“The Stories that Jesus Told”
Sermon # 2
“The Parable of the Good Samaritan”
Or
What Does Real Compassion Look Like
Luke 10:25-37
“There is a funny story about
St Peter admitting people at the gates of heaven. St Peter asks one man who appears,
‘Tell me one act of kindness you have committed during your life. The man said,
‘Once saw a rough looking gang of motorcyclist harassing an old lady. I walked right
up and punched the gang leader in the nose!’ St Peter said, ‘When did that
happen?’ The guy said, ‘About 30 seconds ago.’”
This story really introduces in a humorous
way, the relationship between good works and going to heaven, that we find in the story
that we are going to consider today in our series “The Stories that Jesus Told.”
Today we are going to look at what has come to be known as the “The Parable of the
Good Samaritan.” We find this very
familiar story in Luke chapter ten, beginning in verse twenty-five, and it is told in
response to a question asked of Jesus by a Jewish lawyer. The story begins in verse
twenty-five where we read, “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying,
"Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
We are told that this
man is a lawyer; but he is not the kind of lawyer who goes to court in a civil or criminal
case. This “lawyer” is an expert in Old Testament Law he is a Old Testament
scholar. The question asked of
Jesus by this lawyer is: “What do I have to do to have eternal life?” Basically,
he is asking, “What
must I do to have a place in heaven?”
When he asked Jesus the
question about eternal life, he was asking what Jesus saw as the essential requirements of
the Law. Much like the rich young ruler of Matthew he seems to be saying, “What good
thing must I do in order to have eternal life?” (19:16)
I can just see Jesus
smiling as he throws the question back in the lawyer’s lap in verse twenty-six:
“He said to him, "What is written in the law? What
is your reading of it?" Jesus restraints from giving
the man an answer and rather says to him, “You know the law, what does it say?”
In
verse twenty-seven the lawyer answers Jesus, "… 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."
Jesus answers by
saying you have answered “rightly” or “correctly.” The word translated
“rightly” is from the word (orthos)
from which we get the word orthodox. Jesus was saying, “Okay,
your beliefs are orthodox but now try to do what you believe.” And Jesus goes
on to say, “Now
do it and you will live.” The
word translated “live” here is not (bios)
which would indicated health or biological life but it is the word (zoa)
which means full or meaningful life.
Some are troubled by this
answer but we need to understand that Jesus is not saying that that this man
could be saved by the law. He is reminding the man what the law says. The law
requires not only that one keep the law, but that he keep it perfectly. The law must be
kept without omissions or failures. To be justified under the law one must be perfect.
Jesus wants the lawyer to see that law cannot save anyone because no one can keep the law
perfectly.
Some of you still believe deep down that
there is something you can do to gain eternal life. I want to take a little survey.
I want everyone in this room to raise their hand if you have never broken one of the Ten
Commandments.” Anybody? Okay so all of us have already forfeited that chance. We need
some help.
The good news is that you and I can’t
do anything to gain eternal life. Jesus has already done it all. You don’t do
anything to inherit something; that happens because you are a member of the family.
Now the Old Testament lawyer did what lawyers do so well he looked
for a loophole in the law. In verse twenty-nine it says, “But he, wanting to
justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" He is using an evasive
tactic that is still being used today he said, “Define what you mean by neighbor.”
Why did the lawyer ask this question? Luke says that he wanted to “justify himself,” that is he wanted to make himself seem right in his relationship
with God. The lawyer measured himself against both commands and he figured that he met the
first one well enough, but his keeping of the second one depending on how you defined “neighbor.” He was asking, “Who and
how much do I have to love?” We are often like the lawyer in that we
try to reduce God’s commands to something we can live with. We would like to believe that loving my neighbor means loving people
who love me, or at least loving people who are lovable. Loving my neighbor thereby comes to mean; doing nice things
for people who will probably do nice things back to me. That is probably what
he lawyer thought too.
The lawyer’s
original question was “What do I have to do to get in?”
But Jesus’ answer tells him what someone who is already in looks like. Like many of
us, the Lawyer knew the right answers. But he was totally unprepared for Jesus’ story
about what compassion looks like in real life.
Jesus defines neighbor
with a story but notice that Jesus did not call this story a parable, so it could be based
on the report of an actual occurrence. The journey from Jericho to Jerusalem was
well known for its danger. It was very steep and treacherous because of the many places
for robbers to hide. In fact it was so bad that the name of the road was “the way of
blood.” So this is a very believable story to those who were listening.
Jesus in this story
tells us three things about compassion.
First,
Compassion Is Demonstrated On the Basis of Need Not Worth.
In verse thirty we read, “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.” Our compassion is to be driven, not by the “worth” of the
recipient but by the need. Jesus just says, “A certain man…” Today we would probably just say, “Some
guy…” The man is robbed and wounded
and left for dead. He needs help in the worse way. The fact that this man is
stripped of his clothing makes it impossible for passersby to determine if he is a Jew or
a Gentile. A person’s cultural identity was revealed by how they dressed.
As the unknown victim
lay beside the road a series of three individuals came along the way. The first passer-by
is introduced in verse thirty-one, “Now by chance a certain
priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.” A priest came down the road,
but when he saw the man he crossed to the other side and continued his journey. The priest
has been excused by some down through the years, by saying that he didn’t want to
touch the man because he might have been dead, and this would have made the priest
ceremonially unclean and he would have been unable to carry out his duties. But I want you
to notice it says that both he and the Levite who came along next are coming “down the road” thus they were leaving
Jerusalem and had already performed their duties.
This is one of the most shocking aspects
of this parable when Jesus told it. The priest was considered the holiest person there was
among the Jews. He was taught the Scriptures. He was entrusted with
offering sacrifices for the sin of the people. He was allowed to go further into
the Temple than “regular” people were. If anyone was going to reflect the
character of God, it would be the priest. But he went on his way and left the
man unaided.
The
second passer-by is introduced in verse thirty-two, “Likewise a Levite, when he
arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.” The Levite at least went over
and looked at the man, but perhaps it was no more than the current practice of
“rubber necking” at the scene of an accident to see what had happened. He too
did not feel a need to do any thing to help.
The first two
passersby probably just didn’t want to get involved. They didn’t want any
trouble. They weren’t monsters. They were regular folks: nice, ordinary people who
loved their kids and tried their best to get by in the world. They saw the need, and yet
did nothing about it. Both men of these men, saw the man but ignored the need. These two
religious professionals; were caught up in a life-less religion. They played at church,
but it does not affect the way they live. Does
yours?
Not
Only Is Compassion Demonstrated On the Basis of Need Not Worth but …
Second, Compassion Is
Measured by the Obstacles that Must be Overcome to Exercise it!
Now the story takes a most unexpected twist
for in verse thirty-three Jesus says, “But a certain Samaritan,
as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.” Given the mutual hatred between Jews and Samaritans, it would
have been more likely to have expected the Samaritan to finish the guy off and if
the injured man were conscious he would have been likely to have refused the aid of the
Samaritan, no matter how good his intentions were. Today
we call this story “The Parable of The Good Samaritan.” The very phrase, “good
Samaritan” has become part of our common language. But this was definitely
not a phrase in use by the Jews of Jesus’ day. In fact, they probably wouldn’t
have even considered saying the words “good” and “Samaritan”
in the same sentence. To the Jews that heard this story the phrase “good
Samaritan” would have been an oxymoron, two words that cancel each other out like,
“Jumbo shrimp” or “pretty ugly.”
Notice with me three
obstacles that hindered the Samaritan showing compassion.
· He Overcame the Obstacle of
Being Unappreciated.
It would have been shocking
for Jesus to have told the people that this man was helped by just an ordinary man. But it
is not even a Jew helping a Jew, but rather a Samaritan helping a Jew who had been ignored
by his fellow Jews.
There is no a logical
reason for the Samaritan to rearrange his plans or to spend his money to help an
“enemy” in need. Of
all the people who passed this injured man by the Samaritan had the least reason to
help, he was considered a no-account in his society before this incident and his good
deed would not change his status in the community at large.
Yet when the
passage says that “when he saw him, he had compassion,” the Greek word used here for compassion (splanchnizomai) is a very vivid one. It
comes from a word that refers to the intestines, or bowels. It sounds pretty gross! But
it’s the equivalent of what we mean when we talk about a “gut feeling.” A
gut feeling is one that comes from the deepest part of who we are. The Samaritan saw the
same pitiful man lying in agony beside the road and his heart churned within him so that
he could not pass by without helping. That’s the way compassion affects us. It stirs
us; it troubles us, it keeps us awake at night until we do something.
When that Samaritan
looked at that suffering man lying half-dead by the side of the road, something happened
in his gut; something that made it impossible for him to walk away. He didn’t decide to help this
guy on the basis of how worthy he was. He helped him because of how needy he was.
In verse thirty-four we
are told, “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.”
He doesn’t pass
by on the other side. He moved toward the injured man. You must move toward people to
express compassion, in order to build relationships. It is not something that just
mystically happens, it takes concentrated effort. It often is not convenient. But I
don’t want you to forget that the
Samaritan is moving toward someone who if he was conscious would despise him; someone who
no doubt would not do the same for him if the situations were reversed.
· He Overcame the Obstacle of
the Possibility of Being Misunderstood.
In each one of his acts he
demonstrated compassion as he responded in a practical, timely and unselfish
way. He put him on his own donkey which meant that the Samaritan walked. But it should be remembered that his act of
placing this man on his donkey and leading him down the road to an inn was open to
misinterpretation. A Samaritan transporting a Jewish victim of a mugging would be the
equivalent of an Indian riding into the frontier Fort with a scalped soldier draped across
his horse; he probably would never get the opportunity to tell what had happened!
· He Overcame the Obstacle of
Personal Inconvenience.
It is important to
recognize that he took the time to take care of him. We may
not be able to help everywhere, or help everyone, but we can help somewhere and try to do
a meaningful work of service.
The
Samaritans work did not stop with just helping the man and transporting him to a place of
safety for we read in verse thirty-five, “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.'
Every thing this man
had done cost him something, either in time, inconvenience or resources. Since travelers did not usually carry
bandages with them, this man may have had to tear strips from his own clothing
to bind this man’s wounds. The oil and wine that he used to clean and treat
the wounds would have come from his own meager food supply. And then this man really went the extra
mile, he took this man to an inn and saw to it that the innkeeper looked out for the
recovering victim. He also promised that he would return and fully reimburse the
innkeeper for any additional expenses that he incurred in caring for this man. He left
money to take care of this man’s needs and he put no limit on how much he would spend
to see the wounded man taken care of. There is nothing more the Samaritan could have done
to show his compassion for this man.
Compassion Is Measured by the
Obstacles that Must be Overcome to Exercise it and …
Third,
Our
Compassion Demonstrates Our Relationship With God!
At the conclusion of
His story he asks the lawyer one additional question in verse thirty-six, “Which of these three do you
think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves.” The literal reading of this verse would be,
“Which
of these three became a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves.”
The lawyer almost chokes on his words here. He cannot even
bring himself to say the word “Samaritan” and so he responds in verse thirty-seven with, "He who showed mercy on him." And for the second time Jesus seems to tell this man to do
something in order to inherit eternal life when this verse continues with Jesus saying to
him, "Go and
do likewise." Why does Jesus say this? Because
he realizes that this man will not turn to him for salvation until he turns from his
dependence on “doing” something to earn eternal life.
The lawyer is left
without any of the excuses or the vindication that he wanted. The second question that the
lawyer had asked was, “Who
is my neighbor?” the question had been turned on him and is now, “What kind
of neighbor am I?”
In 1 John 3:16-18, in surely one of the most
convicting passages in the Bible we read, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we
also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoever has this world's
goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of
God abide in him? (18) My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in
deed and in truth.”
James in his practical
principles for living the Christian life says in (James
1:15-17), “If a brother
or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, (16) and one of you says to them,
"Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things
which are needed for the body, what does it profit? (17) Thus also faith by itself, if it
does not have works, is dead”
Compassion
demonstrates whether we have we have a relationship with God.
Conclusion
In this story Jesus is
separating the person who has a real relationship with God from the merely religious. We
saw what the religious folks did when they saw this man bruised and battered by the side
of the road. They kept walking. In fact, they crossed the street and kept walking.
The point of the Lord’s parable is
powerful. Loving my neighbor is not merely a good idea, or socially appropriate behavior
it is evidence of my relationship with God. Our relationship with God is inseparable from
our relationships to the people in our lives. We cannot
have a real relationship with God and not act in love toward other people.
But don’t
misunderstand me; you don’t have to be a Christian to be kind. Too many people
confuse kindness with salvation. I have heard people say of some who has died, “They
will surely be in heaven because they showed kindness to animals and to strangers.”
Being kind or doing good works will not get you into heaven, only knowing Jesus will
get you into heaven.
Perhaps you have identified with this man’s question, “What must I do to go to Heaven?” The answer is the same, stop trying to inherit Heaven by doing – instead, believe on Jesus; trust that Jesus has already paid the penalty for you.