Luke 10:25-37 - State Farm Christianity

You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.

Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.

Let me acknowledge something as we get going this morning, and that is, if it's hot in this room,

you know it's gotten hot outside. It doesn't get hot in this room very easily, and it is

warm this morning. I see your bulletins doing this every time I look out.

But that's how hot it's getting outside these days. We come this morning in our study of Luke

to one of the most famous stories that Jesus ever told, the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Good Samaritan is fairly common lingo now, right? This story has been picked up in churches and

culture, and we know what a Good Samaritan is. It's very familiar to us. In fact, it's so familiar

that we could be tempted to think we know the point of the story already. And in fact, that

may well not be true. We may only really know part of the story. You'll notice as we read this morning

that Jesus tells this famous story as part of a larger conversation that goes well beyond helping

the poor into issues of the law of God, life after death, all sorts of things. So note that broader

context as we read about Jesus' conversation with a lawyer, a religious leader, teacher of God's law.

It's in Luke 10 at verse 25. This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible word.

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 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, 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 that 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 denarii 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.

Pray with me as we look to God's word together.

Father, we know this is your word.

So we ask for your spirit to come

and to teach us. We know that you delight to do that.

And so we come to it expectantly.

Expectant that you'll show us more of yourself.

That you'll show us more of our hearts.

And especially that you will show us more of Jesus.

As we know that's what your word does.

Speak to us this morning that we may hear from you.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Put yourself in the shoes of this lawyer for just a minute this morning.

Now this Jewish lawyer would actually be a religious figure in that culture.

So some of you are thinking that's the only way for him to take a step down in my mind.

To go from being a lawyer to a pastor.

It's just disastrous.

But that's who he is.

The law that he studies is the law of God.

The early portions of the Old Testament.

He's an expert.

He's sharp.

He knows his stuff.

And perhaps this guy, pretty influential in his town,

is not too excited about this new teacher who's shown up.

Some of the things he's saying.

So he's out to catch Jesus.

To trip him up.

To validate his own wisdom and spiritual standing before God, perhaps.

As well as before his peers.

But he's about to be overmatched by Jesus.

So as much as he's an expert in the law, we'll see that he has some distorted views of God's law that come largely from this perspective,

this desire in his heart wanting to justify himself.

Luke highlights that motive in his heart in verse 29.

He desiring to justify himself.

And I can totally relate to this.

You and I may not theoretically believe that we can justify ourselves, make ourselves right with God.

Right?

We know what the Bible teaches.

It's justification by faith alone.

By the grace of Christ alone.

That's how we're made right with God.

But practically, I often function the way this lawyer is going to in this story.

Look how Luke shows us the lawyer's struggle.

Behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, to test Jesus, saying,

Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And already there, you've got to think there's a little hint of misunderstanding

because you don't usually do something in order to inherit something, do you?

That's not the way it works in our culture or theirs.

So we're wondering a little bit about this guy's understanding.

But Jesus carries on with the conversation.

And that doing piece is a big part of it.

Jesus knows this guy values God's law.

He reads it and teaches it.

And so he pushes him to what he knows.

Jesus says, what's written in the law?

You're an expert.

How do you read it?

And the lawyer responds, 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 Jesus says, you got it.

You've answered correctly.

Do this and you will live.

The lawyer gets it right.

He gives this great summary of God's law.

But Jesus says, it's not enough just to know it.

You must do it.

You must do this and then you will live.

When we begin to think we can measure up to God's law,

this idea in our hearts of justifying ourselves that we could measure up,

one thing we easily fall into believing is that knowing right answers is enough.

When I was a kid, I grew up in a Presbyterian church and I could memorize.

I could remember things and so I knew Bible verses.

I knew catechism questions and answers and I drilled them and I remembered them

and that was wonderful.

I'm really thankful for those truths, many of which I still remember today.

Today.

What happened, however, that was not as wonderful was that I began to think that I gained some

spiritual rank from all of my knowledge and memorization.

I could out-debate nearly anybody around me in theology and explain to them why I was right

and they were wrong and quote scriptures and even catechism.

They didn't even know what catechism was and I could quote answers to them.

And I began to think that it made me a better Christian than they were.

I knew more right answers than they did.

I still struggle with that.

Seminary just piled on right things to know.

So I struggle with having the right answers to spiritual questions.

It's a good thing, but I can find my relative significance or security in having those right answers.

And while it's good, it can also be dangerous to our hearts, can't it?

To know so many right things and to begin to think that that's what makes you matter to God or to others,

it can be dangerous.

Jesus is going to make that clear here as we keep talking through this passage.

But the next thing we see as he interacts with the lawyer is a different distortion of God's law

that's so common when we start to think highly of ourselves.

We see it in verse 29.

The lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,

and after all, who is my neighbor exactly?

What's he doing?

The lawyer is seeking to narrow the law to make it manageable.

He needs to get this one right because he's seeking to justify himself.

And in his day, Jewish teachers agreed, it was quite clear,

that you were to love your neighbor as yourself.

That was part of God's law.

What they disagreed on was who was a neighbor.

Almost all of them, in fact, agreed that neighbor was only Jews.

It didn't involve anybody beyond that.

It excluded everybody who was a non-Jew.

And beyond that, they disagreed.

Maybe even further, there were others that might be excluded.

Heretics from a different Jewish sect or unclean Jews

or other people who just didn't measure up to your standards in some way.

They were not neighbors either.

And so the pool of neighbors is shrinking, right?

And this lawyer wants to know, this is a debate, Jesus.

I want you to weigh in.

Who's my neighbor?

Apparently, I've got the loving God part down,

and I'm wondering if I've possibly got it on the neighbor too.

Can you just make the law manageable for me?

Defined in that narrow way, with specifics as to who the neighbor is,

maybe you can keep the law.

And so we relax God's standard.

We lower it to a point where it seems attainable,

where we can measure up and feel good about ourselves.

We do this in so many ways, don't we?

Often without even thinking about it.

We ask, do I have to tithe on the net or the gross?

10% of which one, because I want to get it right.

Right?

We convince ourselves in our minds that it's not really adultery

because it's just emotional and not physical,

so it's really not that bad after all.

We say to ourselves, you know, you can't really love everyone.

There's so many people in the world after all.

Have you looked around these days?

I can't love everybody,

so I'll love those that I naturally connect with.

And that'll be what it looks like for me to love my neighbor.

And now all of a sudden, with my heart out to lunch, as it were,

not engaged in the process,

I can stand next to God's law and feel like I've measured up.

I'm pretty good.

It's like a husband telling his wife who feels unloved

all the things that he's done, the boxes he's checked.

And she rightly sees that he has lowered the standard

of passionate, sacrificial love from the heart.

When we seek to justify ourselves before God, before others,

we often rely on our right answers

or relax God's perfect standard to something we feel we can reach.

And so it's to people like us,

people who have those tendencies in our hearts,

who tend to want to justify ourselves and measure up

and think we're doing well enough for God

or someone else to like us.

It's to people with those heart tendencies

that Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.

You want to know who your neighbor is?

And especially you want to know who your neighbor's not,

Jesus says.

Let me tell you a story.

And you know the story.

It's familiar to you.

A man is traveling along the road when he's robbed

and beaten and left to die.

And a priest passes by him on the other side.

And a Levite passes by him on the other side.

But a Samaritan stopped to help.

And here's where we need to appreciate some of the shock

and offense of what's going on in the story Jesus tells.

Remember, put yourselves in the shoes of the lawyer again.

We're feeling pretty good about ourselves.

We're wanting to feel even better.

That's where our heart is.

At the end of this answer, I'm going to feel like I've got it.

If we can just get this technicality about who my neighbor is nailed down,

I'll be able to manage it.

And Jesus says, but a Samaritan.

And that's the first surprise.

Because see, in Jewish culture,

there was a typical trio that was included when you told stories.

And they would have been expecting this.

There was the priest,

the one ordained to the service of God in the temple.

And then next in the story would always be a Levite,

who was not ordained,

but did serve in the administration of the temple.

And then the third one,

who always came along next,

was the Jew.

The lay person,

the Jewish guy,

would be third.

And Jesus skips that part.

All the people expecting,

ah, the priest blew it,

the Levite blew it,

I knew those clergy.

They failed us again.

Now here comes the Jew to come through.

And Jesus says,

but a Samaritan.

And he's going to go on to hold the Samaritan up

as the model,

the moral example for the Jew.

The Samaritan.

The one with the wrong theology.

The bad ethics.

That one.

Remember them?

They don't know God truly.

They don't understand his word.

They don't live the way God tells them to.

Shocking.

The next shock is that the Samaritan cares at all.

We know Samaritans generally despised Jews.

Further surprising is the extravagant way

that he loves this stranger.

Not just checking in on him,

stopping to see,

but changing his plans,

redirecting his life

in order to get him to an end,

to care for him all night,

and providing above and beyond

so that this injured man,

when he recovers,

with no resources left on him,

will not have to sell himself into slavery

just to recover from his injuries.

Whatever it takes,

I'll pay it when I come back.

But the final surprise is Jesus' question

at the end of the story.

It flips the lawyer's question around.

Not who is my neighbor?

That's what the lawyer asked, right?

Which are the ones I'm supposed to love?

Tell me which ones are my neighbor?

And Jesus changes that question entirely.

What does he ask?

Who do you think,

which one of the three

proved to be a neighbor,

became a neighbor

to the man who fell among the robbers?

And the lawyer sees it.

He heard the story.

What word can he not get out of his mouth?

Samaritan.

He can't even say it.

But he's not blind to the mercy.

He sees the mercy in the story

and says,

yeah, it's the one who showed him mercy.

And Jesus said to him,

you go and do likewise.

Jesus is saying,

you're right again,

lawyer.

You got the right answer.

This is the picture of what my law means

when it talks about loving neighbor.

And again, Jesus says,

go and do.

Many of you will remember

the funny ad campaign

run in recent years

by State Farm Insurance.

I'm convinced that what's,

I haven't talked to anybody,

but you can tell in the campaign

what they want you to know

is that they're not that company

that when you call

and something bad has happened,

you get this impersonal voice recording

that basically tries to avoid helping you

and only does exactly

what they're contractually obligated to do.

State Farm doesn't want to be that.

They want you to believe

that who they are

is somebody who will personally show up

and help and meet your needs,

bend over backwards

to help their clients.

And so in the commercials,

you know what happens.

People get in all sorts of different binds

and all they have to do

is sing the little jingle,

like a good neighbor State Farm is.

And you snap,

there, there, there.

And wherever you are

and whatever you need,

the agent appears magically

and takes care of it.

They show up in the house,

in the car.

They show up with a new roof for somebody,

with a sandwich for someone else.

I didn't know they even served sandwiches.

With a hot tub for another guy.

He snaps and it crashes in.

And whatever it is that you need,

State Farm is there

to meet that need.

That's the message, right?

You're never gonna be left alone,

hung out to dry,

because we will always come to help.

And that, we can all agree,

coming to help in those kinds of situations

is like a good neighbor.

That's what a good neighbor is like.

A good neighbor is not trying to get off

on a technicality, right?

Seeing a guy lying in the road

and saying,

oh, actually,

he lives two doors down.

No, that's not my neighbor.

No, that's not what a good neighbor is like.

Being a good neighbor

means seeking to help anyone

and everyone in any need.

Showing up and meeting needs

anytime, anywhere.

That's why Jesus is flipping the question, right?

Not whom do I have to love,

but how do I get to love well?

It's clarifying for us

the high standard of God's law.

Jesus has been asked

to interpret God's law here

and Jesus says,

it's even higher than you think.

It's seeing neighbor love

as something not to try to

meet a minimum standard for

and see what you can get by with,

but rather to set my heart

on a trajectory to take off

in the right direction

to love extravagantly

beyond what I can afford.

The story of the Good Samaritan

is not just teaching us

to look out for injured Jewish males

when riding a donkey

from Jerusalem to Jericho.

You're not likely to do that soon.

Now, you get Jesus' point.

Go and do likewise.

Show mercy.

He's teaching us

to love everyone in our path.

Even our enemies.

Even those we don't like.

Those we know don't deserve it.

Anyone who needs mercy

or help in any way

to lavish it upon them

at great cost to ourselves

however we can.

So why not just say that?

Answer the question, Jesus.

Why tell a story?

Why is that necessary?

Well, you can think of several reasons.

It's memorable, certainly.

But among other reasons,

I think it's by the overwhelming nature

of the surprises in that story

to help the lawyer,

his heart,

and to help us and our hearts

to see what we're missing,

to see what causes us

to pass by on the other side

so often.

See, the Samaritan

is the exemplar, right?

Right.

And so we know enough

about the Samaritans

to know that

that means rightness

must go beyond

intellectual accuracy

and beyond religious formalism

because the Samaritan

doesn't have

either of those.

Priest or the Levite might,

but

it's got to go beyond

those things

the Samaritan wouldn't have

where you can just check

the right boxes

and say you've loved.

that God calls us

to a love

so much richer

and fuller

than we even imagine.

It would be similar

when God uses the Samaritan.

I don't think we have

an exact comparison,

but similar to God

saying to us,

aspire to the zeal

of the Mormons.

Look how they love

their neighbors

by always sharing

their faith.

Or aspire to the generosity

of the Catholics

caring for the needy.

Or aspire to the humility

and compassion

of the Muslims

living among those

who don't believe

as they do.

That would get your attention,

wouldn't it?

If that's what God came

and said to you.

It's a high call.

The standard is high.

Jesus resists

relaxing the standard.

Don't limit

who your neighbor is,

he says.

Rather,

dream of how to help

anyone and everyone

in your path.

See,

the gospel Luke

has been telling us about,

we've been saying

from the very beginning,

is good news

of great joy

for whom?

For all people.

And so if that's true,

and if you have that gospel,

if you have that good news,

then if it's for all people,

everyone in your path,

when you cross them,

should feel

a meaningful impact

of that reality

in some way,

that good news

should impact them.

Now,

you've probably not

run across a guy

to put on your donkey

between Jerusalem

and Jericho.

And there are times

where we need to think

intentionally about

rerouting our paths

and going and finding

people in need

of mercy.

But just think of the people

in need of mercy

already in our lives.

Already in your path.

Maybe even this week.

Who comes to your mind

who is or will be

in need.

I'll change some

names and details,

but while you're thinking,

I think of homeless Alana

who has shown up

at our church office

several times

in the last several weeks

on her bike

needing food

or water

and much more than that.

Needing the dignity

of being looked in the eye

and respected

as a person

made in God's image.

I think of Mike

waiting my table

at Buffalo Wild Wings

and pretty confident guy

all of a sudden

finding himself

in a situation

he has no idea

how to manage

or whether or not

he wants to enter

into his girlfriend

who's pregnant

with his child.

He needs wisdom,

friendship,

somebody to walk with him.

I think of Manny,

a Jobs for Life student

wanting to provide

for his family,

but it's hard to feel

capable and confident

when you're not able

to put food on the table.

He needs relationship,

skills, encouragement.

I think of Joe and Sue

who live on your street,

potentially,

drive an SUV

and a minivan.

When you walk by,

it looks like they're fine.

They've kind of got

life together.

Two kids,

you see them out

walking the dogs a lot.

They both got good jobs.

But inside,

they're half dead.

They're empty.

They're not sure

what they're living for

and they're not sure

they want to anymore.

They're needing

the mercy of Jesus

that brings true life.

I think the new family

will be sitting by

at school orientation

maybe next week.

the kid

who doesn't know anyone

at his new school

and needs you

to be a friend.

The mom who's struggling

with her twin two-year-olds

running all over the place

while she just wants

30 seconds

to meet her first kid's

kindergarten teacher.

She doesn't know

how to do it.

And you'll be there

and you'll have

these opportunities

and I think of all

these people

and the spiritual

and relational

and physical needs

that they have

that they don't want

people to see

so you're not going

to see them

unless you stop

and enter into their lives.

It's so much easier

to pass by

on the other side

to keep going.

And we're headed

other places

to do other

really important things

and God puts these people

in need of mercy

on our paths

and calls us

to be a neighbor

to them

to the least

the lost

the littlest

the lonely

the left out.

We don't need

a special program

for this.

Just open eyes

in God's merciful heart.

This is the call

of God's law

on our lives

to love our neighbors

as ourselves.

Jesus never relaxes

God's perfect standard.

But God's law

does more than

show us

God's perfection

His holy standard.

It does that

and then at the same time

as it does that

when we're willing

to look at it head on

in all its fullness

and difficulty

it also reveals

to us

how far

we fall short

doesn't it?

Remember the context

again?

Come back to the lawyer.

Jesus is revealing

the lawyer's heart

here

isn't He?

When He tells him

go and do

go and do

go and do

like this

the standard

is so shockingly

high

there's no way

He can leave

the conversation

thinking He

can meet it

and be like

a Samaritan

in order to get there?

No way!

Impossible!

I'm not going

there!

That's true for us.

Even if we were

magical

state farm agents

who could

show up

wherever we wanted to

in every situation

where everyone

is in need

and take care of it

we wouldn't.

We love ourselves

and our plans

too much.

Someone would

cost too much

eventually

wouldn't they?

Someone would be

too despicable.

No way

am I helping them.

No way

am I sacrificing

my life

for that person.

So you may

stop to love

one of the

people I mentioned

or one of the ones

who's come to mind

for you

but every single

one

every day

sacrificially

and lavishly

at great cost

to ourselves

every time

even the people

we can't stand

and really mean

every minute of it

from love

sincerely

from the heart

no way.

It's a standard

Jesus has

revealed

and we stand

condemned

right alongside

the lawyer

when we seek

to justify

ourselves

by going

and loving

neighbor

doing

likewise.

Jesus really

means it

when he says

go and do

likewise.

He's not merely

being sarcastic

but at the same

time he knows

that that will

expose our

self-justifying

hearts

and our

self-serving

actions.

We too

fall short

just like

the lawyer

and it's here

we need to

remember something

about where we

are in Luke.

we've just

turned the

corner

and it's

part of us

understanding

that the story

of the good

Samaritan

does more

than tell us

to love

needy people

it definitely

does that

but Jesus

tells this

story to a

guy asking

about what

eternal life

and Jesus

is on his

way to

Jerusalem

he set

his mind

to go

where

where's

Jesus

going

to the

cross

to suffer

and die

for his

enemies

at great

cost

to himself

to show

mercy to

those

desperately

in need

of it

to redirect

his path

that is headed

to glory

through suffering

and a cross

on his way

there

to love

so lavishly

that he would

not just

provide temporarily

but that he

would meet

our greatest

needs

eternally

he truly

and fully

and perfectly

loves his

neighbors

doesn't he

that's what

he's in the

midst of doing

he's the good

neighbor

who shows up

in our need

he perfectly

therefore

meets

God's

perfect

standard

and y'all

this is the

glory

the last

thing I want

you to see

of how the

law and the

gospel work

together

it's a whole

sermon another

time but just

a window

this is how

it works

in our

lives

how God

has designed

his law

in the

gospel

to change

us

he sets

the standard

high

we're called

to love

neighbor

and what

happens is

we then

fail to

meet

the perfect

standard

but Jesus

meets it

for us

and then

connected to

him

we are

recreated

to follow

him toward

that perfect

standard

that's the

design of

what it's

meant to

work like

see when I'm

trying to

justify

myself

show you

a quick

little chart

every

step

changes

when that's

the perspective

I'm coming

from

I relax

God's

standard

remember I

lower it

so that I

think I

can meet

God's

standard

therefore

Jesus is

not needed

in the

process

and I

follow

how far

only as

far as

I need

to

in order

to feel

good about

myself

in the

new

low

standard

I only

have to

love the

people along

the way

to the

low

standard

that I've

created

and so the

danger is

we're going

to miss

out

on some

neighbors

Jesus is

calling us

to love

because we've

relaxed the

standard and we

only have to

love those

people

and worse

we miss out

on Jesus

we don't

need him

for that

when we're

justifying

ourselves

but it's

entirely

different when

God

justifies

when we

come in a

relationship with

God established

by what he's

done not what

we've done

we can leave the

standard where he

said it

what he calls

us to

the standard is

never relaxed

and then we

fall short

of that standard

and it's why we

have to be so

grateful

that God

justifies

the ungodly

that's from

cover to cover

of scripture

that that's how

he works

he finds these

people who've

fallen short

of his

standard

and he

makes them

right

Jesus comes

and perfectly

meets the

standard

perfectly

always

loves

neighbors

and then

Jesus makes

us new

and calls us

to follow him

there

towards that

standard

to be a

neighbor to

everyone

on our

path

he meets

the standard

for us

y'all

not so we

can ignore

it

and carry

on with

however we

want to

live

but so that

we can

follow Jesus

on the path

of sacrificially

loving

neighbor

which is

exactly what

God has

created us

to do

and how

we're supposed

to work

if there's

no one

on your

path

in need

of mercy

you're not

on Jesus'

path

you're not

actually

following him

on his

path

there's all

sorts of

people in

need

but as you

follow the

one who

has loved

perfectly

for you

so that

your failures

to love

no longer

define your

relationship

with your

father

as you

follow him

you can

revel

in his

love

for you

and

and

reflect

that love

to everyone

we need

God's help

let's pray

and ask

father it's

not just

the failures

in our

lives

what really

is the

problem

is our

hearts

we would

like to

come to

church

and say

that we

love God

with all

of our

hearts

and we

love our

neighbors

as ourselves

but we

see so

many other

lesser

loves

in there

we need

you to

change us

Jesus we

need your

love for

us

to come

and be

the thing

that makes

our hearts

new

and gives

us

life

to actually

be able

to share

love like

this with

others

so change

our hearts

and then open

our eyes

send us out

of here

with a

joy

we don't

have to

walk out

of here

guilty

thinking

how can

we do

it all

send us

out with

eyes that

are peeled

for people

who will

need your

mercy

and with

a joy

that we

get to

be vessels

of it

we get

to be

channels

of your

mercy

to others

Father do

that

in our

hearts

and change

this community

and every

other path

we walk

in

because you've

changed our

hearts

we ask it

in Jesus

name

Amen

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information

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