SUMMER
SERMON SERIES: 5TH COMMANDMENT
July
9-11, 2016
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Luke 10:30-37
“ANOTHER REASON I NEED JESUS:
TOO OFTEN I AM NOT THE GOOD SAMARITAN!”
Luke 10:30-37
(NIV 1984) In reply Jesus
said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the
hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away,
leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same
road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So
too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other
side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and
when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey,
took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out
two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said,
‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36“Which
of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of robbers?” 37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy
on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The 5th Commandment
protects God’s blessing of life. It’s very basic wording, “You shall not
murder,” exposes many blatant sins going on in our country. Police officers are
murdered while protecting people. Babies are murdered in the womb when a mother
chooses to believe unborn lives don’t matter. Milwaukee is a hub for devaluing
human life in the sex trafficking of young women. Young people are harming
their own lives with heroin epidemic. But those are the low hanging fruit, the
easy to see sins against the 5th Commandment. Remember, God gave
that commandment to help you and me see why we need Jesus too. And it most
certainly does that when you grasp what Jesus taught in the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is
still one of the better known parables in the Bible. Think of the “Good
Samaritan” laws many states have to protect those who stop to help others. The
term “Good Samaritan” is used to describe a do gooder, someone who helps
others. Most people don’t know the
context of the parable of the Good Samaritan, the reason Jesus told that
parable. But you do. You heard it as the first part of the Gospel lesson. An
expert in the law was feeling pretty good about himself, good enough to take
Jesus on. He had a smug question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus reminded the man he already knew the answer. He gave the simple summary
of all of God’s commands. Love God first with all you have and love other
people, treat them just the same way you do yourself. Be as concerned about
their physical well being as you are your own. Do that perfectly all the time
and you’ve earned eternal life. The expert realized the impossibility of what
Jesus had said. He knew he could not do that so he asked the “Give me a break”
question. Just who is my neighbor? Seriously. God can’t expect us to treat
everyone with love. My neighbor must be the people it’s easy to be nice to.
That’s why Jesus told the parable of
the Good Samaritan. It was to help this expert see he needed a Savior from sin.
That’s how the parable helps us too. A man got beaten up and robbed. He is
stripped naked and half dead. He cannot help himself. Good thing for him a
priest walks by. I guess if we wanted to modernize the parable to St. Jacobi we
would say a pastor or teacher from our school walks by. Someone so close to the
word of God would certainly help. But instead of helping the priest crosses to
the other side and hurries on his way. Next, a Levite does the same thing. He
would be like someone who helped with the work at the church, say one of the
Councilmen, Elders or Sunday School teachers, again one you would expect to be the
first to help. He too deliberately crosses to the other side and hurries off.
Now before we get too incensed at their behavior can you maybe relate? We’re not
told why they did what they did. Maybe they were afraid that the robbers were
still around. Maybe they thought the man was faking and it was a trap. Maybe
church was starting soon and other people were waiting for them. Maybe.
Then a Samaritan came by. The Jews of
Jesus day did not like Samaritans. They
were not purely Jewish people. They didn’t belong in the country. They had some
Bible beliefs mixed with some idol worship. They had the audacity to think that
the Messiah would come for them too. Jews did not like Samaritans and
Samaritans did not like Jews. If you want to relate, is there an ethnic group
you’d like to think of? Yet this Samaritan sees the beaten robbed helpless man
and has pity on him. His compassion moves him to action. He takes care of the
immediate need, took him to an inn for ongoing care and promised to pay for any
additional expenses in the future. A good Samaritan indeed! How it must have
hurt the expert in the law to admit that
the only one who had truly loved his neighbor
was the Samaritan. He couldn’t even identify him that way. “The one who
had mercy,” he said. “Go and do likewise,” Jesus said. And if the man was
listening he went away realizing he needed Jesus.
So do I. So do you. Brothers and
sisters how hard it is to truly love all others. We can be pretty good at
loving some others. Parents will sacrifice for their children. If you have a
really good friend you are probably pretty good at loving them. It’s easy to be
neighborly when you have good neighbors. But all others, even if they don’t deserve
it? A few weeks ago I took a summer school class at the Seminary entitled “Medical
Decisions and Dilemmas in End-of-Life Care.” Here is one of the scenarios we
discussed. A 39 year old woman, the mother of three, was asked by her brother
to donate a kidney to him. He had diabetes and his kidneys were failing. The
woman was scared, nervous and did not really want to donate a kidney but
thought it was the Christian thing to do. I should tell you that this brother
had never really taken care of himself, never followed the doctors ‘recommendations
on controlling his diabetes. He lived with his dad and let his dad take care of
him. What do you think she should do? What would you do? Then he asked us, “Would
your advice change if the brother had taken care of himself? If he had done all
the right things? He caught me. You know at first you are thinking, “Why should
this bum get another kidney if he already wasted two?” Then if you thought he
was worth it your thinking might change. Now there isn’t a right or wrong
answer about the kidney, when we found out that the mother of the this brother
and sister had also died from diabetes we figured she had better think long and
hard about her own future as well as those three children but how easy it was
to love the brother who took care of himself and not the one who didn’t! We
need Jesus because too often we are not the Good Samaritan, people who truly
love all others.
Now the good news is we don’t just
need Jesus as a Savior. We have Him! Someone once said that if you are reading
one of the parables and there is someone in one that doesn’t make sense, that
acts in a way a normal person would not you are likely to find a picture of
God. Take another look at the Good Samaritan. Who does that? Who helps a
complete stranger who is his enemy at considerable cost to himself, takes care
of immediate and future needs and asks for nothing in return? Nobody does that.
Nobody, that is but Jesus! We were beaten down by the wages of sin, helpless to
help ourselves. Not just us but all people. Without being asked or begged by us
Jesus went to the cross. There He gave Himself to provide immediate blessing in
the knowledge of our sins forgiven and our future needs by giving us heaven.
Jesus is the only one who perfectly loved all others. And yes, He did that for
those who never say thank you, who continue to live selfishly, who reject Him
and mock the sacrifice He made. Only Jesus loves others perfectly. Jesus is the
Good Samaritan for us.
Sometimes you wish Jesus’ parables
would go on. What happened to the beaten man? Did he ever get a chance to thank
the Good Samaritan? Did his life change? Actually the parable does go on, doesn’t
it? Only we each get to write our own ending. Will we thank our Good Samaritan
Jesus? Will we think of what He did for us when we get a chance to help someone
else? When a kid at school needs a friend or a defender? When a neighbor needs
a helping hand? When a plan is proposed or laws passed will we think of how it
affects others as much as how it affects us? We can. We can because we need
Jesus as Savior and we have Him. He said
“By this everyone will know that you are
my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35) Go and do likewise! Amen.
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