Parable of the Good Samaritan – 11
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to face his impending death and resurrection
• On the way they stop at a Samaritan village but they reject Jesus because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem
• What is interesting is the disciples response to this rejection
• Luke 9:52-55 (NABWRNT)52 and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, 53 but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”
• Both in this story and the Parable of the Good Samaritan which we will look at in a minute Jesus again returns to the theme He introduced in the Parable of the Lost sheep and that is the theme of “Winners” and “Losers”
• You might remember Jesus criticised the disciples because they were arguing over who would be the “greatest in the Kingdom”
• He told them “Whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all - Mark 9:35
• Then later on when the Pharisees criticised Him for hanging out with sinners and tax collectors He then told them the Parable of the Lost Sheep with its focus on the “lost”
• Matthew 18:11 (NKJV) 11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
• Jesus can only work with those who are willing to acknowledge their lostness, their lastness their leastness and their deadness
• And we made the point that Grace by its very nature can only function in an environment of sin and lostness
• There is no need for grace in a world of the just, the righteous, the winners
• But in this story of the Samaritan village we see the disciple dropping back into the normal human way of viewing things from a winning perspective
• We are winners because we are with Jesus and you guys are a bunch of losers because you are Samaritans and have not accepted Him into your village
• So they propose a nice winning solution for these losers - call down fire from heaven to consume them?”
• 55 Jesus turned and rebuked them….
• “You are missing the whole point of my mission. It is these very losers that you want to wipe out that I have come to save”
Now we pick up the story of the Good Samaritan and it carries on in this same vein of winners and losers
• Luke 10:25-37 (NABWRNT) 25 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
• How would you answer this question today? Would you give the same answer Jesus gives to this scholar of the Law?
• 26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
• One of Jesus’ favourite ways of answering a question was to pose a question
• 27 He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” 28 He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
• Is this a correct answer? If we follow what Jesus says to this scholar of the law will it result in inheriting eternal life?
• Yes! There are two ways of receiving eternal life, 1) by keeping the law perfectly or 2) Accepting Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as our own
• So what is the problem? No one can live the law perfectly?
• Galatians 3:21-22 (NKJV) 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
• Salvation is not something we can lift ourselves up to by pulling harder on our own bootstraps – we are all sinners in God’s eyes and need His grace
• Salvation is only possible by entering through the doorway of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
• Unfortunately this expert in the law thought he could live up the requirements of the law
• 29 But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
• People who want to justify themselves consider themselves winners. They are into performance religion. They believe their works do count for something
• Losers by contrast recognise they are losers and shut up
So Jesus gives him a rude wake up call in telling this story contrasting the difference between the winner’s view of religion and what Jesus had in mind
• 30 Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
• Jesus sets up the contrast. On the one hand are two official representatives of the religious system of the day
• A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
• 32 Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
• There was something about the thinking of the religious establishment of the day that prevented these two official representatives from helping this man
• The problem with their thinking was that their religion and system of worship was tied up in ceremony, custom and rituals
• And although this was not God’s intent, the focus of their worship centred on fulfilling the external requirements of the law
• Worship in their book was about fulfilling the requirements of the temple, offering sacrifices, doing their morning prayer and scripture reading, keeping themselves ritually clean, tithing of mint, cumin and anise, etc
• And this is precisely the source of Jesus’ constant disagreements with the Pharisees – questioned Him about Sabbath keeping, disciples not washing their hands, paying the temple tax, hanging out with sinners and tax collectors
• So when it came to this poor unfortunate victim covered with blood and half dead, they would have freaked at the thought of going anywhere near him
• Helping a poor unfortunate was below them, we work at the temple, we are winners, this is a job for someone else whose station in life is less important than ours
• “Les Miserable” – Innkeeper and his wife – everyone has their place
• This is how they would have thought
In contrast to the thinking of the religious establishment of the day, Jesus now outlines His vision of the new faith of Christianity He was about to introduce and this one would indeed lead to eternal life
• 33 But a Samaritan traveller (Big time loser in Jewish eyes) who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.
• Here we are introduced to the major difference between the two faiths - moved with compassion
• One was preoccupied with ceremony, custom and ritual while the other was concerned with relationships, matters of the heart, matters of the Spirit
• Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well about true worship
• The Samaritans were arguing with the Jews about the correct location for worship – again an external ritualistic matter
• John 4:20-24 (NCV) 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”21 Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father. 22 You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews.
• By salvation Jesus is referring to Himself not the law
• 23 The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
• The basic of the new faith centres on relationships not rituals
• The scholar in the law was right in one regard when he answered Jesus’ question. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
• Jesus was extrapolating the meaning of this OT saying to its full and complete magnitude – came to magnify the law
• The only way to love God this way and your neighbour this way is through a new birth, a new life, a new Spirit
• Because this type of love for God and man can only come from one source – The Holy Spirit – He gives us the fruits of the Spirit which are all internal matters of the heart – not one external is mentioned
• And access to the Holy Spirit is only possible through the gateway of losers, Jesus Christ
• And the only way we can go through that gateway is through our own death and resurrection
• 34 He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’
• Not only was he concerned for the victim, he also wanted to make sure the inn keeper wasn’t out of pocket
• His orientation was totally different
• This is what the Spirit of God living in us will do – it changes our orientation from works, rituals, ceremonies to matters of the heart, relationships, and concern for others wellbeing
• We will get to the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in due time, but this is exactly the message behind that parable
• The sheep are not separated from the goats based on the keeping of external rituals and ceremony
• The sheep are separated from the goats based on matters of the heart – compassion for others
• Matthew 25:40 (NKJV)40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
• Worship in the new faith of Christianity is demonstrated by the way we love our neighbour, not how many rituals and ceremonies we have performed
• 36 Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbour to the robbers’ victim?”37 He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
• “Mercy” is a matter of the heart, it is a matter of the Spirit, it is a matter of relationship
• Notice too that the scholar could not bring himself to mention the word “Samaritan”
• This would have irked him no end to hear a Samaritan was closer to salvation than him a “Jew”
• Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” - “Go and act like this Samaritan!”
• He says; get your focus of worship right. Forget about the old system of ritual, ceremony and custom. That is not true worship
• Romans 7:6 (NKJV)6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
• True worship means dying to the old ways and adopting the new way of the Spirit by focusing on relationships, heart matters, neighbour matters
This Parable is really a contrast between the old worship of the letter as opposed to the new worship of the Spirit
• Jesus illustrates the superiority of worship in the Spirit over the legalism of the Law – one leads to death, the other to life – eternal life
• Under this new order there is no place for winners – in fact we have to become losers and die in order to win
• Under this new order there is no place for discrimination – Galatians 3:28 (NLT) There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus.
• We are no better than the Christian down the road
• Also we can’t discriminate on whom we share God’s love – The Samaritan didn’t ask if the victim was a Christian before he helped him
• Under this new order we cannot use rituals and ceremonies as substitutes for true worship – John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
• Under this new order worship is centred on God and is lived out in the way we treat our fellow human beings
