Love that Crosses the Road

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We’re going to be in Luke chapter 10 this morning. The passage that we’re going to look at today, every time I read, you may think this is strange, but stick with me. Every time I read this passage about the Good Samaritan, I think about nature documentaries. I’ve probably mentioned in the past, my kids and I especially love nature documentaries. And if you’ve ever watched many of those, you find yourself rooting for one of the animals over the other, don’t you? When there’s a predator and prey scene. Okay, so if there’s a wild dog and it’s chasing a, you know, chasing a, what are those things called? Meerkat. Chasing the meerkat, I am pulling for that meerkat. I want that meerkat to get away. Cute little meerkats. If you’re not familiar with meerkats, they kind of remind me of Africa’s prairie dogs. But I want that meerkat to get away.

If that wild dog is being chased by a cheetah though, then I’m cheering for the wild dog to get away. I don’t want that cheetah to win until that cheetah’s in a fight with a crocodile. Then I don’t like that crocodile. I don’t trust that crocodile. But suddenly I become team crocodile when there’s a python involved. You know, it just depends on which animal I feel more connected to at that moment. And I guess I’m very fickle because it just shifts depending on who they’re up against. The reason the story of the Good Samaritan always makes me think of those nature documentaries is because we look at something like one of those nature documentaries and we are picking and choosing who we care about based on how attached we feel to them at the time. But the story of the Good Samaritan teaches us that we don’t get to pick and choose who we care about.

We don’t get to pick and choose who we love. That was the whole point the lawyer was trying to make, as we’re going to see in just a moment. Hopefully you’ve turned with me to Luke chapter 10. If you haven’t, go ahead and turn there with me this morning. We’re continuing our study through the book of Luke. And we’ve finally arrived at chapter 10, this familiar story to you, to many of you. Luke chapter 10, and once you find it, if you’d stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, and if you don’t have your Bible or can’t find Luke chapter 10, it’ll be on the screen for you to be able to see what we’re reading. But we’re going to start in verse 25 this morning. It says, and a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, put Jesus to the test.

This expert in the Old Testament law, or at least their interpretations of the Old Testament law, decided he was going to put Jesus to the test and try to entrap him. And he said, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it, or how does it read to you? And he answered, 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. And there he’s stringing together two quotations, one from Leviticus and one from Deuteronomy. And he said to him, Jesus answered the man, said, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. Sounds like a recipe for eternal life, right? But the point Jesus makes is we can’t do it perfectly, as we’ll look at a little later on. But wishing to justify himself.

So he’s wishing here to prove that I am good enough to meet that law. I’m good enough. I have what it takes. Wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? He’s looking for a loophole. Verse 30, And he said, go and do the same. And you may be seated. So as we’ve studied our way through the book of Luke, and we’ve been in chapters 9 and 10, they’ve really been focused on Jesus preparing His disciples to go out on a mission. And it’s talked about the dedication and the sacrifice that are required to the mission as we go out and represent Him and help people to know Him and come to that saving knowledge of Him. It’s talked about the duty and the sacrifice, the dedication. When I was here two weeks ago, we looked at the cause for rejoicing that we have as we carry out this mission, that it’s not, even though it is obligation and it is duty, it’s not just those things.

It’s not a drudgery. There are things that we can and should rejoice in. Then we come to this passage that almost seems like he’s shifting gears here. He’s focusing on something other than the mission. This still fits into the mission, though, because we cannot accomplish our mission for Christ without love, without demonstrating love, even for those that it’s difficult to demonstrate love for. You say, well, shouldn’t think anybody is difficult to love. We’re all human. We’re all human. It’s like the nature documentary. There’s some people we care more about than others. It’s natural. But we don’t get to not love anyone. It’s part of the argument Jesus is making here. And they start out with this question of the law.

I think this man probably was listening and was offended at what Jesus said when he’s telling the disciples, the 70-plus disciples, that they should feel blessed because there were people who died waiting to see what they got to see. In other words, there were prophets among the Jewish people. There were leaders among the Jewish people who had died longing to see the Messiah and didn’t get to. And then along comes Jesus. And I think this man probably felt a little sense of jealousy for those who had been in his shoes in generations past and wants to push back on this idea that Jesus is the Messiah, wants to challenge him a little bit. This was a fairly common question that they debated. What do I have to do to earn eternal life? And it’s something they debated. I don’t think that’s something God wants us to have to debate.

That’s why, especially in the New Testament, it makes it very clear that it’s by grace through faith in Christ and nothing else. But even understanding that, you go back to the Old Testament law, and it’s sprinkled through there as well. Because the law sets a standard so high, we can’t keep it. We cannot possibly keep the law perfectly. And even those in Jesus’ day who thought they could keep the law, when they understood the law in the right way, they had to realize, I can’t keep this. Oh, I’ve never broken one of the commandments. Well, maybe not outwardly, but Jesus talked about the condition of the heart, and suddenly we’re all guilty. And we come to this. We come to this. He says, what does the law say? It says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

By the way, the order of those is very important as we try to understand love. If we get those out of order, we have a distorted view of what love is. If we get those out of order and we put love, I hear people say from time to time that the most important thing that Christianity teaches is love your neighbor. In reality, that’s the second most important thing. Because Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is the one that came first here, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like to it, love your neighbor as yourself. When we love God first and love God most, it changes our perspective on what love is. We have tried to cultivate in our kids an understanding that sometimes they see things they’re not allowed to do, and they feel like we’re just mean parents. Maybe sometimes we are mean parents, but not most of the time.

But they see things they’re not allowed to do, and we’ve tried to explain to them that, you know, when you see this, that’s not necessarily loving from a parent. Oh, we let you stay up till 3 a.m. and eat nothing but junk food every day. That’s not love. That’s neglect. Love sometimes means saying no. Love means knowing where to draw the boundaries for somebody else’s good. That’s what love is. It’s not just a warm, fuzzy feeling. That’s part of it. But it’s seeking the good of the other person. And when we put those two loves in the right order of priority, when we put God first, it helps us better understand how to love our neighbor. And quite honestly, it makes us more capable of loving our neighbor. You and I are not wired naturally to love our neighbor as ourself. Our human nature is selfish. We’re not wired that way.

But when we love God with everything we have, God gives us a capacity to love other people in a way we couldn’t otherwise. So it’s important that we get those things in the right order. But he comes and says, you know, the law teaches me, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says you’ve got the right answer. Do that and you’ll live. And again, it sounds like a recipe for eternal life until you realize we can’t do that, at least not perfectly. Are there moments that we love God with everything we have as believers? Are there moments we love God with everything we have? I think probably there are. But do we do it consistently, perfectly? I don’t. My guess is you don’t either. Are there moments when we love our neighbor as ourselves? I think there are. Do we do it consistently and perfectly?

No, because we’re fallen sinful individuals. So this is not so much a recipe for eternal life as a standard. It’s like those things you see at a theme park. You must be this tall to ride. Didn’t you hate those when you were a kid? You must be this holy to inherit eternal life. and we can’t ever be that tall. We can’t ever reach that point. But this man is trying, he’s looking for a loophole. He’s smart, I’ll give him that. He’s looking for a loophole. Maybe if I can equivocate on the word neighbor, maybe if I can redefine neighbor to where it doesn’t apply to everybody, because again, there are some people we are better at loving than others. Oh, that sounds so harsh and so un-Christian. I am better at loving my children than I am strangers at Walmart.

And I probably should be better at loving my children than strangers at Walmart, but it doesn’t mean I get to not love the strangers at Walmart. We all have people that it’s easier to love than others, but we don’t get to not love them. So he’s wanting to redefine this and says, who is my neighbor? And Jesus uses this story of the Samaritan to point out, you don’t get to pick and choose who your neighbor is. Your neighbor is whoever is around you that has the need. Now again, this is an ordered, prioritized love. We’re loving God first, and that means we’re seeking the good of the person. Love doesn’t mean always saying yes. So if somebody shows up at the south door tomorrow, and they’re asking for $50 so they can buy some meth. We’ve never had anybody come out and ask that, by the way. But if they came and they said, could I have $50 so I can buy some drugs?

The loving thing to do is to tell them no, right? Right? Are we, we’re all together on that? Okay. All right. Making sure you’re awake. I hope we’re all together on that. The loving thing is to say no to that. But sometimes the loving thing is the hard thing to do. and in this story presenting the Samaritan to this Jewish lawyer Jesus gives us a picture of what it looks for us looks like for us to love others when we’re on mission for him and I want to point out just a few things this morning in the time that we have left together that we see in this passage that love begins with noticing and having compassion. Look back at the beginning of this story. Jesus tells the story of a man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.

And by chance the priest saw him, he went down, he saw him and he passed by on the other side. He went around him. The Levite, who was kind of one of the assistants in the temple, He came to that same place. He saw him. He passed by to the other side. The difference, there’s this repeated structure through the beginning of the story. Come down the road, see him cross over. Come down the road, see him cross over. Come down the road, see him, and that’s where the story changes. The Samaritan didn’t cross over. He felt compassion. Love begins with noticing and having compassion. That’s half the battle right there. that’s honestly the part I struggle with the most is just noticing I don’t mean to be that way but I go through life oblivious my wife cut off half her hair and wanted to see how many days it would take me to notice how many was it? A couple hours at least. Okay. Yeah.

I have a saying I use with the ladies in the office all the time. You’d be amazed what I don’t notice. How do you not notice that? Christy, is it true? Katie, is it true? Yeah. Oblivious. Maybe some of that’s just being a man. But for us to, I didn’t say it was an excuse, it’s an explanation. This is going to turn into a debate if I don’t move off this topic real fast. But love begins with noticing and having compassion. And I think we all have the ability to do this. We get so busy with what we’re doing, we put our blinders on, we focus on the project, and we completely miss the person, we completely miss the need. And I’m probably the guiltiest person in this room. The priest, you know, I can’t even give the priest that. It says he saw him. There was noticing, but there wasn’t compassion. The Levite saw him, he noticed there wasn’t compassion.

It wasn’t until this Samaritan came that somebody stopped to help. And the difference, as I said, is where the Scriptures mention compassion. The other men noticed enough to cross the road. The Samaritan noticed and had compassion. He saw the need, and he was affected by it. He was moved to care and to do something. That’s what compassion is. When you notice the need, and you’re affected by it to the point that you feel compelled to do something about it. He saw this need. He felt compelled. And this is a big part of what we’re called to do as believers, is to notice, to pay attention, and to care, but in a way that compels us to do something about it. It’s one thing to notice and care and, man, I sure feel sorry for you. It’s another thing entirely to do something about it.

And one of the things that this calls us to do is that as we are focused on being on mission for Jesus, we’re called to take this message of salvation to people around us, we can get so focused on, I need to present this point, I need to make this argument, I need to have this conversation that we miss needs all around us. And again, I’m not telling you this to get on to you, I’m telling you this because it’s what the Word teaches and I’m probably the worst one here.

but part of being on mission for Jesus is not to view people as a distraction from the work but to view people as the work to view people as the ministry then we see from this story as we move on to verse 34 that love leads us to serve in spite of all the reasons not to it says that this man came to him and he bandaged up his wounds poured oil on them and he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him before he did all that i can’t imagine that there was not an internal conversation within this man as there would be with any of us about whether he should stop and help or not because sometimes we have compassion but we have that internal discussion should i do something should i intervene and this man had plenty of reasons not to help. You know, we always paint the priest and the Levite as villains in this story.

They didn’t do the right thing, but I don’t know that they’re necessarily evil in this story. It says that he was set on by robbers, and he was beaten. And historical records tell us that this stretch of road between Jericho and Jerusalem was one of the most dangerous places in the whole country when it came to bandits. This Samaritan had no clue, just as the priest and the Levite had no clue, is this a trap? Is this man in on it? That happens even today sometimes. People will fake an accident or a roadside emergency to get people to stop. I remember there was a case, I don’t know if I was a small boy or not born yet, but I remember my grandparents talking about a family that was murdered on I-35 in Oklahoma in one of those situations. You just don’t know.

And so I want to let the priest and the Levite off the hook just a little bit that maybe they weren’t evil, they were just cowardly, if that’s any better. But there was a danger involved. Could this man be in on it? Or could the people who did this to him, maybe he is innocent, but could the people that did this to him, could they still be nearby waiting to do this to me? That was a very real reason for this Samaritan not to stop. also the cost involved if I stop and help this man what is it going to cost me in addition to the time and the effort that he has to expend he takes him to the end and he pays for pays for his stuff there was going to be a real cost involved schedule he this this man he was he was headed out to attend a business he had things to take care of and was on a schedule.

And I think the most telling of all is just the hostility that would naturally have existed between these two men. This man who lay beaten on the side of the road was Jewish. The man who happened upon him was a Samaritan. Those two groups of people did not get along. And there was some animosity back and forth, But a lot of it was started by the Jewish people who looked at them as less than them, maybe even to the point of being subhuman, because they were the descendants of those Jews who had intermarried with their pagan neighbors, and so they looked at the Samaritans as they are not as good as us, they’re not as godly as us, they’re not worth as much as us. And so here, even if you’re the nicest Samaritan in the world, you’re really going to help this guy who probably hates your guts. If I go over and try to help him, you know, is he going to spit at me? What is he going to do?

There was hostility. There were all these reasons not to help, but he helped anyway. He bandaged the wounds. He treated the man with oil and wine. That’s kind of a foreign concept to us. But wine was used for its antiseptic properties. It would clean out a wound. Oil would soothe wounds. I’ve read that travelers in that day would carry small vials of each, kind of like a first aid kit. But he treated him with the oil and the wine. He bandaged his wounds. He gave up his own transport animal. It’s a pretty treacherous road to walk. It’s a long and winding road to walk. Much easier if you’ve got an animal to ride, but he took his own animal, put the Jewish man on the back of it, and took him to an inn. There were all kinds of reasons not to help. And when God calls us to do something to serve somebody else, we’re pretty good at coming up with reasons not to do it.

I’m pretty good at coming up with reasons not to do it. There’s always a reason. But sometimes love calls us to act anyway. And then we go to verse 35. On the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. Each denarii was a day’s wages for an unskilled laborer. so you take you just take the idea of two days pay he handed over two days pay to this innkeeper and he dropped him off at the inn and he said you take care of him you feed him you lodge him you know more oil and wine for the wounds more bandaging whatever you have to do and whatever is left I’ll pay it when he comes back what he did was he essentially gave this man a blank check for the care of the man he was dropping off. How many of you want to do that? You want to take somebody down to Comanche County Memorial and drop them off and say, whatever it costs, I’ll be responsible when I come back.

I don’t want to sign up for that. That’s basically what he did. I will be responsible. This man made a huge sacrifice. And he made a sacrifice for that man because this man is no longer responsible for the cost of the care he receives. That man said, let me take it. And sometimes love will call us to sacrifice to meet a need. And Jesus gave them this story and said of the three, which one is a neighbor? Which one acted as the neighbor to the man who was beaten. And they said, well, obviously it was the Samaritan. It was the one who stopped and helped. And he said, go and do the same. To the lawyer, to those standing nearby, to his disciples who were no doubt part of this conversation, go and do the same. You and I are called and challenged to have this kind of compassion, to make these kinds of sacrifices as we represent Christ in a world who needs to hear about Him.

Now, the understanding underlying all of this is that we’ll never do it perfectly. So, if you’re thinking, I can’t do that, you’re right, you cannot. These things I’ve just told you we’re supposed to do, I can’t do them perfectly either. But our job is to desire to do these things, and as the Holy Spirit works through us as believers and guides us and shapes our hearts over time, that these things will become more and more natural to us as He makes us more and more like Christ. Because what we see here is a story about a Samaritan, but it’s also a reflection of the love that Jesus has for us. See, this man took compassion on somebody who may or may not have deserved it. He had plenty of reasons not to serve, and he sacrificed out of love anyway. Can you think of anybody else in Scripture who did all those things? You’re whispering it. Jesus, all right, good.

I told you all before, I don’t ask trick questions. I’m not trying to trip you up. Jesus, this kind of love was most clearly exemplified by Jesus himself. Now as I tell you this, I believe the story of the Good Samaritan really happened. I think it was something that Jesus knew about and used that story to make a point. I also think it reflects his character well as he’s telling us to do these things. The whole meaning of the exchange between Jesus and this lawyer was that none of us can love God perfectly. None of us can love our neighbor perfectly. Even if we have moments like the Samaritan where, you know, we just knock it out of the park in those moments. You and I can’t do this consistently perfectly. This man had come with that question to try to trap Jesus. He was familiar with God’s standard and the law, but he was so self-righteous he thought he could keep it.

And stories like this, when we look at them and when we’re honest with ourselves, they reveal that there’s something in our hearts that is lacking that does not reflect Jesus. And when we see this story, and if you think like I do, that’s really hard. Oh, I’m not sure I could do that. It reveals where we fall short of God’s standard. But the good news for us is that we don’t have to try to be like the lawyer and nuance or weasel our way out of obedience to God. Jesus recognized that we can’t do this perfectly, but he can. And that’s why he looked on us with compassion in spite of our sin. Everything that we recognize about ourselves and our own hearts that doesn’t belong there, every bit of that, Jesus already knows. Even when we discover something new that’s there that’s not supposed to be there. Jesus already knew. And Jesus looked on each person in this room with compassion.

In spite of our sin, in spite of the ways that we would fall short of his standard, he looked on us with compassion. He saw us. And then Philippians 2 talks about him emptying himself. That means that while he was seated in the glory of heaven, He was worshiped. He was served. He was adored by the angels. He had everything the way He deserved it. He looked at us with compassion, and He willingly walked away from all of that, the glory, the joy, the presence of the Father, all of it that He deserved. He voluntarily walked away from that and came to earth and became a man because He loved us. And He became a man so that He could go to the cross for us, which was an enormous sacrifice. But folks, just the fact that He would come here at all and be around us was a sacrifice as well. We’re a handful sometimes.

And there are some very beautiful spots in this world, but it does not compare to the splendor of heaven. He left that and came to this. He left the presence of the Father to come deal with us, knowing that He was going to go to the cross for us. He came here with compassion for us in spite of our sins. He came here to serve and offer His life a ransom for many, the Word says, in spite of all the reasons not to. Can you think of some reasons why you wouldn’t want to go to the cross? The beatings, the humiliation, the pain, the separation from the Father. There were so many reasons not to come to the cross, and yet Jesus did it willingly. And then he made the ultimate sacrifice to meet a need because you and I couldn’t do it. With the sin that’s in our hearts, with all the ways we fall short of God’s standard, there was not a thing you or I could do to make ourselves right with God again.

There was a need there, and Jesus came and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be forgiven. he went to the cross and he took responsibility for my sins and for yours and he shed his blood and he laid down his life to pay for our sins to take the wrath of god that we deserved so that we could go free so that we could be forgiven and as challenging as it is for us to love this way. When God’s Word calls us to do it, all we are being asked to do is be a pale reflection of the kind of love that Jesus showed for us. If you struggle with parts of this like I do as a believer, ask the Holy Spirit to work in you and help you to love, not like the Samaritan, but like Jesus.

and if you’re here this morning and have never trusted Jesus as your savior you’ve never experienced the forgiveness that you can have because of this sacrifice that he came and made because of his compassion for you if you need to know how to be right with God it is as simple as understanding that Jesus paid for your sins because you couldn’t be right with God paid for him in full on the cross and rose again three days later to prove it. And all you have to do is believe that he did what he said he could do and ask for that forgiveness and you’ll have it.

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