Luke 10: 25-37
Theme: The compassion of the Cross
WELCOME TO GOD’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Friendship, community, neighbors, what a great topic to talk about in our age. All of us have seen the seams of society tear in the last few years. We tend to be more distant from each other, even when we live next door. We see, almost weekly, schools and communities torn apart by shootings and we try to understand. I saw a political cartoon this week where the principal walks in and sees the pupils praying. He says to the teacher, "I see that we are having prayer in schools again." The prayers of the students were all the same, "Lord, don’t let me get shot today." We live in a society where the social distance is killing us. We need friends and neighbors. Internet chat rooms and email lists are not enough. We need to flesh and blood relationships. We need friends.
One wit has said, "Nothing in the world is friendlier than a wet dog." That is probably true. It seems that the wetter the dog, the closer he wants to get to you. In the early 70's, the UCLA football team suffered through a poor season. Head coach Pepper Rodgers came under intense criticism from alumni and fans. Things got so bad that friends became hard to find. "My dog was my only true friend," Rodgers says of that year. "I told my wife that every man needs at least two good friends—and she bought me another dog." (Today in the Word, Nov. 1996, p. 27) While in some sense, dogs maybe are man’s best friend, but we need far more than dogs to have a complete life.
Friends committed to living-in-community with each other are the ones who overcome the troubles of society. They are there for each other in difficult times. When a tragedy comes to a community, a close-knit community will overcome while those who have forgotten what it means to be a neighbor and friend will crumble.
It does not take long for one to discover who is a neighbor and friend. During his days as president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of friends were traveling. They had to ford a flooded river on horseback, fighting for their lives against the currents. The possibility of death threatened each rider, which caused a traveler, who was not part of their group, to step aside and watch. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, the stranger asked President Jefferson if he would ferry him across the river. The president agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on, and the two of them made it safely to the other side.
As the stranger slid off the back of the saddle onto dry ground, one in the group asked him, "Tell me, why did you select the president to ask this favor?" The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him.
"All I know," he said, "Is that on some of your faces was written the answer ‘No,’ and on some of them was the answer ‘yes.’ His was a ‘Yes’ face." ( The Grace Awakening, C. Swindoll, 6)
When Jesus starts talking about neighbors, we get a bit defensive. What will Jesus have us do, who will we have to get involved with, who will we have to be nice to? This happened to a Lawyer who was attempting to test Jesus. He asked him, "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Simple enough question to ask someone who publicly claimed to be one with the Heavenly Father.
But Jesus threw the question back at him. How do you read it, what does the Law say?
The Lawyer answered, "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." This was the standard answer, it was what he was supposed to say. These two statements summed up the Ten Commandments. But when Jesus responded to him and said; "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live," it unsettled him. There was something disturbing in Jesus' voice. So, he asked a question about the matter that most bothered him. Who is my neighbor?
Notice how self centered that question is. Who must I include and who can I exclude from this circle of people that I must call neighbor? Jesus had treated saints and sinners alike. He had shown great love to all sorts of sinners. Jesus replied by telling a story.
A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. The road to Jericho was dangerous. It was crooked and rough, lined with many cliffs and ledges, places where robbers, thieves and highwaymen could hide.
The thieves beat him up, took all that he had, and left him for dead on the side of the road. We aren't shocked are we? It happens every day. Someone is car jacked, someone is robbed at an ATM machine, someone is killed for the three dollars in his pocket, some husband kills his wife, some mother kills her child.
Sometime after the man was robbed, a priest passed by the man. A priest, a holy man. He too was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. When he saw the man on the road, he passed by on the other side.
A little later a Levite passed by the man and he too passed by on the other side. The Levites among other things, led the music in the temple. He had the same attitude as the priest. But, what good is religion if it does nothing to minister to those in need? They violated a whole slew of O.T. laws about helping the needy, the stranger, the foreigner, the poor. They were scared to get involved. What if the robbers came back? Besides, who is this man, why should I risk myself for a man who looks like he is already dead?
A certain Samaritan passed by. The Jews hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans were the Jew’s half brothers. And if there was anyone a good Jewish lawyer hated it was a Samaritan. Yet, it was the Samaritan who made the self sacrifice. He picked up this unfortunate Hebrew traveler and bound up his wounds. He placed him on his donkey which meant that he had to walk. He took him to an Inn where he paid for the man's room so that he might have a place to recover. And he paid two days wages to the innkeeper and promised to pay more, if it were necessary, when he passed that way again. I would say that was self sacrifice.
The lawyer was trapped by this shocking story. Who proved to be the neighbor, the priest, the Levite, or the social outcast? He had to swallow his pride, he could not even say the Samaritan. So his reply was, "the one who showed mercy." Who is our neighbor? The one who needs help. Who is a neighbor? The one who shows mercy.
In the Old Testament the word was chesed, loving kindness, mercy. In Greek the word was charis, grace. The one who was a true neighbor is the one who showed grace. This is what Christians are supposed to do. We who have been saved by grace must also live by grace! We live by grace by showing grace to others. When we show grace to others, we are being most like God!
Don’t you know that God wanted to show His anger toward us? "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved." (Eph. 2: 1-2) Sin had waylaid us. We are just like the man left on the road half dead. But what shocks us is someone is stooping down to help us, someone is pouring in oil and wine and binding up our wounds. What shocks us most of all, the one who bends down to help is the one we have most hated, the one against whom we have rebelled. It is God Himself. We were waylaid by sin but God brought us into His neighborhood, a neighborhood of grace.
It is in the compassion of the Cross that we discover how much God has loved us. Our problems are our own doing. We have chosen to sin against God and to break our relationship to Him. Our sin left on the road, half dead and no one would help. But the very one we sinned against became flesh and died for us on the Cross! God has shown his mercy to us so that we can show mercy to others. The simple answer to our societal troubles is to come to the Cross of Christ and be healed by Him. It is in Christ that our souls can be healed and made right with God.
There is one thing that I hope you understand from all of this. If you want to be a part of God’s neighborhood, then you must come to faith in Christ Jesus.