Sermon Transcript
Well, we’re going to come back to the stories that Jesus told. Steve did an outstanding job the last 2 weeks. Where did he go? There he is walking out of the building. Get back in here.
Anyway, he did an outstanding job the last 2 weeks helping us look at 2 stories, one talking about the person scattering seed. You don’t always see what’s happening with that seed, but growth is happening, and there’s so much application there for our lives. And then this one over here, this picture over on the right upper corner, the Pharisee and the publican, that was an amazing message, especially the prayer that he gave before the message. Still kind of a little troubled about that, you know. But I’m so glad they had that on the video so I could see what’s going on when I’m away.
But anyway, my heart’s not hurt, Steve, really. I’m okay. Okay, were you here last week? Anybody? Yeah, okay, well, you know what we’re talking about.
It was fun. It was great, wasn’t it, Rich? I agree with you, it was great. It was very, very helpful. Hey, if you didn’t know, these pictures were actually done for us by somebody that lives in the Philippines.
The creative team got together and they said, you know, we wanna have some pictures that represent the 12 parables we’re gonna be looking at. So they contracted with an individual there. This person drew these pictures. We’re revealing them one at a time, but the front bulletin, the bulletin on the COVID there, has some of the pictures that are connected to all of these parables. So it’s kind of fun just even to see how that’s all playing itself out.
Well, today we’re going to look at Luke chapter 10. We’re going to look at a parable that many of you are familiar with, but hopefully by the end of our time here, a short time, you’ll be able to tell this parable to another person. If you can’t yet tell it, I hope you will be able to, but more importantly, it will have even greater application in your life as you think about what it is that we do or should do when we come across somebody who’s in need. And we come across people that are in need all the time, right? I mean, look down the pew there, that person sitting next to you, a few away, they have needs.
We all have needs. So this passage should be of interest to all of us. I actually, a couple weeks ago, turned on the television and saw the show that I don’t— it’s been from time to time, it’s been on TV, it’s called What Would You Do? Have you seen that show? What Would You Do?
They ask the question, what would you do if you come across a situation where somebody has a need? How would you respond to that need? Would you go to the need? Would you do something about it? Or would you avoid it?
Avoid or, you know, not enter into the situation in any way, just kinda steer clear, do nothing at all. And there was a clip some time ago that really connects with what we’re talking about this morning, but also it connects with this holiday weekend, Independence Weekend. And so I thought I would just show you this because this surfaces the concept as we begin to think about, you know, people all around us are in need and they oftentimes come across our path or we come across theirs. And we have an opportunity to help in some way, what would you do? So just take a look at the video.
In the military? Yes, ma’am. Thank you for your service. I appreciate that. I see you have a baby at home.
She was born during my last deployment. I’m guessing home’s a little different, huh? My wife would tell you I’m the one that’s different. Being over there took its toll on me, I guess. I had a hard time holding down a job.
Um, your total is $39.10. Wow, that much?
We’ve all seen those Support Our Troops bumper stickers, but what does that word support really mean? We’re at a supermarket where a struggling veteran is trying to buy diapers, formula, food for his family, but he’s short on cash. Will other customers rally to his aid, or will they let him be an army of one? What would you do? I’m sorry, you’re $8 short.
I promised my wife I’d come home with everything on the list.
Our cashier and our veteran have reported for duty at San Antonio’s La Fiesta Supermarket, and that’s when Linda Tupper’s gets in line. Which branch of the military were you in? Army. Did 10 years. Oh, yay!
Were you in the Army as well? No, I just had a son that retired. I have another grandson in the Army. We support the military. What will she do when our veteran’s credit card is rejected?
I’m sorry, sir, it’s declined. Do you have cash? Yeah, things just been really tight. He looks for his cash, but it becomes clear He’s short. Well, that adds up fast, doesn’t it?
Can you put the beer back, please? I don’t need that. That’s the one thing that’s not on my list. Even with the beer off his tab, he doesn’t have the money for that list of items for his baby at home. How much are you short now?
He’s short $8. I’ll take it. You’ll take it? Not the beer. That’s too generous.
I’ll just put something else back. Well, not the diapers. Linda insists he get everything on that list. You live around here? Yes, we do.
And that’s not all. I run a food pantry up here on Goliad. Do you get a lot of military?
And we shouldn’t. You come see me, we’ll take care of you, the baby. Time to thank this generous woman.
That was an actor. Is that right? Yes. Well, that’s what I do. I help people.
And soldiers sometimes? Soldiers sometimes. And as I was telling him, soldiers shouldn’t have to do that. We should be taking care of our military much better than we are. This is our actor.
His name is Ryan. Well, Ryan, you did a good job. Thank you. Can I give you a hug? And Linda’s kindness is especially touching for Ryan.
I’m an actor, but I’m also a veteran, so I do appreciate everything you did. Well, that’s great. We thank you for your service. Yes, thank you, ma’am. Yeah, I love that.
That’s what I do. I help people. I help people. What a great perspective. It’s really the perspective that God wants us to live with, especially if we’re children of his family.
He wants us to be people who help people. And that comes into focus in the parable we’re looking at this morning. Luke chapter 10, If you have your Bible, you might wanna turn there. Luke 10:25 is where we’re gonna start. What should our response be to people in need?
Well, Jesus makes it absolutely clear in this story that he tells that came about as a result of a question that he was asked by a law person, a lawyer, okay? So this is what he said, or this is what Luke says. On one occasion, an expert in law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus replied, what’s written in the law?
How do you read it? This lawyer replied, well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus replied, you’ve answered correctly. Do this and you will live. By the way, that’s already fascinating to me because if a person asked me, you know, what do I need to do to have eternal life, most of us wouldn’t say, well, what does the law say?
He takes them all the way back to the law. The guy answers correctly. Well, it’s all focused on loving God, loving our neighbor. And really, that’s what the law is, right? The 10 Commandments, first 4 are focused on loving God.
The next 6 of the 10 Commandments are focused on loving our neighbor. And so Jesus says, that’s right. So if you love God, and you love your neighbor, then you’re going to have eternal life, which is fascinating at this point. You say, you mean I got to love my neighbor to have eternal life? Well, loving your neighbor is an expression of loving God.
That’s what we’re told in the scriptures. In fact, in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 14, it says this: the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You say, how can you summarize the whole law and just Love your neighbor? Well, because loving your neighbor is an expression of a person who loves God, and if you love God, you’re gonna love your neighbor, and if you love your neighbor, it’s gonna be an expression of the fact that you love God. So Jesus says, if you love me, then you’re going to express that in loving others.
Now, the lawyer, it says in verse 29, he wanted to justify himself, meaning, you know, I think I’m doing okay on this whole thing. So he asked Jesus, who’s my neighbor? I mean, you know, there are ways that you can interpret this, especially in that culture, because they used to think of a neighbor or neighbors as only certain kinds of people. And there are some people that are outside of the neighborhood circle, so to speak. And so he’s thinking he’s okay by the people that he loves.
And it’s because of that, then Jesus tells this story, which many of you are familiar with. In reply, Jesus said, verse 30, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers, and they stripped him of his clothes, they beat him, they went away leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was.
When he saw him, he took pity on him. You might want to underline those words. He took pity on him.
It says, he went to him, he bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to the inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out 2 silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, And he said, look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Then Jesus asked this question, which of the 3 do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him.
Jesus told him, go and do likewise. Now obviously, Jesus isn’t telling this story just so that we know the story and we’re able to tell the story, which is a good idea so that other people can benefit by the story, but it’s so that we can benefit by the story, so that the lawyer could benefit by the story, this lawyer that was testing Jesus so that he could benefit by the story, and obviously even to this day we could still benefit by the story. But to benefit by this story, I think you gotta kinda understand what the story is saying. There’s 4 people here that are in focus in this story. There’s first of all a victim, a victim.
A man who was making a trip down from Jerusalem to Jericho on a 17-mile road. You heard about the 17-mile journey over in Monterey, take that through the area, whatever, and see beautiful things. Well, this was an unsafe road. This road became known as the Path of Blood because people oftentimes died on this road because of robbers and others that killed people in order to take away their possessions, and this guy was on that road. He was going down from Jerusalem Jerusalem to Jericho.
By the way, fascinating thing is, is actually Jericho is to the north, and so usually if you’re saying somebody’s going north, you would say they’re going where? They’re going up. They’re going up to that, you know, you’re in Southern California, I’m going up to San Francisco. But everything when you came from Jerusalem was down because Jerusalem sat at 2,600 feet in elevation. So you’re never really talking about direction, you’re talking about elevation.
So here’s this guy going down this 17-mile road And while he’s on this road, some robbers see him and they beat him and they take his clothes and they leave him on the road half dead. That’s the first person, a victim. Then there’s a priest, verse 31. The priest just happened to be walking by. Maybe he was on his way to a synagogue service.
We don’t know where he was going. All we know is that a priest, if he’s walking by and he sees somebody who’s injured, and especially half dead, you would think that he would stop and do something, wouldn’t you? I mean, this is kind of like a pastor, and you would say, you know, if a pastor really is the kind of pastor that God wants a pastor to be, like a spiritual leader, this should be somebody who should care about other people. Well, the priest should have cared about this guy. He saw him, it wasn’t that he didn’t see him, he saw him, but he deliberately moved to the other side of the road and he passed by.
By the way, have you ever passed by somebody in need? You know, we wanna beat up this guy in this story, but hey, listen, we can all benefit by this because sometimes we see people who are in need and we act like there’s no problem here. You know, we just pretend everything is okay, or, you know, I’m too late for my appointment, I don’t have time to help, or whatever it is, he passed by. And then the third person is a Levite, verse 32. A Levite was a temple leader.
He served in the sanctuary along with the priests. He was kind of like a deacon of that day, even though they didn’t have deacons in that moment of time. And he saw this guy who was beaten, just like the priest saw him, and he did the same thing that the priest did, which makes you kind of wonder, did they go to the same catechism class or whatever to learn how to avoid people and not deal with them? Probably not. But the point is, is that this Levite is also a spiritual leader.
And you would think of all the people that would help somebody, a spiritual leader would help somebody, like a church member, you know. You would think that would be a person who would stop and help. Say, why didn’t they do it? I don’t know. I mean, it doesn’t really tell us.
We, we could come up with probably the general reasons. One would be, why don’t we do it? Because we’re in a hurry, or you know, I’m late for my appointment, or I don’t have any margin in my schedule, and I just don’t have time for this. Are you kidding? Maybe, you know, they didn’t do anything because, uh, they needed to hurry up, or the Levite needed to hurry up and get to the market to buy a lamb to have a sin sacrifice at the temple.
I have no idea, you know, what was going on. Maybe he, he thought, well, I’m not qualified to help, you know, maybe somebody else could come along. That’s like above my pay grade or something, I can’t do anything. Or maybe he was thinking about his own neck and thinking, you know, this is a very dangerous place here, and since this person’s been hurt, I could be hurt. I don’t wanna be hurt, so I’m just gonna hurry up and get past this.
We come up with our excuses, don’t we? Several years ago, I was at Mount Hermon. I was the pastor of the week, which basically meant I get to come to camp for free, which You know, I was happy to say, yeah, I’ll do that. That’ll be great. And, and while I was there enjoying this Pastor of the Week thing, I needed to do some laundry.
And so there was a morning session. How many of you have been to Mount Hermon, by the way? You know where I’m talking? Oh, yes, sir. Okay.
So many of you know right here close by. And so there was a morning session. And then after the morning session, I said, there is enough time to like have a— they had a break there, like, you know, the donut break, of course, or whatever it was, coffee. And, and then we were going to go into some other sessions, some other, you know, seminars or something like that. And so we just finished this morning session.
I said, I’m gonna sandwich in going down to the laundromat. Have you ever been to the laundromat there in Felton? You know, right down the hill, you just go straight down the hill. It’s right there. It’s in the shopping center right there.
So I decided I was gonna go down there and, you know, do some laundry. But anyway, so I got in the car and I’m going down the hill and I see this guy who’s walking down the hill. And the next thing I see is the guy is on the ground in convulsions. He’s in convulsions. Now this is before cell phones, okay?
So it’s not like, you know, 911, you gotta get here right now or something like that. It was he’s in convulsions, I’m driving down the road, I’m the only guy there. And you know what went through my mind? I don’t have time for this. That’s what went through my mind.
You ever had that one? I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time to stop my car right now and check in on this guy. I gotta hurry up, get down the hill, do some laundry, get back up here and get to that seminar on how to love people.
Or whatever the seminar was. Does it happen to you? It happens to all of us. There’s a, there’s a 4th guy here, a Samaritan. The Samaritan.
Why a Samaritan? This is fascinating to me. I got a feeling that Jesus chose the Samaritan because the Samaritan was not somebody that this lawyer would love. That this lawyer would respect. A Samaritan to a Jew was an outsider.
It was somebody that you just stayed away from. You didn’t touch them. You didn’t go in their land. You avoided them altogether. So Jesus chooses a Samaritan, and he says that the Samaritan came across this guy.
He saw the guy, and instead of avoiding him, which you could totally understand, especially if he’s Jewish, Instead of avoiding him, he’s moved by pity. That’s that statement there that you underlined. He’s moved by compassion. He’s moved by mercy. He’s moved by love, and he stops and he does something.
And he just doesn’t do a little bit. He does a lot. Verse 34 says he bandaged the guy’s wounds. It says that he poured oil and wine on the wounds. Meaning wine was used to cleanse, used to cleanse a wound, and oil was used to ease the pain.
So he took out wine and oil and ministered to this man in a specific way, and then he put him on his donkey, which is to say he put him in his ambulance. I mean, that was the only vehicle he had. And he took him to an inn, which is to say he took him to a place where he could get some care and and, you know, be safe and rest and hopefully get well. And he stayed with this man overnight and he continued to care for him. And then verse 35 says, and in addition, the next day when he needed evidently to go somewhere else, he went to the innkeeper and asked the innkeeper if he would continue to care for this man.
And he left the innkeeper with 2 denarii. 2 denarii. What’s a denarii? Well, if you look in the cross-reference in your Bible or the footnotes or whatever, you’re gonna find, you’re gonna find that a denarii, 1 denarii, was basically a day of wages, a day of wages. So he took out 2 days of wages.
So if you make $40,000 a year, that’s about $300, $300. If you make $100K a year, that’s about $750 he took out of his pocket and said, here, Use this for whatever expenses he has, and I’m gonna come back, and when I come back, then I’ll pay for even more if there are more expenses. Can you believe that? I mean, think about that in your life. I think about it in my life.
Have I ever come across somebody where it cost me something? Where I forked out some money, where I took some time, I took as much time as I could, But I took care of the individual. I paid for their hotel room. I paid the grocery bill. I met the need of the moment.
I did what I could. Now what you have here in contrast, you have 3 different responses in contrast. You have abuse, that some people saw this man as somebody to abuse. He was an individual that was on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho and they thought we could get something out of this guy and so they use him in a sense. They beat him.
Until he is almost dead.
You can have— we could have that attitude toward people. We could abuse them. There’s also the response of ignoring this man. He’s a person to ignore. So the priest and the Levite just completely ignore him.
They kind of walk around him, tiptoe around him, sneak around him, hope nobody notices.
That I’m from Bridges Community Church. We don’t want him to know, you know, we don’t want him to know that we’re ignoring those who are in need. That could happen. Or he’s a person to help. He’s a person to help, and that’s how the Samaritan saw him.
Now, could the priest have helped him? For sure, I mean, he was in like a helping profession. That’s what a priest does, right? You help people. Could the Levite have helped him?
Absolutely, I mean, that was in his job description. The Levite helped the priest. He helped the priest perform his duties. And so yeah, his whole life was all about helping, helping, helping. And if he couldn’t help, he would go get the help to get the help that was needed.
So the Samaritan helped. Why did he help? Because he saw with pity this individual that needed help, and therefore he was moved. He was moved with pity. He was moved with compassion.
He was moved with love. To bandage the guy up, to cleanse his wounds, to relieve his pain, and to get him to a place where he could recover. He did what he could, and that’s what I love about this. He did what he could in the time that he had, and evidently he didn’t have like a week, but he did have some time that he could do what he could. Now that’s not just a nice story, right?
I mean, that’s a great story. But Jesus obviously is trying to communicate something to this man, and of course God wants to continue to communicate something to us because we can tend to be like the priest. We can tend to be like the Levite. We see people that are in need and avoid them or ignore them. We’re too busy.
So there are a couple of questions that we could ask ourselves. One is an obvious question ’cause Jesus asked the question. The second question is implicit to the question that Jesus asked. The first question is found in verse 36. So Jesus said, which of these 3 do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?
Which one was a neighbor? Now that’s just an obvious question. Who loved his neighbor? And any 3-year-old who hears this story would be able to answer correctly who the neighbor was. I mean, it wasn’t the Levite, it wasn’t the priest, it was the Samaritan.
It’s not hard. So the lawyer says, verse 37, the expert in law replied, the one who had mercy on him. This is the one who loved his neighbor, not the priest, not the Levite. They didn’t have mercy on this man. Mercy.
Mercy, as I’ve already suggested, speaks of compassion. It speaks of Godlike compassion, compassion that just doesn’t talk about, you know, being compassionate, but compassion that is, that is moved to actions. And so really, when we’re talking about mercy, we’re talking about responding to people like God responds to us, with loving kindness and compassion. You know, the scripture says that that God’s faithfulness is demonstrated every day. The Lord’s lovingkindness indeed never ceases, compassions never fail.
They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. God every day is pouring out on people like us his mercies and his compassions. Think about that. People that are in need.
When he sent Jesus Christ into the world, he sent him because the world had a need. We all have a need. We have a need to have a relationship with God and we need a Savior. And God sent out of compassion, out of love, out of mercy, he sent Jesus to give his life for needy people like us. And he didn’t stop there.
He continues every day to pour out his compassion on needy people. Aren’t you glad? I’m glad that we can come before his throne of grace that we might find grace and mercy in time of need. Here we are as needy people and God doesn’t turn his back and he doesn’t go to the other side of the road and he doesn’t ignore our condition. He comes right to our situation and ministers to us in our time of need.
And so Jesus is trying to help this person, but us, get the point of this, is that we should be people like God who go to people who are in need. But the implicit question is this: who are you, who am I most like?
That’s the implicit question. That’s the question that he’s asking. This lawyer. So who are you most like? You most like the priest?
You most like the Levite? Or are you most like the Samaritan? Now what is this asking us to do? This is basically asking us to do what we can to help others that are in need. June 6th, there was a flight from Oakland to Chicago, a Southwest flight.
On this flight, this woman had an allergic reaction to food. Evidently she went into shock, and the flight attendant got onto the PA system and said, if there’s a doctor, if there’s a nurse on the plane, we need your help right now. We have an emergency situation right now. We need your help. There was a nurse on the plane.
She identified herself. She came to this person that was hardly breathing.
Air passages had restricted at that point. It was not a good situation. They said it was an emergency situation. The pilots were preparing to, you know, find a place to land. They took out the first aid kit, and in the first aid kit there were a couple of EpiPens there.
If you’re familiar, this is a way that they could treat somebody who was in this condition. And so this nurse administered this drug and this woman began to get better. And in fact, she got so much better they didn’t have to stop the plane and she was able to walk off the plane once they got to the destination. They called this nurse an angel. Why was she an angel?
Because she had the training and then a resource, and she took what it was that could be done and did something and saved a life. When that Samaritan in mercy moved to that person in need, he saved a life. He demonstrated compassion and love. He demonstrated the love and compassion that God wants all of us to have. But, but for that to happen, we’ve got to be willing to live out this mandate.
What’s the mandate here where Jesus makes it absolutely clear? It’s just go and do likewise. What’s the do likewise? It’s to love your neighbor. And how do you love your neighbor?
By meeting your neighbor’s needs. So that when you come across a neighbor who’s in need, don’t ignore it. Do what you can. Do what you can to to meet that need. And the sequence is very important here in this, this parable.
There’s the willingness to see, the willingness to see, because the priest saw, the Levite saw, and the Samaritan saw. But this is a willingness not to just see and then not do anything, but this is a willingness to see, what is it, Lord, that you want me to do in this situation? It’s a willingness to see and to tune in to what God wants in this situation. It’s a willingness to say, Lord, I see that there’s a need here. How do you want me to reply?
It’s a willingness to feel, it’s a willingness to feel pity, as this Samaritan had, we would call it, he had a heart. His heart went out to this individual. It’s the kind of thing that Jesus had when he came into that situation where Lazarus has just died, do you remember? And the account says that Lazarus, that Jesus in response to Lazarus’ death, he did what? What did Jesus do?
What was the first thing? He wept. Jesus wept. And do you remember what the people did when Jesus began to weep? You know what they did?
They said, see how he what? See how he loved him. See how he loved him.
His weeping was an expression of his love. He was moved with compassion. He was moved with mercy in that situation. It’s a willingness when somebody’s in need to see the need, to feel the need, and then to act, to do whatever it is that needs to be done. And sometimes that’s a challenging thing, right?
Because you might come across somebody who needs money and really That’s not what they need. They need something more than that, and the situation might demand you doing something more to help them. I was standing in a parking lot over on the other side of San Jose with a friend. We had just finished lunch, and an individual came up to us and said, could you give me some money to get a drink? We said, what kind of drink you want?
Well, I would just want, nearby was a Starbucks, I just wanted coffee. I said, okay, well, hey, listen, just give me a moment. We finished our conversation, I took him over to Starbucks. I didn’t give him cash, that’s what he wanted was cash. I just got him a Starbucks coffee.
That to me, you never know, right? You gotta be wise, and I think one of the interesting conversations that could come out of a passage like this is, you know, how do we help a person without enabling a person? What exactly does that mean?
Tremendous conversation to have as a result of a passage like this and trying to sort this whole thing out. But the point is this, there are going to be divine interruptions. Hugh Halter calls them divine interruptions. Divine interruptions that come into our life and into our schedules, and God gives us an opportunity in those divine interruptions to be him to the people that are around us, to minister his love and his compassion and his mercy, and he wants to use us in those circumstances if we’ll only see, if we’ll only feel, and if we’ll only act. And just think about this: when we see and feel and act in ways that are in keeping with his love, the love of God is manifest to people that are around us, and the love of God enlarges enlarges in our hearts, doesn’t it?
And we become the people that God so wants us to be in a world that so desperately needs to see God’s love. Well, let’s thank him. Lord, thanks for the opportunity today again to look at a passage that speaks to our stories, to the stories that we are living, where you, like the merciful Samaritan, want us to go to people in need, to be there and to be helpful in appropriate ways. Lord, we pray that we would be responsive to your work in us. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, help us love others even as you love us.
And may I just say that if you don’t have the connection with God that has given you the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes to those that he saves, to those who are willing to say, Lord, I need a Savior. I turn to Jesus. I ask Jesus to save me from my sins. I want to be one of your children. I want to be a follower of yours.
Forgive me for my sins. I want to live a life that is under your leadership, no longer mine. If you’ve never received that gift of life, you can even right now this morning. And in receiving the gift, you become a member of his family. And one of the things that happens is you, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit produces in us fruit, fruit such as love. And so, Lord, we pray that love would be manifest in us in greater ways. As we leave this place this morning, may we be sensitive to your leadings and to what’s happening around us, to see needs and to go to those needs in ways that are appropriate to what you want for us. And may it make an impact in your world. For we pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
