Luke 10:25-37
Luk
10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to
the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luk
10:26 He said to him, “What is written
in the Law? How do you read it?”
Luk
10:27 And he answered, “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, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luk
10:28 And he said to him, “You have answered
correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Luk
10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said
to Jesus, “And who
is my neighbor?”
Luk
10:30 Jesus replied, “A man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and
beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 Now by chance a priest was going
down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
Luk
10:32 So likewise a
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Luk
10:33 But a
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had
compassion.
Luk
10:34 He went to him
and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own
animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
Luk
10:35 And the next
day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him,
and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’
Luk
10:36 Which of these
three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the
robbers?”
Luk
10:37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The parable of the Good Samaritan is
familiar to us but its message is always for today and is a challenge to us.
Jesus was approached by a lawyer whose
occupation was to interpret the Law and make additional laws to ensure that the
Law was not violated. They were experts
at making life miserable with burdens God never intended for his people to
carry. He came to Jesus with a perhaps a prideful attitude and wanted Jesus to
know that he was a great example of one who kept the Law or possibly he came
with a sincere question. The question he
posed to Jesus was to find out who Jesus would say was truly his neighbor.
The scribe who asked this
question was in earnest. Jesus asked him what was written in the law, and then
said, "How do you read?" Strict orthodox Jews wore round their wrists
little leather boxes called phylacteries, which contained certain passages of
scripture--Exodus 13:1-10; Exodus 13:11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-20. "You will love the Lord your God" is from Deuteronomy 6:4 and Deuteronomy 11:13. So Jesus said to the scribe, "Look at the phylactery on
your own wrist and it will answer your question." To that the scribes
added Leviticus 19:18, which bids a man love his neighbour as himself; but with their
passion for definition the Rabbis sought to define who a man's neighbour was;
and at their worst and their narrowest they confined the word neighbour to
their fellow Jews. For instance, some of them said that it was illegal to help
a gentile woman in her sorest time, the time of childbirth, for that would only
have been to bring another gentile into the world. So then the scribe's
question, "Who is my neighbour?" was genuine. (William Barclay
Commentary on Luke)
When we look at the life of the
Samaritan we notice several things about his life.
1. He was a Samaritan. The Jews regarded the Samaritans as rebels
and they wanted nothing to do with them.
They were outcasts who were a mixed breed as they had married outside of
the Jewish nations. The strict Jew did
not want to have any association with a Gentile and because the Samaritans were
a mixture of Jew and Gentile they were rejected. Jesus used the Samaritan as an example to the
lawyer which gave even greater impact to his story. The lawyer would be comparing himself to
someone he rejected yet in the end would have to come to a conclusion that he
could not deny.
2. The Samaritan traveled alone and this was not a safe way to travel
on a road that was known for its robberies.
The road between Jerusalem and Jericho was called the “The Red or Bloody
Way”. It was a road with many twists and
turns which made it easy for robbers who hid behind the rocks to quickly jump
out and rob people. The Samaritan was
not using good judgment to travel alone on this 20 mile road. So as Jesus told the story, those listening
were probably making judgments about the Samaritan that reinforced their
prejudice against them and labeled this man as careless.
3. The Samaritan made himself available. The Levite and the Priest did not respond to
the need. They avoided making themselves
available to help the injured man. They were more concerned with violating the
Law which forbid them from touching a dead person if they wanted to stay
ceremonially clean. The priest would
lose his turn of duty at the Temple and would be unclean for 7 days.
4. The Samaritan was a risk taker.
When he saw the injured man on the road, he took a risk to help
him. The injured man could have been
faking his injury so that someone would come to aid him and then the robbers
who were part of the plan would jump out and rob the one who came to help. The Levite came a little closer than the
Priest but was not willing to do more than just look at the injured man. The
lawyer was probably thinking that the Samaritan was acting foolishly by taking
the risk but Jesus was emphasizing his courage to reach out to help someone who
was injured.
5. The Samaritan had compassion.
Maybe he saw himself in the injured man.
He could have been in the same situation and would have wanted someone
to help him. The word compassion means
more than just pity. It is a very strong
feeling, a yearning in the heart. It is
as though you see something that takes your breath away. It is more than a
reaction and has with it the desire to do something to aid the person in
trouble.
6. The Samaritan made his resources available to the injured
man. His material possessions of cloth,
oil, wine and his donkey were readily used to help the man. He used them to bandage the wounds as best he
could and transport him to a safe place where he could receive care until he
recovered.
7. The Samaritan was generous and trustworthy. He must have developed a relationship with
the Inn keeper that he could be trusted to pay whatever additional expenses
incurred. He went beyond what was expected of him to provide additional help in
his absence.
When Jesus finished telling the
story, it was obvious to the Lawyer who the true neighbor was but also what it
means to be a neighbor. The applications
to our lives should also be obvious.
1. At times we find ourselves
facing situations that we did not expect to encounter. We have the opportunity to make a response to
come to the aid of a person in need or we can make excuses or justify our lack of
involvement.
2. We can choose to make ourselves available to help someone in
need. If we are so set on our agenda or
schedule we will not give ourselves the option of stopping to help
someone. An act of kindness or
assistance may only take a moment of our time but if we do not have a mindset
that we are available we probably won’t do anything .
3. Involvement usually carries some amount of risk to ourselves.
Pulling someone out of a burning house or car is a high risk that few people
would be willing to take. In some
situations we may risk our health and safety.
Intervention is not always and easy task and may result in people
opposing what you are doing to help the person in need.
4. When we truly love our neighbor then having compassion toward them
in times of need should be a natural reaction and response. Love is an action word not just a feeling. We
can measure our love by the type of response we give to situation we
encounter. We must be able to put
ourselves in the situation the person is confronting and allow ourselves to
experience to some degree what they are feeling. If we were in the same situation they are
facing how would we want someone to respond to us?
5. A true neighbor will make their resources available to someone in
need. We will give what we can to help
them and give it immediately. For some
people delaying in giving often leads to not giving at all. It is not impulsive giving but spontaneous
giving from a generous and compassionate heart.
If God is the true owner of everything we have then it should not be
difficult to give away what he has given to us when he prompts us to do
so. An open hand is better than a closed
fist.
6. Another way we can help is by getting people the help they need. Connecting them to other people who are better
prepared and skilled in dealing with situations the person confronts is
important. Follow up care is a great way
to show compassion to others. Checking
up with them to see how they are doing is very meaningful to the person we are
helping.
Throughout this week of your
ministry with us you have seen people in need in many areas of life be it
physical, emotional, spiritual. You have
responded in love through the ministry you have given to the people and for this
we are very grateful.
As you return home I pray that
you will continue to reach out to people in need in your community and make
yourself available and do what God leads you to do to demonstrate his
compassion. We live in a broken world and
we have many opportunities to demonstrate the love of God.
