You might like to keep that passage open.
Sure, that's probably the habit of many of you.
I'm going to pray for us before we begin.
I'm going to ask God that he might help us as we get into his word.
He might open our hearts, that he might open our ears,
he might open his word to us.
So please pray with me.
Our Father, your word has so many great things for us to hear,
but my mouth is unworthy to speak of them
and our ears are unworthy to hear them.
So Lord, when we come here tonight and we open up your word,
we need your grace.
We need your generosity to us
to be a God who gives to people who don't deserve.
Lord, please do that tonight amongst us.
And we thank you so much for the assurance of your grace
that we've seen in your son Jesus,
giving not only his words,
but his life for people who didn't deserve it.
Lord, please be with us tonight.
I pray that you might help me to speak words,
only words that are true and helpful and glorifying to you.
And Lord, we pray all of this in the name of your son.
Amen.
Now, we just got married, as you heard before,
three months ago to the day,
which is very exciting for us.
We're living in Kate's parents' granny flat
until the end of the year,
which is an interesting place to live.
Now, occasionally, Kate's parents go away.
They do some stuff in Queensland,
and they're away right now,
which means that we can kind of take charge of the entire house,
which is really quite exciting.
We get to rein the whole property.
So we like to invade the upstairs of their house
when they go away,
and when we're on college holidays and stuff like that,
and set up a fortress at their dining table.
And we do really exciting and fun stuff there,
like study.
So we set up.
And this dining room is really cool
because you can kind of see
all the way to the back fence of the backyard.
You can see the driveway,
and then you can see the side fence as well.
So one day, a couple of weeks ago, actually,
we're sitting there, we're studying, working really hard,
and Kate looks up from the book that she's reading
to see a guy about 15 years old.
And he's walked up the vacant block,
up the hill in the vacant block next door,
and he's jumped over our fence.
He's kind of climbed over the fence
into our little carport area,
and he's kind of scooted up the driveway.
And Kate said,
there's a guy climbing over our fence
and going up our driveway.
And I was like, okay.
And Kate was like,
now you've got to understand,
Kate is the sweetest, loveliest, gentlest,
most patient and understanding girl ever.
And Kate sees this guy,
and she's like,
that's it.
I'm declaring war on teenagers everywhere.
And so she calls up her dad,
and she says,
we need to get the fence built higher
because there's 14-year-old kids
climbing over a fence onto our property.
They have no right to do this.
Who do they think they are?
This is our property.
And so I'm kind of thinking,
well, you know,
I'm sure this kid has good reasons.
He might have a long walk to get around.
And Kate said,
I don't care how far he has to walk.
He can't go on our property whatsoever.
And then as we kind of,
we calm down,
Kate picks up a book again
and goes back to writing her talk
on Matthew 5, 7.
Blessed are the merciful.
And then we both thought,
oh.
Now, I think I've actually misrepresented Kate.
I don't think she was as angry as that.
But I mean,
it makes for a good story.
Now, I haven't lived in the neighborhood
for very long.
I've lived there for three months.
I don't know who the people
who live on the street are yet.
I don't know who my neighbors are.
If it was the next door neighbor's kid
jumping the fence,
I'd be fine with that.
Because I grew up playing backyard cricket,
constantly hitting sixes and outs
over the next door neighbor's fence
and having to climb the fence
and go next door.
I understand what it's like
to be a kid in the neighborhood
chasing his tennis balls
around everyone's house.
Now, if it was the next door neighbor's kid
chasing his ball,
I'd be fine.
If they live near me,
it's fine.
But if they don't,
well, what are they doing
on my parents' property?
Now, where do you draw the line?
Where do you draw the line?
And as a Christian,
who do I have to be nice to
and who can I just forget about?
Where do you draw the line there?
Do I have to look after
every beggar that I see?
Do I have to soothe every baby
that I hear crying?
Do I have to pay every window cleaner
that I kind of pull up next to?
Where do you draw the line?
How close does a person
have to be to you
for you to be compassionate towards them?
So I guess what I'm still trying
to figure out on my street
and I guess more existentially
in my life is
who is my neighbor?
We know that question, don't we?
But exactly who is my neighbor?
Well, a man asked Jesus
the exact same question
in the passage that we just read.
And it's an important question.
It's important because it's asked
in the context of life and death,
heaven or hell.
Who inherits eternal life
and who doesn't?
It's an important question.
Who exactly is my neighbor?
Now there's a bit of a background clash
to the parable that Jesus tells you.
So if you look in verse 25
in your Bibles there,
there's an expert in the law,
a lawyer who comes up to Jesus
and he says,
what must I do
to inherit eternal life?
And it's a good question.
But the problem is,
he's trying to test Jesus.
Straight off,
we're dealing with a guy here
who doesn't really honestly
ask this question.
He just wants to satisfy himself
and prove himself to be right
in his own position.
And Jesus sees straight through that.
And he basically says,
okay, lawyer,
let's play your game.
What's written in the law
about this kind of thing?
And so the lawyer's response,
if you look in verse 27,
he says,
love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and all of your soul
and all of your strength
and with all of your mind
and love your neighbor
as yourself.
And Jesus says,
yeah, that's right.
If you do this,
you will live.
Do this and you will live
there in verse 28.
But you notice
that's all he says there.
He doesn't give any exceptions.
He doesn't say,
oh, well, yeah, yeah, yeah,
there's all that.
But really, you know,
if it's a Tuesday
and you've had four nights
sleep the night before,
I'll give you a break.
You know,
he doesn't leave any wiggle room.
He just says,
yes, that's it.
And so the lawyer
gets a little bit nervous.
He thinks, well, surely
there are people
who I don't have to love.
Surely there are people
who aren't my neighbors.
And so you remember
that he's trying
to test Jesus.
Now the shoe's
on the other foot.
He's the one
that looks bad.
He wants to justify himself
is what Luke says
in verse 29.
And so he asks Jesus,
and just who is
my neighbor then, Jesus?
If I need to love
my neighbor,
who is that?
Back on you.
You've got to do
the accusing now.
And so Jesus,
to answer that question,
he tells a story.
It's a famous story.
We know it really well.
It's enshrined in,
what do you call it?
Stained glass window
right over here.
You can check it out
after the service
if you like.
It's quite a nice window.
There you go.
It's very colorful.
Jesus tells a story
about a man
who goes down
from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Now when we say that,
Jericho's actually
north of Jerusalem,
but we're going down
because Jerusalem's
on a massive mountain.
And so they're coming down.
Now it's a gnarly road.
It's a really rough road
that goes from Jerusalem
to Jericho.
It descends
a thousand meters
in altitude,
a kilometer in altitude,
all in about 27 kilometers.
And there are bandits
hiding in caves everywhere
just waiting to come out
and get you.
Now have you ever been
on a road like that?
I was on a road
similar to that one.
So when I was in year 11,
I went to South Africa
for a couple of weeks.
We were going to be picked up
by some friends
from the airport
in Cape Town,
but our plane was delayed.
We got delayed in Perth
by about four or five hours
because, well,
they never told us
why we had to stop in Perth
and maybe someone
lost the keys
to the plane or something.
Anyway,
we get delayed
for hours and hours and hours
and we miss our connecting
flight in Johannesburg
and so we get to Cape Town
at midnight.
We were supposed to get there
while the sun was still up
and we're really late.
And so we're like,
I said to my friend,
we've got to get in touch
with Scott
because he's got to come
and pick us up.
So I'm looking around
everywhere for a pay phone.
I find a pay phone
and look in my wallet
and realise,
I don't have any
South African money.
I just have travellers checks
and 25 cents Australian.
So there I am trying
to ram Australian coins
into this South African pay phone
when a security guard
notices us
and our stupidity
and he comes over
and gives us 25 rand cents
or whatever they are.
And so we call Scott
and we say,
Scott,
we're at the airport,
we're late,
you've got to come
pick us up.
Scott,
and so he says,
yeah,
okay.
And then we hear
some talking,
some kind of heated
discussion in the background
and so Scott's kind of
talking to his wife
about whether or not
it's a good idea
to come and pick us up
at this hour.
And I said,
Scott,
what's going on?
And he said,
oh,
it's alright,
it's alright.
We're going to come
and pick you up.
It's just,
you know,
Hayley and I
are a little bit worried
because the road
from the airport
goes through
Kailicha.
Dun,
dun,
dun.
Now,
if you've never
heard of Kailicha,
Kailicha is like
a massive,
large parts of it
or a massive slum
all in this big part
of Cape Town.
It's got about
2.1 million people
living there
and it's really,
really super dangerous.
Now,
Cape Town,
two months ago
in August,
Cape Town was rated
the fifth deadliest
city in the world.
Now,
the area that we
had to drive through
to get out of the airport
is responsible
for 35%
of the carjacking
in the fifth most
deadliest city
in the world
and that's our road
that we're going to go through.
Now,
picture that.
That's our road here.
It's a road where people
get carjacked
and mugged
and all that kind of stuff
and it happens to this guy
who's going down
from Jerusalem
to Jericho.
It says,
when he fell into
the hands of robbers,
they stripped him
of his clothes,
beat him
and went away
leaving him half dead.
Now,
a priest
just happens
to be going
down that road
and he sees
the beaten man.
Now,
the priest
is like the pillar
of religion
in Jewish society.
He works at the temple
in Jerusalem.
He's the guy
responsible
for making sacrifices
for your evil deeds
so that you can be okay.
He's God's servant
in the world
and it just so happened
that he's going
by and you think,
oh,
he happens upon
this man,
he's been beaten.
You think,
oh yeah,
help is around
the corner
and then he just
walks past
on the other side
and then
a Levite
comes along.
A Levite
is kind of like
the priest's assistant
and you kind of think,
oh well,
you know,
snooty priest,
high and mighty
above all the regular people.
The Levite,
he's a bit closer
to the common man
so,
you know,
he's got his finger
on the pulse
of the people,
he's going to come along,
he's going to help
and he just walks past.
Now,
these guys worked
in Jerusalem
but evidently
there were so many
priests and Levites
at the time
that not all of them
lived in Jerusalem.
They kind of had to
commute to Jerusalem.
We know what that's like.
Now,
if you notice,
they're coming down
from Jerusalem,
they're heading away
from Jerusalem.
They're not going to work
and they're not in a hurry,
they're going home.
There's nothing
that they have to
worry about
being late for.
They're just
kind of leisurely going
on their home
after a day's work.
They have no,
there's no reason
given in the text for us
that they walked by,
they just went
without excuse.
Now,
Jewish society
and Australian society
are really different
in so many ways
between
first century
Jewish society
and 21st century
Australian society
but
there is one thing
that they have in common
which I think is really cool.
They love
the underdog.
We love the underdog.
They love the underdog
back in the first century
in the Jewish world.
Now,
we love
trashing
famous people
and our leaders
and all that kind of stuff.
There's just something
inherently Australian
about that
tall poppy syndrome.
Every day
when the little person
triumphs,
we celebrate that.
Now,
it was the same
in Jewish society.
Apparently,
they had this way
of telling stories
where they'd grab
two big time
kind of central figures
in Jewish society,
two big celebrities
and they'd tell a story
about how those two people
fail
and then this everyday
Jewish guy,
kind of your everyday
Sam or whatever,
he succeeds.
So,
say you've got a woman
who has some kind of
problem or dilemma
and she can't solve it.
Now,
the king comes along,
fail,
he can't solve the problem
and a prophet comes along,
fail,
he can't solve the problem
and then your everyday
Goldstein guy
comes along
and he has the problem,
he has a solution
for the problem.
It's amazing.
Triumph of the little guy,
it's great.
Now,
that's a typical Jewish way
of telling stories.
Now,
if you've had this priest
come past,
fail,
Levite comes past,
he fails,
your audience,
the Jewish lawyer
and all the people
around him
are thinking,
oh,
I know this one.
This is where an everyday guy
like me comes along
and saves the day.
Now,
you can imagine their shock
when Jesus bursts
that little daydream bubble
with the next person
who comes along
who isn't your Jewish battler.
He's a Samaritan.
Now,
you've got to realise,
Jews and Samaritans
aren't the best of friends.
Because this parable
has been told
for 2,000 years,
we've kind of come
to associate Samaritan
with good stuff.
You know,
we've got the charity
Samaritan's Purse.
When we hear Samaritan,
we think good person.
In actual fact,
in the first century,
Jews and Samaritans
hated each other.
The Samaritans
set up a rival religion
to the Jews
in Jerusalem
and they claim
that it's the only true,
pure way
to worship God.
And if you're a Jew,
that is a slap
in the face
in the first century.
And so,
from the Jewish perspective,
they say,
no, no, no,
we've got the temple,
God lives with us.
These Samaritans
are liars.
They're sinful.
They're evil.
And so,
they absolutely hate
the Samaritans.
And you see that
at the end of the story.
You get to the point
where the lawyer
gets to the point
where he can't even
say the word Samaritan.
He has to substitute
the one who had mercy.
We'll come to that
a bit later on.
Now,
the Samaritan person
is the hated one,
the distrusted one,
the outcast one.
Now,
who is that
when you look at Sydney?
Who's that in Sydney?
Is that the person
with the kind of
painted black face
on hey-hey?
Or is it the person
whose colour
is a little bit
harder to wash off?
Is it the sex offender
in Sydney?
Is it the loud,
violent teenager
from another country?
Who is that in Sydney?
The person who is hated,
distrusted,
and outcast
in our society.
Plonk that person
in your mind
in this story.
And then look
at what this person
does.
Have a look at
verse 33
through to 35.
Now,
I want you to
kind of,
with your eyes,
this might be hard
to do unless you've
got x-ray vision,
just kind of circle
with your eyes
every time you see
a verb in these verses.
Now,
you remember the verbs
from English?
They're doing words
like go.
Now,
have a look at this.
In verse 33,
I'll read it.
Have a look for your verbs.
But as the Samaritan
travelled,
but a Samaritan,
as he travelled,
came where the man was
and when he saw him,
he took pity on him.
He went to him
and bandaged his wounds,
pouring oil and wine
and then,
he put the man
on his own donkey,
he took him to an inn
and took care of him.
The next day,
he took out two silver coins
and he 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 had.
You've got the priest
and the Levite
who just walk past,
walk past
and that's all they do.
But the Samaritan
does not stop doing.
He just gives
and does
and cares
and pours
and looks after
and takes
and reimburses
all the way through there.
He doesn't stop.
Luke is at pains
to draw this out
that this guy
is an action man.
He just keeps going.
And you remember,
this Samaritan
is,
in the Jewish mind,
the dirtiest,
the lowest,
the most hated.
Now,
Jesus asked in verse 36
to the lawyer
that he's talking to,
which of these three
do you think was
the neighbour?
And the lawyer
is so disgusted,
so unwilling
to accept the premise
of what Jesus
is suggesting here
that,
as we said,
he doesn't even say
Samaritan,
he just says,
oh,
the guy who had mercy on him.
Now,
that's the story.
So,
what's Jesus
telling this lawyer guy?
What's he trying
to teach here?
Well,
there are two big questions
that we came across in there
and there's two big lessons,
I think.
And the first one
isn't the one
that jumps out at you
the fastest
and the most dramatically.
It wasn't the first one
that jumped out at me.
But it has to do
with that first question
that the lawyer asks
up in verse 25.
Teacher,
what must I do
to inherit eternal life?
The first lesson
that this lawyer
needs to learn
is actually
from the man
in the ditch.
This lesson
is that he needs
to accept
compassion.
And that's exactly
what this lawyer
didn't get.
He didn't get
that he had to accept
compassion,
mercy,
love
from someone else.
Now,
have a look at
what he suggests
that the law says
he has to do
to inherit eternal life
in verse 27.
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
mind,
soul,
strength,
and love your neighbour
as yourself.
Now,
the first one,
loving God,
that's exactly what
every Jew,
it's called the Shema,
it comes from
Deuteronomy 6.5,
it's what every Jew
had to say,
recite every day.
He knew it backwards.
And the second one there
is from Leviticus 19.18,
love your neighbour
as yourself.
They are deeply ingrained
in what it means
to be a Jew
who lives by the law.
Now,
this is the one thing
that I think he's forgotten.
Those laws that he quoted
to Jesus
were given to God,
given by God
to Israel
and they assume
that something
has already happened.
You remember the story
back in Exodus.
God brings Israel
out of Egypt,
out of slavery
and brings them
into a new land
and he gives them
these laws.
Now,
when these instructions
were given,
God had already
saved them
from slavery.
He'd already delivered them,
already given them life.
These instructions
that God gave them,
love me,
love your neighbours,
were a response
to what God
had already done.
The mercy
and compassion
and love
and generosity
that he'd already
give them.
These laws
were never a way
to say,
please God,
save us.
They were always
meant to be a way
of saying,
God,
thank you
for saving us.
thank you
for drawing us out.
Now we belong
to you.
They were never
a way
to get salvation.
They were never
a way
to impress God
or get his favour.
They were always
a way of saying,
thank you
for having mercy
on me.
Thank you
for having compassion
on me
and rescuing me
when I'd done
nothing
to earn that.
Obedience
is not a please.
It's a thank you.
Thank you,
God,
for your generosity.
So if you believe
God has done
something for you,
had compassion
on you,
been generous
towards you,
then you'll live
a life of obedience.
But the lawyer
didn't get that.
He didn't get
that forgiveness,
adoption,
new life,
eternal life
are available
as a free gift
from God.
That they're given
when you come
to Jesus
and you say,
I belong to you.
Now,
refusing to keep
those commands
to love God
and to love others
is like turning
around to God
and saying,
you've done
nothing for me.
You've done
nothing.
And that's
where the lawyer
is at.
Jesus says to him,
the neighbours
that you're supposed
to love
in that command,
love your neighbours,
they're not
just your buddies.
They're not
just Christians
or in that day
followers of God,
Yahweh.
They're not
just people
who obey
the laws
of our society.
They're people
like the Samaritan
who normally
you hate
with everything
that you're
made of.
But the lawyer
can't accept that.
And you can see
once again
by the way
that he answers
Jesus in the end,
he just does not
accept that he
has to love
the Samaritan,
people who are
different from him.
He can't do it.
And he's
effectively saying
to God,
whatever you may
have done for me,
whatever you may
be offering me,
it's not enough
for me
to love people
like that.
He doesn't
get
that love,
obedience,
compassion
aren't a please.
They're a thank you
God for what
you've done
for me.
And if you've
done this for me,
I'll do anything
for you.
So what about you?
The rest of the book
of Luke goes on
and tells us about
how Jesus is like
that Samaritan.
He came into this
world because he
has compassion.
He looked at us
and saw the pain
and the injustice
and the brokenness
and the unhappiness
of this world,
the sinfulness
of this world
and how it's
become lost
from God.
And he saw
that that was
caused by our
self-centeredness,
by a history
of something like
12 billion people
apparently who have
ever lived,
who have chosen
to live without
God.
And so look
around at the
results of that
in our world
today.
Not only that,
but God waits
to judge mankind
for rejecting
him.
Jesus saw us
there on that
road,
keeled up
and waiting
to die.
And he had
compassion and
brought healing.
He brought
healing by living
a perfect,
God-centered,
God-loving,
others-loving
life and
then dying
as a
criminal,
complete opposite.
And when he
died,
he took all
of our guilt
to himself
and with
himself into
the ground.
And when he
came back
from the dead,
he defeated
the power,
the ownership,
the slavery
that sin has
over us.
And now he
offers us a new
start.
We are not a
slave to
selfishness anymore.
You can
escape that.
You can
escape a
life which
is just about
empty gain
and clawing at
other people
so that you
get stuff
before you
die.
Now that's
that first
lesson there
for the lawyer
that he didn't
get, but we
have to get
it.
Loving your
neighbor is
not what you
do to earn
eternal life.
It's what
you do to
say thank
you to
the God
who gives
freely.
What do
you do when
you know
that God
has shown
mercy to
you?
If you
believe that,
you say
thanks.
Romans 12
1 says,
in view of
God's mercy,
offer yourself
as a living
sacrifice.
If there's
no obedience
in our
lives,
there's no
compassion in
our lives,
there's no
loving our
neighbors,
it's like
we're saying
to Jesus,
you've done
nothing for
me.
Now that
was the
first big
lesson there
for us,
and it came
from that
question,
what I've
got to do
to inherit
eternal life.
The big
lesson for
us was we
need to
learn how
to accept
God's
compassion.
Now there's
another big
question there
remember as
well.
who is
my
neighbor?
You
remember
that from
verse 29.
Now there's
another big
lesson that
kind of
matches up
with this
question.
And that
big lesson
for us is
that we
need to
be
compassionate.
We need
to love
our neighbor.
Let me
explain that.
Now we're
learning this
one from
the Samaritan
who was a
neighbor to
the man in
the ditch.
Now the
lawyer has
asked the
question,
he's looking
for a bare
minimum,
who is my
neighbor?
But Jesus
gives him
a different
answer.
Now a
neighbor,
we have to
think of
a neighbor as
someone close
by.
But these
days I think
because we
live in
streets,
which they
didn't
necessarily
live in
in the
camp when
Israel was
in the
desert,
when they
started
thinking about
this in
Leviticus 19.
Because we
live in
streets,
we tend to
think of
our neighbors
as the
people on
that same
row.
And it
kind of has
the same
meaning because
they're the
people who
live close
to us.
But back
in Leviticus
19,
when we're
talking about
neighbors,
we're talking
about all
the people
who are
close to
us,
not just
the people
who we
share a
fence with.
And we
don't really
think about
this with our
neighbors on
our streets
these days,
but the
force behind
that word
when the
Bible uses
neighbor is
the person
who is in
your inner
circle,
the person
who is in
your in
group,
the people
who are
closest around
you.
We certainly
don't think
that way about
most of our
neighbors these
days.
Now,
it's a little
bit like
when we
started school,
the way that
the Bible
thinks about
neighbors.
When you
started school,
you didn't
kind of go
around,
well,
at least this
wasn't the
case for me.
I didn't go
around and
look at
everyone and
look through
their bag and
see if they
had a pool
and look at
their dad's
car and if it
was fun to
ride around
with.
I used to
like arm
rest in
cars.
It made me
feel like I
was in a
spaceship.
I didn't
check out
when my
friends'
dads had
cars with
armrests
before I
decided to
be their
friend.
See,
when you're
in school,
you rock up.
You don't
know anybody.
The first day
you go to
kindergarten or
if you change
schools when you
go to high
school,
in year seven,
that first day
you don't know
anyone.
And so you're
just praying that
you get to sit
next to someone
at lunchtime and
you're going to
hold on to those
people for the
next six to
twelve years and
they're your
friends.
And that
becomes your
group,
the phenomenon
of a group
in school.
That's how
they're formed.
They're just the
people that you
happen to be
sitting next to
that particular
first day and
they become your
friends for the
next six years.
Now that's kind
of the way
neighbours work
in the Bible.
They're the
people that
you're close
to.
They're the
people that
are around
you in your
everyday life
and not
necessarily
because you
just assess
them upon
how good
friends they
might be.
They're just
the people
who are nearby
and so they
become the
people who are
part of your
inner
circle of
friends.
The people
that are
with you,
the people
that you
love and
take care of
and cherish.
That's what
we're thinking
about when
we're talking
about neighbours
in the
Bible.
And the
lawyer is
saying,
listen,
who is that
for me?
Who am I
supposed to
be taking
care of?
Who is in
that inner
circle for
me?
Because really
I just want
to focus on
them and
forget about
everybody else.
Who is
supposed to
be my
neighbour?
Who I'm
supposed to
love?
And you
notice that
Jesus changes
the question
a little bit
towards the
end of the
parable.
Have a look
down in
verse 36.
Now compare
this to what
the guy
originally asked
in verse 29.
Who is my
neighbour?
By the time
we get down
to verse 36,
Jesus says
something a
little bit
different.
Which of
these three,
so the
priest,
the Levite
and the
Samaritan,
do you think
was a neighbour
to the man
who fell in
the hands
of robbers?
Now we're
not talking
about who
is my
neighbour
anymore.
Jesus has
changed the
question.
Who are you
going to be
a neighbour
to?
Jesus isn't
thinking about
who's that
select few
people that
have been
close to you
for a little
while that
you're going
to think
about loving
and you're
going to
make sure
you take
care of
them.
He's blown
it wide
open and
he's now
saying,
now who
are you
going to
be a
neighbour
to?
Who are
you going
to treat
as if
they are
in your
inner circle?
Who are
you going
to speak
to just
as if
they were
your closest?
Who are
you going
to have
compassion
on just
as if
they were
your closest
friends?
Being a
neighbour
means
treating
people even
enemies
Samaritans
as those
people who
are in
your
group
click
circle
and amongst
many things
compassion is
how we treat
our closest
friends,
isn't it?
If we hear
that our
friend is
sick or
if there
is massive
tragedy in
the family
of one of
our particularly
close friends,
we're prepared
to drop
stuff for
that,
aren't we?
We're prepared
to drop
our business
to be there
for them,
to let
things that
we're working
on be
late,
to let
them not
get done
because we're
prepared to
have compassion
on them.
Now that's
what we're
talking about
when Jesus
says,
who are you
going to
be a
neighbour
to?
Who are
you going
to extend
your
closeness
to?
And we're
not talking
about everyone
in the world
being your
closest friend
with whom
you share
everything
about you,
but who
are you
going to
extend
the
compassion
that you
would have
on your
closest
people
to?
Who are
you going
to be
a neighbour
to?
Kate and
I know
a family
very well
actually,
in which
there's been
a lot of
strife.
Two brothers
are involved.
One brother
was looking
after a bunch
of cash
for missionaries
and this
guy decided
that,
well,
to make
some more
money for
these
missionaries
and really
impress them
and support
them,
I'm going
to invest
it in
some really
high-risk
investments
and he
loses
everything.
But he
doesn't tell
anybody
because he
doesn't get
in trouble.
So he
looks for
ways to
get it
back.
He looks
for other
risky
business
ventures
and business
ventures
are even
riskier than
that,
to try and
get this
money back
so no one
will find
out.
But someone
does find
out,
the Sydney
Morning
Herald
finds out
on the
front page
and so
it gets
blown wide
open.
So this
guy and his
family get
torn apart
but his
brother at
that point
has a
choice,
has to
say normally
in our
society it
would be
understandable
for me to
disown this
brother of
mine,
to say that
he's not
my brother
anymore,
that he's
not part of
this family
anymore.
That happens
in society
and no
one seems
to wave
their finger
at that,
it's
acceptable.
He could
do that.
But instead
he takes
his brother
and his
brother's
immediate
family and
he cares
for them,
he houses
them,
he has
them over
to be in
his family
and he
calls this
man still
brother.
brother,
he extends
his
compassion
to someone
who does
not deserve
it.
That's the
question Jesus
asks,
who are you
a neighbour
to?
Who do you
extend your
compassionate arms
out to even
though they
don't deserve
it?
Now sometimes
it is very
hard to be
compassionate,
isn't it?
It's strange
but it's true.
It's strange
because we
kind of associate
compassion with
something,
some tug of
your heart
that irresistibly
pulls you
towards somebody
and you
can't control
it.
That's compassion,
it's an emotion.
But it is
hard because
sometimes we
feel alongside
the tug of
compassion,
we feel the
tug of
busyness and
inconvenience and
not knowing
quite how to
help and
well just
greed and
laziness.
Being compassionate
is a hard
thing a lot
of the time.
sometimes you
need a bit
of a nudge
to get on
and do
hard things
which strangely
enough is why
two young
teenage guys
recently wrote
a book called
Do Hard
Things,
great title.
I don't know
if you've
read this
book,
has anyone
read this
book Do
Hard
Things?
There you
go,
I can tell
you whatever
I like.
I think
it's a fair
enough book,
it came from
a couple of
teenage guys
who looked
around at
their generation
and said
huh,
you know
we really
don't do
much apart
from study
and Playstation
and then they
looked around
at society
and they
thought huh,
you know society
doesn't actually
expect much
of us apart
from study
and Playstation
and maybe
taking out
the trash.
That might be
an unfair
caricature of
you if you're
a teenager
so I really
apologise.
But they
wrote a book
to say hey
let's pick
some hard
good things
to do.
Things that
aren't just
study,
that aren't
just recreation
and that aren't
just doing
what our parents
kind of asked
us to do
around the
house.
Let's pick
some big
stuff.
Let's pick
some across
the country
stuff.
Let's pick
some stuff
that's not
getting done
by anybody
else and
do it.
And so they
write this
book to
encourage young
people and
all the like
to get on
and do that
kind of stuff.
Now if you
ask me I
think at
certain times
the book
probably goes
a little bit
too far
down the
line of
the best
thing you
can do
with your
life is
just be
productive.
But apart
from that
they have
one section
kind of
like a
third of
the book
which is
I think
really good.
It's got
some helpful
stuff.
It's called
five kinds
of hard
things.
Five kinds
of hard
things that
there are
in the world
to do.
They say
there are
hard things
that take
you outside
your comfort
zone.
There are
hard things
that go
beyond what's
expected or
required of
you.
there are
hard things
that are too
big for you
to do by
yourself.
There are
hard things
that don't
pay off
immediately
and there
are also
hard things
that go
against the
crowd.
So we've
got outside
of comfort
zone, beyond
what's expected,
too big for
you to do
alone.
Excuse me.
They don't pay
off immediately
and they
go against
the crowd.
And obviously
you've got a
mix of those
things and a
lot of
different things
we look
around and
think are
hard.
Now do
they sound
familiar to
you?
Because they
sound familiar
to me.
Because they
are five
reasons why
I'm not
compassionate.
Because
sometimes
showing compassion
to someone
who I see
on the way
from A to
B, someone
on the street,
someone in a
fight with
somebody, you
see these
people and
you think
well it's
just outside
of my
comfort zone.
I don't
want to get
involved in
that.
Sometimes I
think well
no one really
expects me to
do this, to
help here, to
give there, to
give time
somewhere else.
No one expects
me to do that
so I can get
away with not
doing it.
It's too big
for me to do
alone.
I can't fix
the problems
of the Dalit
caste in
India, the
untouchables, who
it's an insult
for their shadow
to fall on other
people in the
country.
That's too
big for me to
fix by myself.
So I won't
worry about that.
They don't pay
off immediately.
I won't even
see the end of
this problem
before I die.
And they go
against the
crowd.
You know how
bad I'm going
to look if I
associate with
this guy, if I
break off from
my friends to
go over there
and be with
that woman.
now if those
things do sound
familiar to you
as they do
to me, then
we need to
remember the
cross of
Jesus.
We need to
remember that
that was hard.
We need to
remember how
generous Jesus
was to bleed
away for us.
we need to
remember that
when he was
nailed to that
cross, our
sin and fear
of being
lowered in
society and
our selfishness
and greed and
unwillingness to be
compassionate was
nailed with him
up there.
and we need to
remember that
when he came
back to life, he
gave us new
life in his
image, his
perfect God
loving image and
he gives us the
strength to go
on being
compassionate,
being merciful and
loving, to
break those
hard barriers of
comfort zones and
expectations and
too big to do
alone.
He breaks
that.
Now, time and
time again, when I
talk to people who
don't know Jesus
and I ask them
what they think
about Christianity,
what they think
about the church,
time and time
again, what
surprises me and
disappoints me is
they can tell me a
lot more about what
the church is
against than
what it's for.
Now, let's
break that, eh?
Let's break that
perception.
Now, I know a lot
of it is because the
devil really doesn't
want the world to
realise that Jesus'
people are his and
are like him and
will change the
world on his
behalf through his
spirit.
But at the same
time, let's not
give people a
reason to think
that the church
isn't for helping
people, that the
church isn't for
going out of its
way, that the
church isn't really
about being
generous.
Let's stop people
from having that
excuse to think
that way.
What's the last
verse in the
passage that was
read out to us?
Go and do
likewise.
Why don't we
pray?
Our Lord Jesus,
when we look at
your life and
your death and
your resurrection,
we're blown away
by the
generosity and
the compassion
that you've had
on us.
And Lord, we
praise you for
the new life that
we have in you
and how through
your spirit you
are making us
in your image.
Lord, we pray
that we might
step out this
week looking
like you in
how compassionate
we are, in
turning away from
the temptations
that we don't
need to be
compassionate and
the fears of
how difficult
being compassionate
is sometimes.
And Lord, we
pray that as we
reflect on the
gospel of how
you've saved us,
that you would
drive us out
to live as
people who
love you with
all of our
heart and our
soul and our
mind and our
strength and
who love our
neighbours.
Amen.
Let's pray will
pray 2 and
pray 2 again.
Thank you.