You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.
Let me acknowledge something as we get going this morning, and that is, if it's hot in this room,
you know it's gotten hot outside. It doesn't get hot in this room very easily, and it is
warm this morning. I see your bulletins doing this every time I look out.
But that's how hot it's getting outside these days. We come this morning in our study of Luke
to one of the most famous stories that Jesus ever told, the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Good Samaritan is fairly common lingo now, right? This story has been picked up in churches and
culture, and we know what a Good Samaritan is. It's very familiar to us. In fact, it's so familiar
that we could be tempted to think we know the point of the story already. And in fact, that
may well not be true. We may only really know part of the story. You'll notice as we read this morning
that Jesus tells this famous story as part of a larger conversation that goes well beyond helping
the poor into issues of the law of God, life after death, all sorts of things. So note that broader
context as we read about Jesus' conversation with a lawyer, a religious leader, teacher of God's law.
It's in Luke 10 at verse 25. This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible word.
Behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying,
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is written in the law? How do
you read it? 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. And he said to
him, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, desiring to justify himself,
said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? 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.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion.
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. 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. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?
He said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise.
Pray with me as we look to God's word together.
Father, we know this is your word.
So we ask for your spirit to come
and to teach us. We know that you delight to do that.
And so we come to it expectantly.
Expectant that you'll show us more of yourself.
That you'll show us more of our hearts.
And especially that you will show us more of Jesus.
As we know that's what your word does.
Speak to us this morning that we may hear from you.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Put yourself in the shoes of this lawyer for just a minute this morning.
Now this Jewish lawyer would actually be a religious figure in that culture.
So some of you are thinking that's the only way for him to take a step down in my mind.
To go from being a lawyer to a pastor.
It's just disastrous.
But that's who he is.
The law that he studies is the law of God.
The early portions of the Old Testament.
He's an expert.
He's sharp.
He knows his stuff.
And perhaps this guy, pretty influential in his town,
is not too excited about this new teacher who's shown up.
Some of the things he's saying.
So he's out to catch Jesus.
To trip him up.
To validate his own wisdom and spiritual standing before God, perhaps.
As well as before his peers.
But he's about to be overmatched by Jesus.
So as much as he's an expert in the law, we'll see that he has some distorted views of God's law that come largely from this perspective,
this desire in his heart wanting to justify himself.
Luke highlights that motive in his heart in verse 29.
He desiring to justify himself.
And I can totally relate to this.
You and I may not theoretically believe that we can justify ourselves, make ourselves right with God.
Right?
We know what the Bible teaches.
It's justification by faith alone.
By the grace of Christ alone.
That's how we're made right with God.
But practically, I often function the way this lawyer is going to in this story.
Look how Luke shows us the lawyer's struggle.
Behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, to test Jesus, saying,
Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And already there, you've got to think there's a little hint of misunderstanding
because you don't usually do something in order to inherit something, do you?
That's not the way it works in our culture or theirs.
So we're wondering a little bit about this guy's understanding.
But Jesus carries on with the conversation.
And that doing piece is a big part of it.
Jesus knows this guy values God's law.
He reads it and teaches it.
And so he pushes him to what he knows.
Jesus says, what's written in the law?
You're an expert.
How do you read it?
And the lawyer responds, 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.
And Jesus says, you got it.
You've answered correctly.
Do this and you will live.
The lawyer gets it right.
He gives this great summary of God's law.
But Jesus says, it's not enough just to know it.
You must do it.
You must do this and then you will live.
When we begin to think we can measure up to God's law,
this idea in our hearts of justifying ourselves that we could measure up,
one thing we easily fall into believing is that knowing right answers is enough.
When I was a kid, I grew up in a Presbyterian church and I could memorize.
I could remember things and so I knew Bible verses.
I knew catechism questions and answers and I drilled them and I remembered them
and that was wonderful.
I'm really thankful for those truths, many of which I still remember today.
Today.
What happened, however, that was not as wonderful was that I began to think that I gained some
spiritual rank from all of my knowledge and memorization.
I could out-debate nearly anybody around me in theology and explain to them why I was right
and they were wrong and quote scriptures and even catechism.
They didn't even know what catechism was and I could quote answers to them.
And I began to think that it made me a better Christian than they were.
I knew more right answers than they did.
I still struggle with that.
Seminary just piled on right things to know.
So I struggle with having the right answers to spiritual questions.
It's a good thing, but I can find my relative significance or security in having those right answers.
And while it's good, it can also be dangerous to our hearts, can't it?
To know so many right things and to begin to think that that's what makes you matter to God or to others,
it can be dangerous.
Jesus is going to make that clear here as we keep talking through this passage.
But the next thing we see as he interacts with the lawyer is a different distortion of God's law
that's so common when we start to think highly of ourselves.
We see it in verse 29.
The lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,
and after all, who is my neighbor exactly?
What's he doing?
The lawyer is seeking to narrow the law to make it manageable.
He needs to get this one right because he's seeking to justify himself.
And in his day, Jewish teachers agreed, it was quite clear,
that you were to love your neighbor as yourself.
That was part of God's law.
What they disagreed on was who was a neighbor.
Almost all of them, in fact, agreed that neighbor was only Jews.
It didn't involve anybody beyond that.
It excluded everybody who was a non-Jew.
And beyond that, they disagreed.
Maybe even further, there were others that might be excluded.
Heretics from a different Jewish sect or unclean Jews
or other people who just didn't measure up to your standards in some way.
They were not neighbors either.
And so the pool of neighbors is shrinking, right?
And this lawyer wants to know, this is a debate, Jesus.
I want you to weigh in.
Who's my neighbor?
Apparently, I've got the loving God part down,
and I'm wondering if I've possibly got it on the neighbor too.
Can you just make the law manageable for me?
Defined in that narrow way, with specifics as to who the neighbor is,
maybe you can keep the law.
And so we relax God's standard.
We lower it to a point where it seems attainable,
where we can measure up and feel good about ourselves.
We do this in so many ways, don't we?
Often without even thinking about it.
We ask, do I have to tithe on the net or the gross?
10% of which one, because I want to get it right.
Right?
We convince ourselves in our minds that it's not really adultery
because it's just emotional and not physical,
so it's really not that bad after all.
We say to ourselves, you know, you can't really love everyone.
There's so many people in the world after all.
Have you looked around these days?
I can't love everybody,
so I'll love those that I naturally connect with.
And that'll be what it looks like for me to love my neighbor.
And now all of a sudden, with my heart out to lunch, as it were,
not engaged in the process,
I can stand next to God's law and feel like I've measured up.
I'm pretty good.
It's like a husband telling his wife who feels unloved
all the things that he's done, the boxes he's checked.
And she rightly sees that he has lowered the standard
of passionate, sacrificial love from the heart.
When we seek to justify ourselves before God, before others,
we often rely on our right answers
or relax God's perfect standard to something we feel we can reach.
And so it's to people like us,
people who have those tendencies in our hearts,
who tend to want to justify ourselves and measure up
and think we're doing well enough for God
or someone else to like us.
It's to people with those heart tendencies
that Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.
You want to know who your neighbor is?
And especially you want to know who your neighbor's not,
Jesus says.
Let me tell you a story.
And you know the story.
It's familiar to you.
A man is traveling along the road when he's robbed
and beaten and left to die.
And a priest passes by him on the other side.
And a Levite passes by him on the other side.
But a Samaritan stopped to help.
And here's where we need to appreciate some of the shock
and offense of what's going on in the story Jesus tells.
Remember, put yourselves in the shoes of the lawyer again.
We're feeling pretty good about ourselves.
We're wanting to feel even better.
That's where our heart is.
At the end of this answer, I'm going to feel like I've got it.
If we can just get this technicality about who my neighbor is nailed down,
I'll be able to manage it.
And Jesus says, but a Samaritan.
And that's the first surprise.
Because see, in Jewish culture,
there was a typical trio that was included when you told stories.
And they would have been expecting this.
There was the priest,
the one ordained to the service of God in the temple.
And then next in the story would always be a Levite,
who was not ordained,
but did serve in the administration of the temple.
And then the third one,
who always came along next,
was the Jew.
The lay person,
the Jewish guy,
would be third.
And Jesus skips that part.
All the people expecting,
ah, the priest blew it,
the Levite blew it,
I knew those clergy.
They failed us again.
Now here comes the Jew to come through.
And Jesus says,
but a Samaritan.
And he's going to go on to hold the Samaritan up
as the model,
the moral example for the Jew.
The Samaritan.
The one with the wrong theology.
The bad ethics.
That one.
Remember them?
They don't know God truly.
They don't understand his word.
They don't live the way God tells them to.
Shocking.
The next shock is that the Samaritan cares at all.
We know Samaritans generally despised Jews.
Further surprising is the extravagant way
that he loves this stranger.
Not just checking in on him,
stopping to see,
but changing his plans,
redirecting his life
in order to get him to an end,
to care for him all night,
and providing above and beyond
so that this injured man,
when he recovers,
with no resources left on him,
will not have to sell himself into slavery
just to recover from his injuries.
Whatever it takes,
I'll pay it when I come back.
But the final surprise is Jesus' question
at the end of the story.
It flips the lawyer's question around.
Not who is my neighbor?
That's what the lawyer asked, right?
Which are the ones I'm supposed to love?
Tell me which ones are my neighbor?
And Jesus changes that question entirely.
What does he ask?
Who do you think,
which one of the three
proved to be a neighbor,
became a neighbor
to the man who fell among the robbers?
And the lawyer sees it.
He heard the story.
What word can he not get out of his mouth?
Samaritan.
He can't even say it.
But he's not blind to the mercy.
He sees the mercy in the story
and says,
yeah, it's the one who showed him mercy.
And Jesus said to him,
you go and do likewise.
Jesus is saying,
you're right again,
lawyer.
You got the right answer.
This is the picture of what my law means
when it talks about loving neighbor.
And again, Jesus says,
go and do.
Many of you will remember
the funny ad campaign
run in recent years
by State Farm Insurance.
I'm convinced that what's,
I haven't talked to anybody,
but you can tell in the campaign
what they want you to know
is that they're not that company
that when you call
and something bad has happened,
you get this impersonal voice recording
that basically tries to avoid helping you
and only does exactly
what they're contractually obligated to do.
State Farm doesn't want to be that.
They want you to believe
that who they are
is somebody who will personally show up
and help and meet your needs,
bend over backwards
to help their clients.
And so in the commercials,
you know what happens.
People get in all sorts of different binds
and all they have to do
is sing the little jingle,
like a good neighbor State Farm is.
And you snap,
there, there, there.
And wherever you are
and whatever you need,
the agent appears magically
and takes care of it.
They show up in the house,
in the car.
They show up with a new roof for somebody,
with a sandwich for someone else.
I didn't know they even served sandwiches.
With a hot tub for another guy.
He snaps and it crashes in.
And whatever it is that you need,
State Farm is there
to meet that need.
That's the message, right?
You're never gonna be left alone,
hung out to dry,
because we will always come to help.
And that, we can all agree,
coming to help in those kinds of situations
is like a good neighbor.
That's what a good neighbor is like.
A good neighbor is not trying to get off
on a technicality, right?
Seeing a guy lying in the road
and saying,
oh, actually,
he lives two doors down.
No, that's not my neighbor.
No, that's not what a good neighbor is like.
Being a good neighbor
means seeking to help anyone
and everyone in any need.
Showing up and meeting needs
anytime, anywhere.
That's why Jesus is flipping the question, right?
Not whom do I have to love,
but how do I get to love well?
It's clarifying for us
the high standard of God's law.
Jesus has been asked
to interpret God's law here
and Jesus says,
it's even higher than you think.
It's seeing neighbor love
as something not to try to
meet a minimum standard for
and see what you can get by with,
but rather to set my heart
on a trajectory to take off
in the right direction
to love extravagantly
beyond what I can afford.
The story of the Good Samaritan
is not just teaching us
to look out for injured Jewish males
when riding a donkey
from Jerusalem to Jericho.
You're not likely to do that soon.
Now, you get Jesus' point.
Go and do likewise.
Show mercy.
He's teaching us
to love everyone in our path.
Even our enemies.
Even those we don't like.
Those we know don't deserve it.
Anyone who needs mercy
or help in any way
to lavish it upon them
at great cost to ourselves
however we can.
So why not just say that?
Answer the question, Jesus.
Why tell a story?
Why is that necessary?
Well, you can think of several reasons.
It's memorable, certainly.
But among other reasons,
I think it's by the overwhelming nature
of the surprises in that story
to help the lawyer,
his heart,
and to help us and our hearts
to see what we're missing,
to see what causes us
to pass by on the other side
so often.
See, the Samaritan
is the exemplar, right?
Right.
And so we know enough
about the Samaritans
to know that
that means rightness
must go beyond
intellectual accuracy
and beyond religious formalism
because the Samaritan
doesn't have
either of those.
Priest or the Levite might,
but
it's got to go beyond
those things
the Samaritan wouldn't have
where you can just check
the right boxes
and say you've loved.
that God calls us
to a love
so much richer
and fuller
than we even imagine.
It would be similar
when God uses the Samaritan.
I don't think we have
an exact comparison,
but similar to God
saying to us,
aspire to the zeal
of the Mormons.
Look how they love
their neighbors
by always sharing
their faith.
Or aspire to the generosity
of the Catholics
caring for the needy.
Or aspire to the humility
and compassion
of the Muslims
living among those
who don't believe
as they do.
That would get your attention,
wouldn't it?
If that's what God came
and said to you.
It's a high call.
The standard is high.
Jesus resists
relaxing the standard.
Don't limit
who your neighbor is,
he says.
Rather,
dream of how to help
anyone and everyone
in your path.
See,
the gospel Luke
has been telling us about,
we've been saying
from the very beginning,
is good news
of great joy
for whom?
For all people.
And so if that's true,
and if you have that gospel,
if you have that good news,
then if it's for all people,
everyone in your path,
when you cross them,
should feel
a meaningful impact
of that reality
in some way,
that good news
should impact them.
Now,
you've probably not
run across a guy
to put on your donkey
between Jerusalem
and Jericho.
And there are times
where we need to think
intentionally about
rerouting our paths
and going and finding
people in need
of mercy.
But just think of the people
in need of mercy
already in our lives.
Already in your path.
Maybe even this week.
Who comes to your mind
who is or will be
in need.
I'll change some
names and details,
but while you're thinking,
I think of homeless Alana
who has shown up
at our church office
several times
in the last several weeks
on her bike
needing food
or water
and much more than that.
Needing the dignity
of being looked in the eye
and respected
as a person
made in God's image.
I think of Mike
waiting my table
at Buffalo Wild Wings
and pretty confident guy
all of a sudden
finding himself
in a situation
he has no idea
how to manage
or whether or not
he wants to enter
into his girlfriend
who's pregnant
with his child.
He needs wisdom,
friendship,
somebody to walk with him.
I think of Manny,
a Jobs for Life student
wanting to provide
for his family,
but it's hard to feel
capable and confident
when you're not able
to put food on the table.
He needs relationship,
skills, encouragement.
I think of Joe and Sue
who live on your street,
potentially,
drive an SUV
and a minivan.
When you walk by,
it looks like they're fine.
They've kind of got
life together.
Two kids,
you see them out
walking the dogs a lot.
They both got good jobs.
But inside,
they're half dead.
They're empty.
They're not sure
what they're living for
and they're not sure
they want to anymore.
They're needing
the mercy of Jesus
that brings true life.
I think the new family
will be sitting by
at school orientation
maybe next week.
the kid
who doesn't know anyone
at his new school
and needs you
to be a friend.
The mom who's struggling
with her twin two-year-olds
running all over the place
while she just wants
30 seconds
to meet her first kid's
kindergarten teacher.
She doesn't know
how to do it.
And you'll be there
and you'll have
these opportunities
and I think of all
these people
and the spiritual
and relational
and physical needs
that they have
that they don't want
people to see
so you're not going
to see them
unless you stop
and enter into their lives.
It's so much easier
to pass by
on the other side
to keep going.
And we're headed
other places
to do other
really important things
and God puts these people
in need of mercy
on our paths
and calls us
to be a neighbor
to them
to the least
the lost
the littlest
the lonely
the left out.
We don't need
a special program
for this.
Just open eyes
in God's merciful heart.
This is the call
of God's law
on our lives
to love our neighbors
as ourselves.
Jesus never relaxes
God's perfect standard.
But God's law
does more than
show us
God's perfection
His holy standard.
It does that
and then at the same time
as it does that
when we're willing
to look at it head on
in all its fullness
and difficulty
it also reveals
to us
how far
we fall short
doesn't it?
Remember the context
again?
Come back to the lawyer.
Jesus is revealing
the lawyer's heart
here
isn't He?
When He tells him
go and do
like this
the standard
is so shockingly
high
there's no way
He can leave
the conversation
thinking He
can meet it
and be like
a Samaritan
in order to get there?
No way!
Impossible!
I'm not going
there!
That's true for us.
Even if we were
magical
state farm agents
who could
show up
wherever we wanted to
in every situation
where everyone
is in need
and take care of it
we wouldn't.
We love ourselves
and our plans
too much.
Someone would
cost too much
eventually
wouldn't they?
Someone would be
too despicable.
No way
am I helping them.
No way
am I sacrificing
my life
for that person.
So you may
stop to love
one of the
people I mentioned
or one of the ones
who's come to mind
for you
but every single
one
every day
sacrificially
and lavishly
at great cost
to ourselves
every time
even the people
we can't stand
and really mean
every minute of it
from love
sincerely
from the heart
no way.
It's a standard
Jesus has
revealed
and we stand
condemned
right alongside
the lawyer
when we seek
to justify
ourselves
by going
and loving
neighbor
doing
likewise.
Jesus really
means it
when he says
go and do
likewise.
He's not merely
being sarcastic
but at the same
time he knows
that that will
expose our
self-justifying
hearts
and our
self-serving
actions.
We too
fall short
just like
the lawyer
and it's here
we need to
remember something
about where we
are in Luke.
we've just
turned the
corner
and it's
part of us
understanding
that the story
of the good
Samaritan
does more
than tell us
to love
needy people
it definitely
does that
but Jesus
tells this
story to a
guy asking
about what
eternal life
and Jesus
is on his
way to
Jerusalem
he set
his mind
to go
where
where's
Jesus
going
to the
cross
to suffer
and die
for his
enemies
at great
cost
to himself
to show
mercy to
those
desperately
in need
of it
to redirect
his path
that is headed
to glory
through suffering
and a cross
on his way
there
to love
so lavishly
that he would
not just
provide temporarily
but that he
would meet
our greatest
needs
eternally
he truly
and fully
and perfectly
loves his
neighbors
doesn't he
that's what
he's in the
midst of doing
he's the good
neighbor
who shows up
in our need
he perfectly
therefore
meets
God's
perfect
standard
and y'all
this is the
glory
the last
thing I want
you to see
of how the
law and the
gospel work
together
it's a whole
sermon another
time but just
a window
this is how
it works
in our
lives
how God
has designed
his law
in the
gospel
to change
us
he sets
the standard
high
we're called
to love
neighbor
and what
happens is
we then
fail to
meet
the perfect
standard
but Jesus
meets it
for us
and then
connected to
him
we are
recreated
to follow
him toward
that perfect
standard
that's the
design of
what it's
meant to
work like
see when I'm
trying to
justify
myself
show you
a quick
little chart
every
step
changes
when that's
the perspective
I'm coming
from
I relax
God's
standard
remember I
lower it
so that I
think I
can meet
God's
standard
therefore
Jesus is
not needed
in the
process
and I
follow
how far
only as
far as
I need
to
in order
to feel
good about
myself
in the
new
low
standard
I only
have to
love the
people along
the way
to the
low
standard
that I've
created
and so the
danger is
we're going
to miss
out
on some
neighbors
Jesus is
calling us
to love
because we've
relaxed the
standard and we
only have to
love those
people
and worse
we miss out
on Jesus
we don't
need him
for that
when we're
justifying
ourselves
but it's
entirely
different when
God
justifies
when we
come in a
relationship with
God established
by what he's
done not what
we've done
we can leave the
standard where he
said it
what he calls
us to
the standard is
never relaxed
and then we
fall short
of that standard
and it's why we
have to be so
grateful
that God
justifies
the ungodly
that's from
cover to cover
of scripture
that that's how
he works
he finds these
people who've
fallen short
of his
standard
and he
makes them
right
Jesus comes
and perfectly
meets the
standard
perfectly
always
loves
neighbors
and then
Jesus makes
us new
and calls us
to follow him
there
towards that
standard
to be a
neighbor to
everyone
on our
path
he meets
the standard
for us
y'all
not so we
can ignore
it
and carry
on with
however we
want to
live
but so that
we can
follow Jesus
on the path
of sacrificially
loving
neighbor
which is
exactly what
God has
created us
to do
and how
we're supposed
to work
if there's
no one
on your
path
in need
of mercy
you're not
on Jesus'
path
you're not
actually
following him
on his
path
there's all
sorts of
people in
need
but as you
follow the
one who
has loved
perfectly
for you
so that
your failures
to love
no longer
define your
relationship
with your
father
as you
follow him
you can
revel
in his
love
for you
and
reflect
that love
to everyone
we need
God's help
let's pray
and ask
father it's
not just
the failures
in our
lives
what really
is the
problem
is our
hearts
we would
like to
come to
church
and say
that we
love God
with all
of our
hearts
and we
love our
neighbors
as ourselves
but we
see so
many other
lesser
loves
in there
we need
you to
change us
Jesus we
need your
love for
us
to come
and be
the thing
that makes
our hearts
new
and gives
us
life
to actually
be able
to share
love like
this with
others
so change
our hearts
and then open
our eyes
send us out
of here
with a
joy
we don't
have to
walk out
of here
guilty
thinking
how can
we do
it all
send us
out with
eyes that
are peeled
for people
who will
need your
mercy
and with
a joy
that we
get to
be vessels
of it
we get
to be
channels
of your
mercy
to others
Father do
that
in our
hearts
and change
this community
and every
other path
we walk
in
because you've
changed our
hearts
we ask it
in Jesus
name
Amen
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