighbor is anyone that you see who is in need. And two, you be a neighbor, you be merciful when you have opportunity to give of yourself.
The Samaritan loved with his heart, with his life, with his actions and with his thoughts. In these actions toward the injured man, he showed that he had the kind of love that would prevent him from breaking the second set of the 10 Commandments - those dealing with our relationship with one another. The kind of love that he expressed showed great honor for his parents; this love would have prevented him from murdering his neighbor or committing adultery with her. It would have prevented him from stealing from his neighbor, lying about him, or coveting those things that he possessed. This kind of love not only prevents me from sinning against my neighbor, but causes me to reach out in generosity, self-sacrifice and kindness to my neighbor.
There is one more thing that I want us to look at before leaving this event in the life of Jesus behind. Do you remember the lawyer’s original question: (vs. 25) "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" In the discussion that followed concerning the law, it’s almost as if Jesus is saying that he could gain eternal life by keeping the law. What’s going on here? I think Jesus is doing two things. First, he is causing this man to examine his own life in comparison to the law so that he could see how far short he falls. I hope that is one thing that has happened in your life as we have examined these commandments - that you have seen that there is no way that you could ever measure up to God’s standards. That you have come to understand or have reaffirmed in your own life that to be without Jesus means to be without hope. The second thing that Jesus was doing in this story was to show the weakness of the law in comparison to Jesus’ own love and mercy. The law, like the priest and the Levite, will do nothing to help you. Even if it wanted to, it could not. It has no power to give life. All that it has power to do is to point out our condition, make us feel guilty, show us our failures, and then condemn us. (John 3:18 NIV) . . . whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Because the law condemns us, it pronounces the death sentence on us. (Rom 6:23 NIV) For the wages of sin is death, . . . As painful as that may be, it is necessary in our lives. We would not know our condition without the law telling us that we were sinners. (Rom. 7:7) But the law was weak in that it was unable to change my condition. It was unable to have compassion on me. It was unable to save me. But what the law was unable to do, Jesus did. (Rom 8:3-4a NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us . . . Now, because of what Jesus did, there is no condemnation. (Rom 8:1 NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus, like the Samaritan, had compassion on me, came to where I was, bandaged my wounds, poured oil and wine on me to heal me, gave up his personal comfort to help me, took care of me, paid the cost to redeem me and promised to return one day. [read the words of "Pass me not, O Gentle Savior" hymn # 176] When Jesus saw me beaten and bruised, he did not pass me by. Even if it ever was possible to keep the whole law, the law could never give me a love like that.
INVITATION
For the Christian:
1. Do you love God with everything that you have? You prove it by keeping His commands.
2. Do you love people as much as you love yourself? Do you love the people of this church? Do you love the people of Bridgeport, Clarksburg, Lost Creek, or Flemington? You prove it by going out to where they are and working to bandage their wounds.
For the unsaved:
You are the beaten and bloody person. You may not even recognize your own condition, but Jesus wants to come and heal you. Others may have passed you by in the past - even religious people, people who claimed to love God. But Jesus will not pass you by. He wants to get involved in your life. He wants to heal your wounds. Will you allow Him to begin that process this morning?
