Luke 10:25-37 Just
then, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must
I do to inherit eternal life?” 26“What is written in the law?” he asked him.
“What do you read there?” 27He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and,
love your neighbor as yourself.” 28He said to him, “You have answered
correctly. Do this, and you will live.” 29But he wanted to justify himself, so
he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus replied, “A man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat
him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31It just so happened that a priest
was going down that way. But when he saw the man, he passed by on the other
side. 32In the same way, a Levite also happened to go there, but when he saw
the man, he passed by on the other side. 33A Samaritan, as he traveled, came to
where the man was. When he saw him, he felt sorry for the man. 34He went to him
and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He put him on his own
animal, took him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day, when he left,
he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of
him. Whatever extra you spend, I will repay you when I return.’ 36Which of
these three do you think acted like a neighbor to the man who fell among
robbers?” 37“The one who showed mercy to him,” he replied. Then Jesus told him,
“Go and do likewise.”
DON’T WALK ALONE ON A DANGEROUS ROAD
In the name of Jesus, the hero of the story, dear fellow
redeemed
I would imagine
that most of us have had the experience of walking on a road where we didn’t
feel very comfortable. Maybe there are
roads that you don’t like to travel on for all kinds of safety reasons. God’s word has a message for us today. DON’T WALK ALONE ON A DANGEROUS ROAD. Jesus tells the story of someone who got hurt
that way. Except the main point Jesus is
making is not about staying on street where no one will rob you and beat you up
or where you might get hit by a car.
Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan as he answers a question
about the road to heaven. Remember the
man came asking “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus makes clear that the road to heaven is
a dangerous road if we sinners are going to try to walk it alone. Don’t walk alone on a dangerous road.
“Just then, an
expert in the law stood up to test Jesus, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?” “Just then” always sets off the radar to ask, “what just
happened? Jesus had just been talking
with his disciples about the road to heaven, “the Kingdom of God.” He sent out 72 of his followers. They experienced joys and frustrations of
living and sharing the good news of the Savior in a sinful world. Through that whole experience they had their
hearts more and more centered on Jesus as the way to heaven. Jesus told his followers, "Blessed are
the eyes which see the things that you see; for I say unto you, “Many prophets
and kings desired to see the things that you see and hear." And along
comes a man who is thinking that he can walk the road to heaven without any
help. That is a dangerous road. If one is going to try to get right with God
on their own. Jesus reminds him what God requires. “What is written in the law?” he asked him.
“What do you read there?” He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and,
love your neighbor as yourself.” He said to him, “You have answered correctly.
Do this, and you will live.” Martin Luther wrote, “Christ shows him that he has
as yet done nothing, when he allowed himself to think he had done everything.” Yes, do this and you will live. The problem is that we have not and we
cannot.
But he wanted to
justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus makes clear that if he is trying to get
to heaven on his own he will need to keep the law. The man is bold enough to try to parse down
God’s law into what he thought would be a manageable bite. “Who is my neighbor?” I recently heard a joke about a conversation in
a jail conference room where the attorney tells the accused, “I have some good
news and some bad news.” “What’s the bad
news?” asks the accused. “The bad news
is, your blood
is
all over the crime scene, and the DNA tests prove you did it.” “What’s the good news?” “Your cholesterol is 130.” There isn’t much good news there. This lawyer might have thought he had done a
pretty good job of outwardly keeping some of God’s commands. But that was a little like having a good
cholesterol count when there is incriminating evidence all around.
In his love,
Jesus doesn’t just wave the man away and move on. Instead Jesus tries to get the man to see
that God expected perfection in every single interaction with God and with
every single person. He tells story that would probably have made the news
in our day. “A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went
away, leaving him half dead.” You would
think that someone would be easy to spot and could easily get help. Here comes a priest. “It just so happened that a priest was going
down that way. But when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.” Maybe we might think that he didn’t want to
take the chance of contaminating himself and thus not be able to serve on the
priestly duties that day. But he wasn’t
headed to Jerusalem he was headed away from Jerusalem, like the man who was
beaten up. Well maybe it was just a bad
apple and someone else will help. “In the same way, a Levite also happened to go
there, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.” We are looking for a hero here. The hero in Jesus story ends up being someone
no one would expert-a Samaritan. “A
Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was. When he saw him, he felt
sorry for the” man. He went to him and
bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He put him on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, when he left, he took
out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him.
Whatever extra you spend, I will repay you when I return.’
Jesus audience
never would have expected a Samaritan to be the hero in Jesus’ story. Racism and hatred are not brand new thoughts
to our world. At Jesus’ time, there was
bad blood between the Jews and Samaritans, even though they were related, which
went back over 700 years. When the
Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians they mixed everybody
up. They moved some of the people out to far away land, left
a few farmers behind and moved in new people.
They left behind a mixture of people and customs. When the remnant from
the South returned to Israel after their captivity in Babylon, the friction
began. In America we take pride in
calling ourselves the great melting pot, even though so often we don’t do very
well at getting along. The Jews and the Samaritans didn’t like the idea of a
melting pot and many hated each other. That’s why it probably took everyone by
surprise that a Samaritan was the hero in Jesus story.
Martin Luther King Jr once said, "I
imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was: 'If I stop to
help this man, what will happen to me?' The good Samaritan reversed the
question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” The Samaritan didn’t pass by on the other
side of the road. He stopped and
helped. He bandaged wounds. Put him on his own donkey and took him to an
inn. He paid for the injured man’s stay
and provided for his future care from his own pocket. By telling this story Jesus was trying to get
the man to see that God doesn’t just expect us to treat our family and friends
well. He expects us to love all people,
even our enemies. Who is our
neighbor? Everyone! It’s pretty easy for
me to be nice to my friends. It is quite
another for me to be nice to those who hate me- who have been mean to me. Truth be told I haven’t always been kind to my
friends and family-let alone showing kindness to those who hate me. If you honestly examined your life too, which
would you find selfishness or selflessness?
Would you find that you have passed by on the other side when you saw
someone in need? Would you find grudges
held tight? Those sins make traveling
alone on the way to heaven a dangerous road.
Those sins crush any hope of making it into heaven if we are traveling
alone.
Who is the hero in Jesus’ story-one who
sees someone in need and helps? Jesus is
the Good Samaritan. He saw our need. He
saw the damage sin did to us and he helped. He could have passed by on the
other side. Instead he traded places
with us. He put his perfect love on our
record. He took our selfishness and
callousness, our shame and hatred upon himself.
He bound up our wounds and provided for our eternal care in heaven.
That changes
everything! We don’t travel on the road
to heaven alone. Our substitute goes
with us. Our Savior’s loved changes the
way we treat others. We might think to
ourselves. But if I’m kind to others
that’s a dangerous road too because I might get taken advantage of. But our Savior goes with us. His compassion toward us opens our eyes
toward the needs of those around us. We
don’t have to think that there are so many people out there, I can’t help them
all. Help the people God puts in front
of us in our lives. God says, “as we
have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong
to the family of believers.” The Bible
says that God has prepared in advance good works for us to do. I wonder how many I missed along the
way. But my Savior and your Savior goes
with us. He helps us on the road to
heaven.
There is a quote
from Mother Teresa I saw the other day, “The greatest disease in the West today
is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can
cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness,
despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying
for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The
poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty
of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love and there is
a hunger for God. …I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is
sending a love letter to the world.”
Many people try to cure that hunger for God on their own like the man
who asked the question of Jesus. That’s
a dangerous road. But we know there is
one who stopped to help us. Yes, this
world is a dangerous place but we don’t walk alone. Jesus walks with us. One who showed compassion. One who showed love. Let’s show his love. Let’s share his love. Amen.
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