1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The
message from God’s Word this 8th Sunday after Pentecost comes to us
from Luke 10:25-37, and is entitled, “Who
is My Neighbor,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Luke
10:25: 29 says, “25And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to
the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He
said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27And
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.” 28And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do
this, and you will live.” 29But
he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” The parable of
the Good Samaritan came about as an answer to a question about eternal life. It
wasn’t an honest question, but it was a good question. A “certain lawyer” asked
the question—but he wasn’t a lawyer in the sense we think of it.
3.
I heard a little story about lawyers in our judicial system. Two
lawyers were in court. It was a difficult case, and there was a great deal of
controversy. The court opened and lawyer number one jumped up and called the
other lawyer a liar. The second lawyer jumped up to retaliate and called the
first lawyer a thief. The judge rapped for silence, and said, “Now that the lawyers have identified
themselves, we will begin the case.”
4.
But, the lawyer in this
parable wasn’t part of a judicial system; instead he was an interpreter of the
Mosaic Law, and in that sense he was a lawyer.
Now our Lord had a very wonderful way of dealing with questions. He
answered a question by asking a question. This is known as the Socratic method
because Socrates used it: answer a question with a question. It lets a man
answer his own question. So the lawyer tries to put Jesus on the witness stand,
and Jesus turns around and puts the lawyer on
the witness stand. Now if the lawyer had
been honest with Jesus’ question, which he wasn’t, he would have said, “Master, I’ve sincerely tried to love God
with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind, and my neighbor as myself. But I
can’t do it. I’ve miserably failed. So how can I inherit eternal life?” But
instead of being honest, the lawyer adopted this evasive method and said, “And who is my neighbor?”
5.
The lawyer here in Luke 10
has a lot in common with most
people in the world. Most people believe
they are saved by fulfilling what they think are their duties toward their
neighbor. They completely forget about
the necessity of fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things. But, focusing on the neighbor while ignoring
God is nothing but self-deception. No
one can fulfill the requirement of the Law of God this way. Much, much more is involved.
6.
The
lawyer who, according to our text tested Jesus, thought that he had fulfilled
the commandment of love for his neighbor.
But what did our Lord answer him?
He responded with a parable, saying that a Jew who traveled from
Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers that stripped him, beat him, and left
him half-dead. A priest and a Levite
passed by without showing mercy to the suffering man. But, one of the Samaritans to whom the Jews
were so hostile, came by and “had compassion” on him (Luke 10:33). Although he saw his enemy lying in his own
blood, he didn’t rejoice over his misfortune, but heartily cared for him. Why did our Lord Jesus tell this parable? He wanted to show the lawyer that a person
must love both his friend and his enemy if he’s to fulfill his duty toward his
neighbor. It’s
even possible that this lawyer was a Levite and that he squirmed at this point
because it touched him in a personal way.
7.
This
story shows that no person can justify himself before God and make himself
holy, for no one can perfectly fulfill the commandment to love his enemy as his
friend. Many people, even those who
don’t believe in Jesus as their Savior, have shamed their enemies by the
kindnesses they extend to them, but where is the person who can say he loves
his enemy like a friend? All Christians
must conquer their anger against their enemies and finally embrace them with
love, but where is the person who can say that he never carried anger against
his enemy in his heart? If he became
angry with his enemy even once, he didn’t fulfill the commandment of love for
the neighbor and he condemns himself as a transgressor of the God’s Law.
8.
The
law of love for the neighbor demands that we rejoice in the happiness of our
enemy as if it were our own and grieve over his misfortune as if it had happened
to us. It requires us to be just as
concerned for his temporal and eternal welfare as we are for our own, and to
pray just as much for him as for ourselves.
We must be more interested in our enemy obtaining forgiveness from God
for his sin against us than in receiving an apology from him ourselves. Remember Jesus says, “But, I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you,” in Matt. 5:44.
9.
Only
Jesus, the Son of God, demonstrated such love on earth. Only Jesus always returned evil with good,
wickedness with kindness, curses with blessings, and hate with love. Jesus mourned with great tears, the
misfortunes of His persecutors, prayed for His murders, and gave up His life on
the cross for the salvation of all His enemies.
Who has perfectly followed our Savior’s example? No one.
For this reason, the commandment to love the neighbor shows that no
person can justify himself before God and save himself. This is why we need Jesus to save us from our
sins by His death on the cross for us.
Only Jesus has fulfilled all of God the Father’s will for our
lives. Jesus, even though he had
committed no sins of his own, took our sin upon Himself to pay the penalty of
sin for us to make us NOT GUILTY before God our Heavenly Father.
10.
This parable has a practical application for you and me today. Any
person you can help is your neighbor. It doesn’t mean that only the person
living next to you is your neighbor. People need Jesus, the Good Samaritan. There’s
a great deal of talk about getting the gospel out to the world, but not much of
an effort is made to see that people know about Christ. It’s like the young man
who was courting a girl. He wrote her a letter and said to her, “I would climb the highest mountain for you,
swim the deepest river for you, cross the widest sea for you, and cross the
burning desert for you!” Then he added a P.S.: “If it does not rain next Wednesday, I will come to see you.” That
sounds like the average Christian’s commitment to Christ!
11.
The world today is like the man that fell among
thieves and needs our help. The world needs Jesus. Christ can not only rescue
us from drowning, but He can teach us to swim. Ritualism and formalism see mankind
drowning and say, “Swim, brother, swim.”
But man can’t swim. Legalism and liberalism push across toward man and say, “Hang on, brother, hang on.” But man can’t
hang on. There’s a song that says, “I was
sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within,
sinking to rise no more; but the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry,
from the waters lifted me, now safe am I.” Jesus has lifted us out of the
mire of our sins and from death itself and has given us eternal life in His
name. This is the message of the Good Samaritan. Amen.
Prayer: Lord,
thank you for this gift. Help me read
Your Word in the right way, as if it were a letter to me from You. Help me read it as a greeting You have given
me. Help me hear You speaking personally
to me today. Help me realize that You’ve
written it for my sake. I know of
course, that You have sent Your Word out to all people in every era. So help me hear that You are speaking. May
Your Word come to life for me. You have
sent Your Word to accomplish Your work.
Let it work in me too to love my neighbor as You have loved me and given
up Your life for me. Amen.
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