So Luke chapter 10 and verse
25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And he said unto him, What is
written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast
answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. But he willing
to justify himself said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 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. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by
on the other side. And likewise, a Levite, when
he was at the place, came and looked on him, 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
on him, 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. And on the morrow, when
he departed, he took out two pens, 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. Which now of these
three thinkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell among the
thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy
on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go
and do thou likewise. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading from his word. Amen. The Lord Jesus, in preaching
publicly and bringing his message to the crowds who gathered to
hear him, often encountered men who opposed him because they
hated his message of free grace, because they hated his gospel. Often these were religious leaders
and teachers, as was the case here with this man, this lawyer,
or as we saw last week, this scribe. They're similar, they
have the same name and seem to be doing the same role. And perhaps
it was pride with this man, or self-interest, Maybe it was a
simple desire to take this country carpenter down a peg or two. Or perhaps it was more serious
than that. Perhaps it was a more concerted
effort to ensnare the Lord Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. Whatever provoked this man's
opposition on this day, there was always an enemy in the crowd
ready to do the devil's work and contradict the Son of God. And no matter how gracious and
gentle the Lord was, such is the contradiction of sin. Such
is the opposition to the Lord, to his church and people and
to his gospel. Mark tells us as far as the Lord's
ministry was concerned, that the common people heard him gladly. But these Jewish leaders did
not, and especially the religious leaders. They used every opportunity
to oppose the Lord, and if possible, to trap him in his words and
deeds, and to assert themselves over him, to assert their own
dominion. And that's what's happening here.
This lawyer quizzed Jesus. Luke tells us that he tempted
him. This wasn't an attempt to learn
from Jesus, but to put Jesus in his place and embarrass him
in front of his followers. Now, we saw before how the Lord
met the lawyer's question about how to inherit eternal life with
quotes from the Old Testament law concerning loving the Lord
God and loving one's neighbour. And the Lord's answer was designed
to show the lawyer that he had not satisfied what was required
of him under the law, nor could he. Therefore, he could not expect
eternal life for the works that he had done. The Lord Jesus,
when he took this question from this man, pointed him to the
law in order to show him his own inability and his own shortcomings. And that's the purpose of the
law, to expose our shortcomings, to expose our transgressions,
to reveal our evil nature and our evil works and to highlight
our sins. But this lawyer wanted to justify
himself and to make a case before the Lord, yes, before these people,
no doubt, perhaps before his friends and fellow religious
leaders. He wanted to make a case that
he had done enough to gain eternal life. He assumed or at least
he implied that he loved God with all his heart, soul, strength
and mind by moving at once past the first part of the commandment
without any reference to it and asked the Lord to identify who
his neighbour was. And I think there's a little
application, a little lesson there for us, because I think
as well, today we encounter many people who, as it were, pass
by the most important part of what the Christian faith is.
They say they love God, and then they say no more about it. Their
statement is, their testimony is, their profession is that
they're a believer. And they say no more about that.
Then their whole perception is about the good that they do and
about the life that they live. So that what should be the greatest
part, our understanding of the gospel, our understanding of
Christ, our interest in the things of God, become so marginal that
they almost become non-existent and we fear, in many cases, that
that's actually the situation. Our greatest interest should
be the things of the Lord. All these other things thereafter
will fall into place. This scribe doubtless felt that
he had a good claim by his good works to say that he loved his
neighbour. But the Lord Jesus was way ahead
of him and he brought forward this story, he told this story
Now, whether it's a parable or whether it actually happened,
it's a real account of real events, and why shouldn't it be? Well,
that's not really important. The importance was the lesson
that was taught that day, particularly to this lawyer and certainly
to others that were there as well. And the point was this,
to make it clear that this man had not fulfilled the requirements
of God's law and could not claim the righteousness which he felt
he merited or the everlasting life to which he aspired. And I suspect that we've all
been reminded of the Lord's story by our reading. But let me just
mention a few things because I think we'll all be familiar
with this account of the Good Samaritan. But let me just mention
a few things in the context. The Samaritans were despised
by the Jews. We hear a lot about racism today. It's a word that is often quoted,
but this was real racism. They were hated because they
were Samaritans. Now the Samaritans, why they
were hated as Samaritans was that they were a new and mixed
people brought from Babylon and other places and settled in the
cities of Samaria. So in the time of the Old Testament,
when Assyria and Babylon, these kingdoms were on the rise, the
northern tribes that we've been speaking about with the young
people recently, the northern tribes, they were conquered and
the people were deported. and they were deported and other
people were brought into their cities, the cities of the northern
tribes. So that instead of the original
inhabitants of the northern tribes area, Israel, they had been removed
and these others had been brought in by the king of Assyria about
700 years before the time of Christ. It's an interesting thing
that ethnic cleansing isn't anything new. These new people mixed with
the northern tribes that still remained, the few that were still
in the land, and they adopted some of the Jewish religion.
but they were rejected by Judah, by the southern kingdom. So that
still, by the time of Jesus, we read that the Jews had no
dealings with the Samaritans. And one of the nastiest names
that the Jews could level at Jesus was to call him a Samaritan. Now, let's think about the story. This man who travelled from Jerusalem
to Jericho, he fell amongst thieves. He was beaten, he was robbed,
he was left for dead. He was in a pitiful state, he
was close to death. And several men encountered him
as he lay on the road. There was a priest, there was
a Levite, religious men like this lawyer. One hurriedly passed
by without even stopping to look. The other was a bit more curious
and he went over to the body and then he also hurried away.
Neither showed any compassion or gave the poor injured man
any assistance. And I can't help but feel that
the crowd who were listening to this story that Jesus was
relating would have been intrigued about where he was going with
the narrative, given that he was speaking about their priests
and their Levites. But I think also that they would
be drawing parallels with the fact that there was a lawyer
here standing before Jesus making these claims and asking these
questions. Ultimately, a Samaritan, one
of these despised people, came along the road. And rather than
passing by this man who hated him, stopped and helped by supplying
every assistance that he could. The man's wounds are bound up,
healing oil and wine is poured on them. We read, he set him
on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of
him. And the following day the Samaritan
left to continue on his journey, and he committed the injured
man into the care of the innkeeper, paid for all of his expenses,
all of his needs, and promised to recompense the host for any
other expenses that might be incurred until the man was fit
to leave. In short, the least likely character
in the story did the most, went above and beyond to help this
man in need. And it was a surprise, perhaps.
Indeed, it was a surprise, but it demonstrated the point that
one's neighbour was not someone who was connected to you, either
through family, or kinship, or nationality, or even self-interest,
but simply someone in need of help. That's who your neighbour
is, that's the point the Lord is making. The lawyer could not
say otherwise, and he was forced to acknowledge that the true
neighbour was the one who showed mercy to the person who was in
trouble. And it was need, not right, not
eligibility, that was the criteria by which neighbourliness and
friendship and kindness and compassion should be measured and dispensed. Right says the Lord, now go thou
and do likewise. Go and do thou likewise. And I think it's interesting,
and I think it's interesting especially in these days when there is so
much sense of injustice and so much sense of keeping what's
our own and so much opposition to what we might foresee as being
incomers and people trying to take advantage of us, that we
remember that empathy and kindness is not weakness. in fact, their
strengths. And the Lord showed this lawyer
that care for those in need is not only a Christian privilege,
it's a legal duty under the law. Now, I'm sure that is the lesson
that the Lord is teaching here. He was showing this man and he
was showing his other hearers as well, how demanding and humbling
the law of God is, and how far beyond our weak efforts are the
perfections required by a holy God. If and when we have done
everything in our power to do as far as God's righteousness
is concerned, we would still be unprofitable servants. And yes, we can make this narrative
of the Good Samaritan into a fine gospel message by likening each
part of the story more or less to an aspect of man's need and
Christ's provision. And many, many sermons have been
preached on the Good Samaritan to that end. Some spiritual applications
that are made are quite ingenious. We can, in our own sinful state,
be likened to the Traveller. The Lord can be likened to the
Good Samaritan. The thieves can be likened to
sin and Satan and the ravages that they make in our lives as
we journey through this world. I chose not to dwell too much
on that today. What I do think is important
for us to take from this account is the necessity of grace. the importance of Christ's righteousness
imputed to us, and that no man or woman, however good, however
dedicated, to loving and serving God in his own strength can ever
make the standard required. The lesson of this story is our
need of mercy because we have no power to make ourselves acceptable
to God or fit ourselves for His presence. The lesson is that
we need a Redeemer to ransom our souls and a Deliverer to
free us from our guilt. We need a worthy Mediator to
make peace for us with God. and Jesus Christ is that Redeemer,
that Deliverer, that Mediator, that Peacemaker. He took our
sin by bearing it in his own body on the cross. He set us
free from the law of sin and death. He brings us into his
Father's house and he reconciles us to God. as cleansed, pure,
holy and unblameable people, sons and daughters of the Most
High God. When that poor traveller regained
consciousness and came around in the inn, he would wonder what
had happened to him. How had he got there? Who brought
him in? Who paid his debts? Will he ever
see his rescuer again? And the innkeeper would not tell
him about a priest or a Levite or a lawyer or all the religions
of the world. He would tell him about a Samaritan,
a good Samaritan. And he would see him again because
he was coming back that way soon. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not
a Samaritan. He was born a Jew of the house
of David, the lion of the tribe of Judah. But he became like
us, one of us, one of the despised outcasts that he might bring
us to salvation. So let this lesson, let the lesson
of this passage be Christ our substitute, the Lord our righteousness,
our friend who has paid all our debts and is coming again to
take us home to glory. Amen.