The Parable of the Good Samaritan | Rev. Eric H. Carswell

Welcome to you that are here for this family service and those that are watching online.

Our first lesson comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 10, the story of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Jesus, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, What is written in the law?

What is your reading of it?

So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor is yourself.

And Jesus said to him, You've answered rightly.

Do this and you will live.

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

And Jesus answered and said to him, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side as well.

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

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

On the next day when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again I will repay you.

So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And the lawyer said, He who showed mercy on him.

Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

And reading from true Christianity number four hundred and eleven, we read that we're to love the Lord God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves.

To love our neighbor as ourselves means not despising our neighbors in comparison with ourselves.

It means treating them justly and not judging them wrongfully.

The law of charity pronounced and given by the Lord Himself is this Whatever you want people to do for you, do likewise for them.

This is the law and the prophets.

This is how people who love heaven love their neighbor.

People who love the world, however, love their neighbor on a worldly basis for a worldly benefit.

People who love themselves love their neighbor in a selfish way for a selfish benefit.

Amen.

Here end our readings from the Word.

Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it.

Amen.

I wonder how many times each of you have heard the parable of the Good Samaritan.

It's one that's broadly known by many people.

It's a story that starts out first with a lawyer questioning Jesus, saying, What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

What do I need to do to go to heaven?

And Jesus says, basically, how do you understand the answer to that question?

And the man quotes those words of, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus said, That's the right answer.

Go and do, and you shall live.

Apparently, the man was mildly embarrassed at such an easy answer.

So it says, to justify himself, to say, well, it's a little more complicated.

Who is my neighbor?

Who is my neighbor?

Who am I supposed to love?

For many of the ancient Jews, they said it's other Jewish people.

They hated the Romans.

They hated people who helped the Romans.

They hated all sorts of people.

They thought they were the ones that were supposed to be loved.

So when Jesus told this parable, they would have been really surprised at who was the hero, because it was a Samaritan.

Now, the Samaritans were a group of people who lived between the area around Jerusalem and Galilee.

It was in between there.

And they were people who had been brought in by the ancient Assyrians when they had conquered Israel, taken away the ten tribes who are lost to history, and they brought in other people.

And those other people had trouble with lions, and so they said, send us a priest who taught them something of the Old Testament.

So they sort of knew the rules that the people in Jerusalem did, but instead of worshiping in Jerusalem, they worshiped at a place called Mount Gerizim.

That was the center of their worship.

Anyways, there was bad blood between Samaritans and Jews.

They didn't like each other.

So here we have the story.

A man is traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho.

It was a pretty scary road.

They're going down a steep, steep hill with ravines and all sorts of places where thieves could hide.

And the thieves jumped out, beat him up, stole everything he had, and left him half dead.

So there he is, lying by the side of the road down to Jericho.

And a priest comes along, looks at him, and keeps walking.

The priests ones that are supposed to be really dedicated to following God and doing what's right?

How come they didn't help?

Well, the parable doesn't say.

And then a Levi came along, another person who's associated with worship in the temple.

And he likewise looked, saw, and continued walking.

We don't know what was going on in their mind.

Now, somebody did some research on this a number of years ago, where they took people who were preparing to be pastors and said to some of them, We want you to prepare a talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And when they first arrived, they came to one office and did a survey, and then at some point the people in that office would say, You need to go over and give your talk.

Some of the people were told, You need to go over and give your talk.

You've got plenty of time.

Some, you need to go, they're waiting for you.

And some, oh, sorry, you're already late.

Please hurry.

The people who had prepared a talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan and were told you're late, almost none of them stopped on the way when they saw an actor who was pretending to have a serious health issue.

People who had been told you've got time, over half of them stopped to help.

So sometimes just being too busy keeps us from seeing other people who need help.

Just being too busy, as it were, has our mind closed to recognize somebody who needs help.

Well, there's a picture that shows the good Samaritan helping the man who had fallen among the thieves.

And there's the priest walking on ahead, and the Levite walking on ahead.

But the Samaritan was the one who stopped.

He stopped and bandaged up the man, pouring in oil and wine that both soothed and helped prevent germs.

And then after he had bound him up, he put the man on his own donkey and carried him to an inn and looked after him and the next day gave the innkeeper two denai and said, if you spend more than this, when I come back I'll pay you.

Two denarii were like several hundred dollars.

I mean, this was not a tiny amount of money.

A man working full time, say, uh, as in the parable of the vineyard, earned a denari for one day's work.

So we don't even know whether the man who fell among the thieves was conscious the next morning.

He may not have even been able to say, thank you for your help.

It wasn't why the Samaritan was doing it.

He wasn't expecting to get a reward.

He didn't even necessarily expect the man to thank him.

He did it because he thought it was the right thing.

Thought it was the right thing.

Well, this parable, the new church says, describes how each of us can sometimes see people who need help.

As I said in the opening prayer, we can see people that are really caught up in impatience and in a bad place, or in a really angry mood, or really discouraged, or all sorts of spiritual states that aren't good for them and don't tend to have them be very good for the people around them.

And the Samaritan represents us if we think, can I help?

Can I help that person?

Maybe not be so angry, maybe be a little more patient, maybe be a little more hopeful, less discouraged.

And the fact that he put on put oil and wine on those injuries is an image of somebody trying to think what I know.

How can I be helpful?

What are good things that I can do?

Putting him on the donkey is an image of I'm gonna do it as best I can.

And an interesting part of what we're told is taking the man to an inn is an image of us thinking, I may not be the best person to help him.

Who can I get this person to that might help more?

Maybe it would be saying, I think we need to go talk to mom or dad.

Or maybe we need to talk to a teacher.

Maybe we need to talk to somebody who can be better helped than I can.

Why?

Because you want good things for the people.

The Lord says we are to love everybody, but the way we do it varies from person to person.

But that's something the Lord can teach us if we're paying attention, if we're learning, if we're thinking, how can I really help this person?

Just like a good Samaritan helped the man who fell among the thieves.

Amen.