Luke 10:29-37
The Christian’s Message
Luke 10:25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood
up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law?
how readest thou?
27 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.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
\\#25\\ This story starts with a question.
\\#26\\ Jesus answered the question by asking one. He let the lawyer
give his opinion of the answer.
\\#27\\ The man actually gave the answer that Jesus gave when asked
what is the greatest commandment \\#Matt 22:36\\.
\\#28\\ Jesus said the man hit the nail on the hit. He fully agreed
with the lawyer. Notice, nothing Jesus said should have
convicted the man, but he felt then need to ask another
question.
Luke 10:29 …And who is my neighbour?
Why did the man ask that question?
Luke 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself…
I don’t know how well he had done on the first commandment, but it
sounds like he had not done too well on the second. So he sought a
way to make himself feel better, to "justify himself." If he could
excuse some of the people he had not loved like he should by making
them "non-neighbors," he could feel better about how he had treated
them and himself.
But Jesus, as Jesus often did, did not directly answer the man’s
question. Instead, Jesus gave him a parable \\#30-37\\. Let’s read it
and see if we can figure out the answer to the man’s question based
on the parable.
I. Three Groups of People - Notice that Jesus answered the lawyer’s
question by pointing out three groups of people.
A. \\#30\\ The man who needed help.
1. I am afraid we don’t know too much about him. All we know
was:
a. What road he travelled, the one from Jerusalem to
Jericho, and…
b. What happened to him, he fell among thieves.
2. Those two things make him the anonymous man who needed
help.
a. We don’t know his name.
b. We don’t know his nationality.
c. We don’t know his character.
d. We don’t know his religion.
e. We don’t know the extent of his injuries.
f. All we know is that needed help.
3. That anonymity puts him in the same category as so many of
the people we see—often without looking.
a. Examples:
(1) The man with the sign who says he is homeless.
(2) The fellow walking down the highway with his thumb
out.
(3) The old lady pushing the shopping cart up the
hillside behind the shopping mall.
(4) The vagrant sleeping on the park bench.
b. While we think we know them:
(1) They are the ones too lazy to get a job.
(2) They are the ones hooked on drugs.
(3) They are the ones getting more money given to
them in a week than I make.
c. The truth is that we don’t know anything more about
them than Jesus revealed about the anonymous man in
this parable.
d. We only know he is the person that needs help.
B. There is the religious.
1. Two of the characters in this parable were religious.
a. In fact, they are two of the most respected religious
offices in Israel, a priest and a Levite.
b. Priests were those who handled the sacrifices and
the Levites were those who cared for the physical
property of God.
c. Religious people - When you think of the religious,
what comes to your mind? It should be that they…
(1) They love God and help others.
(2) That thought just flows natural from what Jesus
told us were the two greatest commandments
(3) These two did not have that on their minds.
(4) I think that was one of the truths that Jesus
wanted to get across in this parable.
d. This parable is directed TO the religious.
(1) \\#25\\ This man was himself religious.
(2) He was a lawyer.
(3) In Bible times, a lawyer would not be an
attorney who handles legal matters. He would
be one who studied the Old Testament and the
laws of God. So this man was a Bible student.
(4) What’s more, his guilt, i.e. his need to justify
himself, makes it obvious that he knew he had
not been doing what he should in regards to
others.
e. But of course you and I are the religious today,
aren’t we.
(1) We can quickly use our religious knowledge to
say, "Oh, I’m not religious. I am a Christian!"
but that doesn’t really change anything, does
it?
(2) We are the religious ones in this parable.
(3) And our attempts to deny it are just like this
lawyer’s attempt to justify himself.
(4) This parable is the Christian’s message, straight
from Jesus to us.
2. Back to the parable - Why did these men walk by the
injured man? Of course, like so many questions I ask,
we can’t know for certain because the Bible does not tell
us. However, we can speculate a little.
a. Some say it was because they were on their way to
Jerusalem and did not want to defile themselves for
their service to God.
(1) That sounds noble, but it won’t fly.
(a) Because to help an injured man would not
have defiled them.
i. The Old Testament did say touching a
dead body would make one unclean, but
this man wasn’t dead—at least not yet.
ii. Rendering aid to the man—at worst—
would have made them unclean until the
evening, but it would not have kept
them from their service.
(b) Besides these men were not going TO
Jerusalem but FROM it.
i.\\#31\\ "there came DOWN a certain
priest"
ii. \\#32\\ "likewise a Levite"
iii. Jerusalem is on a hill, a high hill so
everything around Jerusalem is lower
requiring the people who were leaving
the city to always go "down."
than Jerusalem so if they were
iv. In other words, these not getting ready
to do God’s service. If anything,
they had just finished doing God’s
service.
(2) I think it was because these religious men could
not tell where this man was from.
(a) That may sound strange but these religious
leaders were often extremely prejudice
against those who did not believe like
they did—in other words, non-Jews.
(b) In that day, it was very easy to tell who
was Jewish and who was not—just look at
the clothes.
(c) Jews always had a couple of tells…
i. They would have tassels on the hem of
their garments.
Numbers 15:38 Speak unto the children of
Israel, and bid them that they make them
fringes in the borders of their garments
throughout their generations, and that they
put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband
of blue:
39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe,
that ye may look upon it, and remember all
the commandments of the LORD, and do them;
and that ye seek not after your own heart
and your own eyes, after which ye use to
go a whoring:
40 That ye may remember, and do all my
commandments, and be holy unto your God.
ii. In fact, they would have tassel on all
four corners or sides of the
garments.
Deut 22:12 Thou shalt make thee fringes upon
the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith
thou coverest thyself.
iii. And their garments would all be made
of the same type of material. They
never mixed materials.
Deut 22:11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of
divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
(d) Why couldn’t these religious men tell
anything about this man?
i. \\#30\\ The thieves had "stripped him
of his garments."
ii. Clothes are a basic necessity and
there have been times when people
could not even afford clothes.
(d) These religious people were willing to let
what could have been a Jewish man die just
to make sure that they did not help a non-
Jew!
b. What can you say about these two religious men?
(a) They did not make very good representatives of
God, did they?
(b) I wonder what kind of representative I am.
(c) We all tend to think we are pretty good at it.
(d) These men did too.
(e) I wonder what God really thinks about us?
C. There was everyone else.
1. We have the religious represented by the priest and the
Levite with everyone else represented by the Samaritan.
a. Everyone else would be the unsaved doctors, nurses,
first responders, Masons, Catholics, Shriners, and
all the other people in this world who care for
strangers, orphans the elderly, the abused, the
abandoned, and the neglected.
b. All of those that we fundamental Christians are quick
to preach AGAINST for their false religions.
c. All of them are rolled into this one man, the
Samaritan.
2. The Jews hated the Samaritans.
a. In 722 BC, when the ten northern tribes of Israel had
sinned so against God that He decided to remove them
from the land, those that were left begin to
intermarry with other nations and created an
international breed of inhabitants in that region of
land, he Samaritans.
b. The Jews would not even travel through their land.
D. So in this parable to the Jews, you would have the two most
extremes that Jesus could mentioned, the Jewish religious and
the Samaritans.
1. Interestingly, this parable has changed the way people
think about the Samaritans.
a. When someone mentions Samaritans today, if they know
anything about them at all, they are likely to think
of the phrase "good Samaritan."
b. Why? Because this Samaritan stopped and helped this man.
(1) The Samaritan did not care if the man was Jew or
Gentile.
(2) He did not care if it cost him time or money. He
was willing to spend both for the stranger.
(3) He did not even care if he was the victim or the
bandit.
(a) It doesn’t sound like the man was conscious.
(b) The Samaritan just helped him!
c. The Samaritan tended his wounds, put him on his own
beast (meaning he had to walk), paid for a place for
the man to stay, and pledged to pay whatever else the
man needed when he returned again.
2. Without doubt, Jesus intended us to get something
important from this parable.
II. The Answer
A. Who is my neighbor?
1. That is the question the parable was supposed to answer.
but the parable itself did not answer it.
a. Parables seldom directly answer a question.
b. There is usually a hidden or mysterious meaning to the
parable that the hearer must fathom for himself.
2. But in this case. Jesus let the man answer the question in
\\#36-37\\. Before we get to that, let’s see if we can
answer it.
B. What is the answer?
1. Is my neighbor the person who worships like I worship?
Obviously not. That could only be what the parable meant
if the two religious men came out looking good. I don’t
think they did! In fact, they look pretty bad!
2. Is my neighbor the person who lives near me? Perhaps.
Perhaps it is someone you know or maybe recognize, but
that is not what this parable is teaching. The good
Samaritan knew nothing of the man he helped, and he was
certainly not a resident of that area.
3. Is my neighbor the person who looks like me? My
nationality, my ethnic group? No. While these two
men may have had some of the same DNA, they were removed
from each other by hundreds of years of time.
4. Is my neighbor the person who thinks like I think? The
one who I would be the most comfortable with? Again,
no. The Samaritan knew nothing of the injured man’s
likes and dislikes, his political views, or his moral
values.
C. Who then is my neighbor?
1. My answer is, "Whoever I can help."
2. If I can help a person, even if I may never get to talk
to him, to learn anything about him, to agree or disagree
with him, that person is my neighbor.
3. This understanding busts through some barriers that we who
are religious need to have busted.
a. It busts through the religious barrier.
(1) God knows all about religion. He invented it.
(2) He knows about holiness, standards, separation,
and all the rest.
(3) He still set this parable up in such a way we
would have to know that He wants us to help those
who are un-religious, ir-religious, and even
counter-our-religion.
b. It busts through the racial barrier.
(1) I don’t know that any prejudice smells so bad as
the church-grown prejudice.
(2) Racial prejudice is something that I can still
remember. I remember the black and white water
fountain in Murphy’s and Woolworth’s. I didn’t
understand it, but I remember it.
(3) I remember some family members, as I grew up,
being opening prejudice. Some of them came to
see things differently in time, but they were
raised with prejudices, and they espoused them
when I was young.
(4) I remember church’s having prejudices. As a young
minister, I heard a few preachers make remarks
about other races which let you know that they
had a biased against them. I have heard of
white churches refusing to allow blacks worship
with them.
(5) Yet this parable has been in the written Word of
God since day one. I don’t understand how anyone
could miss its message.
(6) Race, nationality, ethnic differences mean
nothing.
(7) We are all neighbors.
c. It busts through the political barrier.
(1) I don’t suppose there has been as wide a gap in
political views in this country since the Civil
War.
(2) America is openly divided, and I have no problems
calling some of the liberals America’s enemies.
(3) However, Jesus’ teaching makes it clear that even
an enemy is a neighbor when he or she needs help.
Matt 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you, and persecute you;
d. It busts through the moral barrier.
(1) The Samaritan made no inquiries about the injured
man’s morals.
(2) In fact, he did not know whether the man was
beaten because he was a victim in a robbery or
the robber in a robbery.
e. It busts through the status barrier. The Samaritan did
not care whether the injured man was wealthy or poor,
whether he lived in a fine brick home or a shanty.
f. It busts through the "I’m too busy barrier."
(1) I think the biggest reason we all do not do more
today is because we are always in such a rush to
get something else done.
(2) May the Lord help us from anymore "time saving"
devices!
III. The Command
Luke 10:36 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.
A. This parable is not like some of the parables Jesus taught.
1. In many of Jesus’ parables, there is some hidden spiritual
meaning.
a. In the parable of the sower, Jesus wanted to move us
to tell others about Him.
b. In the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost
son, Jesus was demonstrating His love for us.
c. In the parable of the unprofitable servant, Jesus was
teaching us to stay faithful.
2. Here, Jesus let the man give the secret and then followed
it with a command.
a. Rather, there is a direct command, "Go and do thou
likewise."
b. Go, find someone that needs help, and help them.
B. The words GO, DO, LIKEWISE take all of the mystery out of this
parable.
1. GO means GO.
a. It means we are not to sit inside the church and wait
for them to come to us, but we are to go to where
the hurting, helpless, and hopeless are.
b. It implies that we are to look for the people who need
help.
2. DO means DO.
a. It means we are to give assistance and help to those
who need it.
b. This isn’t a command to teach them or even to preach
to them.
c. It is a call to aid them.
3. LIKEWISE means LIKE IN THE PARABLE.
C. Now, even though this parable does not contain a hidden
spiritual meaning, this command does give it a strong,
spiritual emphasis.
1. This is the Lord God Almighty speaking.
2. Anything that He says has a strong, spiritual emphasis.
3. AND HE SAID for us to go and do what the Samaritan did.
4. There is no way we can be SPIRITUAL if we do not do what
Jesus said!
a. Most certainly we have an obligation to preach the
gospel to every creature.
b. But most people are not willing to grant us the right
to talk to them about spiritual matters until they
see something in us that tells them we are truly of
God.
c. To them, we look like the priest and the Levite in
this story.
d. The only way for us to get the respect necessary to
share spiritual truths with them is to show them
that we love them like God loves them.
e. Words alone are not likely to do that.
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