The sermon explores the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10. It discusses the context of the parable, the question asked by a lawyer, and Jesus' response. The parable highlights the importance of loving one's neighbor and shows how a Samaritan demonstrated true compassion through concrete actions. The sermon emphasizes the need for Christians to actively love and serve those around them.

Well, good afternoon, church. As always, a delight to be with you and to have the privilege of opening up God's Word together. If you would take out your copy of the Scriptures and open up to the Gospel according to St. Luke chapter 10. The Gospel of Luke chapter 10.

We are continuing our study of the parables taught by our Lord during his earthly ministry. And the last time we looked at the parables, we saw the parable of the strong man and how Jesus is the stronger man who has bound his enemy and is plundering his house and saving a great multitude for himself to the extent that one day every knee will bow and every mouth confess that Jesus is Lord. Today we're going to look at another parable, honestly what is probably the most well-known of the parables, the parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable is so well known that many ministries and businesses take their name from this parable. We even have good Samaritan laws in our civil jurisprudence in this country, all deriving their name from this passage of scripture.

This is probably the most well-known parable. But don't let that familiarity cause you to turn your mind off and not hear what the word is saying to us. Don't let familiarity breed contempt as the saying goes. Even though we've heard this and we know this, don't let it just go in one ear and out the other. Let it take an effect in your heart and in your mind as you hear these words and as you look at this passage.

So Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37. And behold a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, You have answered rightly, do this and you will live. But he wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 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. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion. 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. On the next day he departed, or 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. So Which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said, he who showed mercy on him.

Then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Let's pray. Well, Father, we come before you in the name of your Son and we thank you for this opportunity we have to again be in your word. Lord, help us to understand what we are reading. Lord, open hearts and minds to receive instruction from your word.

Help me to speak as I ought to speak. And in this message and our time this afternoon, may you be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. So this parable is a little bit different from the most of the initial parables. Those were a little bit more cryptic.

They were a little bit less illustrative, whereas this one is clearly intended to be, here's an example, follow it. This is much more of a classic idea of an illustration. And it has a certain context. Many of the parables we read just kind of seem to crop up in Jesus' preaching. Sometimes they're in response to an accusation or a claim made by his enemies such as the parable of the strong man.

His opposition claimed that he's possessed by a demon and Jesus refutes that notion. Well here we have a similar situation. We have a little bit of a setup before we get to the actual parable. Now the setting in this conversation is you've got a lawyer, an expert in the Old Testament scriptures, and Jesus, this seemingly come out of nowhere new rabbi that's getting this following that perhaps this lawyer had never heard of before, or he's just beginning to get some idea that this guy is attracting a following. What is it about this man that is making him so powerful?

What is it that is attracting people to him? And so the lawyer tests him. This Testing doesn't seem to be in the sense of tempting him to sin. We often think of testing in that way. When someone is tested in scripture, they're often being enticed to sin.

But rather what we have here is this lawyer is asking him a question about theology and he wants to see this new rabbi Jesus's orthodoxy. What's his answer going to be? Is he going to answer in accordance with the Scriptures? He's testing Jesus for his soundness in his doctrine, And so he asks him, what should I do to inherit eternal life like the rich young ruler will ask later. And Jesus, similar to how he answers the young ruler later on, He points this man to the requirements of the he points him to the law as a good teacher.

He says you know the law. What do you read there? How do you understand the law as a good teacher? Sometimes a good teacher asked questions when he's asked a question. Jesus models that here for us very well.

He asks the lawyer how he understands the law and the lawyer gives the right answer. He summarizes all the law with two quotations from the Old Testament. First he quotes Deuteronomy 6 5, which is the second half of what is called the Shema. This is the core confession of the people of God under the Old Testament. It's called the Shema because that's the first word in the confession in Hebrew.

Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Elheno, Yahweh Echad. Hear, O Israel. That's what the Shema is, hear. It's a command to to listen. Hear, O Israel.

Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone. Or Yahweh is one. This is, as I said, kind of the creed of the Jews due to its significance in the temple and the synagogue worship. And even in certain parts of the society, in certain communities, they would even recite it twice daily as their core confession that that pulled the people together. And I want to say this is almost an aside, but this is not still our confession today.

This is what unites God's people still to this day. Do not be mistaken or led astray by those who ignorantly claim that the Trinity is a violation of the Shema or of the oneness of God. We worship one God in Trinity. There is one God who is named Yahweh and in that one God there are three eternal distinct personages, each fully and truly God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So we hold to this confession as well, but he quotes the second half, verse 5 from Deuteronomy 6, the lawyer quotes, and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength.

And then he quotes Leviticus 19 18 which reads, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord. So he turns to the Old Testament and this lawyer, being a lawyer, an expert in the Old Covenant Scriptures, knew that all commands of God boil down to these two points of doctrine, these two foundational and principle commandments, love God and love your neighbor. And Jesus himself elsewhere says that this is the summary of all the law and the prophets. Every message of God ultimately comes from these two points. Love God perfectly and love your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus says, do this and you'll live. And this is true. If you could do this, you would live. If you could, if a man could love God with all his being, unceasingly from conception to death, and if he could love others around him as if they were his own self without fail he would live. Who's volunteering to take up that challenge?

No one, because we know our own hearts. We know we can't do that. How many of us, even this morning in the Lord's Day worship, failed to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our strength, with all our mind. How many times did our minds wander and our affections move to something else? Every one of us I would say.

None of us fulfill these commands perfectly. We can't do it. We're fallen sons and daughters of Adam. We cannot keep these commands perfectly. We need the gospel.

We need the indwelling spirit, which we heard about this morning, to change our hearts and even make us begin to be able to keep these commands. We all fall short and Jesus is using this as an opportunity to uncover this lawyer's self-righteousness As he does so many times in conversations with the scribes and the Pharisees He goes and points to the law to show you say you keep the law but do you really? You're trusting in the law, you rest in the law, that's what Romans 2 that Pastor Scott was preaching about, you make your boast in the law but do you actually keep it? Over and over again the law comes to expose how badly we all fall short. As again what Jesus is doing here with this lawyer.

Loving God and loving neighbor, that is the summary of all the law. And it's primarily this issue of loving neighbor that drives this parable. It says the lawyer wanting to justify himself, he wants to show that yes, he's kept the law. He's obeyed God perfectly. He wants to show he is righteous in and of himself.

So he asked, well who is my neighbor though? Because he would be quick to tell you I have always loved and cared for the Jews. But in his heart, he hates Samaritans, which would have been common at this time. As a good Jew, and particularly a Jewish scholar, he must take it on principle that he is to love those who are his people and hate the outsiders, particularly the Samaritans. Now why?

Why the Samaritans? Why are they so bad? Well, John tells us in John chapter 4 that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Why is this the case? Well, these residents of Samaria, what once was the kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament, they were regarded by the Jews of this time as being beneath contempt.

They were vile. They were something that you couldn't even go near. They were unclean. They were lesser than. They were to be utterly despised because their Hebrew ancestry had been corrupted by intermarriage with Gentiles and and their religious practice had been twisted by syncretism with the pagans and so that they were impure and idolaters.

The Jews said that they could not have any dealings with the Samaritans. And so this lawyer seems to despise them and hate them, But he thinks that is reconcilable with what the law says. Now the law never commanded the people of God to hate or despise non-israelites. It never says that. Jesus himself addressed this common attitude in Matthew 5 when he rebukes the people for changing the law of God when he says, you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

The law does not say that. The law commanded love toward neighbor, but it never commands hatred toward anyone. But the nearness of the Jews and the Samaritans, both in space, in where they occupy their territory as well as in blood relation, had made the Samaritans especially reprehensible to the Jews, to the point that they wouldn't engage with them or even walk through their territory if they could avoid it. And so Jesus tells this parable to instruct this man and to correct his bias and his hatred towards these people and to instruct him and instruct us on what it means to love your neighbor. And to do that, he casts a Samaritan as the hero.

Now the parable is very simple. It's very straightforward. There is a man, presumably a Jew, who's traveling the approximately 20 miles on foot between Jerusalem and Jericho and while he's there He's overcome by robbers now our version reads thieves but it's better rendered robbers because thieves take without being noticed robbers use violence and here this man is the victim of violence. He's beaten and left for dead, and they steal his possessions. And in time, first a priest and then a Levite come up on the man on the road and instead of rendering aid they cross to the other side of the road and they walk on by as if the man doesn't exist.

They show no concern for another image-bearer of God and not only another human being but presumably one of their own countrymen, another Jew. Maybe they thought he was already dead. Maybe they thought if they came near, they would become ritually unclean and wouldn't be able to fulfill their duties. Perhaps they were afraid that if they stayed in that area, they might suffer the same fate. We don't know, and Jesus doesn't give any hint that it's even relevant to the story.

But the story comes across as if they simply have no regard for this man. They don't care. They cross by and walk over. I don't know if you've seen these videos that are shared oftentimes on social media, but in major cities of people just getting beat on the sidewalks or in subway stations or bus stops and people literally stepping over the bodies of people bleeding to get onto the bus. No concern for fellow man.

No care for another image bearer. It's a heartbreaking image and that's what we have here. Two men, a priest and a Levite, those involved in the very worship of God, leading the people of God, have no care at all for this human being. They walk on by. Whatever business they had at the end of the road, they deemed it more important than the life of another suffering human being.

But eventually a Samaritan comes and he has compassion. He has compassion on the man. He feels a love well up in his heart for this man, a desire to do him good. He took care of the man as much as he was able to on the spot, then he puts him on his own animal, walking on foot himself, and he brings him to an inn. The question may come, why didn't he take him to the hospital?

Well, there were no hospitals. Hospitals didn't exist at this time. Hospitals are an invention of Christianity. The world can thank us for that. But at this time, an inn would have been the best that this man could have done.

Now this is truly what we think of as an inn or even a hotel. This is not like the guest room that we read earlier in Luke in the birth narrative of Jesus. This would have been a place where travelers would all come to a common building or complex of buildings owned by an innkeeper and they would pay him rent and he would see that their needs are met. And so the Samaritan brings the man to this inn and he pays the innkeeper some money and says take care of him. It doesn't matter the cost and whatever it is when I come back from my travels, I'll repay you every dime that you've spent.

Great kindness is shown here. And so our Lord asked the lawyer the key question, who was a neighbor to this man that had been abused and beaten? And the lawyer, his answer is sad in a sense, either halfheartedly because he doesn't care or begrudgingly because he realizes the point Jesus has made, he can't even bring himself to say the word Samaritan. It's the one who showed mercy on him. He gives the right answer, but his heart doesn't seem to be in it.

And Jesus commands him, go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. The basic interpretation of this is very straightforward. Jesus is teaching this lawyer and teaching us that we should love those that we come into contact with. Regardless of who they are, we should serve others and be a blessing to other human beings, other image bearers, simply because they are people.

Love others because they are like you, made in the image of God, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, creed, anything. Love other people. Now I've read many commentaries on this passage and I've noticed a bit of a trend. Now I'm Reformed, This is a Reformed church, so you know that I'm not saying this out of any anti-Reformed bias, but generally the commentaries I've read that handle this passage the worst are the Reformed ones. Whether it's because the Reformed guys want to avoid any undue focus on works righteousness, which we should avoid that, or whatever it is, I don't know the reason, but for whatever reason, oftentimes this parable gets simply allegorized.

John Gill is a good example of this. I love Gill's commentary. I would highly recommend it to you. But in this passage, He gives a passing nod and agreement to, yes, we should love other people, but then he goes on for pages to allegorize this. Now I'm not necessarily saying that what he did was totally wrong, but he's missing the point.

Much of what he says and what other reformed and Puritan writers say about this parable is true. It can be used and is a wonderful picture of Jesus. We are the man who in Adam, which of course literally means man, was seized by the robbers of sin and the devil and we've been left dead in our sins. The priest and the Levite representing both false religion as well as the religion of the old covenant are incapable of rescuing us. They pass us by and leave us in our state when we need our wounds bandaged and our sins healed.

We needed another to come by. We needed the preeminent neighbor, the one who's closer than a brother, the Lord Jesus himself, to come and rescue us, applying the wine of his blood and the oil of his spirit to heal us, to bind up our wounds, to bring us to the inn of his church where we grow in grace and recover and ultimately look forward to the return of our rescuer and redeemer. That's all true and we can see it in the parable but that's not the main point I don't believe. It's a wonderful way to see how Jesus here is not simply a lawgiver giving us a commandment to obey. He is also our preeminent example.

He's shown us what it means to be a loving neighbor by obeying the law of God perfectly and loving us and rescuing us from our greatest enemies of sin and death. We love because Christ first loved us, But this picture is not primarily what the parable is about. It is intended to move those who claim to follow Christ to action. It is intended to teach us to love our neighbor, to obey that second greatest command of loving your neighbor as yourself. Jesus's conclusion tells us that he says to the man, go and do likewise.

He's not telling him to go and die for anyone's sin. He's telling him to go and show love to those around you. The focus of this parable is how to show, or what it means to show neighborly compassion on other people. Now the question asked by the lawyer is actually a good one. We may think it's a little silly to ask, well, who is my neighbor?

But it's actually a legitimate question. Typically, when we use the word neighbor, we often will restrict it to those who live in our immediate vicinity, the people who live next door or maybe on our street or maybe our part of town. Those are our neighbors, but that's about it. Which teaches us here that our neighbors, the category of neighbor extends far beyond that restrictive view. Simultaneously, I want to push back against taking that too far.

I want to push back against the common overcorrection, what I believe is an overly broad application of the term neighbor to literally everyone. Now hear me out before you begin thinking I'm disagreeing with Jesus, okay? I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard, usually from well-meaning preachers, that Jesus is teaching in this passage that every single person in the world is our neighbor and that we should love every person in the world the same. Now there is a sense in which it's true that we should have a love for every person in the world because they are image bearers of God. We should have a kind of love, and to use the old categories, a kind of benevolent love toward all people, both known and unknown, a love of well-meaning, tenderheartedness toward other people.

That is true. However, if we leave this category of neighborly affection there in the benevolent love category, then it can become just vague and amorphous and oftentimes completely disconnected from any reality and thus meaningless. Neighborly love is not just having kind thoughts toward other people. It's far more than that. It's really easy to say, oh I love whatever group of people social media tells you to care about that day.

It's really easy to say that, but what does that actually mean in your life, in your heart? What does that actually reflect about what you really have affection for? And that isn't what Jesus is instructing us here. He's not saying have vague nice thoughts about other people just because they're people. This love that Jesus is telling us to have is an active thing.

The Samaritan did something to a particular person and he tells his audience, go and do likewise. There's activity here. Again, to use the older categorization of loves that isn't used very often, this is more of what's called a beneficent love. This is love that that entails concrete actions, true acts of kindness and charity from the heart, from a heart of goodwill for the individual in front of you. This can only happen with someone that you are actually face-to-face with.

This is what Jesus is teaching us here. This is what it means to love your neighbor. Your neighbor is the one that you come across. It is not a vague sense of niceness for all people. Rather it is a particular and action-oriented kindness and charity toward those you actually meet.

That's your neighbor, the person you have contact with. And so we should show love to our neighbor, not simply those who live immediately near us, but a concrete real love shown by acts of kindness toward real individuals that we can actually interact with and engage with, where we can really help them and really particularly meet their needs. Not having pleasant thoughts about nameless, faceless people that we know in theory exist but will never meet, and whom it costs us nothing to say that we love them. That's not what our Lord is teaching here. And it isn't wrong to have this differentiation of love.

We should know this instinctively but so often we are guilt-tripped into thinking that if we have any variation in our love for different people that we're in the wrong and that simply isn't so. You love your family more and differently than you love your neighbor, your next door neighbor and that's good and you should. You love your church family, I hope, more than you love your co-workers, and that's good and you should. You love your countrymen more than you love those on the other side of the world that you'll never meet. And that's good.

You should because you're much more likely to engage and meet with them and they have much more bearing on your life, their benefit increases your own good and likewise. We differentiate between these kinds of loves and it's a right thing to do. We also differentiate between the objects of our love, and that is a right thing to do, and that is what Jesus is calling us to here. Real concrete love, actual actions that we can take to benefit those that we meet. And this is a particular duty that falls to us as Christians.

The rest of the world lies in the power of the evil one, and so is ultimately governed by hatred and selfishness. Look around the world, that is the motivation you see for almost all human actions, selfishness and disdain for other people. They obey the law of their own fallen fleshly desires, but as Christians we've had our hearts changed. We've had that spirit come to live within us and change us and enable us to obey a higher law. A law that says to love your neighbor.

And now by the work of the spirit, we are actually able to do it. Not perfectly, but really. You can obey God's law, you can love God, and you can love your neighbor. You won't do it perfectly, You will still need to repent of failing to love, but it will be real. To quote Matthew Henry, he says, the true Christian has the law of love written in his heart.

The spirit of Christ dwells in him. Christ's image is renewed in his soul. This parable is a beautiful explanation of the law of loving our neighbor as ourselves without regard to nation, party, or any other distinction. And so we are to show this real concrete love toward particular individuals regardless of any distinguishing features such as race or even their religion or their beliefs. There should be a kind heartedness that shows itself in real actions when we see another human being in need.

Now there's a lot to unpack there I understand that and I'm already over time so sorry but you get the main point I hope. So as far as application what what do we take away from this? Well, I really cannot improve much on what Jesus himself said. Go and do likewise. Go and do likewise.

If Christ has called you and put his spirit within you, you're able to do this. And you ought to do this. Love your neighbors beginning with the neighbors in your own household and the neighbors of your church, the neighbors of your country, your society. Love, really love those that you meet, that you see, that you can actually show real love to and help. Show God's love and be a blessing to those around.

Matthew Henry, one more time, is the duty of us all in our places and according to our ability to succor, help, and relieve all that are in distress and necessity. In our places, according to our ability. We've seen the example of the Samaritan, we've seen how Christ exemplifies it. You know who your neighbor is. Now go and do likewise, and may God be glorified as you love your neighbors.

Let's pray. Well Father we thank you for this time we've been in your word and God we thank you for what a helpful corrective it is to our own hearts that are so often geared towards selfishness and idolatry. Oh God, you're so kind to show us what we ought to do. Help us Lord to do it. Help us to be motivated by your love and to show that love toward others.

And Father, as we, your people, do this great work, may you receive the glory and may your fame be spread and may your kingdom increase until that great day when we see you face to face. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.