Series: Serving One Another

Title: "Good Samaritan" Love

Text: Luke 10:25-37

I. True Love

In the 1987 movie, The Princes Bride, there’s a famous sappy scene, where the Medieval priest waxes on and on about Twue Wuv, Twue Wuv.

But what is true love?

In modern America we tend to think of true love:

As a soul mate – someone who fulfills me and make me happy.

As an emotional or sexual state of bliss.

As self-actualization.

This self-focused view of love contrasts sharply with:

The love Jesus demonstrated for us upon the cross.

And the love the Good Samaritan demonstrated toward the beat-up, half dead Jew on the side of the road.

True love is always:

Self-sacrificing

Other-oriented

Costly

Ponder the cross of Christ.

John 3:16-17:

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 (NIV)

Clearly Jesus has strong feelings of love for you, but His love is much much more than just feelings.

His love for you led him to the cross, not "perpetual bliss."

He willingly laid down his life for you. His love for you is self-sacrificial.

His love for you is focused on you, not himself.

His love for you required a cost, more expensive than you or I could ever imagine.

This is the type of love Jesus requires you and me to have toward others.

This is the type of love Jesus extols in our reading from Luke chapter 10. Please turn to Luke chapter 10, beginning at verse 25.

Over the past few weeks, as we read through the Letter to the Galatians, we touched on the dangers of legalism.

Looking at Luke 10:25, a legalist,

25...an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Luke 10:25 (NIV)

Jesus responded:

26"What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"

Luke 10:26 (NIV)

He answered,

27"‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Luke 10:27 (NIV)

Jesus replied,

28"You have answered correctly!!! Do this and you will live."

Luke 10:28 (NIV)

Love others with a self-sacrificing, other-oriented, costly kind of love and you will live.

But there was a problem. Intellectually this legalist knew the right answer – love God and love your neighbor – but wasn’t willing to do it.

Verse 29,

29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Luke 10:29 (NIV)

This legalist wanted the narrowest possible explanation, like:

Love only God’s chosen people, the Jews.

Love only Jews who faultlessly obeyed God’s Laws.

Certainly not, love Gentile sinners.

How did Jesus reply? Did He give him the narrow definition of love he sought?

No.

He told the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

This is who you are to love.

This is how you are to love.

 

In verse 30, He said,

30…"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

The 12 mile road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops more than 3,500 feet in elevation to roughly 1,200 feet below sea level.

The road winds through a rocky arid wilderness — not a tree, not a drop of water.

On the left side of the road are dangerous cliffs and deep ravines.

On the right side are windy rocky passageways were thieves easily hide.

The road down to Jericho was and still is extremely dangerous.

In the fifth century, St. Jerome wrote that the road to Jericho was still called "The Bloody Way."

In the 19^th century, you had to pay a fee to local sheiks to keep from being attacked.

In the 1930s Abu Jildah was well known for robbing travelers on the road to Jericho (Barclay).

 

Jesus went on to say:

31A [temple] priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Possibly they were afraid the half dead man was only pretending to be injured, that he was really trying to sucker them into a place of vulnerability so his gang could attack them.

Possibly they were afraid that if he really was in need, his attackers were still lurking behind the rocks.

Possibly they were afraid of becoming ceremonially defiled by touching him if he was dead. According to the Book of Numbers, they would be defiled for seven days, requiring them to go through the time-consuming purification rituals (Numbers 19:11).

Possibly they were late for a meeting and didn’t want to take the time to help.

Regardless of their rational, they refused to stop and help this man in need.

 

Jesus went on to say in verse 33:

33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;

Immediately, Jesus audience would have thought the Samaritan in his parable was the villain of the story:

The Jews despised Samaritans.

Samaria is the northern part of Israel. Nine-hundred years earlier 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel lived there.

They began as worshipers of the Lord God, but gradually, over time, they turned from the Lord to worship the nature deities, Baal and Asherah.

 

King Ahab, one of the most wicked kings in the history or Israel, married a Phoenician by the name of Jezebel.

Queen Jezebel was a fervent worshiper of Baal.

By the year 721 B.C., the sins of Israel became so vile, that God sent the Assyrian army to take them into exile.

The Assyrians took many of the Samaritan Jews into exile and brought back many pagan people to intermarry with the remaining Jews.

The Samaritans of the first century:

Were not pure Jews.

They were not worshipers of the Lord God.

They were unfaithful, immoral, and depraved.

The Jews looked down upon Samaritans as ethnically and religiously inferior.

When Jesus introduced the Samaritan to his parable, his audience would have booed and hissed. Why?

Because they knew the Samaritan was the villain of the story.

They knew he had to be the one who had brutalized that faithful Jew on the side of the road.

But Jesus surprised them. Again verse 33:

33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was;

and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

Luke 10:30-35 (NIV)

He risked his life.

He risked his reputation.

He emptied his wallet.

He left his credit card number with the innkeeper.

 

In Jesus’ parable, it is this despised Samaritan who models true love.

1. Who must we love?

2. How must we love?

Who?

1) You must show love toward your closest family and friends – that’s easy.

2) You must also show love toward your worst enemies.

In Luke chapter six Jesus said,

27"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that.

Luke 6:27-33 (NIV)

Who is the Samaritan in your life? We all have them.

Who really gets on your nerves? Intentionally love them.

Who has wounded you? Intentionally love them.

Who strikes fear in your heart? Deliberately love them.

Look them in the eye, refusing to allow hate or bitterness or fear capture your soul.

Look them in the eye, and choose to love them.

Who are you to love?

Even your worst enemy.

 

How are you to love them? Like Jesus loved us, with:

Self-sacrifice

Other-orientation.

A personal cost to you.

 

On May 29^th in the year 1914, shortly after 2:00 in the morning, the passenger liner RMS Empress of Ireland steamed down the St. Lawrence River.

The fog was thick. The water was icy.

The cargo ship Storstad of Norway, loaded down with 11,000 tons of coal, was steaming in the opposite direction.

The shocked and terrified crew of the Empress spotted the Storstad emerging from the fog.

They reversed the engines, but it was too late.

The Storstad rammed the Empress on its starboard side.

The Empress went down into those icy dark waters in only 14 minutes.

Of the 1,012 passengers, there were only 217 survivors.

Tragically, there were not enough life vests.

There were 129 Salvation Army officers aboard. All of them died in the frigid waters.

Survivors said that the Salvation Army officers calmly and courageously gave their life vests to those whom they perceived were not ready to meet the Lord.

Some witnesses heard them saying,

A We know the Savior, so we are ready to die!@

These Salvation Army officers had "Good Samaritan" love for their fellow shipmates. Their love was:

Self-sacrificing

Other-oriented

Costly

 

Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words.

As First John chapter four tells us:

20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)

 

Who is Jesus requiring you to love?

Your closest friend and your worst enemy.

How is Jesus requiring you to love them? With:

Self-sacrifice

Other-orientation.

A personal cost to you.