Who is my Neighbour?

You might like to keep that passage open.

Sure, that's probably the habit of many of you.

I'm going to pray for us before we begin.

I'm going to ask God that he might help us as we get into his word.

He might open our hearts, that he might open our ears,

he might open his word to us.

So please pray with me.

Our Father, your word has so many great things for us to hear,

but my mouth is unworthy to speak of them

and our ears are unworthy to hear them.

So Lord, when we come here tonight and we open up your word,

we need your grace.

We need your generosity to us

to be a God who gives to people who don't deserve.

Lord, please do that tonight amongst us.

And we thank you so much for the assurance of your grace

that we've seen in your son Jesus,

giving not only his words,

but his life for people who didn't deserve it.

Lord, please be with us tonight.

I pray that you might help me to speak words,

only words that are true and helpful and glorifying to you.

And Lord, we pray all of this in the name of your son.

Amen.

Now, we just got married, as you heard before,

three months ago to the day,

which is very exciting for us.

We're living in Kate's parents' granny flat

until the end of the year,

which is an interesting place to live.

Now, occasionally, Kate's parents go away.

They do some stuff in Queensland,

and they're away right now,

which means that we can kind of take charge of the entire house,

which is really quite exciting.

We get to rein the whole property.

So we like to invade the upstairs of their house

when they go away,

and when we're on college holidays and stuff like that,

and set up a fortress at their dining table.

And we do really exciting and fun stuff there,

like study.

So we set up.

And this dining room is really cool

because you can kind of see

all the way to the back fence of the backyard.

You can see the driveway,

and then you can see the side fence as well.

So one day, a couple of weeks ago, actually,

we're sitting there, we're studying, working really hard,

and Kate looks up from the book that she's reading

to see a guy about 15 years old.

And he's walked up the vacant block,

up the hill in the vacant block next door,

and he's jumped over our fence.

He's kind of climbed over the fence

into our little carport area,

and he's kind of scooted up the driveway.

And Kate said,

there's a guy climbing over our fence

and going up our driveway.

And I was like, okay.

And Kate was like,

now you've got to understand,

Kate is the sweetest, loveliest, gentlest,

most patient and understanding girl ever.

And Kate sees this guy,

and she's like,

that's it.

I'm declaring war on teenagers everywhere.

And so she calls up her dad,

and she says,

we need to get the fence built higher

because there's 14-year-old kids

climbing over a fence onto our property.

They have no right to do this.

Who do they think they are?

This is our property.

And so I'm kind of thinking,

well, you know,

I'm sure this kid has good reasons.

He might have a long walk to get around.

And Kate said,

I don't care how far he has to walk.

He can't go on our property whatsoever.

And then as we kind of,

we calm down,

Kate picks up a book again

and goes back to writing her talk

on Matthew 5, 7.

Blessed are the merciful.

And then we both thought,

oh.

Now, I think I've actually misrepresented Kate.

I don't think she was as angry as that.

But I mean,

it makes for a good story.

Now, I haven't lived in the neighborhood

for very long.

I've lived there for three months.

I don't know who the people

who live on the street are yet.

I don't know who my neighbors are.

If it was the next door neighbor's kid

jumping the fence,

I'd be fine with that.

Because I grew up playing backyard cricket,

constantly hitting sixes and outs

over the next door neighbor's fence

and having to climb the fence

and go next door.

I understand what it's like

to be a kid in the neighborhood

chasing his tennis balls

around everyone's house.

Now, if it was the next door neighbor's kid

chasing his ball,

I'd be fine.

If they live near me,

it's fine.

But if they don't,

well, what are they doing

on my parents' property?

Now, where do you draw the line?

Where do you draw the line?

And as a Christian,

who do I have to be nice to

and who can I just forget about?

Where do you draw the line there?

Do I have to look after

every beggar that I see?

Do I have to soothe every baby

that I hear crying?

Do I have to pay every window cleaner

that I kind of pull up next to?

Where do you draw the line?

How close does a person

have to be to you

for you to be compassionate towards them?

So I guess what I'm still trying

to figure out on my street

and I guess more existentially

in my life is

who is my neighbor?

We know that question, don't we?

But exactly who is my neighbor?

Well, a man asked Jesus

the exact same question

in the passage that we just read.

And it's an important question.

It's important because it's asked

in the context of life and death,

heaven or hell.

Who inherits eternal life

and who doesn't?

It's an important question.

Who exactly is my neighbor?

Now there's a bit of a background clash

to the parable that Jesus tells you.

So if you look in verse 25

in your Bibles there,

there's an expert in the law,

a lawyer who comes up to Jesus

and he says,

what must I do

to inherit eternal life?

And it's a good question.

But the problem is,

he's trying to test Jesus.

Straight off,

we're dealing with a guy here

who doesn't really honestly

ask this question.

He just wants to satisfy himself

and prove himself to be right

in his own position.

And Jesus sees straight through that.

And he basically says,

okay, lawyer,

let's play your game.

What's written in the law

about this kind of thing?

And so the lawyer's response,

if you look in verse 27,

he says,

love the Lord your God

with all your heart

and all of your soul

and all of your strength

and with all of your mind

and love your neighbor

as yourself.

And Jesus says,

yeah, that's right.

If you do this,

you will live.

Do this and you will live

there in verse 28.

But you notice

that's all he says there.

He doesn't give any exceptions.

He doesn't say,

oh, well, yeah, yeah, yeah,

there's all that.

But really, you know,

if it's a Tuesday

and you've had four nights

sleep the night before,

I'll give you a break.

You know,

he doesn't leave any wiggle room.

He just says,

yes, that's it.

And so the lawyer

gets a little bit nervous.

He thinks, well, surely

there are people

who I don't have to love.

Surely there are people

who aren't my neighbors.

And so you remember

that he's trying

to test Jesus.

Now the shoe's

on the other foot.

He's the one

that looks bad.

He wants to justify himself

is what Luke says

in verse 29.

And so he asks Jesus,

and just who is

my neighbor then, Jesus?

If I need to love

my neighbor,

who is that?

Back on you.

You've got to do

the accusing now.

And so Jesus,

to answer that question,

he tells a story.

It's a famous story.

We know it really well.

It's enshrined in,

what do you call it?

Stained glass window

right over here.

You can check it out

after the service

if you like.

It's quite a nice window.

There you go.

It's very colorful.

Jesus tells a story

about a man

who goes down

from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Now when we say that,

Jericho's actually

north of Jerusalem,

but we're going down

because Jerusalem's

on a massive mountain.

And so they're coming down.

Now it's a gnarly road.

It's a really rough road

that goes from Jerusalem

to Jericho.

It descends

a thousand meters

in altitude,

a kilometer in altitude,

all in about 27 kilometers.

And there are bandits

hiding in caves everywhere

just waiting to come out

and get you.

Now have you ever been

on a road like that?

I was on a road

similar to that one.

So when I was in year 11,

I went to South Africa

for a couple of weeks.

We were going to be picked up

by some friends

from the airport

in Cape Town,

but our plane was delayed.

We got delayed in Perth

by about four or five hours

because, well,

they never told us

why we had to stop in Perth

and maybe someone

lost the keys

to the plane or something.

Anyway,

we get delayed

for hours and hours and hours

and we miss our connecting

flight in Johannesburg

and so we get to Cape Town

at midnight.

We were supposed to get there

while the sun was still up

and we're really late.

And so we're like,

I said to my friend,

we've got to get in touch

with Scott

because he's got to come

and pick us up.

So I'm looking around

everywhere for a pay phone.

I find a pay phone

and look in my wallet

and realise,

I don't have any

South African money.

I just have travellers checks

and 25 cents Australian.

So there I am trying

to ram Australian coins

into this South African pay phone

when a security guard

notices us

and our stupidity

and he comes over

and gives us 25 rand cents

or whatever they are.

And so we call Scott

and we say,

Scott,

we're at the airport,

we're late,

you've got to come

pick us up.

Scott,

and so he says,

yeah,

yeah,

okay.

And then we hear

some talking,

some kind of heated

discussion in the background

and so Scott's kind of

talking to his wife

about whether or not

it's a good idea

to come and pick us up

at this hour.

And I said,

Scott,

what's going on?

And he said,

oh,

it's alright,

it's alright.

We're going to come

and pick you up.

It's just,

you know,

Hayley and I

are a little bit worried

because the road

from the airport

goes through

Kailicha.

Dun,

dun,

dun.

Now,

if you've never

heard of Kailicha,

Kailicha is like

a massive,

large parts of it

or a massive slum

all in this big part

of Cape Town.

It's got about

2.1 million people

living there

and it's really,

really super dangerous.

Now,

Cape Town,

two months ago

in August,

Cape Town was rated

the fifth deadliest

city in the world.

Now,

the area that we

had to drive through

to get out of the airport

is responsible

for 35%

of the carjacking

in the fifth most

deadliest city

in the world

and that's our road

that we're going to go through.

Now,

picture that.

That's our road here.

It's a road where people

get carjacked

and mugged

and all that kind of stuff

and it happens to this guy

who's going down

from Jerusalem

to Jericho.

It says,

when he fell into

the hands of robbers,

they stripped him

of his clothes,

beat him

and went away

leaving him half dead.

Now,

a priest

just happens

to be going

down that road

and he sees

the beaten man.

Now,

the priest

is like the pillar

of religion

in Jewish society.

He works at the temple

in Jerusalem.

He's the guy

responsible

for making sacrifices

for your evil deeds

so that you can be okay.

He's God's servant

in the world

and it just so happened

that he's going

by and you think,

oh,

he happens upon

this man,

he's been beaten.

You think,

oh yeah,

help is around

the corner

and then he just

walks past

on the other side

and then

a Levite

comes along.

A Levite

is kind of like

the priest's assistant

and you kind of think,

oh well,

you know,

snooty priest,

high and mighty

above all the regular people.

The Levite,

he's a bit closer

to the common man

so,

you know,

he's got his finger

on the pulse

of the people,

he's going to come along,

he's going to help

and he just walks past.

Now,

these guys worked

in Jerusalem

but evidently

there were so many

priests and Levites

at the time

that not all of them

lived in Jerusalem.

They kind of had to

commute to Jerusalem.

We know what that's like.

Now,

if you notice,

they're coming down

from Jerusalem,

they're heading away

from Jerusalem.

They're not going to work

and they're not in a hurry,

they're going home.

There's nothing

that they have to

worry about

being late for.

They're just

kind of leisurely going

on their home

after a day's work.

They have no,

there's no reason

given in the text for us

that they walked by,

they just went

without excuse.

Now,

Jewish society

and Australian society

are really different

in so many ways

between

first century

Jewish society

and 21st century

Australian society

but

there is one thing

that they have in common

which I think is really cool.

They love

the underdog.

We love the underdog.

They love the underdog

back in the first century

in the Jewish world.

Now,

we love

trashing

famous people

and our leaders

and all that kind of stuff.

There's just something

inherently Australian

about that

tall poppy syndrome.

Every day

when the little person

triumphs,

we celebrate that.

Now,

it was the same

in Jewish society.

Apparently,

they had this way

of telling stories

where they'd grab

two big time

kind of central figures

in Jewish society,

two big celebrities

and they'd tell a story

about how those two people

fail

and then this everyday

Jewish guy,

kind of your everyday

Sam or whatever,

he succeeds.

So,

say you've got a woman

who has some kind of

problem or dilemma

and she can't solve it.

Now,

the king comes along,

fail,

he can't solve the problem

and a prophet comes along,

fail,

he can't solve the problem

and then your everyday

Goldstein guy

comes along

and he has the problem,

he has a solution

for the problem.

It's amazing.

Triumph of the little guy,

it's great.

Now,

that's a typical Jewish way

of telling stories.

Now,

if you've had this priest

come past,

fail,

Levite comes past,

he fails,

your audience,

the Jewish lawyer

and all the people

around him

are thinking,

oh,

I know this one.

This is where an everyday guy

like me comes along

and saves the day.

Now,

you can imagine their shock

when Jesus bursts

that little daydream bubble

with the next person

who comes along

who isn't your Jewish battler.

He's a Samaritan.

Now,

you've got to realise,

Jews and Samaritans

aren't the best of friends.

Because this parable

has been told

for 2,000 years,

we've kind of come

to associate Samaritan

with good stuff.

You know,

we've got the charity

Samaritan's Purse.

When we hear Samaritan,

we think good person.

In actual fact,

in the first century,

Jews and Samaritans

hated each other.

The Samaritans

set up a rival religion

to the Jews

in Jerusalem

and they claim

that it's the only true,

pure way

to worship God.

And if you're a Jew,

that is a slap

in the face

in the first century.

And so,

from the Jewish perspective,

they say,

no, no, no,

we've got the temple,

God lives with us.

These Samaritans

are liars.

They're sinful.

They're evil.

And so,

they absolutely hate

the Samaritans.

And you see that

at the end of the story.

You get to the point

where the lawyer

gets to the point

where he can't even

say the word Samaritan.

He has to substitute

the one who had mercy.

We'll come to that

a bit later on.

Now,

the Samaritan person

is the hated one,

the distrusted one,

the outcast one.

Now,

who is that

when you look at Sydney?

Who's that in Sydney?

Is that the person

with the kind of

painted black face

on hey-hey?

Or is it the person

whose colour

is a little bit

harder to wash off?

Is it the sex offender

in Sydney?

Is it the loud,

violent teenager

from another country?

Who is that in Sydney?

The person who is hated,

distrusted,

and outcast

in our society.

Plonk that person

in your mind

in this story.

And then look

at what this person

does.

Have a look at

verse 33

through to 35.

Now,

I want you to

kind of,

with your eyes,

this might be hard

to do unless you've

got x-ray vision,

just kind of circle

with your eyes

every time you see

a verb in these verses.

Now,

you remember the verbs

from English?

They're doing words

like go.

Now,

have a look at this.

In verse 33,

I'll read it.

Have a look for your verbs.

But as the Samaritan

travelled,

but a Samaritan,

as he travelled,

came where the man was

and when he saw him,

he took pity on him.

He went to him

and bandaged his wounds,

pouring oil and wine

and then,

he put the man

on his own donkey,

he took him to an inn

and took care of him.

The next day,

he took out two silver coins

and he 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 had.

You've got the priest

and the Levite

who just walk past,

walk past

and that's all they do.

But the Samaritan

does not stop doing.

He just gives

and does

and cares

and pours

and looks after

and takes

and reimburses

all the way through there.

He doesn't stop.

Luke is at pains

to draw this out

that this guy

is an action man.

He just keeps going.

And you remember,

this Samaritan

is,

in the Jewish mind,

the dirtiest,

the lowest,

the most hated.

Now,

Jesus asked in verse 36

to the lawyer

that he's talking to,

which of these three

do you think was

the neighbour?

And the lawyer

is so disgusted,

so unwilling

to accept the premise

of what Jesus

is suggesting here

that,

as we said,

he doesn't even say

Samaritan,

he just says,

oh,

the guy who had mercy on him.

Now,

that's the story.

So,

what's Jesus

telling this lawyer guy?

What's he trying

to teach here?

Well,

there are two big questions

that we came across in there

and there's two big lessons,

I think.

And the first one

isn't the one

that jumps out at you

the fastest

and the most dramatically.

It wasn't the first one

that jumped out at me.

But it has to do

with that first question

that the lawyer asks

up in verse 25.

Teacher,

what must I do

to inherit eternal life?

The first lesson

that this lawyer

needs to learn

is actually

from the man

in the ditch.

This lesson

is that he needs

to accept

compassion.

And that's exactly

what this lawyer

didn't get.

He didn't get

that he had to accept

compassion,

mercy,

love

from someone else.

Now,

have a look at

what he suggests

that the law says

he has to do

to inherit eternal life

in verse 27.

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

mind,

soul,

strength,

and love your neighbour

as yourself.

Now,

the first one,

loving God,

that's exactly what

every Jew,

it's called the Shema,

it comes from

Deuteronomy 6.5,

it's what every Jew

had to say,

recite every day.

He knew it backwards.

And the second one there

is from Leviticus 19.18,

love your neighbour

as yourself.

They are deeply ingrained

in what it means

to be a Jew

who lives by the law.

Now,

this is the one thing

that I think he's forgotten.

Those laws that he quoted

to Jesus

were given to God,

given by God

to Israel

and they assume

that something

has already happened.

You remember the story

back in Exodus.

God brings Israel

out of Egypt,

out of slavery

and brings them

into a new land

and he gives them

these laws.

Now,

when these instructions

were given,

God had already

saved them

from slavery.

He'd already delivered them,

already given them life.

These instructions

that God gave them,

love me,

love your neighbours,

were a response

to what God

had already done.

The mercy

and compassion

and love

and generosity

that he'd already

give them.

These laws

were never a way

to say,

please God,

save us.

They were always

meant to be a way

of saying,

God,

thank you

for saving us.

thank you

for drawing us out.

Now we belong

to you.

They were never

a way

to get salvation.

They were never

a way

to impress God

or get his favour.

They were always

a way of saying,

thank you

for having mercy

on me.

Thank you

for having compassion

on me

and rescuing me

when I'd done

nothing

to earn that.

Obedience

is not a please.

It's a thank you.

Thank you,

God,

for your generosity.

So if you believe

God has done

something for you,

had compassion

on you,

been generous

towards you,

then you'll live

a life of obedience.

But the lawyer

didn't get that.

He didn't get

that forgiveness,

adoption,

new life,

eternal life

are available

as a free gift

from God.

That they're given

when you come

to Jesus

and you say,

I belong to you.

Now,

refusing to keep

those commands

to love God

and to love others

is like turning

around to God

and saying,

you've done

nothing for me.

You've done

nothing.

And that's

where the lawyer

is at.

Jesus says to him,

the neighbours

that you're supposed

to love

in that command,

love your neighbours,

they're not

just your buddies.

They're not

just Christians

or in that day

followers of God,

Yahweh.

They're not

just people

who obey

the laws

of our society.

They're people

like the Samaritan

who normally

you hate

with everything

that you're

made of.

But the lawyer

can't accept that.

And you can see

once again

by the way

that he answers

Jesus in the end,

he just does not

accept that he

has to love

the Samaritan,

people who are

different from him.

He can't do it.

And he's

effectively saying

to God,

whatever you may

have done for me,

whatever you may

be offering me,

it's not enough

for me

to love people

like that.

He doesn't

get

that love,

obedience,

compassion

aren't a please.

They're a thank you

God for what

you've done

for me.

And if you've

done this for me,

I'll do anything

for you.

So what about you?

The rest of the book

of Luke goes on

and tells us about

how Jesus is like

that Samaritan.

He came into this

world because he

has compassion.

He looked at us

and saw the pain

and the injustice

and the brokenness

and the unhappiness

of this world,

the sinfulness

of this world

and how it's

become lost

from God.

And he saw

that that was

caused by our

self-centeredness,

by a history

of something like

12 billion people

apparently who have

ever lived,

who have chosen

to live without

God.

And so look

around at the

results of that

in our world

today.

Not only that,

but God waits

to judge mankind

for rejecting

him.

Jesus saw us

there on that

road,

keeled up

and waiting

to die.

And he had

compassion and

brought healing.

He brought

healing by living

a perfect,

God-centered,

God-loving,

others-loving

life and

then dying

as a

criminal,

complete opposite.

And when he

died,

he took all

of our guilt

to himself

and with

himself into

the ground.

And when he

came back

from the dead,

he defeated

the power,

the ownership,

the slavery

that sin has

over us.

And now he

offers us a new

start.

We are not a

slave to

selfishness anymore.

You can

escape that.

You can

escape a

life which

is just about

empty gain

and clawing at

other people

so that you

get stuff

before you

die.

Now that's

that first

lesson there

for the lawyer

that he didn't

get, but we

have to get

it.

Loving your

neighbor is

not what you

do to earn

eternal life.

It's what

you do to

say thank

you to

the God

who gives

freely.

What do

you do when

you know

that God

has shown

mercy to

you?

If you

believe that,

you say

thanks.

Romans 12

1 says,

in view of

God's mercy,

offer yourself

as a living

sacrifice.

If there's

no obedience

in our

lives,

there's no

compassion in

our lives,

there's no

loving our

neighbors,

it's like

we're saying

to Jesus,

you've done

nothing for

me.

Now that

was the

first big

lesson there

for us,

and it came

from that

question,

what I've

got to do

to inherit

eternal life.

The big

lesson for

us was we

need to

learn how

to accept

God's

compassion.

Now there's

another big

question there

remember as

well.

who is

my

neighbor?

You

remember

that from

verse 29.

Now there's

another big

lesson that

kind of

matches up

with this

question.

And that

big lesson

for us is

that we

need to

be

compassionate.

We need

to love

our neighbor.

Let me

explain that.

Now we're

learning this

one from

the Samaritan

who was a

neighbor to

the man in

the ditch.

Now the

lawyer has

asked the

question,

he's looking

for a bare

minimum,

who is my

neighbor?

But Jesus

gives him

a different

answer.

Now a

neighbor,

we have to

think of

a neighbor as

someone close

by.

But these

days I think

because we

live in

streets,

which they

didn't

necessarily

live in

in the

camp when

Israel was

in the

desert,

when they

started

thinking about

this in

Leviticus 19.

Because we

live in

streets,

we tend to

think of

our neighbors

as the

people on

that same

row.

And it

kind of has

the same

meaning because

they're the

people who

live close

to us.

But back

in Leviticus

19,

when we're

talking about

neighbors,

we're talking

about all

the people

who are

close to

us,

not just

the people

who we

share a

fence with.

And we

don't really

think about

this with our

neighbors on

our streets

these days,

but the

force behind

that word

when the

Bible uses

neighbor is

the person

who is in

your inner

circle,

the person

who is in

your in

group,

the people

who are

closest around

you.

We certainly

don't think

that way about

most of our

neighbors these

days.

Now,

it's a little

bit like

when we

started school,

the way that

the Bible

thinks about

neighbors.

When you

started school,

you didn't

kind of go

around,

well,

at least this

wasn't the

case for me.

I didn't go

around and

look at

everyone and

look through

their bag and

see if they

had a pool

and look at

their dad's

car and if it

was fun to

ride around

with.

I used to

like arm

rest in

cars.

It made me

feel like I

was in a

spaceship.

I didn't

check out

when my

friends'

dads had

cars with

armrests

before I

decided to

be their

friend.

See,

when you're

in school,

you rock up.

You don't

know anybody.

The first day

you go to

kindergarten or

if you change

schools when you

go to high

school,

in year seven,

that first day

you don't know

anyone.

And so you're

just praying that

you get to sit

next to someone

at lunchtime and

you're going to

hold on to those

people for the

next six to

twelve years and

they're your

friends.

And that

becomes your

group,

the phenomenon

of a group

in school.

That's how

they're formed.

They're just the

people that you

happen to be

sitting next to

that particular

first day and

they become your

friends for the

next six years.

Now that's kind

of the way

neighbours work

in the Bible.

They're the

people that

you're close

to.

They're the

people that

are around

you in your

everyday life

and not

necessarily

because you

just assess

them upon

how good

friends they

might be.

They're just

the people

who are nearby

and so they

become the

people who are

part of your

inner

circle of

friends.

The people

that are

with you,

the people

that you

love and

take care of

and cherish.

That's what

we're thinking

about when

we're talking

about neighbours

in the

Bible.

And the

lawyer is

saying,

listen,

who is that

for me?

Who am I

supposed to

be taking

care of?

Who is in

that inner

circle for

me?

Because really

I just want

to focus on

them and

forget about

everybody else.

Who is

supposed to

be my

neighbour?

Who I'm

supposed to

love?

And you

notice that

Jesus changes

the question

a little bit

towards the

end of the

parable.

Have a look

down in

verse 36.

Now compare

this to what

the guy

originally asked

in verse 29.

Who is my

neighbour?

By the time

we get down

to verse 36,

Jesus says

something a

little bit

different.

Which of

these three,

so the

priest,

the Levite

and the

Samaritan,

do you think

was a neighbour

to the man

who fell in

the hands

of robbers?

Now we're

not talking

about who

is my

neighbour

anymore.

Jesus has

changed the

question.

Who are you

going to be

a neighbour

to?

Jesus isn't

thinking about

who's that

select few

people that

have been

close to you

for a little

while that

you're going

to think

about loving

and you're

going to

make sure

you take

care of

them.

He's blown

it wide

open and

he's now

saying,

now who

are you

going to

be a

neighbour

to?

Who are

you going

to treat

as if

they are

in your

inner circle?

Who are

you going

to speak

to just

as if

they were

your closest?

Who are

you going

to have

compassion

on just

as if

they were

your closest

friends?

Being a

neighbour

means

treating

people even

enemies

Samaritans

as those

people who

are in

your

group

click

circle

and amongst

many things

compassion is

how we treat

our closest

friends,

isn't it?

If we hear

that our

friend is

sick or

if there

is massive

tragedy in

the family

of one of

our particularly

close friends,

we're prepared

to drop

stuff for

that,

aren't we?

We're prepared

to drop

our business

to be there

for them,

to let

things that

we're working

on be

late,

to let

them not

get done

because we're

prepared to

have compassion

on them.

Now that's

what we're

talking about

when Jesus

says,

who are you

going to

be a

neighbour

to?

Who are

you going

to extend

your

closeness

to?

And we're

not talking

about everyone

in the world

being your

closest friend

with whom

you share

everything

about you,

but who

are you

going to

extend

the

compassion

that you

would have

on your

closest

people

to?

Who are

you going

to be

a neighbour

to?

Kate and

I know

a family

very well

actually,

in which

there's been

a lot of

strife.

Two brothers

are involved.

One brother

was looking

after a bunch

of cash

for missionaries

and this

guy decided

that,

well,

to make

some more

money for

these

missionaries

and really

impress them

and support

them,

I'm going

to invest

it in

some really

high-risk

investments

and he

loses

everything.

But he

doesn't tell

anybody

because he

doesn't get

in trouble.

So he

looks for

ways to

get it

back.

He looks

for other

risky

business

ventures

and business

ventures

are even

riskier than

that,

to try and

get this

money back

so no one

will find

out.

But someone

does find

out,

the Sydney

Morning

Herald

finds out

on the

front page

and so

it gets

blown wide

open.

So this

guy and his

family get

torn apart

but his

brother at

that point

has a

choice,

has to

say normally

in our

society it

would be

understandable

for me to

disown this

brother of

mine,

to say that

he's not

my brother

anymore,

that he's

not part of

this family

anymore.

That happens

in society

and no

one seems

to wave

their finger

at that,

it's

acceptable.

He could

do that.

But instead

he takes

his brother

and his

brother's

immediate

family and

he cares

for them,

he houses

them,

he has

them over

to be in

his family

and he

calls this

man still

brother.

brother,

he extends

his

compassion

to someone

who does

not deserve

it.

That's the

question Jesus

asks,

who are you

a neighbour

to?

Who do you

extend your

compassionate arms

out to even

though they

don't deserve

it?

Now sometimes

it is very

hard to be

compassionate,

isn't it?

It's strange

but it's true.

It's strange

because we

kind of associate

compassion with

something,

some tug of

your heart

that irresistibly

pulls you

towards somebody

and you

can't control

it.

That's compassion,

it's an emotion.

But it is

hard because

sometimes we

feel alongside

the tug of

compassion,

we feel the

tug of

busyness and

inconvenience and

not knowing

quite how to

help and

well just

greed and

laziness.

Being compassionate

is a hard

thing a lot

of the time.

sometimes you

need a bit

of a nudge

to get on

and do

hard things

which strangely

enough is why

two young

teenage guys

recently wrote

a book called

Do Hard

Things,

great title.

I don't know

if you've

read this

book,

has anyone

read this

book Do

Hard

Things?

There you

go,

I can tell

you whatever

I like.

I think

it's a fair

enough book,

it came from

a couple of

teenage guys

who looked

around at

their generation

and said

huh,

you know

we really