Pastor Andrew J. Webb

WHAT WE BELIEVE:
We are a Reformed, Evangelical, Presbyterian Congregation. We gratefully receive the Westminster Confession and  Larger and Shorter Catechisms and believe them to be an accurate summary of the doctrine taught in scripture.

The Good Samaritan

Andrew james Webb

Luke 10:25-37:
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." 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 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. 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.' 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."

Although this parable only occurs in the Gospel according to Luke, it is probably one of the most well-known of all the stories in the Bible. Most people are so generally familiar with it, that you can use the phrase "Good Samaritan" in a conversation with unbelievers and they'll probably know what you are referring to even if they have no idea what a Samaritan was (and no the Samaritans of the first century – the time when Jesus told this parable – were not RV owners or people who generally went about doing good deeds).

But what I want to suggest today is that while this story is well-known, just like the story of David and Goliath, it is possible to be familiar with the details of the story, and yet badly misunderstand what it is God is really telling us. So what I am going to ask you to do today is to look at this familiar story with new eyes. For the moment, forget that you know all about this story and what the messages is, and let's read it anew together. I suspect if you are really willing to do that, you might be surprised at the results.

First, lets look at the context in which Jesus tells this parable, this earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

Jesus is the process of teaching when a lawyer stands up and asks him a question. A lawyer was not a person who sued people or represented people in court, but an expert in the Law of God. This is a man who had spent his life studying the teaching of the first 5 books of the bible, the Pentatuch, or the books of the law as they were called and the way in which they were interpreted by the Rabbis.

The question this lawyer asks Jesus is a good one, in fact it’s the most important question that anyone can ask. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He assumes that the mere 80 or so years that we are here on earth for are not the end, that there is an afterlife. Because he is a religious Jew we can assume that he knew that there is a God and that there is also Heaven and Hell and that after they die it is possible for men to end up in one or the other. He is asking therefore "How can I be assured that my inheritance after this life will be heaven and not hell?" I hope all of you have asked that question as well and already know the correct answer – the biblical answer.

Now not only is this Lawyer asking the right question, he's also asking the right person. He's asking Jesus. Jesus was pretty much the same question by another Pharisee, a man by the name of Nicodemus, and he asked Jesus because he believed he was a "teacher come from God." (John 3:2)

But you have been told that while this Lawyer was asking the right question of the right person, he was asking for the wrong reason.

Did anyone ever ask you a question because they didn't think you knew the right answer? Well this Lawyer was asking Jesus – testing or tempting him – because he wanted to show him up. He's asking expecting an answer that would somehow contradict the Law of Moses so he can show Him up:

We will see this happening more and more explicitly as we continue on in the book of Luke. In fact in the very next chapter we read:

Luke 11:53 And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, 54 lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.

The Pharisees generally did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, and most didn't even think he was a teacher come from God, as Nicodemus did. And it is because of that that Jesus doesn't answer this Lawyer the way He answered Nicodemus. To Nicodemus he said "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

But what do you think would have happened had He told this unbelieving Lawyer that the key to eternal life was believing in Jesus? This Lawyer not only thinks Jesus is a shyster, he believes that the key to salvation lies in keeping the LAW.

So Jesus asks him "What does the Law say must be done in order for a man to not only be able to stand before God blameless and uncondemned but to MERIT or have earned eternal life?"

In answering that question in verse 27 the Lawyer gives a great answer, he gives the same summary of the Law that Jesus Himself gives in Matthew 22. That shouldn't surprise us because that answer comes straight from the Word of God:

Deut. 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Lev. 19:18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

There you have a perfect summary of the two tables of the MORAL LAW, the TEN COMMANDMENTS, the first 4 consisting of our duties to God and the second 6 concerning our duties to man.

Probably to the Lawyers shock Jesus AGREES with Him! Yes if you can do that you will inherit eternal life!

Now that should have caused him to despair! How many of you believe that you have consistently:

Loved 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? Anyone?

His answer should have been at that point, "WOE IS ME! For I have fallen so far short of that standard!" And yet instead he is still trying to trip Jesus up. Ok, I honestly believe that I can love my neighbor as myself, because my neighbors are members of the sect of the Pharisees and I'm a Pharisee. I can still get him, I can show that I am justified, that we Pharisees whom this uneducated Galilean has been dissing have fulfilled the requirements of the Law.

So he asks Who is my neighbor? Whom do I have to love as much as I love myself?

Jesus answers with the story of the Good Samaritan. He tells us about a man, the audience would have naturally assumed correctly that he means a Jew, who took the difficult and dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Please put your thumbs in Luke 10 and turn to the maps in the back of your bibles if they have them]

You'll see that Jerusalem is in the Mountains, but Jericho is way down here in the Jordan valley. The distance is only about 17 miles but you end up descending about 3000 feet. The area is very hilly with lots of caves and ravines, which were good for hiding in. It's perfect bandit country, and apparently one of those bands of robbers attacked this man, beat him within an inch of his life, took whatever mount he had and stripped him of everything, even his clothes and left him for dead.

The first man who comes along and sees him lying by the road is a Priest. Now, you may have heard explanations for why the priest chooses not to stop for him. Some have speculated that the priest didn't know if the man was dead and did not want to become ceremonially unclean by accidentally touching a corpse. But the priest is coming down from Jerusalem and so he has probably finished his stint serving in the temple. Besides the Law and the prophets make it quite clear that mercy is a more important duty even than serving in the temple: Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

Keep in mind that that priest was probably just as conversant with Lev. 19:18 and the command to love your neighbor as yourself as the Pharisee. Why didn't he keep that command? Maybe because he too didn't see him as his neighbor, probably because he didn't want to get involved, and probably also because he was just plain scared and afraid to stop.

During the Second World War, it was very common for the crews of torpedoed ships to end up drowning or dying of hypothermia even though they were within easy rescuing distance of other ships in the convoy. Those ships didn't stop for the men in the water because by doing so, they would have become sitting ducks for any U-Boats still in the area. They pragmatically assessed the situation and decided it wasn't worth the risk. Only the bravest or most merciful of captains did stop, and often they paid for it with their own lives.

We don't know for certain but the Priest and the Levite who passed by, may have been thinking something similar. Those bandits might still be around. If I stop for this man who may already be dead, I'll be easy pickings myself.

Consider this, imagine that you made a wrong turn and ended up in the worst possible part of the inner city you've ever seen. Imagine you are driving home late at night having cashed your paycheck when you spot what might be a beaten up guy, with hardly a shred of clothing, laying on the sidewalk. Is your first instinct to stop the car and leap out to find out if he's ok? Stopping involves a significant risk doesn't it? It's not just an "inconvenience." It might even involve a sacrifice.

The second man to come by is a Levite, a man who helped in the temple. He presumably would also know that He is commanded by God to show mercy and help this man, and yet he does not. He too, chooses not to get involved.

Now those listening would be thinking, will anyone help this poor man? Finally a third man comes along. Can you imagine the shock of the audience when they hear who it is? It's like you've told them the wagon train is surrounded by angry Commanches, they're down to their last bullets. When suddenly there is a cloud of dust on the horizon, is it the cavalry. NO! It’s the APACHES!

When you think Samaritans and Jews in the Bible, think Serbs and Kosavars, Hutus and Tutsis, Koreans and Japanese, Israelis and Palestinians. These guys, hate each other. The audience at this point probably thinks well he's just gone from the frying pan to the fire. This Samaritan will probably cross over to his side of the road in order to ride his donkey over him.

And then the real shocker comes, it is this Samaritan who stops, dismounts, and takes care of the man, binding his wounds, loading him on his own donkey and walking beside the man till he reaches an Inn. Then when he gets there, he pays the innkeep to see to him till he recovers – giving him enough for at least 2 weeks of room and board & telling him to charge him for whatever else it costs.

Now would anyone really do that for the enemy of his people?

Fredericksburg - Richard Kirkland, Sergeant with the 2nd South Carolina, was stationed on the other side of the stone wall during the Federal assaults. On December 14, he asked his superiors if he could bring water to the suffering Federals, wounded on the other side of the wall. He was given permission, but they would not let him use a white flag for fear that it would suggest that the Confederates were surrendering. He filled canteens and, with great risk to himself, went over the wall.

Union pickets aimed at him, thinking he was a scavenger, but they lowered their weapons when he went to the first man -- a wounded Union soldier -- and gave the man water. He went from wounded to wounded, Union and Confederate alike, and made the man more comfortable. He gave them water, straightened broken limbs, bound wounds. Gradually his mission dawned on everyone and he was left to do what he could for the wounded. He returned to the wall after more than an hour and a half of ministering to the suffering on both sides.

All that for men who were invading his "country" and who had just finished sacking the town of Fredericksburg! He could easily have been killed as soon as he popped his head over that wall!

This is what it means to Love your Neighbor as yourself.

Luke 6:27 " But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 "bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 "To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

We must show mercy to all in need, not just our loved ones, our countrymen, but even our enemies.

Two Applications:

1) Why must we do this? NOT because we are hoping for a reward, and certainly not because as some have taught it will suddenly cause all men to love one another. After Richard Kirkland hopped over that wall, the two armies did not see their shared brotherhood and join hands and start singing Kumbaya. The Confederates did not suddenly see in this act of mercy that their keeping of slaves was wrong and go home and free them, the Federals did not see the wrong of attempting to bring all men under the control of one central government. In fact "The Angel of Marye's Heights" as Richard Kirkland came to be known, was killed two years later at Chickamauga. Keep in mind that the bullet or shell that killed him might even have been fired by the brother of one of the men he tended to, or even that man himself.

We do it because it is God's command and according Christ's example, and thus it is the right thing for us to do regardless of the circumstances. And I do mean regardless, even if you knew that one of the men you were helping would someday kill you, you should still do it! Its not about them, its about the gospel and mercy is central to the Gospel!

"Hardheartedness to others in misery reproaches the gospel. When men's hearts are like pieces of rock, or as the scales of the leviathan, "shut up as with a close seal," you may as well extract oil out of flint, as the golden oil of charity out of them. Job 41:15. They unchristianize themselves. Unmercifullness is the sin of the heathen. "Unmerciful." Rom. 1:31. It eclipses the glory of the gospel. Does the gospel teach uncharitableness? Does it not bid us "draw out thy soul to the hungry"? Isaiah 58:10. "These things I will that thou affirm, that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works." Titus 3:8. While you relieve not such as are in want, you walk in opposition to the gospel; you cause it to be evil spoken of, and lay it open to the lash and censure of others." – Thomas Watson

2) You should realize what the Pharisee did not, how far short of Loving God and Neighbor we actually come, how often we hate our enemies and desire to see harm come to them. How often we render evil for evil. You should flee therefore to the only one who truly LOVED his enemies, and even died for them: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus did for us – His Enemies – what the Samaritan did, only for him the cost was far greater and our need was far more dire.

And thus we live in his example, not as though we were able to obtain salvation by our own deeds, but BECAUSE Christ has already obtained it for us. Even if we were to lose our lives in the process, we would remain MORE THAN CONQUERORS because of what Jesus has won for us!