3/15/26 - Luke 10:25-37: Go and Do - Robert Turnage

Thank y'all for being here.

As has been said, I am not Steve.

And sorry.

If you're visiting today, I'm filling in for Steve while he takes a break and uh hope you will come back next week for a much more eloquent sermon.

We do appreciate you being here.

It's a great privilege to be able to worship with you.

So I want to start just kind of really quickly.

We went on a short trip last weekend to the Smoky Mountains.

Spent a couple of days uh hiking and kind of looking at God's wonder.

But driving home from the Smokies, um, I saw a billboard in in Chattanooga, which was kind of interesting.

I don't really pay much attention to billboards.

Don't tell my boss because we just launched a billboard campaign in the area.

Um I just really literally thought about that.

Um but I saw this billboard on driving home in Chattanooga, and the the billboard says, when push comes to shove, don't choose civility.

I thought, well, that's interesting, you know.

Um and I actually I thought about it um for a little for a long while on the drive home.

And you know, I mean that's a great goal, right?

Um we should all want to be civil.

But it's and that's that's probably the the pinnacle of of what a secular culture can hope for, a culture that is is outside of the Christian faith, uh, is the best you can hope for is to choose civility.

Um I'm not knocking civility.

I think it's very important and I think it's terribly lacking in society today.

But for Christian ethics, for Christian morality, civility just barely starts to scratch the surface of what we're called to, of what we're obligated to.

Um and I use obligation here uh intentionally.

I use it in the way that Jesus does, um, in the sense of forgiveness is only extended when you forgive.

Uh, to whom much is given, much is required.

So the idea is that in response to the great mercy and and and grace that we have been shown, we are expected to do some things.

We are expected to be a righteous people.

So Christian ethics is not a matter of simply choosing to be respectful or polite.

It is an obligation, but it is not a burden.

It is a joy because it is a reflection of who we are as a new creation in Christ.

For Christians, we are not only to be civil, courteous, and respectful, but to proactively seek the good of others.

We're looking at one such place in Scripture today where we're called to a higher standard, the same standard we were shown, the standard of love.

We'll be looking at one of the most well-known passages in the Bible.

It's one that common knowledge, even to people who are outside the church, within the church, we run the danger of being so familiar with it that we come become over-familiar.

Um, we can kind of skim past it.

Uh, we start, um, we don't think about it anymore in any kind of depth.

We don't dive into what is the practical application of it from our life day in and day out.

Because we're staring, we're staring face first in a culture that is more and more lurching away from the truth of this passage.

I think it's very important that we take a we we look at it and we try to look at it in a new way, um with fresh eyes, that's probably a better way to put it.

Um our culture encourages us to water down the meaning of this passage, of other scriptural passages.

Um, we personally we will jump and twist and we will bend passages to avoid the things that we're facing and what we're dealing with and what are expected of us.

What we're dealing with is a God whose mercy extends so deep and so far that we are constantly surprised by what he calls us to do.

We're called to reflect the same love to those around us that He reflects, that He provided to us.

So I want to quickly read the parable again, um, and then we'll jump in.

So, starting in Luke chapter 10, verse 25, Behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Luke 10:25

He said then, What is written in the law?

How do you read it?

And he 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.

And he said to him, You have answered correctly.

Do this, and you will live.

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

Jesus replied, Man is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell upon, fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down the road, and when he saw it, he passed on the other side.

So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine.

Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever you need to spend, I will repay you when you come back.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?

He said, the one who showed him mercy.

And Jesus said to him, You go and do likewise.

Heavenly Father, we come before you just recognizing that without you we are nothing.

That you created us, you sustain us, that you offer us grace when we were so undeserving, and we are so thankful for you, Father.

I pray, Father, that you will open our hearts and open our minds to your word, that we will not be unmoved, that truth will be seen and understood, and that the depths of your love might be known a little better.

Ask us in the name of your holy son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Alright, so today we're gonna look at three things uh call to love, a fruitless faith, and a living faith.

So point one, call to love.

Um, so the lawyer stood up and he's gonna test Jesus.

How do I inherit eternal life?

So a lawyer here, uh sometimes translated as scribe, uh, basically their job is to transcribe, interpret, and clarify the word of God.

And just like in several other encounters uh that they have with Jesus, the religious leadership, they try to trip him up.

They want to try to turn the people against him because he's gaining a following with these radical interpretations and ideas.

So the question of what must I do to inherit eternal life was actually a relatively common question in Judaism.

It was discussed and bandied about by the religious leadership.

What does it actually mean?

Um, so there's two things to consider within this question that I want us to kind of think about as we're going through here.

First, what is he actually asking?

So for the Jew, inherit eternal life meant how the how can I be sure I'm part of the covenant people of God?

Essentially, how can I know that I'm going to share in the resurrection of the righteous?

And again, well, we'll get to that.

Uh and second, the verb tense here of the question, the way he asks the question, he's asking for a single singular action.

What's the one thing that I can do?

He wants, you know, there's a calculation that can be made.

And I can make this calculation and I'm done.

So that's what he's asking.

In other words, let's map out the steps that I have to go through, and so I can know just how far I need to go.

Jesus answers him with a question, which is the typical way rabbis would engage with people in discussion.

He points them back to the law, implying that the answer he's looking for is within the Old Testament law.

The core of the gospel is waiting for them in God's word if they just look at it, if they just actually seek it.

So the lawyer's answer, he answers and he combines Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18.

This is a combination that Jesus himself has used and called it the greatest commandments.

So something worth pausing to notice in this in these greatest commandments.

He says, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength and with all of your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

So we all know that in in Greek, if you've spent any time in church, there's a bunch of different words for love, right?

Um, and each one carries a little subtle distinction in the in the type of love and what it means.

So it's worth noting here that for the words love the Lord, the word for love is agape, right?

And we've heard Steve talk about it, we've heard for over and over.

It's a selfless love.

It's a sacrificial love.

That's the way we're supposed to love God.

It's committed and faithful.

The word used for loving our neighbor is agape.

It's the same word.

We're to love both God and our neighbor selflessly, faithfully, and without regard for our own interest.

So, of course, Jesus is not going to allow a theological discussion to remain purely theoretical.

Because right thinking about right without a right action is irrelevant.

If you know the right words, but you don't practically apply it in a real life situation, it's not of any use.

In other words, salvation without works is dead.

Or faith without works is dead, excuse me.

So Jesus told the lawyer, you know the words, now do them.

And then when the lawyer is confronted about, well, well, first of all, the lawyer, when he asked what to do, the grammar was pointing towards that single action, like I mentioned.

And Jesus' answer, the grammar for go and do, points to an ongoing action, continuous, every day, all day.

Do this.

So a wooden reading could could take this as works-based righteousness, but scripture interprets scripture, and we know salvation is based on faith through multiple passages.

So Jesus is not contradicting this.

What he's saying is practice the faith you claim to have.

You can't claim to be part of the covenant people of God.

Show it, live it.

A tree will be judged by its fruits.

So, of course, the lawyer, being a lawyer, does what every one of us wants to do every day.

He wants to justify himself.

He basically says, okay, so let's be sub, let's be specific.

Let's get down to the nuts involved here.

Who is my neighbor and how much do I have to love them?

There has to be boundaries.

See, loving God and loving your neighbor can be overwhelming.

There has to be a limit.

A limit that I can set.

He wants us to create these distinctions among people.

Surely there are some people who do not deserve our love.

There are some circumstances where it's okay for me to say, I don't feel like loving today.

There has to be people who are beyond the pale who should be allowed to suffer for whatever reason because they are on the other side of this dividing line.

There was a popular uh writing among first century uh Israelites called the Book of Sirach, and it captures this idea very well.

Give to the devout but not to the sinner.

Do good to the humble, but not, but do not give to the ungodly.

Hold back their bread and do not give it to them.

For by means of it they might subdue you, and then you will receive twice as much evil.

But see, that's what we want to do.

We want to set this boundary and only give to the people who benefit us.

We only want to help the people who are like us, who we agree with.

We want to set boundaries and say, love can't extend to people who disagree with me.

It can't extend to sinners, those people who stand for things that are antiethical to God, not to those people who may make my life difficult.

Those people don't deserve love.

They don't deserve compassion.

And of course, that's that's where the the teacher, the lawyer here is heading with his argument.

That's just what his mindset is.

So Jesus, you know, uh of course, the the lawyer, of course, is expecting Jesus to set the same boundaries.

You know, he wants some reaffirmation.

Jesus, being Jesus, tells a parable.

So he goes on, read this really quickly.

A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now, by the chance, a priest was going down the road, and when he saw time, when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Um, a little context for this story, so you know we can appreciate some of the shocking turn of events that are gonna be happening here.

Um, as usual with parables, Jesus is using examples uh that his listeners are gonna be familiar with.

Things we might not really, we're not gonna really catch right off the bat.

So, first of all, there were many priests in Jesus' day that lived outside of Jerusalem.

Um, as a matter of fact, most of the priests lived in Jericho.

And so they would commute down this road to Jericho.

It was a very treacherous road.

There's a steep incline, it drops about 4,000 feet over 17 miles, um, and it has narrow, rocky passes, um, sharp, blind turns where you can't see where you're going, you know, what's around the corner, these steep cliffs, and it made it perfect for bandits to ambush people.

And it was well known that it was a dangerous road to travel for that reason.

Um so you know, knowing this context, it's very plausible that a traveler is coming along this road and he gets beaten and robbed.

And it's very plausible that a priest is gonna come by because they make that commute.

So the first passenger by is a priest, he's the top of the Jewish social order.

He is the pinnacle of righteousness and right standing with God in the eyes of Judaism.

Surely this priest coming along is a sign of God, and the one who serves in the temple will surely care for the injured man.

But no, he passes by on the other side of the road.

Along comes a Levite.

And the Levites were aides in the temple, they helped the priests with all of the rituals and all of the processes and things.

Surely this man, who's who's just a step down in the social order, surely this man would come to the aid of the victim.

But no, he too passes by on the other side of the road.

Now, there's a lot of speculation and a lot of sermons and a lot of commentaries and a lot of writing on why these men may have done this.

Why would they not just pass them by, but pass them by on the other side of the road?

You know, kind of get as far away as they can.

You know, were they late for work?

Well, no, they actually were leaving the temple because they're going down the road.

Okay.

Did they think he was dead?

That would ritually, you know, because touching a dead body would would would cause them to be ritually unclean, which then they would have to go through this whole seven-day process of being purified, and you know, it's a it's a it's a headache to have to go through.

We don't know.

And ultimately, the reason why they did this is irrelevant.

And we know it's irrelevant because if it was important, Jesus would have told us their motives.

What we do know from Jesus' words is that these two people had been in the temple proclaiming to love God by worship, but they refused to love a neighbor.

The well-being of that man had not even registered on their radar.

The point is, their standing both in society and in the temple worship is no guarantee to a right standing before God.

No matter what they did, they showed where their heart lies.

These two people represent people caught up in a lifeless religion.

They play at church, but it does not actually affect the way that they live.

There is no fruit, only religious ritual that produces indifference instead of love.

So Jesus then introduces the flip side of a fruitless faith, that being a living faith.

A Samaritan came up, and he had compassion.

There are plenty of stories floating around this era, this time, um, that took shots at the priestly class.

I mean, it's, you know, we like to think that times are different now, but you know, they had stories and jokes about the higher class that, you know, you take shots at this guy and that guy, and then along comes the blue-collar hero.

He's the hero that comes along to save the day, he's the everyday guy.

They had the same things where they would take shots at the Levites and the priests, and then along comes the everyday Jew, and he's the hero.

He does the right thing, he shows them what's what.

And that's what the pre the lawyer is most likely expecting to happen here.

That the blue-collar hero comes along to save the day.

But that's not what they get.

They get a Samaritan.

Now we know we we we've all heard Samaritans and Jews did not like each other.

The problem is uh the problem is to say something like that, we can miss that this is actually a deep-seated, long-festering hatred between the two groups.

And when we miss that, we miss the shock of a Samaritan doing this.

We know that Jews believed Samaritans were uh were of poor ancestry, they were they they married Gentiles during the time of the exile, hundreds of years ago.

Then they developed uh what Jews considered uh heretical theology around the temple, so they weren't worshiping properly, they were intermarrying when they were told not to.

And then over the last centuries, things had even intensified the hatred even more.

Josephus tells us that during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, this was a Greek conqueror, um, that the Samaritans denied being kin to Jews and they sided with the Greeks in this war.

They renamed their temple, the Temple of Zeus, to avoid persecution.

So this is around 160 BC.

That sounds like a long time before Jesus, but it's worth remembering as you look throughout the New Testament and you see all of the fights that Paul had about circumcision and the need with Judaizer saying you have to be circumcised, this is the most important thing.

The reason that was happening is because Antiochus Epiphanes issued an order.

He issued an order that said that anyone who circumcises their child, the entire family will be put to death.

So the focus and the emphasis on circumcision in the New Testament is a direct result of these Greek conquerors coming through.

And so they rallied around that.

And so naturally, they're gonna hate the people who sided with the Greeks and sided with you know with destroying their children and their families.

Finally, Josephus also tells us about another event around 9 A.D., and this is just a couple of decades before Jesus is talking.

Around 9 A.D., Samaritans snuck into Jerusalem, snuck into the temple during Passover, and scattered human bones.

So, this is an act of desecration that made the temple ritually unclean and prevented them from celebrating the Passover at that time.

So, as you can imagine, throughout all of these centuries, there's ongoing violence and this old, deep-seated animosity just festers.

So when we see this context, we understand the hatred between these two groups of people.

If we forget that, it's easy to continue justifying in our minds who our neighbor is.

But when we remember this deep context, we get some of this, the shock of what the lawyer is hearing.

See, we'll justify a non-neighbor because a person's lifestyle is sinful.

Or maybe we have to defend God in front of them.

Or maybe their success affects our own.

But in response to the lawyer's suggestion that some people are non-neighbors, Jesus intentionally picked the quintessential non-neighbor to a Jew.

The last person a Jew expected to be a hero of a story of compassion was a Samaritan.

And he does what the outwardly religious refuse to do.

The point of loving your enemy could have been made by having the victim be the Samaritan.

But having a Samaritan the victim reinforces the problem of perceived privilege of the lawyer.

Doing it this way reinforces the idea of no social status can put you in a right standing with God.

A hated Samaritan is in a better standing with God than any Jew who does not do God's will.

The Samaritan has compassion on the injured man, not just helped him, but had compassion.

He moved towards the injured man.

This is so significant because you must move towards people in order to love, in order to build a relationship.

It doesn't just happen and it's not convenient.

The Samaritan had places to go.

He had things to do.

But he's moving towards someone who would despise him if he were conscious.

Someone who would not do the same thing if the situation's reversed.

This isn't just throwing money at a problem.

This is taking a personal stance.

This is getting dirty.

Jesus uses a series of verbs to detail just how active this man is in ministering to the needy neighbor.

He goes to him, he bandages him, he's very active, goes, bandages, pours oil, puts him on the donkey, takes him to the inn, takes care of him, secures care for him.

He took the risk inherent in serving others.

He gave money to take care of him and put no limit on how much he would spend to see the wounded man to be taken care of.

Now remember that this Samaritan is in enemy territory, for lack of a better term.

He's just told one of his enemies, a Jewish landlord, here's my visa card, do whatever you need to take care of.

That's putting yourself out there.

That's putting it on the line.

This is significant because vulnerability is also essential for loving others.

When you move towards someone else, you might get hurt.

But you must be willing to sacrifice and be vulnerable and take the chance of being hurt.

And if you are hurt, you must not let that keep you from moving forward to the next person and doing it again.

Remember, love is an action word.

As one commentator put it, the major difference between the priest and the Levite on the one hand and the Samaritan on the other is not what they see and hear, but what they do with what they see and hear.

Only the Samaritan takes pity.

He sees, he feels, and he serves.

Only he displays a heart of flesh rather than stone.

The lawyer was asking, who and how much do I have to love?

Jesus, by telling this parable, changes the question and makes the neighbor be the subject.

Jesus is telling the lawyer here, stop asking how far do I have to go, how much do I have to love, and start asking, what can I do to help?

To love God is to respond to Him at every level, including the horizontal.

Jesus does not allow us to set boundaries so we may feel like we've met our obligation.

Peter asked for a boundary on how much he must forgive and was rejected outright.

In the same way, there is no boundary where we can say, I have loved enough, or I will love only this set of people.

This parable does not advocate for earning one's salvation.

It insists on living out our covenant with God.

One cannot love God apart from trust and obedience.

The parable is concerned with identity and being.

It forces us to reconcile.

Whose are we?

And will we live like it?

The second question to answer is the first.

If we are in Christ, then we will live like it.

Rather than worrying if someone else is a neighbor, go be a neighbor to whomever is in need.

Go be what you were created to be: salt and light, part of a shining city on a hill.

So, in conclusion, people want every parable to carry every ounce of theology, where instead they're designed to make us think.

Usually with a singular point.

They don't carry entire theological frameworks, and that's the case here.

This parable isn't about pointing to the inadequacy of our own efforts, the fact that we can't love perfectly.

We know that.

But it is a call to love perfectly despite our inadequacy, because we are not alone in our love.

We are new creations in Christ.

We love with a new heart, a heart made flesh by the Spirit.

As Bonhoeffer wrote in his book on discipleship, he says, Christ stands between us, and we can only get in touch with our neighbors through him.

The emphasis in this story is on doing.

It's a theme from the very beginning to the very end.

Doing is used four times, two at the beginning and two at the end.

When Jesus says, who showed to be a neighbor, the word showed is actually the same word as do.

So twice at the beginning, twice at the end.

Do, do, go and do, go and do.

This parable then is an explanation of what the life of a disciple, a child of the covenant, should look like.

Not because I think we're guilty of ignoring needs as a church.

I think we do a wonderful job.

I think we have a wonderful community here.

I bring this up because we we can always use a reminder of who we are and what we're called to.

Because our culture in the world is pulling at us daily, more and more, and encouraging tribalism and fracturing relationships with those who are different from us.

We're being told not to associate with this person or that person or that group.

Culture will justify all sorts of terrible things in the name of justice or freedom or protecting our own way of life.

More often than not, when we refuse compassion in the way we see others, what we're calling justice or freedom is actually built on a selfish desire and vengeance.

Much like another parable Jesus told about a wicked servant who refused to reflect his master's forgiveness to others.

Things will be painted as catastrophic or existential threats to us if we show compassion to the wrong person.

Our culture is drawing lines and building fences, and we are told we cannot look at the outsider, the guilty, the sinner, with compassion.

It's weak and it can lead to no good.

That's what culture tells us.

Jesus' parable tells us otherwise.

Culture would have us forget scripture that while we were sinners, Jesus had compassion for us, died for us.

That we are, as Paul says to the Colossians, to put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Or as Micah put it, what does the Lord ask?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.

It's something we've struggled with as Christians in our history throughout time in this state.

One commentator described the parable of the Good to Samaritan saying, This parable is annoying, for it will not let us avert our eyes.

It does not allow us to claim to be a follower of Christ and turn a blind eye to suffering or to be those indifferent to those around us.

No matter what tribe, religion, ethnicity, or status, it removes any limits we might want to set on our call to actively love others.

And we can look at the sermon and see this huge thing that the Samaritan did and say, well, of course I'd help if somebody was in a car crash or if they were beaten half to death.

Maybe.

Probably.

Those types of things, thankfully, are very rare.

We don't come across those things.

We're never tested in that way very often.

But what Jesus is doing is this type of philosophical argument where he's arguing from the greater to the lesser.

The idea is that if this is this great example of what being a neighbor is, that's this big, dangerous, costly thing, that's the expectation.

Shouldn't we also be doing the smaller things, the day-to-day things?

I mean, it can be something as simple as avoiding harm to somebody, even accidentally.

And this goes back to the law.

In Deuteronomy, there's a law about including railings on the roof of your home.

Not because God cares about an HOA, but because He wanted Israelites to be thinking about the safety of neighbors who visit their home.

It can be mentoring others, discipling.

This is not just for adults.

Kids can mentor other kids, influence them by living out what the gospel says.

It's serving the church, small things, volunteering for a parent's night out, running a media table, keeping kids.

It's being in the community.

It's looking at people as people, listening to people, see people in their daily struggles, be the one that shows kindness to those who everyone else ignores.

And yes, it is standing up for the outcast, the overlooked, and those who are taken advantage of.

Being a neighbor can be very unpopular.

It can be hard.

It means willingly putting ourselves in harm's way to suffer, willingly giving of ourselves, just as Christ suffered for us.

But being a neighbor also means that we have experienced what true love is.

It means we're being what we're created to be in Christ.

So I'm gonna pray.

And like we usually do, we're gonna take a few minutes to uh consider today's passage.

What it means to be a neighbor, who can we be a neighbor to?

What opportunities do we have?

Heavenly Father.

Again, we thank you for your mercy that you show us day in and day out.

We thank you for your spirit who walks with us, who guides us, who refuses to leave us as we were.

Pray, Father, for that we will take seriously your call to love others, that we will be image bearers for you, that we will walk as you would have us to walk, that we will call others, that we will love others, and that we will see them as you see them.