The Good Samaritan

I. Listening Afresh 00:01

…various distractions, difficulties, tragedies, crises of our culture in this day of our lives. We just pray that we would get that message down inside of us, to want you first, Lord, to seek you first. Pray that you’d open our eyes this morning. In Jesus’ name, amen.

So today we’re going to start by tackling a very pertinent question, which is: why does Jesse have a black eye? That’s the first thing I have to get out of the way. I know if I was sitting out there, I would be wondering the entire time. Yes, there were ninjas involved. No. Somebody tried to give me this great story, but I just don’t think I could tell it as well as he did. Long story short, I ran into some scaffolding with my face, and it’s not a highly recommended maneuver. They don’t teach you that when you go onto the construction sites. But yeah, don’t do that. Watch where you’re going. Don’t be distracted. Keep your eyes straight forward as we enter into this message this morning.

We have this awesome Gospel today that very, very easily can be like Aesop’s fables. It can be one of those stories that you’ve heard a thousand times. You learned it in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade; every year I think you’d go over this at some point in Sunday school. I’m sure they’ve learned it several times. And we can lose the meaning of the story in our familiarity. So I want to ask you, as we go through this, to try and listen afresh, because Jesus wasn’t telling platitudes. He wasn’t going out there and writing Hallmark cards as he told these parables. He had something important to tell us, not just the people who asked, but us sitting in the pew today. There are things Jesus said that we miss because we trivialize them, but this is the stuff that makes up the good life.

Now, real quickly, I want to introduce this concept, in case you haven’t ever heard of this idea. Everyone in the world is trying to answer that basic question: what is the good life? How do you live a good life? And there are as many answers as there are people. Nine billion, I think, we’re supposed to cap out at; I think we’re around eight billion right now. There are that many answers to the question, what is a good life? And I want to argue that that was one of the things Jesus was showing us: what is a good life.

So as we read this story, let’s not read it as a moralistic teaching to try and make sure that you’re dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s. This is not Jesus lecturing you on how to be a better Christian. This is Jesus inviting you into the good life. So let’s just dive in here, in Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 25.

II. You Have Answered Rightly 03:17

25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” 27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” Luke 10.25–28

Fascinating. It’s something that we hear all the time, another thing that can easily become trivial, as we have it memorized. We hear it from the deacon every Sunday: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, your mind, your strength; love your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer had the right answer. In fact, all of us sitting in these pews have a lot of the right answers.

I’ll make it even clearer. In Deuteronomy we had this passage; I wanted to pull out just a couple of verses here. I love how God’s tone comes across in this:

11 For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. Deut 30.11–14

It’s almost like God’s being a little sarcastic. It’s like, “You guys are spending all this time trying to figure out the right thing to do. It’s not mysterious. I’ve told you.” The hard part isn’t knowing what to do. The hard part is doing it. And that’s the same problem this lawyer is running into. He wants the explanation: “What do I do to get into eternal life? What do I do to get the good life?” He wants it laid out clearly. And Jesus goes, “You know the answer. You answered rightly. Do it, and you will live.”

But you know what? We often convince ourselves, by pretending that it’s harder than it is, not to do it. “Well, what should I do in this situation? Should I have this?” My go-to example is gluttony, because, man, is it tempting in this day and age. There are really good foods around here. My dad just got a smoker for Father’s Day, and we’ve been smoking brisket and ribs, and let me tell you, that second plate of smoked meat looks really good. And it’s very confusing in the moment to know what is the right thing to do, even if something in me says, “It’s probably not right to take another plate of smoked meat today, Jesse. How many pounds can you fit in there?”

So the point here is, we like to make it complicated when there are very simple answers. Not only that, but in Deuteronomy he’s like, “You say somebody in heaven is going to come down and bring it to you.” You actually do have somebody from heaven who has brought the law into your heart. That is the Holy Spirit. So if you’re ever confused, my argument is this: ask God, and see what he will tell you. And you probably already know. Don’t mistake this complication, this confusion, for actually not knowing. Maybe you just don’t want to do it. I don’t know about you guys, but I am very good at talking myself into what I think I should do.

III. Who Is My Neighbor? 06:28

And the lawyer becomes even more relatable to us in his response. Jesus says, “You’ve answered rightly. Now do it and you will live. You got it.” The lawyer, wanting to justify himself, says to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10.29). He thinks he’s got his ace in the hole: “Well, how do I even know who my neighbor is?”

It’s a great question. We struggle every day to decide who to love and who not to love. I’m really good at deciding who is not my neighbor. It’s a lot harder to decide who is. Who am I willing to go the distance for? Who, when they call me and they want to move apartments, do I say yes to? Or who do I find a reason not to go for? “Oh, I’m real busy that day. I’ve got seminary, I’ve got all those things.” It’s easy to justify why we don’t have any obligation to love those people, especially people we don’t like.

There’s all sorts of division that we’ve been talking about over and over again here. If you just turn on the TV at any point in time, you will find a very clear list, if you listen carefully, of people you’re supposed to not like, people you’re supposed to not help. In fact, lately we’ve been getting a lot of attention: “All those dumb pro-lifers, those idiots who want to save the baby. Don’t they know how awful it is for a young pregnant mother in the midst of this conflict?” It’s easy for us to say, “Well, they villainized us; why don’t we villainize them? Those stupid people who murder babies, how much worse can you get?” But unfortunately Jesus doesn’t give us that option in this story.

So let’s see what Jesus said. How are we supposed to position ourselves when we look out at the world? Who is supposed to be our neighbor? Who are we called to love, even as we love ourselves?

IV. The Priest and the Levite 08:46

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. Luke 10.30–32

We’re pretty used to authority figures having scandals in their lives in our culture. We’re pretty used to denigrating authority. We’re pretty used to complaining about the people who are in charge. And when we read this story, we miss some of the implications of what Jesus is saying. We’re like, “Well, duh, it’s a priest. Those filthy priests, those evil sinners pretending to be holy. Oh look, it’s a Levite. Well, that’s like a lawyer, right? We don’t trust lawyers.” But what Jesus was saying was not that at all. He was saying, even the best of you, who are the priests of the Most High God, even the best of you, who know the law inside and out, can miss God’s work as you get distracted by the busyness of your own lives. Even the best of you can be blind to the right response in this moment.

This is a teaching for us. He wanted you to know that even people you look at as paragons of virtue can make this mistake of being so concerned with their life that they miss the person hurting next to them. How much more do we miss the people around us who need us to look with compassion?

V. A Certain Samaritan 09:54

So he continues:

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ Luke 10.33–35

We don’t really have a Samaritan class in our culture, in our society, praise God. America is one of the least bigoted societies in the history of the world when it comes to our fellow man. We know that we’re supposed to treat everyone with a level of respect worthy of the image-bearers of God, fellow citizens. Back then it was justified to hate Samaritans. They weren’t guilty about it. They were like, “Yeah, these guys, they’re awful.” You could go into the synagogue and say, “Man, those dumb Samaritans,” and everyone would be on your side. It’s hard for us to imagine that kind of anger. The closest I think we get nowadays is some of the hatred you can see against political parties and political divisions. You do see that come up: “Those dumb Democrats. Those stupid Republicans.” All of that is 100 percent in the same vein, the same spirit, as the way the Jews were thinking of Samaritans in this story.

But it’s hard for us to imagine how shocking that would have been in that moment. He’s talking to a lawyer, somebody who knew the law and loved the law, and he says, “No, a Samaritan came along, and he helped this man.” Everything in his brain is working: “How is this possible, for the Samaritan to be the hero of the story?” But the lawyer is willing, as most lawyers are, to follow the logic. He has the answer, when Jesus says:

36 “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10.36–37

So instead of the desire of the lawyer, which is to draw a neat circle around which he can then say, “Anybody outside doesn’t deserve my love,” Jesus has completely flipped it on its head. In fact, the commandment doesn’t hinge on the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself.” It hinges only on the word love. And that’s what he shows in this. Because what is he saying? Is he saying Samaritans are also your neighbors? No. If all he needed to do was that, then he could have said, “Well, a Samaritan was beaten up and lying beside the road, and then a Jewish man came down and helped the Samaritan. Look at how good he was for loving his neighbor.” No, Jesus wanted to go further than that. He wanted to say that even the Samaritan can participate in the eternal life the lawyer is out asking about, if he participates in the love of God and the love of neighbor.

It’s subtly woven in here. God could have told the fun story, the one the lawyer would have cheered for: “Yeah, and then a certain Jewish man came along and helped the Samaritan out of the pit.” That’s a story in which we get to be the heroes. Instead, the story is not to ask yourself, “Who is my neighbor?” but to ask yourself, “How can I be a man who, when I see somebody in desperate need, is moved with compassion?” The point is about changing an internal reality, not an external duty. It’s not about what you do; it’s about who you are. Are you the person who, when you see somebody hurting and broken, is moved with compassion to act?

It’s deeper than the lawyer ever thought. You’ve got to remember, these are the Jewish people who had a red rope next to their door for the Sabbath, so that they could measure out, “How far can I walk from my door before I’ve broken the Sabbath?” They’re trying to measure the law. All he wanted to know was a simple answer: “Tell me who my neighbor is.” And Jesus says, “No, you misunderstand the law entirely. It’s not meant to govern your actions. It’s meant to transform your person.” If you’re a person who is Jesus-like, then you will act like Jesus. You don’t need a list of rules. The command is within you.

VI. Where Is Jesus in This Story? 14:30

So now we’re going to take this story one more time through, and we’re going to take it from a completely different perspective. Because I just gave you what I thought was a great interpretation of this story, but then I read some of the church fathers, and you know what? There’s a deeper level that makes this so much more important than a moral virtue teaching about how we need to be.

There’s a tradition in the church of asking yourself the question every time you read Scripture: where is Jesus in this story? That’s central to all the parables. Where is Jesus in this story? And in fact, in this beautiful cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, they have this stained-glass window that shows… do you know what story they pair the Good Samaritan with? They pair it with the story of the fall of mankind. Well, how does that make sense? Let’s just run through this real quick and see what the story is even more deeply about. Not that it’s not about everything we’ve said so far, but there’s a deeper reality that we get to see within this story.

30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Luke 10.30

“A certain man.” He doesn’t specify who this man is, because it represents all of mankind. And where is he going? He’s going from Jerusalem, the heavenly city, to Jericho, the city of sin, the city that’s down by the Dead Sea, at the lowest point in the region. He’s falling from the heavenly city towards the city of sin. Sin shows him to be naked; he’s stripped of his clothing. You see the parallel directly with the garden, where they realize they are naked and they are ashamed. It robs him of his ability to choose good, to live the good life. It wounds him and leads to the curse of death, and it leaves him half dead. Another way the church fathers talk about this is that the image of God on humanity in the fall is marred. C. S. Lewis says we are half-hearted creatures. There’s a sense before Christ where we are half dead.

31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked… Luke 10.31–32

So what’s the message here? The message is that the law and the sacrificial system are not enough to save us, that there was something deeper God had to do to rescue the people. Mankind was fallen, broken, wounded unto death, and the law and the prophets were not enough to save us.

VII. The Samaritan Is Jesus 17:43

Instead, we see:

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. Luke 10.33

When he saw him, he had compassion. It’s very easy when you see the parallel of the language here. All throughout Luke he says, “And he saw him, and he had compassion.” Who does he say that about? He says that about Jesus, over and over again. Who does Jesus cast himself as? The outcast, a man scorned by all and despised by the people. Jesus cast himself in that role so that we might find in the outcast his image. And what does Jesus do?

34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; Luke 10.34

We see a beautiful foreshadowing of the sacraments. In baptism you are anointed with oil. In your confirmation you’re anointed with oil. In praying for the sick, we anoint you with oil. And then we participate… what’s the wine? The wine is the cup of the sacrament. You see, there’s so much deeper, richer, going on in this parable than just “You should be better. You should love people more.” No, Jesus is trying to explain something far deeper than that. Because what was the lawyer’s question? “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus didn’t forget that question. He didn’t give him another rule. He’s actually explaining something deeper than that. He’s saying that in order to have eternal life, you need Jesus to come into your life and heal you.

and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Luke 10.34

The church fathers interpreted the inn as the church. Where does it bring them to have healing? Our church down in Oceanside recently changed their name to Christ the Healer. Part of the ministry of the church is to bring in the broken, the outcasts, the lost, the lonely, and to bring healing to them through the administration of the sacrament, through compassion and love, through the healing power of introducing them to Jesus.

VIII. When I Come Again, I Will Repay 20:01

35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ Luke 10.35

You see beautiful symmetry here, as the payment represents the redemption. What does the word redeem mean? Well, it has this alternate meaning, basically repayment: to pay the price that we owed. So he not only brings us in to heal us and to raise us up, but he pays the price that we owe. And when he comes again, he will repay all. And unlike a lot of the ways people like to talk about the second coming of Christ, what we’re shown in the Scriptures is that when he comes again, it is a message not only of judgment but of the greatest hope, where every tear shall be wiped away (Rev 21.4). He will repay not just our sins, but he will also salve our wounds. He will bring the fullness of healing that repays every tragedy we’ve ever experienced.

And so then the question comes:

36 “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10.36–37

And we come full circle, to where it’s not only a story of what Jesus has done for us, but it’s also the same encouragement we get throughout all of Scripture: go and be like me to the world. Be the Good Samaritan. Be perfect as I am perfect. What does that mean? That means be loving. Walk around with your eyes open, that you can look with compassion and act. Who is our neighbor? Instead ask, how can I be so shaped by love that I see the hurting and the broken and I react with compassion?

But since none of us are good except God alone, the story is about what Christ has done in us even more than it’s about what we are called to do for others. Take heart: he is in charge of your healing. He’s in charge of your equipping. The work he has begun in you he will bring to completion (Phil 1.6).

Ultimately, yes, walk out of this room hopefully thinking, “Man, who am I ignoring in my life? Who needs me? Who has God put in my path, that I might react with compassion and love?” But more than anything, go out of here knowing that you have been healed and redeemed by him, and that nothing you do could ever lose that. That guilty voice, that shame that says, “Well, you’re not good enough. This is a message for somebody else. You’re not strong enough”: lay all that on the altar, because he’s already paid the price.

Ultimately, this is a story of hope. And although I don’t know if the lawyer ever got it, what he was saying was, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, you who try and carry the law on your backs. Come to me, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11.28). Amen.