Who Is My Neighbor? - Luke 10:25-37

Welcome to Skyline Church.

To answer your first question, why am I in this boop?

The answer is fashion.

Okay.

Just kidding.

I tore something.

Don't worry about what it was.

All you need to know is it feels way better than it does two days ago.

Two weeks ago, not this last week, but the week before, our network called Crossway does this thing called the huddle, where a bunch of pastors from uh every other year is the uh United States pastors, and then the off-years is the whole international crossway network.

So two weeks ago, the International Crossway Network of Pastors came and went to Breckenridge, and we got to hang out.

And uh some of you will remember Matthew Lebowski, who we sent out in January to go help plant Golden City with Matt Brown and their team.

Uh, he got me this shirt that says Dad's Against Weed, but it's it's a picture of a dandelion, which is very close to my heart because I hate weeds.

And ironically, this is exactly what I was doing two Saturdays ago.

I I was out in the yard, I was weeding, and uh we have a saying in the Bailey family on Saturdays.

The saying goes like this Saturday is a work day.

The reason is because I'm off Friday, my wife's off, and the kids off, uh they have a classical school, and they can be off too if they want on Friday.

And so the family rests on Friday, and then Saturday is a work day.

And so what we were doing was pulling weeds.

And I asked my son to help because you know he's seven, we're trying to work him into this kind of thing now.

And I gave him probably eight square feet of responsibility.

And I was like, but I need you to pull these weeds out and like put them in this trash can.

This is like your area.

And he was like, okay.

So he pulls weeds for about 20 minutes.

And then he goes, Dad, can I be done?

And I was like, bud, it's been 20 minutes.

Like, just help me.

You got eight square feet, bud, because he's got a sad pile of seven weeds.

I was like, I need you to just finish this area, okay?

And then you can be done.

You can you can finish what you want to do.

You can you can play.

20 minutes goes by again, and he just starts melting down.

Dad, it's so boring.

It's so boring, dad.

Please, please don't let me pull any more weeds.

And I I was like, I look, I don't tell that story to like throw my son under the bus.

I'm actually really proud of his character as a seven-year-old.

I I tell that story more so to point out the fact that kids are really just more honest versions of adults.

This is one of the most amazing things about kids is they say the things that we so often won't say out loud.

What does my son want in this moment?

To do the minimum amount of effort.

That's what he wants to do.

The absolute minimum required of him to get through.

And he doesn't care about hiding it.

And we're so often the same as adults, we just don't quite say it that way.

We don't say the thing is boring, we just act like it's boring.

It reminds me of an old coworker that I had back when I was working for PepsiCo, and he would disappear every day at 10 a.m.

in the bathroom for 15 minutes.

And after he did this for months, I was like, dude, why do you go to the bathroom every day at 10 for 15 minutes?

And he goes, Well, actually, it's 12 minutes, and the reason is because I do that five days a week, I only have to work 39 hours instead of 40.

I was like, wow, imagine you put that kind of thought towards your job.

Absolute minimum level of effort.

We do this all the time.

For me, it's gift giving.

My poor wife, she loves receiving gifts, and I'm famous for being bad at it.

I'm not trying to make an excuse.

I think things have gotten better in the two decades we've known each other, but I'm famous for one time on her birthday, bringing home stale chips for her for her birthday from the Frito Lay brand.

And that was my gift to her.

I just want to do so often with gifts the most minimum amount of effort.

And why?

Look, it's easy for me to get up.

You get up here and you tell me your thing, okay?

We so often want to do the minimum amount that's required of us.

Why?

Even if you're here today, you're exploring, you're not sure what you think about Christianity.

I think if you're honest with yourself, even you have seen this.

And I mean what does this say about our character?

Right?

Imagine if my son had been the opposite.

Like, I don't want to do this, Dad, but I'll do it.

What do you want me to do?

I'll do all this and I'll do more.

And then he does it maybe for an hour, and then he goes inside and does what he wants to do.

Like, what does it say about our character that so often we want to do the minimum amount of effort?

What does it say about how we love?

If love is the supreme ethic of Christianity, the ultimate summary of how much you're like God, how well do you love, then what does this idea of the minimum amount of effort say about us?

Well, we're in Luke part three, the road to Jerusalem.

And the parable, the story that Jesus is gonna tell today is arguably top three most famous parable that Jesus says.

It's in culture everywhere because of how famous it is.

And I think Jesus is gonna help us see a little bit why sometimes we want to do it this way and then what to do instead.

And he's gonna say a lot of other stuff too.

So, um, but before we actually get to the parable, the beginning of our passage sets the sets the stage for it.

So I'm gonna be in Luke chapter 10, 25 through 37.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

First, I'm just gonna read 25 through 28.

I'm gonna have it up here on the screen in the ESV version.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said to him, 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, that's Jesus, said to him, You have answered correctly.

Do this, and you will live.

So, what's there's something amazing, I think, about this text before we get to the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Um, it's wild because the lawyer comes up to him and says, Hey, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

This is the first time we've actually seen this question in the Gospel of Luke.

Normally the way Luke has talked about it so far is what must I do to enter the kingdom of heaven?

The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven.

It said over and over again, this is the first time that someone uses this terminology, inherit eternal life.

And it puts the emphasis on the eternality of our lives.

How do I get this?

This man asks.

And uh Jesus answers his question with a question.

He says, Hey, you know the law, you know that thing that you and I both hold authoritatively, the Hebrew scriptures that we believe is God breathed and came from him?

When you read it, what do you think it says?

Jesus puts it back on him.

The lawyer answers by quoting two Old Testament passages.

The first he quotes is Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 5, which says this Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

This is called the Shema.

The Jews said it twice a day.

It was really a big part of their sort of daily routine.

And you might have noticed that there's three things in the Deuteronomy version, but four things in the Luke version.

I think the primary reason for that is just that the Hebrew idea of a heart encompasses the mind also.

But in the Greek, when Luke writes it, when he says the Greek word cardia for heart, it doesn't really include that same idea.

So they add that to be clear.

When we're talking about loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, that means all of you.

It just means the same thing from Hebrew to Greek.

And then he quotes something else.

He quotes Leviticus 19, 18, which says this you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

So he quotes these two things and says, I think that's what it means to inherit eternal life.

And it's crazy because Jesus goes, Yeah, do this and you will live, implied eternally.

Love God with all of your being, love your neighbor as yourself, and you will live eternally.

And the reason, you know, well, elsewhere this is called the greatest commandment.

Here the man says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

But in the other gospels, a similar scene happens, and this is called the greatest commandment.

And the reason that this is so wild is because basically, what this is, love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, is if you were to boil down the whole testament and say it very simply, what do you get?

It's kind of like, have you guys seen that show, uh, The Lincoln Lawyer?

Um, amazing show with Manuel Garcia Ruffo.

And he's like a defense attorney.

If you want to be a defense attorney, you have to study forever.

All this law, go to school, learn about trial, you have to learn about everything, the federal and precedent, all these things, how to handle juries, all this kind of stuff.

But if you boil being a defense lawyer down to just one thing, the Lincoln lawyer's license plate says it all.

Not guilty.

If you're just gonna boil down what it means to be a defense lawyer, they walk.

That's what it means.

And the same thing is happening here with Jesus and talking about the Old Testament.

What does it mean?

The whole Hebrew scriptures, love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself.

And so for us as Christians, though, I think this also embodies a lot of what we are to do.

Because remember, they're talking about the Old Testament.

We now have the complete New Testament, the story of Jesus, and the new covenant, the new promise that he brought to us.

And I think that the same thing can be said, the same summary statement can be said for us as Christians.

And the reason is because what does it take to become a Christian?

Have faith in Jesus, which is the same thing as loving Jesus.

In fact, James in the New Testament will say that faith without works is dead.

A person who loves God will always demonstrate it with loving people, is kind of implied there.

James will also say, he will actually call this thing where love your neighbor as yourself.

He literally calls that the royal law.

It's still a central and summary part to the Christian life, which is also helpful for us, too, as we read this chapter in light of the complete work of Jesus.

And so, you know, it's worth kind of digging in.

You know, when it says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, there's a lot of overlap between those terms.

But it's all there's also like significance in the specificity.

So it's worth talking about kind of each one to see what is meant by Jesus when he says, yeah, if you do that, you will live eternally.

Um let's start with the heart.

So love the Lord your God with all your heart.

The heart for them is the center of their being.

It's where their will, their volition, their emotions, their commitments, their desires comes from.

So, what does it mean to love God with all your heart?

Well, it means God gets your highest affections.

It means God gets your highest commitments.

It means that you're you have a connection with God emotionally.

He's attached to your desires and your will.

And so if that's what it means to love God with all your heart, then what would it mean to not do that?

What would it look like if a person maybe is about God but is underdeveloped in loving God with all their heart?

Well, I think what it would look like is a person who's who's not excited about God.

I think what it would look like is a person who's going through the motions.

I think what it would look like is a person who's who's here because their parents are here.

I think what it would look like is someone who never gets excited about God.

That's probably, I think, what it would mean to not love God in this specific way that Jesus is talking about when he uses these four words.

You know, I I uh I had a friend in high school who like didn't like any music.

She was on the softball team, but anytime this one artist would be played, she would go absolutely bananas.

The artist was Avril Levine.

You guys remember Avra Levine?

He was a skater boy.

She said, See, remember that?

That was the only artist that could be played, and she would get, she would go crazy.

Anything else comes on, John Mayer, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, just like dead as a doornail.

Like, sh Avra Levine had her heart for whatever reason.

That's what it looks like when your heart is with something or not.

Um, the second thing, soul.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul.

This one's trickier, I think, because it oftentimes the soul is representative of the whole person.

And in other times, it's synonymous with just the spirit.

Remember, the Bible teaches that we're there are our ontology is two things, our physical bodies and our immaterial bodies, our spirit.

So sometimes a soul also means your spirit, but in Hebrew the word soul really means breath of life.

Your life, the spark of life.

That's what that's what it means to love God with all of your soul.

And so what it would look like is probably someone whose whole life is about God.

They love God with all their soul, which means their life, their identity is probably a really good word to use in this circumstance.

It's very clear that they have built their identity around God.

So, what about not?

What if they didn't love God with all their soul?

Well, they would build their identity around something else.

When I think of this person, the first thing I think of is not someone who loves God, it's someone who is this other thing, who's built their life around this other thing, whose identity is in this other thing.

I think is probably my best shot at trying to draw and illustrate a picture of what it means to love God with all your soul versus not loving God with all your soul, as distinct from heart.

Love God with all your heart, love God with all your soul, love God with all your strength is the third.

When he talks about strength, really what he's talking about is ability, your power, your force of will, your resources, your capacities, your strength is that by which you accomplish things.

So loving God with all of your strength would mean doing everything that you do, your power, your resources is used for God, your gifts used for God.

So, what does it mean to not love God with all your strength?

It would probably look like your gifts and your strength, your resources lying lazily on the ground being unused.

Or it would look like those things being used for something else.

Maybe all your strength goes towards your job.

You go 50, 60, 70 hours a week, the pie chart gets so large, all your strength goes to this.

You come home, you tell you got nothing for anything else.

That's what it means.

So to love God with all your strength means your resources, your force of will, your power goes towards God and his kingdom.

It goes towards his priorities.

And and you you're stepping into things with your volition and your strength to make things happen in the kingdom of God because you care about the kingdom of God.

Loving God with all of your strength.

And what about the final one?

Heart, soul, strength, and mind.

That means understanding.

To love God with all your mind means that you seek to understand him more.

Your intellectual capacity, your thought life, your ability to think.

Loving God with all your mind means you seek to know him deeper.

There's a hard theological question about God.

How is it that God is three persons in one?

It defines him as Trinitarian, Father, Son, and Spirit, Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit.

They're all they're all called God.

How could that be?

Someone who loves God with all their mind seeks to understand.

Someone who loves God with all their mind doesn't throw up their hands and be like, I don't know.

They seek to know God more deeply.

It reminds me of being married.

You get married, you know them pretty well.

I dated Journey four years.

So I knew her pretty well.

But as time goes on, you get to know someone's strengths and their weaknesses and their sins even more.

And so what happens is your understanding of them grows.

And so what that means is the love is more accurate.

It's richer because you're actually loving the more real thing as time goes on.

It's not just I see only the best in this person, I love that, I don't know about anything else.

The more you love someone or God with your mind, the more clearly you see them, and the more clearly your affection burns because you're loving more and more the real thing.

I mean, what glory is it to God when we come across a hard emotional, intellectual thing, like the problem of suffering, the problem of pain.

You don't understand why God has decided to allow what he's allowed for the time that he's allowed it before he takes us home.

Why, God?

It makes no sense.

So, so if it doesn't make sense and you seek to love God with all your mind and you take steps and you read passages like in Romans where it says that the current struggle is not worth comparing to the eternal glory that God's gonna bring to us, and your understanding moves forward inch by inch.

And in the midst of suffering, like Job in the Old Testament, you look at God and you delight in him in the midst of it because you understand him a few inches more.

What glory to God is that?

You see him more clearly and still your affection burns hot for him.

That's loving God with all of your mind.

The other reason I like, I think this one needs to be talked about a little bit more, is because sometimes we have this idea of blind faith.

Where like, I don't know how this ever entered the Christian consciousness, but it's like it's like admirable to love God without reasons.

And look, there is something called blind faith where you don't know what's in the future, but you have faith, so you move forward in trust, sure.

But what blind faith doesn't mean is I have no reasons for loving God.

That's more that's called moronic.

Okay?

Look, you you get to know God more and more.

Your intellectual capacity, understanding of him grows, and so your affection grows.

There's no reason for you to not have reasons to love God.

That's why the Bible will say, um, be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

It's why Jesus will literally say, in this question about how to inherit eternal life, the greatest commandment, part of how God wants you to love him is with your mind.

And so all of us gravitate towards one of these.

Maybe you're a heart person.

Your emotions just explode for God.

You always cry about God.

When it comes to your mind, who needs books?

Maybe you're a person whose identity has been built around God.

When people think about you, they think about a person whose soul is for God.

But as far as your strength of will, your resources, the action, the activity, the pie chart of your life, your strength, I'm not sure that all those gifts are being used in the way that they should be.

I see them used for a lot of other things.

All of us have favorites here.

But what's Jesus saying inherits eternal life?

Someone who loves God with all of them.

And it shouldn't shock you that the God, who the Bible describes as jealous for you, wants all of your being.

And so what you need to think, what you need to consider when you read this, is where am I underdeveloped?

Where is my love for God?

Underdeveloped, my heart, my soul, my strength, my mind?

What does he want more of that I've been holding back for who knows what reason?

Someone who reads this text, the greatest commandment, considers where to draw near to God in the way that he has intended.

And so the main idea, we haven't said it yet, but the main idea is beginning to emerge.

Love God, love people.

But you might say, well, wait, okay, so loving your neighbor, love people?

What about that?

I'm glad you asked.

Now comes top three parable banger from Jesus.

The parable of the Good Samaritan, verse 29.

But he, that's the lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?

Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he 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 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.

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 on oil and wine.

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

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

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

He said, The one who showed him mercy.

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

Now Luke kind of showed.

Shows us what's going on in the lawyer's heart a little bit.

First thing he said, he said to test Jesus, see what he's made of.

But now he's seeking to justify himself.

Justify or establish himself or confirm his own righteousness, whether he was in security on his part or in front of other people, it's hard to say.

And Jesus agrees, and the man, they both agreed to love your neighbor, but then he goes, Okay, so who's that?

Who is my neighbor?

And it's kind of funny because the first half, the first text we read, is about what you should do.

Love God with all your being and love your neighbor as yourself.

And what the second half is, is how to do that.

How to love your neighbor.

It's really pretty simple.

What you should do, how to do it.

At least the loving neighbor part.

And you know, but his question though, his question though, not only is it is it him exercising the minimum effort, right, right?

Like, love your neighbor as yourself.

Okay, well, who is my neighbor?

In other words, who do I have to love as myself?

Just show me the minimum line that I can jump over here, right?

But but it's even worse than that.

In saying, who is my neighbor?

This guy is looking to draw a circle around one group of people, and then everyone else outside of that circle he doesn't have to love.

Not only minimum effort, but like uh just a degree of exclusion is, I think, intrinsic to this question.

And again, Jesus doesn't give him a direct answer, but tells him a parable or a story.

And in this story, there's a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho, which by the way is like 18 miles, but it's downhill 2,600 feet.

It's a major decline.

Jerusalem to Jericho takes about eight hours, whole day.

Right?

This is what's happening.

The man gets mugged, stripped naked.

That's typical for robbers back then, right?

Taking his clothes, geez.

Stripped naked, beaten, and left for dead.

Then, just so happens, a priest comes by.

Priest, the mediators between God and the people of Israel.

The house of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

This is who gets to be priest in Israel.

He comes, and instead of going to the man, it says he goes across to the other side, creates willful distance, willful separation of proximity.

Then another guy comes, a Levite, one of the whole tribes of Israel who actually were meant to support the priests in the work of the temple.

Same thing happens with the Levite.

He comes down, crosses to the other side.

But then a Samaritan comes.

Remember Samaritans from a few weeks ago?

A few weeks ago when Jesus is journeying with the disciples, and a Samaritan village rejects him because he's going to Jerusalem, and the Jews and the Samaritans, they hated each other because the Jews thought that the Samaritans were half-breed mudbloods who intermarried with the Assyrians back in the day and didn't just do that.

They thought that they compromised theologically, chopping out a chunk of the Old Testament.

No, you're actually supposed to worship God here.

They hated them.

So much so that we saw two weeks ago, John and James, after they get rejected by the Samaritan village, turn to Jesus and go, Should we call down fire from heaven to destroy them, Lord?

And Jesus is like, No.

What?

This is what we're talking about.

Deep ethnic hatred is the historical context to a Samaritan.

Okay?

Now Jesus, in the Samaritan, who is the one who comes and helps the guy, shows us what loving a neighbor looks like.

You see this?

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Story of a Samaritan doing just that.

He gives us, I think I have six, how many things I have?

Six things.

Thing number one, verse 34.

He, the Samaritan, moves towards suffering.

You want to know what it's like, what loving your neighbor looks like?

It means moving towards suffering.

Verse 34, he literally went to him.

And don't miss the significance of this.

The other guys went away.

And he went to.

Someone who wants to love their neighbor moves towards suffering.

You know what that means?

You're gonna get it on you.

You know what that means?

The burden falls on you so that it's a little easier for them.

Someone who wants to love their neighbor moves towards their suffering, isn't scared away by it, and understands what it's going to entail.

Number two, loving your neighbor means actively working towards people's healing.

This man in verse 34 moves up to him and binds up his wounds, pours on oil and wine, which is like an antiseptic back then.

He he cares for his physical needs first, which are really, I mean, with this story, the guy's physical needs are huge.

I mean, after I tore my thing and my foot over here, my mom, I'm I'm texting my mom, hey, I tore this thing, hopefully it doesn't impact vacation.

You know, I'm not gonna go to the doc because it's just like, you know, they're just gonna take an extra.

I talked with ChatGPT, I already know.

And she's like, calls me.

And as soon as I pick up the phone, she goes, sweetie, is it worth taking that risk?

I will remove the financial obstacle for you if you go into the ortho, the podiatrist, whatever it may be.

I was like, thanks, Mom.

I'll see if I can make it happen.

Even though I didn't want to, but because she wanted me to, I did.

She cared for my physical needs.

But but that but moving towards someone's healing, working towards someone's healing is not just physical needs.

As you know, there's emotional, there's social, there's spiritual wounds.

Someone who loves their neighbor as themselves will move towards any of those categories, will actively work towards any of those categories towards their neighbor.

Actively work to heal physical, emotional, spiritual, social.

There is no wound categorically that gets ignored.

And look, maybe you're not the person to handle every single one, but you see them and you work towards their healing like the Samaritan did.

You take steps towards their healing like the Samaritan did.

Number three, loving your neighbor looks like using your possessions to serve others.

We get this from verse 34.

He put him on his own animal.

It's only one animal.

Sick guy gets on it.

You ever lent your car out to someone?

Or maybe you're married?

You already had two cars.

You lay the lend one out, little inconvenient.

You ever lent your car out when you got one?

Because that's what this guy's doing.

And granted, the need is high.

But that's what we're talking about.

You're using your possessions to serve others.

If you got roommates, do you ever let people crash on your couch?

You got an extra room, do you ever let people stay there?

Your possessions, your food, your hospitality, your physical spaces.

Someone who loves their neighbor as themselves uses their possessions to serve others.

And then number four, which is less obvious, but I think the most significant for us here today.

Number four, loving your neighbor looks like inconveniencing yourself.

We get this from verse 35.

Maybe you noticed this, maybe you didn't.

The next day, he's still with a guy.

Binds him up, takes him to the inn, gets him set up.

He's still there with him the next day.

Now remember, it's just one day's journey from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Why is this guy going on a business trip?

Maybe he's got a family reunion, maybe he's got an appointment the next day.

It doesn't seem to matter in this moment.

He's willing to inconvenience himself because he stays overnight with the guy to make sure he gets what he needs.

And this is so important because I can almost, not every time, but honestly most times.

When you have the opportunity to love your neighbor as yourself, your initial reflex will be, oh, that's inconvenient.

Hey, can you drive me to the airport?

Sure.

When?

3 a.m.

Oh.

Okay.

Can I drop you at the A-line?

That's the train downtown, if you haven't done that, you need to.

It will feel inconvenient.

And so actually, what I want us to learn is that when you feel that inconvenience, that frustration, that hesitation that flows from the inconvenience, what that should immediately signal to you is this is an opportunity to love my neighbor.

Train that into your consciousness.

You will feel a hesitation because of inconvenience a lot of times.

And what that means is you have an opportunity to love your neighbor.

That's number four.

Inconveniencing yourself.

Loving your neighbor looks like inconveniencing yourself.

Number five, it looks like sacrificial generosity.

This is a little bit different.

It's not just using possessions like we saw in number three.

Number five, sacrificial generosity.

For me, I drew it from verse 35.

He gives them two denarii.

Now, what's a denarii?

It's a day's wage.

Okay?

Two days' wages.

If you make 50 grand a year, that's like 200 bucks a day.

Okay?

So 400 bucks, he hands this innkeeper, okay?

You know what that means?

It means he put them up at the Hilton, not the Motel 6.

That's what it means.

Okay?

And you might say, oh, I don't know why you gotta spell it out for me like that.

You need look, in order to get the vibe that Jesus is communicating, you have to understand the historical context.

They would have felt that immediate two days' wages.

Like if you make 50 grand, 400 bucks, you make 100 grand, 800 bucks.

Sacrificial generosity.

It looks like that.

Final one, number six.

Loving your neighbor looks like being committed to them for the long term.

Get this from verse 36.

Look, I'll I'll here's two denarii.

I'll pay you whatever else you need when I come back.

This guy doesn't just set this dude up in a hotel, okay, he's not gonna die, catch you later, bro.

I got a f I got a Dutch family reunion to be at.

That would be me.

Um he says, I'm gonna come back and make you whole.

He's committed to him for the long term.

You know what this looks like?

Loving your neighbor for the long term, it means you drive past a homeless person on your way to work once, twice, five times a week.

You help him out, you know, you do the next week.

Help him out, you know, the week after that.

He's on that same spot, that same corner.

You help him out, you're committed to the person in front of you, the neighbor, for the long term.

You're talking about a friend going through depression, a friend in habitual sin, a friend with anxiety, a friend with just constant dissatisfaction and discontentment about their life.

Maybe they have a moment of deep acute pain where it's really bad and it looks like everything's never gonna get better, but you're still with them when it gets a little better.

Not all the way.

Months pass, maybe years pass.

Loving your neighbor as yourself looks like being committed to someone for the long term.

This isn't drive-through love, it's long, it's longitudinal.

This is exactly what we see.

This is from Jesus.

I'm not pulling this out of the air, guys.

This is what the guy in Jesus' story is doing.

It's longitudinal.

And you know, I love the end here.

For years, this parable made me so mad because the end didn't make any sense to me.

The guy asks, okay, okay, Jesus, who is my neighbor?

Who do I have to love as myself?

But then Jesus' answer at the end is, which of the men proved to be a neighbor?

But it's kind of like, at first glance, it's like an annoying answer because it's like, dude, I'm asking you.

Like, I'm asking you for the criteria of who my neighbor is.

Like, I want uh I want you to tell me who my neighbor should be.

And you know, part of the reason for this is the Hebrew word for neighbor is Rea.

It's all over the Old Testament, okay?

The Ten Commandments, do not covet your neighbor's house, Rea.

The word means like co-shepherd, companion, countryman.

It's like countrymen.

And what this guy probably would have expected Jesus to say when he says, Love your neighbor as yourself as my fellow countrymen.

That's probably what he would have expected Jesus to say.

But dude, the levels of brilliance here.

I read all these commentaries about this.

Every single one like gets apart, and I'm like, this no, there's more, there has to be more to it.

This the answer doesn't make any sense.

Who is my neighbor?

And then Jesus says at the end, which of the men prove to be a neighbor?

And what the lawyer thinks is the Samaritan.

Except he doesn't say the Samaritan, he's so racist he won't even say his name in the story.

The character in the story is the Samaritan, but he's so racist, he says, the one who showed him mercy.

And in giving this answer, Jesus answers his question directly.

Who was neighbor to the man?

The dude, you know what you draw that, so you're trying to draw that circle lawyer of people inside the circle who you get to love, you don't have to love anyone else.

I'm gonna tell a story with someone who is so far outside the circle for you that if that person's your neighbor, well then anyone is.

The person you hate most is your neighbor.

The reason we know that this is part of what he's saying is the Hebrew word for neighbor is Rea, but the Greek word is plession.

And the etymology is different, it doesn't mean shepherd.

The word plesion literally means one who is near.

So when you read this in Greek, this story from Jesus, and he says, which of the men prove to be neighbor to him?

What you would literally hear is, which of the men proved to be near to him?

Which of the men proved to be the one who is near?

Well, that's obvious.

Like if that's what we're talking about, what neighbor means, it's no longer just countrymen, companion.

If you're just talking about the one who is near, well, only one of them came near, the others literally, did you notice this?

In Jesus' story, go far.

They go far away from Jesus.

Only one comes near, and that's the Samaritan.

So he answers the first question.

He answers the first question with the one who is near, the one who is in front of you.

Love God, love people, especially the person in front of you.

But the brilliance doesn't end there.

Because the guy really shouldn't have asked that question.

Who do I have to love, honestly, Jesus?

What he should have asked is, what does it look like to love my neighbor, Jesus?

And Jesus answers the question that he should have asked too.

He spells out with the story of the Samaritan what it looks like to love a neighbor.

He answers all three questions in one answer, in this story, this man.

There is nobody like him.

In one fell swoop, he tells the guy, your neighbor is the person in front of you, especially the person you despise ethnically.

He also tells him, I'm redefining this to just be the one who's near, the person in front of you.

And he says, by the way, the question that you should have asked, what does it look like to love your neighbor?

I'll tell you that too.

It's just, there is no one like this man.

This man is God.

And I love how practical it is.

Sometimes when we think about loving your neighbor, you read your news algorithm, all these people died.

All this pain, all this suffering in the world.

And you want to raise, you want to raise your hand to love your neighbor, but when you're flooded with that kind of thing, you just throw up your hands in frustration and be like, I don't know.

But when Jesus says your neighbor is the one who is near, well, that makes it all too practical, doesn't it?

Now you might object and you might say, Well, what about what about some of those people in other places and other areas that do need help?

We just heard from Kate who's going and doing some of that stuff.

Well, if that's the case, we see God call people to this kind of thing all over the Bible.

All He's calling you to do is be near to someone else.

Your neighbor is the one that you are near to.

It's incredibly practical.

And it foreshadows the gospel.

For Jesus to tell this story, it points to the one that came near.

It points to him.

Came down from heaven, came near to us.

In wanting to love our neighbor, we first, as Christians, consider how we were loved.

He did this to us first.

And thereby builds the path to loving your neighbor who's near.

And we become less like the priest, less like the Levite, which we're all tempted to be all the time.

Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Samaritan ultimately points to him, the one who did all of this perfectly.

Level of generosity, no limit.

Coming near, no one who went farther.

The Lord Jesus is the ultimate example of a loving neighbor.

And he's a God.

And if he can do that for us, how much more can we do for the one in front of us?

Let's pray.

Lord.

I bless your name.

Jesus, who are you that you give this man this answer?

In one moment, you redefine entire categories.

Just the incomprehensibility of your love, the incomprehensibility of what you intend for us to treat other people with.

God, we can be so far from this.

We don't want to be inconvenienced.

We don't want to spend weekend time.

We don't want to use our money, let alone a lot of it.

We look at people in pain and we question if that's something that we want to put on our backs.

Jesus, you make a way for us.

We look first to you, and then to the person in front of us.

And by your power, by your example, we over time become more and more like you, God.

And I pray right now for all of us that you would show us who the neighbor is in front of us right now.

Maybe the person that we despise.

God, help us, sinners, to love the way that you love.

Help us to love you with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind.

We love you.

In Jesus' name, amen.