Luke 10:29-37 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? (30) And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. (31) And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. (32) And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, 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 on him, (34) And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (35) And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. (36) Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? (37) And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
In our last lesson, we saw that the most important of God’s laws is to love God with ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength and then to 'love thy neighbor' as ourselves. So that statement...to love our “neighbor”, prompted the question of verse 29....“Who is my neighbor?”
To answer the question, Jesus tells his famous parable of the “Good Samaritan”. In this parable, Jesus compares three people: A priest, a Levi and a Samaritan. Two of these men were not only 'religious', they were part of that day's religious leadership and at least theoretically, had dedicated their lives to the service of God. The third guy is generally considered to be an enemy of the Jews. Each of the three men mentioned, passed by a traveller who is in desperate need of assistance because he was beaten and left for dead by thieves. The two religious experts, who we would assume would be tender-hearted to the situation, see the injured traveler but pass by and ignore him. On the other hand, the Samaritan, who we would assume would not care because of the emnity between the two peoples, takes him, cleans him up and uses his own money to care for him. Once the story is told, Jesus asks a rhetorical question: Which of the three men were neighbors to the injured man?
The first observation that needs to be made is this...Being “religious” is never enough! Just because one “belongs” to a religious organization is not sufficient to being saved. Jesus didn’t excuse the priest and Levi because they were religious. In fact, the entire parable is a criticism of them because they should have been more loving. We must not rest upon our “spirituality”. Instead, we must realize, our relationship with God gives us greater responsibility.
The second point is Jesus‘ attack on prejudice. Unfortunately, we still have a serious problem of this in our country and even among religious people. We must learn to see all people as people. Not “them” or "us". All men were created in the image of our God! If God sees us all as being worthy of his Son, who are we to think otherwise? To take it one step further, who are we to tell God that he is wrong that a particular race, class or a person of a particular socio-economic status is not worthy of our love or help?
Lastly, the main point that Jesus is trying to make is that being neighborly is an ACTION. Notice Jesus’ command in the very last part of verse 37. Jesus doesn’t say go and “feel” likewise. He said...”Go and DO likewise!” God loved...so he Gave. If we love, we too must give, do and act.
May we mimic the behaviors and characteristics of our Master!
Reflecting the SON,
Dennis Hogan
Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com
If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward
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