Are We The Good Samaritan?

​Text: Luke 10:25-37
Service Date: 7.13.25
Sermon:

• At some point in our lives, we may be asked a difficult question. That is where Jesus finds himself in today’s passage. Jesus is approached by an expert of the law with a difficult question. Honestly, it seems like the expert was trying to trick Jesus with his complicated question, but he could have never expected Jesus’ answer. 
• In the question, the law expert was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, where the people are encouraged to love the Lord with all that they have and to love neighbors as ourselves. But the question is: what does that truly mean?
• The expert in the law recognized he was unable to love his neighbor as the law required. However, instead of admitting he was a sinner who needed God’s grace and forgiveness, he sought to loosen the demands of the Law by narrowly defining who his neighbor was. By narrowing the definition of his neighbor, the lawyer sought to appear as though he was keeping God’s Law. The expert of the law was trying to justify his internal feelings.
• In response to the questions, Jesus will a parable in order to get the law expert to discover the answers for himself.
• While I believe that this parable that Jesus tells is a fictional story, there is a point and a lesson woven within the tale. The point of the story was to get the law expert to think about love and who showed the wounded man love and care in a time when he needed it most.
• The Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while the Samaritans were a mixed race produced when jews from the northern kingdom had intermarried with other peoples after Isreal’s exile.
• To the law expert, the person least likely to act correctly would be the Samaritan. This expert’s attitude betrayed his lack of the very thing that he had earlier said to the law commanded…...love.
• The characters of this story saw the wounded man in different ways: The legal expert viewed the wounded man as a topic for discussion; the robbers saw the wounded man as a victim to exploit; the priest saw him as a problem to avoid; the Levite saw the wounded man as an object of curiosity. Only the Samaritan treated him as a person to love.
• From the parable we learn three principles about loving our neighbor: 1. Lack of love is often easy to justify, even though it is never right. 2. Our neighbor is anyone of any race, creed, or social background who is in need. 3. Love means acting to meet the person’s need. Wherever you live, people in need are close by. Don’t “cross to the other side.” Instead, show love Jesus’ love to them.
• Jesus highlights in verse 30 that loving our neighbor means we must acknowledge the realities of our broken, sin-cursed world and their effect on our neighbor.
• Jesus highlights in verses 31–32 that loving our neighbor means we must expose the emptiness of religious belief that lacks practical love for others. Look, we can profess we believe the gospel, we can regularly go to church and even evangelize the lost; but Scripture is clear that all of that is just vanity and meaningless noise if we’re not living out the gospel by loving our neighbor in practical ways. When our neighbor is hurt, we need to bind their wounds. When our neighbor is hungry, we need to feed them and, where appropriate, teach them to feed themselves. When our neighbor is oppressed or experiencing injustice, we need to seek justice and righteousness for our neighbors.
• Jesus highlights in verse 33 that loving our neighbor means we must challenge and reject the prejudice that exists in our own hearts and in our society against our neighbor. In Jesus’ day, there was open animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans were half-breeds and religious compromisers. Samaritans were “unclean,” and Jews were forbidden to eat with them or step foot in their homes.
• When we show love to those that need it, we bring more kindness and empathy into the world. We allow healing to happen internally as well as healing within our society. We build bridges among cultures and among people. When we show love and empathy to those that need it, we bring justice and balance to all people.   
• Let us pray:

Conclusion: Let us be people who bring justice to the world through love and empathy.