The Big Secret… "Hate What God Hates And Love What God Loves”

We need to look at some historical events before we get deeper into this parable.

This parable is only included in the book of Luke. There is a reason for that.

Why?

Luke was a Gentile in the Jewish religion.

Matthew and Mark, and John were Jews, and they did not include this parable?

Why?

It is because none of them felt the same way about the Samaritans as Luke did.

Luke was being a Greek had no bias with the Samaritans as did the other three authors of the gospels.

The Judaizes had a tremendous hate for the Samaritans.

Why?

The Samaritan race started during the Babylonians captivity. When the Jews were free to leave part of them left and part of them chose to stay. The group that stayed married these heathen Babylonians. This is when the Samaritans originated.

Because of their decision to stay the Jews developed a hate for the Samaritans.

Illus: Legend has it that the Jews hated the Samaritan so much if they walked by them why they were eating and their shadow fell across their plate they would throw away the food.

Illus: The Jews had so much hate for the Jews if they had to travel through Samaria to avoid going through Samaria they would go around the city of Samaria.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody loved everybody?

Illus: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his sermon, “Loving Your Enemies”, tells this story:

“My brother and I were driving one evening to Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Atlanta. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. They didn’t dim their lights; hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother A.D. looked over and in a tone of anger said: "I know what I’m going to do. The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim …."

And I looked at him right quick and said: "Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody got to have some sense on this highway."

Somebody must have sense enough to dim their lights, and that is the trouble, isn’t it?

Somewhere somebody must have some sense.

• Men must see that force begets force,

• Hate begets hate,

• Toughness begets toughness.

Rudeness begets roudeness

Smile begets a Smile

• And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody.

Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.”

Illus: Another example of hate is for the tax collector Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus was a man with a reputation: a reputation which he had earned as a tax collector.

Zacchaeus’ name indicates that he was a Jew. But the Jews hated Him.

Why?

They had nothing but disgust for tax collectors.

Romans had military control over Israel and used Jews to collect taxes.

To be a tax collector one had to bid for the position like you would bid at an auction with the position going to the highest bidder.

In order for him to regain his investment he had to inflate the tax he collected.

• This gained the tax collector the reputation for being notoriously unscrupulous.

• They also became quite wealthy at expense of their fellow countrymen.

• Also, tax collectors were collecting taxes for a foreign power. Robbers, murderers and tax collectors were classed together.

A tax collector was barred from the synagogue. And Zacchaeus was at the top of his game.

Zacchaeus was a man hated by everyone around him except one…THE LORD JESUS! And because that one refused to hate him; it changed Zacchaeus’ life.

Illus: Another one who was hated was the Lord Jesus. In Luke 15:1-2…

The tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Jesus was always getting in trouble with the “good” folks because he loved to be with people who were “not so good”.

Now he is on His way to the last trip He will make to Jerusalem. He is going to Jerusalem to die. He is just days away from death. And he passes through Jericho, the city where Zacchaeus lived, which was one of the greatest taxation centers in Palestine at that time.

The Romans had made Zacchaeus Chief Collector of the Taxes for the prosperous trade city of Jericho, just 17 miles from Jerusalem.

But the Jews hated the Lord Jesus because He did not believe or worship the way He did.