Luke 10:25-37-A Most Unlikely Friend-6/12/16
This particular story may be very familiar to most of us. So familiar in fact, that we sometimes can lose the “thrust” of what Jesus is really showing. Remember the story of Cain and Abel? Cain was the unrighteous brother, Abel the righteous one, yet after Cain did such a despicable act and God asked him, “where is your brother?” Cain replied, “Am I responsible to care for him?”
Our world today says “no”, but this parable of Jesus answers that question for the life of a Christian, and it is a clear “yes”.
Let us look at this story, this lawyer comes to Jesus with two purposes: To trick Jesus, and also “to justify himself”. In other words, he wanted to make himself look righteous by his own actions. He wanted his own works to earn him ‘eternal life’.
(If we try to earn righteousness with God by our own works then we are not ready for the gospel, for it is by His gift of love that we are saved, and we must humbly accept it by trusting Him.)
After asking him to answer his own question, Jesus affirms the answer, but the lawyer wants to press the issue and asks, “who then is my neighbor?” This lawyer thought the his neighbor only meant his fellow Israelites, people who were just like him.
We all ask the same question sometimes, “Who is my neighbor?” Is it only those whom I feel comfortable around? My circle of friends? My next-door neighbor? Or is the circle a bit wider to include…everyone?
Let me set the background for this story: Jews and Samaritans hated each other. The Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while the Samaritans were a mixed race produced when Jews from from the norther kingdom of Israel intermarried with other people after the country went into exile. Hence, there were some national and racial tension there.
So when this lawyer questioned Jesus, he would have never thought this “enemy” of the Jews could show love to a Jew, but that is exactly what the Samaritan did. The priest and the Levite, who should have been the first to show mercy, absolutely refused to do so.
Look at the irony here. This lawyer, who was a Jew, answered the question rightly by saying the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor.
Yet, his fellow Jews (the Priest and the Levite) would rather have obeyed other laws about purity rather than the chief commandments of loving God and loving neighbor.
On the other hand, this is exactly what the Samaritan does. The roles are switched. The “righteous religious leaders” who should have know better failed to act, while the person no one thought could be righteous did act!
Hence, the lawyer has to answer his own question that anyone who acts with love toward their fellow man, even if he be an enemy, acts godly.
Jesus reversed the lawyer’s original question (v. 29). The lawyer assumed it was up to others to prove themselves neighbor to him, not that he ought to go and show himself to be a neighbor to everyone else. Jesus makes it clear that each of us has a responsibility to be a neighbor, especially to those in need.
One commentator says it like this: “The legal expert viewed the wounded man as a topic for discussion; the bandits, as an object to exploit; the priest, as a problem to avoid and the Temple assistant, as an object of curiosity. Only the Samaritan treated him as a person to love.”
We all have those people in our lives with whom we disagree. Yet, we must never let that stop us from remembering they are fellow human beings, created by God (just as we were), broken by sin (just like us), and loved by Him (same as us).
From this story we learn three principles about loving our neighbor.
(1) Lack of love is often easy to justify but it is never right;
(2) our neighbor is anyone of any race, creed, or social background who is in need; and
(3) love means acting to meet the person’s need.
Wherever we live, there are needy people close by. The church grows when we meet the needs of the community.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan occurs only in Luke, and illustrates Jesus’ teaching of who our neighbor is: anyone in immediate need, even a supposed enemy. For what quicker way to turn an enemy into a friend then by loving them. Hatred cannot do that, only love can.
How do we love all men, even our enemies? We cannot on our own, but God fills us with His love by the power of the Holy Spirit, and gives us His love so that we can love others as He does, even if we do not always like them.
To quote Thomas Oden-”Where brokenness is found in the world, the church mends, where hunger, it feeds, where suffering, it heals, the people of God are called to do whatever is at hand to do, act with all their might, and hear their neighbor’s cry and answer it, loving the ones they see.”
Caring for neighbor goes hand in hand with loving God. This truth is repeated many different times in Scripture. God is duly served through service to the neighbor.
How do I love my neighbor? Treat them as Jesus would. Do good to all men at all times in all places under all circumstances. Ask yourself what would produce the maximum good without being in direct contradiction to the Scriptures.
Am I my brother’s keeper? If we claim to be Christians, our answer is YES.