Feb. 27, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
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| Welcome to another God's Grace's Greater segment. | |
| I'm your host, Craig. | |
| We are going to be going back into the Gospel of Luke today. | |
| We're in chapter 10, finishing up chapter 10. | |
| Well, not all the way, but we're about halfway through chapter 10 right now. | |
| We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 10, verse 25 through 37. | |
| And this is going to be talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan. | |
| Now, you guys have probably heard the term Good Samaritan used in public in your lives over time. | |
| If you're not a person who studies the Bible very closely, you may have just heard that term in pop culture or in your common circles with your friends and family growing up. | |
| To where it's a reference to somebody doing the right thing or giving a positive act on to others. | |
| Now, if you want to know the context of that story, it actually comes from this parable that we're going to read right now. | |
| This is Jesus telling us about... | |
| the good Samaritan and and it's a fascinating parable and I'm going to try to give some context to it and we're going to read through it so I hope you guys are ready to learn about it with me and then we're going to talk about it in a little bit of a in-depth scripture dive so I hope you guys are ready to do that | |
| we're picking up where we left off though which is fascinating because we left off with Jesus having this incredible encounter where he sent out 72 more disciples to go perform miracles and do great things in his father's name and in his name and And this was him preparing the way as he's on the road to Jerusalem to face his death and burial and resurrection. | |
| This is all before this is happening. | |
| And as he is being confronted by a scribe who is trying to challenge Jesus and catch him in his own words, because they're trying to essentially set him up for a frame him for something he never did, that this is the encounter because they're trying to essentially set him up for a frame him And I'm going to read through it. | |
| So remember that the person asking the question at the beginning of this set of scripture is not asking this question from a genuine place. | |
| They're asking this question, as is noted in Matthew, trying to trip Jesus up, to catch him in his own words, saying something that contradicts himself so they can use it against him later when they do try to arrest him and then eventually pursue the persecution saying something that contradicts himself so they can use it against him later But let's go ahead and read. | |
| We're in chapter 10, verse 25 through 37. | |
| It says, What is written in the law, he asked him. | |
| How do you read it? | |
| He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. | |
| You've answered correctly, Jesus told him. | |
| Do this, and you will live. | |
| But wanting to justify himself, see, this is where we're going to get into it, he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? | |
| This is where we know he's not asking from a genuine place. | |
| Jesus took up the question and said, I'll | |
| reimburse you for whatever extra you spent. | |
| Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? | |
| The one who showed mercy to him, he said. | |
| Then Jesus told him, go and do the same. | |
| Now this is a powerful, powerful parable. | |
| One of the most powerful parables when it comes to talking about how we're commanded by Jesus to treat others. | |
| Right? | |
| even to this day in our common vernacular, we do use the term good Samaritan to describe somebody who's done good onto others, right? | |
| But in this exchange, we at first see a scribe who is trying to catch Jesus in another way, trying to catch him in his own words, trying to find something they can use against him to try to get rid of him. | |
| Because what they had decided at that point, the scribes and the Pharisees and all those who had heard of Jesus' teachings and the things he was doing, is that he was a threat to them. | |
| And he was, in a very real sense. | |
| He was a threat to the control that they felt they had earned and deserved to have over those who followed them in their, you know, telling others how to follow and worship God. | |
| They saw Jesus as a threat, so they were always trying to catch him in his own words, trying to take what they could to frame him for what he, you know, has done. | |
| Now what's fascinating is that as you see, the first Jesus asks him, what's written? | |
| And the scribe says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. | |
| And then Jesus essentially says, well that's all you have to do. | |
| But then we see the insincerity of the scribe who's trying to catch Jesus in his words. | |
| Because after Jesus responds, just do this and you will live. | |
| He says, but who is my neighbor? | |
| Now again, what he was trying to do was get Jesus to say that your neighbor is only somebody of a certain persuasion. | |
| That you trust. | |
| Only another Jew is essentially your neighbor. | |
| But that's not how Jesus responded. | |
| Jesus responded with the parable. | |
| Now the parable goes through these three different travelers who have three different reactions to a man who was left for dead on the side of the road. | |
| And this is from the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. | |
| Now this is a pretty sketchy set of roadway here. | |
| As far as I know, it's a 17-mile long, notoriously dangerous route that was traveled between these two cities. | |
| And it was actually nicknamed the Pass of Blood or Road of Blood because of all of the individuals who had been robbed and murdered on that path. | |
| Because there were a lot of cliffs and blind turns where robbers could hide behind and ambush people when they weren't expecting it. | |
| Now, Jesus tells this story of three individuals who are walking down this road and encounter the same thing, a man who had been robbed and left for dead in a ditch. | |
| And of the three, there was only one who actually treated the man who was suffering and in need with the kind of prescribed love that Jesus taught us. | |
| And that even the scribe himself mentioned earlier when he talked about we have to love our neighbor as ourselves. | |
| The three men are essentially, one's a priest, the other's a Levite, and the other is a Samaritan. | |
| Now, priests and the Levite essentially walk right by him. | |
| Now, the priest may have been a representation, obviously, of the way that the church can be so far removed, and even then, you know, the synagogue was so far removed from actual, the difference between being religious and living a spiritual life that honors God and honors what is being taught in the religion that they are believing. | |
| There was a separation there. | |
| There was a cleavage. | |
| And in the same way the Levite, who was essentially a part of an order who was... | |
| In charge of religious worship and maintaining the temple would have avoided touching the man probably because of a few different reasons. | |
| One, because if he had touched the guy and he was dead, he would be considered ceremonially unclean. | |
| So he wouldn't be able to go and to do his duties in the temple. | |
| And because of his own selfish desire to partake in the temple ritual, he's ignoring a man who's right there who needs his help at that moment. | |
| Now, Samaritans have an interesting background. | |
| Apparently, what happened with the Samaritans is, in 722 BC, I'm going to read this to you because this is interesting. | |
| Assyria sent the defeated northern kingdom of Israel into exile, immediately deporting 20,000 Hebrews. | |
| The conquering Assyrians brought in foreigners to replace deported Israelites, which led to the intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles. | |
| Jews of pure lineage despised the progeny of these mixed marriages. | |
| Eventually so much animosity arose between the full-blooded Jews and these mixed-blood Jews, or Samaritans, so-called because they lived in Samaria, that the latter separated and started their own religion, building their own temples in Mount Gerizim. | |
| Now, that's kind of the backstory to who the Samaritans are. | |
| They're despised by the Jews. | |
| They see them as unpure and unclean, and they're less than, subhuman, if you will, almost. | |
| And they despise the Samaritans. | |
| And... | |
| Maybe that's why Jesus uses a Samaritan in this parable to teach that it's not about who you are. | |
| It's not about what bloodline you came from and where you originate. | |
| It's about who you are and who you choose to be. | |
| Do you live the way Jesus tells us to live? | |
| Do you embrace that life, that lifestyle that is being there for others, helping those in need, loving your neighbor as yourself? | |
| As the scribe said himself, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength, and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. | |
| Are you really doing that? | |
| Well, apparently in this parable, the Samaritan does. | |
| And the Samaritan takes care of this man, helps him heal, brings him to a shelter, and then promises to take care of him however he can to get him back on his feet. | |
| And when Jesus asked, of those three people, the Levite, the priest, and the Good Samaritan, who actually proved to love this man as their own neighbor? | |
| And of course, it was the Samaritan. | |
| And this... | |
| Was it again an affront to the Jews and the scribe especially who was asking this question? | |
| Because Jesus came to tear down the traditions built by the Pharisees and the scribes that took God and made him secondary to their own religion that they had created out of the commands that they were making and prescribing over those who followed them. | |
| And they had tried to elevate themselves almost to equals or above God himself. | |
| And Jesus came to tear all that down, but he taught us what it means to be a good Samaritan. | |
| That's the parable of the good Samaritan, because Jesus finishes by saying, go and do the same. | |
| And that's what we're meant to do. | |
| So let's go ahead and say a prayer, and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for this incredible piece of scripture today that we're able to share with one another and understanding what it means to live according to your values that you've given us. | |
| The understanding, Lord, that we are to love God with all our heart, our soul, and our mind. | |
| And to love our neighbor as ourself, Lord, we pray that these words speak not only to myself, but also to everyone out there watching, that you'll give us a spirit of kindness and generosity that we can use to help others find you more clearly in their lives, but also to help our neighbor and love our neighbor as ourselves. | |
| Thank you for that opportunity, and thank you most of all, Lord, for our eternal salvation. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| Alright, well, I hope you enjoyed that. | |
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| So I'm going to leave it there. | |
| I want to say thank you for watching this episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. |
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