Divine Stories - The Good Samaritan | Sunday Message

Who really is your neighbor? In a world divided by differences, Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan calls us to a radical, boundary-breaking kind of love. Pastor Ed Cook explores Luke 10:25-37 as we discover what it truly means to show mercy and compassion to those around us, especially to those who are different from us.

In this message, you’ll learn:

• Why Jesus told this story in response to a question about eternal life
• How our definition of “neighbor” can limit or expand our impact
• The surprising hero Jesus chose and why it matters today
• Practical steps for living out mercy and love in your everyday life

Whether you’ve heard this parable many times or it’s new to you, you’ll be challenged and inspired to see others through the eyes of Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Do Life Different Podcast by 1128 Community. Today you're listening to our most recent message. We are a church community in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, led by co-pastors Mike and Colleen Francisco. 1128 is about helping people do life different by setting rhythms and values with Jesus at the center. If you want to connect with us, text the word podcast to 414-441-1128. We hope today's message helps you in your faith journey.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

We're going to read this Luke chapter 10, verse 25 through 37. I'm going to read the entire passage and then I'm going to push it. Then we're going to go walk back through it. Luke chapter 10, 25 through 37. The real title of this, and I saw it on the Facebook post, is Who is My Neighbor? But let's read it. Luke 10, 25 through 37. It says this, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he 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, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Verse 28. And he said to him, You have answered rightly. You do this and you will live. Now the lawyer's talking, but he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Verse 30. Then Jesus answered him, A certain man, told him a story, y'all. Didn't really answer him. He told him a story, said a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves and stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. Verse 31. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Verse 32, likewise a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked and passed by on the other side. Verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and then 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. Verse 35. On the next day when he departed, he took him out to Denari, 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. 36. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he said, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. Who is my neighbor? Now we're gonna start back at the top and walk through this. It's very interesting when we look at verse 25 and we start back on verse 25. It says, Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? I need you guys to understand one thing first. The first thing I want you to understand is everybody that asks you a question doesn't necessarily want to know the answer. Every time somebody asks you a question doesn't mean they really want to know the answer. Some people are only asking you a question to justify themselves and justify their own thinking. Sometimes when you get asked questions, it's really just to justify themselves. They don't really want to know the answer. Number two, sometimes people are asking you a question to understand what your allegiances are. They want to know where you actually stand. They're inquisitive. They just want to know where you stand and they want to know if they have common ground with you. They want to know who you support, what you support, what you're thinking. The third reason people ask you questions, sometimes they don't want to know what your allegiances are. Sometimes people want to know what's wrong with you. Sometimes people just want to argue. And they want to find out what's wrong with you and they want to make a point. They already know where you stand, they just want to argue with you. They want you to say it out loud so they can tell you how wrong you are and how right they are. Everybody that asks you a question doesn't really want to know the answer to it. And then there are actually some people who really do ask because they want to know the answer, because it might actually help shape their thinking and their viewpoint of the world. You just have to understand who you're talking to and why they're asking the question. So you gotta understand, this person actually didn't want to know the answer to the question. What they really wanted to do was justify themselves in front of their friends and look good in front of others. So instead of answering the question, what Jesus did was say, Well, what do you think? He had him answer the question. So we go back to verse 26 and 27. He said to him, Jesus, when he asked the question, Jesus said to him, Well, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? What is your understanding of it? And the guy said, so he answered him 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 as yourself. Always, I just wanted to point out it's really interesting. A lot of times we quote Jesus as saying this, but really the lawyer is the one who said it. Jesus then confirmed it in verse 28. And he said, Yeah, he affirmed that that's what you should do if you want to have eternal life. You should love the Lord thy God with all your heart, all your strength, all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus affirmed it. But then here comes the question. Here is the thing that starts the this is what the question was, the big question that we wanted to answer today was, who is my neighbor? Because in verse 29, it said, he asked him the question, he knew the answer, but he wanted to justify himself. And a lot of times we want to justify ourselves when we ask questions. Wanting to justify himself, in verse 29, he said to Jesus, well, who is my neighbor? And that's the question. And that's the question I have for each and every one of you. How are you defining your neighbor? See, for me, in 2026, when some when we use the word neighbor, you guys understand that like words kind of change meaning over time. So if somebody says, eh, who's your neighbor? Now for me, the immediate thought, I'm thinking like the dude who lived, I'm I live on the corner, so the dude who lived next to me, and the dude who lived next to me and him, because I talked to both of them. I don't really talk to the people right across from me, or the people right there. Uh it's an apartment behind me, so I don't think none of them are my neighbors or behind them. So I gotta, most of us, when we think of our neighbor, we think of maybe one or two houses this way, one or two houses that way, because maybe we've had a conversation, maybe we've had a slight pageant wave as we pulled out, maybe the guy or or the the family across the street, but we don't really think of them as our neighbor. But what if in 2026 we expanded our definition? How about we call our neighbor, you know, just for giggles, our friend group? What if we what if we what if we expanded that, our our our neighbor to our friend group? And now we start thinking about the people who look who think like me? How about we start thinking about the people who look like me, who act like me, who have my same interest? How about the people who live where I live, and maybe in the general area? How about the people who vote like me? Like, you ever been, let's be honest, because I I'll I will admit that I do. You ever been riding down the street in your neighborhood? Has anybody ever paid attention to the political signs that people have in their yard to see who they voting for? And you decided whether you like them or not based on the political sign that they got in their front yard. You we do we have decided that if they're not really my neighbor, if they got a sign of a person that I wouldn't vote for. We've decided that this is maybe that's not a person. They may live three doors down, but I don't know if I'll ever give them sugar. If they ever needed some flour, they got the wrong sign up to be coming to ask me for some flour or some Kool-Aid or anything. Go to the store. You can walk there all you care for because you got the wrong sign. I mean, if I'm being honest. How about who do we consider our neighbor and our friend group? People who see the world like me, people who are part of my echo chamber. They're saying the same things I say. How about let's even expand it a little bit? Who's my name? How about people who are nice to me? Or people who've done something nice for me, or for my kids, or for my family members. Oh, they must be a nice person because they've done something nice for us. Or how about this? How about people who are in the same socioeconomic status as me? Oh, I went to this little shindig, and we kind of all make the same kind of money and drive the same things, and they probably think like us because, you know, we we have the same interest. And here's the interesting part. In all of these categories that we've put up, we have systematically in our minds built walls to let some people in and keep a lot of people out. Amen. Now, what would happen if we actually apply the biblical definition of what Jesus called a neighbor? It would make a lot of us really uncomfortable. Because neighbor, it comes from the Greek 4139, and here's what the definition says. According to the teachings of Christ, a neighbor is any other person, irrespective of race, irrespective of religion or even beliefs, whom live or whom we have a chance to meet. Any person that I walk out this door and I have a chance to meet is considered my neighbor. Not any person who I choose to meet, not any person of what event I choose to go to, not any person who got the right sign on their door, not any person who got who has who votes like I vote, not any person who looks like me, but any person that I have the chance to meet. Jesus said, that's your neighbor. Mmm, mmm, Pastor? Therefore, the question we all have to confront, and the question we came out here on this gray day, is how do I feel about people? And how do I treat people who do not meet my criteria as a neighbor or who I would call a friend. When the it's interesting. When the lawyer asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Jesus told him a story. Now it's interesting. Here's what was so interesting about that. Jesus said, a person. Now we presume this person is a Jew because he was coming from Jerusalem and going to Jericho. So he was leaving Jerusalem, going to Jericho. So we presume this person was a Jew. He was beaten up, he was robbed, he was left for dead on the side of the road. And in verse 31, you have a man on the side of a road who is a Jewish man, beaten up, left for dead, robbed, and a priest, a man of God, a preacher, a pastor, a priest came walking, and he saw him. And guess what he did? He went to the other side of the road and he kept walking. This is somebody we expect that would have helped him, right? I mean in verse 32, the priest with the preacher walked right by him. Verse 32, the next person who came was a Levite. Now, a Levite, you know who a Levite was? He was an assistant to the priest. You know, the churchgoer, the helper, the volunteer, the one who always shows up. The one I saw someone in me. You know that person, the one in this day, I wear my Christian t-shirt and I have my cross on and I say Jesus and I sing worship music and I listen to K Love. Ha ha. And guess what he did? He saw a person, he saw a Jewish man on the side of the road, beaten up in need, and guess what he did? He saw him and he walked on the other side of the road. Know what's going on up there. But I'm walking on the other side of the road. Now here's the interesting. Because the priest and the Levite were Jewish. We presume the person on the side of the road was Jewish. He looked like them. We presume he thought like him. We presume he had the same religion like him. We presume they had things in common. And the person you would, the people you would think that would help him, walk right by him. But then verse 33 came. A Samaritan. One who the Jews hated. I need y'all to understand the climate. The one who the Jews hated was the person who stopped, who helped. He took him to an end, paid for his care. And by all accounts, it is the Samaritan who should have walked by him also, because all by all accounts, the Jews were actually his neighbors or his friend, but the Samaritan was his enemy. To give you kind of an example, the Samaritans and the Jews disagree with each other on the same level. If you put a far left Democrat and a far right Republican in a room, they would disagree on the same level. They wouldn't agree on nothing. And yet, it was the person who would have been considered an enemy who actually helped him. Y'all know what's so funny about this story to me. Here's the interesting, funny thing about this story. Jesus was a Jewish man, and he made a Samaritan the hero of the story. Because here's the thing. Y'all know we do this. I do it, you do it. Let's bless. I mean, we're gonna have a real honest church this morning. Whenever I tell a story, who's the hero? Me? I'm gonna always be the hero, and the people that I like, don't like, are always gonna be the villains. Watch this. When I tell a story, me or the people that I like, I will always put them in a position. The people who think like me, look like me, talk like me, act like me, who have my same values, what will I do? I will always make them the hero, and the people who don't agree with me, they will always be the villain. And Jesus, a Jewish man, talking to Jewish people, made their enemy the hero and the Jewish people the villains. I just found that fascinating. The hero was the enemy who saved a Jew. Now, why does this make, why does any of this make a difference? Why does knowing who my neighbor is make a difference, y'all? Because it's a great subplot, but it's actually not even the main part of the story. We'll get to that, we'll get back to this. But here's the main part of the story. Because if we're not careful, we'll get so caught up in the subplot, which is who is my neighbor, that we'll actually ignore the original question. We'll ignore what the original question was and why we even got here. See, the original question, if we go back to Luke 10 and 25, I don't want y'all to forget this. The original question said in Luke 10 and 25, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall we do to inherit eternal life? We will get so caught up on who my neighbor is that we will forget the original question. We will forget the most important question. The most important question in this thing is, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? The eternal question is, what do I do to inherit eternal life? There were two answers. The answer was, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, and thy mind, and love thy neighbor as yourself. Now here's the interesting thing. Most of us, so we say, don't have issues loving God. You know, we don't have issues loving God as long as we get what we want. We don't have issues loving God as long as my prayer gets answered. We don't have issues loving God as long as we're getting blessed. We don't have issues loving God as long as things are going my way. As long as we don't have issues loving God as long as my car work, as long as I still got a garage, as long as I got food in the fridge, as long as things are relatively good for me. We don't have issues loving God until we don't get what we want. Watch this. Most of us don't have an issue loving people who think like me, look like me, talk like me, live where I live, and have my same belief system. We call them neighbor, we call them friend. But our real issue is loving these people who aren't like me. Who may not share my same values. My real issue is loving people who hurt me. My real issue is loving people who's betrayed me. My real issue is hurting loving people who've talked about me behind my back, who intentionally set out to destroy me. My real issue is in my mind, those people aren't my neighbors. See, in today's language, we call those people the enemy. In today's language, we call them my former, you feeling the boss, my ex, my former this, my former friend, my former whatever. In today's language, we say stuff like, those people are dead to me. In today's language, we call them the other side. In today's language, we call them those people. And in today's language, we call them them over there. In today's language, you can look up any of the sphere of cruel names or political insults we call people, but it's okay to call people cruel names or political insults because those are not my people, but Jesus said they are. Even while coming to church, raising our hands, because we throw up our hands and say Hallelujah, but I don't like them over there. I throw up my hands. Time and time again. I love you, Jesus, but I don't like John. I love you, Jesus, but Mary gets on my nerves. I love you, Jesus. Oh Jesus, you're everything to me, but those people over there, they just don't get it. Jesus is saying those people who you don't like is also your neighbor and also your brother. Guess what Jesus said? Y'all want to know what Jesus said for real? In 1 John chapter 4, verse 20 and 21, Jesus said this. This is what the word says. Not what Pastor S said. This is what the word says. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. How do we sing songs? How do we say we love God? And we don't like somebody because you don't vote like me. How do we tear down families and relationships because you don't support my president? Regardless of what party's in office? How do we sing songs and say we don't love God? Or we don't love our families because we got issues with them. See if you have a limited defin, if you have limited your definition of your brother or your neighbor to the same people that came from your parents or who live in your house, or the person who thinks like you, looks like you, vote like you, talk like you, live where you live, have your same interests, then you've completely missed the boat. Because here's what, here's what Luke chapter 6, here's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, in Luke chapter 6, verse 32 through 36. Here's what Jesus said. Verse 32. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. How are you distinguished? How are we different than the world? If you only love people who love you. And if you do, verse 33, and if you do good to them that do good to you, what credit is that to you for even the sinners do the same? How are you standing out? How is that? How are you different? How does that distinguish you as a child of God if you only love those who love you? If you only do good to those who do good to you, how does that distinguish you as being any different than anybody else walking you? How do you put your Christian t-shirt on and say, I am a child of God? And if you look exactly like everybody else, because Christians don't look exactly like everybody else. And if you lend to verse 34, and if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies? Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return? What? Watch this. And when you do those things, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high God, for he is kind and to the unthankful and evil. There's some people in your life right now you ain't talked to in 10 years because the last time you did something for them, they didn't say thank you. There's some people in your life right now you're mad at because the last time you gave them $20, they didn't say thank you. The last time you opened the door for them, they didn't say thank you. And he said, I am I am good to the unthankful and the evil. These have to be words, these have to be a lived experience, not just a read experience. I tell my own church, the Bible has to be my default response, just not just my aspirin. The Bible has to be a default response, not just something I read when I want to feel better. What did verse 36 say? Therefore, be merciful, just as your father also is merciful. It's such a coincidence that in Luke 10 and 37, he identified the Samaritan who was a neighbor as the person who showed mercy on another human being with who would have been considered an enemy at the time. And in Luke 6 and 36, he said the exact same thing. Be ye merciful as your father in heaven is merciful. You know what merciful means? Compassionate. Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. And we live in a society that's only compassionate to people that I like. We live in a society that's compassionate. I saw on the other day, I probably shouldn't say this. I'm sorry, Mike. You get some you get some ugly emails. I saw on something the other day there was funding cut off on us from a state. Because, oh, y'all voted blue, so we're not funding this. We didn't vote for you, so you didn't vote for us, so we're not funding this. Is there compassion in that? Do we have deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune? And I'm not I'm apolitical, I'm not red or blue, I'm Jesus. I am Jesus. I don't I don't lean either way, I lean toward the Bible, and neither one leans either way. So don't think that I'm pushing any agenda, because I'm not. But back to the original question in Luke 10: what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, and thy mind, and love thy neighbor. You know, everybody you have a chance in coming in contact with as thyself. I don't want you to stand, see here, I here's why I say this. Because I love y'all. I'll stand here flat footed and say the truth. And you can be mad at me if you want to, because I love you. I love you enough for you to be mad at me. Because I don't want you to get before the father. I don't want you to say your last breath. I don't want you to take your last breath and stand before the father, listing all your good deeds. And God looks at you and draws a line down the paper and starts to list all your whys. Because man looks on the outside and God looks at the heart. God looks at your why. You see, you'll start listing all your good deeds, and God will say, Well, you loved them, but they loved you first, and you felt obligated to love them back. Well, the sinners did that too. Oh, I did this, God. Well, you did it because they were good to you. So in turn, you were good to them. You know, they deserve your goodness. That's why you were good to them. You know, the sinners did that too. But God, look at what I did here. You only did that because you had something in common with them. So you felt like they were worthy of your good deeds. Because you didn't feel like your enemy was deserving of your goodness. The sinners act that way also. But God, didn't you see that I gave to this person and I lend it to this person? Well, you only lend it and gave to them because you expected something back from them later. You wanted something from them down the line. That's how the sinners act. So, what is reward do you deserve? Since everything you did, you qualified your love instead of giving it freely like I asked. My 1128 family, I love you. And we only I only ask who is your neighbor? Because I don't I want you to stand before the Father with a clean heart, with a heart pure to say, I love God because you said love, not because they did something for me, not because they looked like me, thought like me, voted like me, because we lived in the same place. Because of the prompting of the Holy Spirit, you said give, you said do, you said love. And you can stand before the Father with a clean heart because you did exactly what he said. Not because it was gonna benefit you later, but because it was gonna serve him. Amen. Father, I thank you in the name of Jesus for this time today. I thank you for challenging us. I thank you for pushing us. I thank you for making us uncomfortable today. I thank you for shifting us in our seats today. I thank you, God, that you love us too much to leave us the same. You love us too much just to make us happy, but you love us too much. You love us so much that you push us to be better, you push us to be greater, and you push us to be more like Jesus. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you continue to talk to us as we leave this place, that you continue to push us, that you continue to rattle us, that in every moment we continue a little bit more and a little bit more to look like Jesus. I thank you, Father God, for your word. I thank you for your instruction. I thank you for your leadership and your guidance in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Thank you for listening to today's message. We hope you had a meaningful moment with Jesus. You can join us on Sundays at Oak Creek High School at 10 a.m. for our in person gatherings. Hope to see you soon.