Do Likewise

Transcript

Turn with me to Luke, chapter 10, the gospel according to Luke, chapter 10. And as you know, in year C, we'll be in Luke most of the time. Now, I know we were in John for quite a while, but that's always going to happen. John's interspersed within the three years of the lectionary cycle. So once you've found Luke 10, verse 25, go ahead and stand with me for the reading our Gospel text this morning.

Notice these words. Probably a familiar story, but I would ask you to hear it with ears to hear and see it with eyes to see, perhaps newly, like never before. Notice these words. This is Luke 10 and verse 25. Just then, a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.

Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, well, what is written in the law? What do you read there? 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 given the right answer.

Do this and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now. 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 pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan, while traveling, came near him, and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, take care of him, and when I come back, I'll repay you whatever more you spend.

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said, the one who showed him mercy. Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Jesus, thank you for your holy word. And we pray now that your Holy Spirit would not only enlighten our minds, but then help us to go and do likewise.

We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated. Well, this unique pericope, known oftentimes as the Good Samaritan, is unique to Luke's Gospel. In other words, in all four of the Gospels, this one doesn't show up except here in Luke chapter 10, which is kind of neat.

I mean, it doesn't mean it's more important than other sections of the Gospels, of course, but it's always unique that the Good Samaritan kind of sticks in our mind, doesn't it? Once you hear the story, it's very easy to remember. And this is one reason why Jesus is the best sort of teacher, is because he gives these stories that are easily memorized and we can revisit them and in varying situations in our own mind once we hear the story, once we got it down. And it's not hard here. There's not much that's difficult here in our text today, to be honest with you.

And it's very unique, like I said, to Luke's Gospel in particular. And it all arises, as you can see, from this scholar of the law, this lawyer, if you will. And remember, a lawyer here means the Bible, okay? So like, he was a lawyer of the law, right? So in Judaism, we're not talking about secular law.

Like he's went to law school. He went to Bible school, okay? And so this lawyer is an expert at the law of God, okay? That's what he's an expert at. And I always love these stories because you find them.

You find them scattered throughout the Gospels where a lawyer, we're told specifically, often a lawyer comes up to Jesus with a question. You remember there's a few of these in the gospel, and always love them because you've got somebody who has the highest knowledge about the law, perhaps the deepest knowledge about the law, and they encounter Jesus. And their questions are always very interesting and intriguing. And I think Jesus finds them that way as well. He doesn't snub his nose at this guy.

He says, oh, yeah. And. But in rabbinic style, Jesus will never answer a question with just simply an answer. And I know that's frustrating for us Americans because we just want it right now. I get that.

But the problem is a good teacher knows that if I just give you the answer, that doesn't mean you know it isn't that interesting. If I just give you the answer, that doesn't mean you know it. You know what I said the answer is. But you haven't come to that conclusion yourself. And so in rabbinic style.

And Jesus, remember, was a teacher, a rabbi, okay? He even calls him that here. Teacher, Rabbi. Jesus always going to invite the questioner into the discussion to see if they really want to know or not, because you know how it is if somebody is. If you Ask somebody a question, hey, what is this or that about DNA?

You know, and it's like, well, what do you think about as soon as they say that? I'm like, well, nevermind, I'll just look it up on chat, you know, because I'm not really looking to know it. I just want a quick answer on something, okay? That's not good enough for Jesus. It's not good enough for following Jesus that somebody else knows.

You gotta know. You gotta know. You gotta know the Lord. I can't know the Lord for you, Your parents can't know the Lord for you, your spouse can't know the Lord for you. As East Stanley Jones famously said, India.

And missionary, missionary to India, I should say. He said, you know, God has no grandchildren. He only has sons and daughters. In other words, we can't be one part removed. We must encounter Christ, we must know him.

And the questions that we have, we go to him first and foremost. Now we of course use other people and all of this. And this man knows the law, right? He's read commentary on the law. In fact, he may have written some of his own.

We don't know. He was a scholar, so he certainly has original work. Okay, but he comes with this question. And Jesus always going to flip the script. And could I say, he also does that for you and for me, Lord.

Why? Why? And then it comes back to us. Yeah, why is that? Why do you think that I allowed that?

Why do you think I allowed you to walk through that? Why didn't I stop? You see, these are good questions for us to wrestle with and not just some other person. We need to come to these realizations of who Christ is. And he loves our questions.

He loves our. Any teacher loves good questions, right? Absolutely. And this is a good question. Jesus even tells you, hey, yeah, this is great.

What do you think, man? And you know what he gives him? He gives them the Shema. What is the Shema? Shema is a Hebrew word that just means hear.

And it comes from Deuteronomy 6. And Jews, even to this day say the Shema at least three times a day. And Jesus would have said the Shema and repeated it three times a day at least. Okay? And it's right here before us.

You remember, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength. Remember that's. And then your neighbor as yourself is an add on, that's actually in Leviticus. So he gives him the Shema. And then this guy, being an expert at the law and actually does exactly what Jesus will do in another place in the gospel where the lawyer, again, the scholar, remember, comes up.

Jesus says, hey, what are the two? Or what's the greatest commandment? Jesus says, well, love the Lord your God. He gives him the Shema. Again, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

That's the Shema. Remember here and here in Hebrew understanding. And the way we understand this term is to not only hear it, but to do it. So Shema is a type of hearing and doing, not just hearing. And if you're a parent, you know exactly what I mean in the difference between hearing and doing, you know, clean your room, please.

We've got to leave in 10 minutes. You come in there, why is your room, you know, go to bed, stop playing the game, get off the phone. Right. Why are you still on your phone? Did you not?

What? Hear me? But of course they heard you. They just didn't do it. And we expect that if you hear it that you'll do it.

And we're in good company because God expects the same thing. Shema is to hear and to do. But what kind of doing? Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and even mind is added here and then to love your neighbor as yourself. And, man, this is a great answer from this dude.

Like Jesus, it seems like there's an indication here perhaps that Jesus like, oh, right on, man. That's it. You've got it. Good job. Do this and live.

And we could have ended the story, wrapped it up, and, you know, shook hands, and there you go, two experts at the law, one superior to the other, had just had a meeting, and boom, they figured it out, right? But the guy says, well, hang on, hang on, hang on. Being a lawyer, he wants down in the details, right?

Who is my neighbor. And this story then is prompted from that. Now, the first thing that I think we want to say this morning is this. The kind of faith here is a faith that works. We could even say it this way.

It's a faith that has at its heart, good works. And oftentimes, unfortunately, in Christianity, specifically in Protestant Christianity, maybe more specific, in American evangelical Christianity, we have split faith and works. We emphasize faith to the demise of good works. But the Bible doesn't do this. It actually has no division between faith and works.

In fact, you know, the great Reformation signal is sole sola fide, right? Which is faith alone. You know, everybody always, yeah, Martin Luther, you know, faith alone saves. But the only time that faith alone is actually mentioned is in James, in the Bible, is in James and it's in a negative term. In other words, faith alone without works is what, dead.

So the one time sola fide, the great again marching orders of the Reformation is. Is mentioned, is actually negatively put that if it's not accompanied with good works, it is not faith actually. So faith alone saves. We can say that. And yet faith never shows up alone.

We can also say that, and it not be a contradiction. In other words, it's not by our meritorious works or working our way to being good that saves us. No, it is God's grace always that goes before us. In other words, if we have any response at all, if we've heard the gospel at all, like you're hearing this morning, then that is a grace of God that you didn't do. And we live into what he provides, which is literally what grace is.

It's his undeserved mercy toward us, his undeserved life toward us. And so in thinking that faith then is seen here all over the place, even if it's not directly mentioned. And one of the ways we can know that is because of this term inherit. It's interesting the way he words this question. I've always been curious about this.

I mean, I think I'm pretty close to maybe getting this down finally, hopefully. And the question he asked him, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, I find that's not typically the way we speak in our evangelical circles. I don't think we normally say, how can I be saved? Right.

And that language is there in the Bible. But so is this inheritance language that has to do with eternal life, not just biological life. Remember bios, that's the Greek word for biological life. But Zoe, Z O E, which is eternal life. That's the actual terms there.

Okay, so the Bible distinguishes between your natural biological life, bios and eternal life that comes from above. That is supernatural, Zoe. It actually distinguishes that. And here he's asking, how do I inherit Zoe life? In other words, eternal, supernatural life.

And I've always inherited. That always threw me off. But think about it. Jesus speaks this way, doesn't he? In fact, he says liars.

And the Bible says Jesus and Paul both say liars will not inherit. Right? And sexually immoral. There's a whole list, trust me, just look it up. There's a whole couple of lists, you know, because Paul likes lists.

Jesus doesn't give many lists. He does give a list in Matthew 25, by the way, but he gives very few lists. Paul, he loved lists. So if you like lists, you know, the Lord's given us a nod with St. Paul, and Paul's got a long list of those who won't inherit the kingdom of God, won't inherit eternal life.

So here's the thing. Saving faith adopts us as children. So when we have saving faith, the kind of faith that saves us, in other words, it's going to lead to the new birth, as we call it, or, and as the scripture speaks of it being born again, notice John 1, 12 and 13. But to all who received him, think about this. Who believed in his name, he gave the power or the right, the ability, the potential to become children of God.

So how do we become children of God? Our will? No, it's when we receive Christ. Believe on his name, okay? He then gives us the power.

Notice. Who gives the power? God gives the power. But then we live into that potential. You see, if it remains potential unrealized, then it has not been applied to our hearts.

Then we're not saved. We have not received the Spirit. We have not been born again. But when he gives us this power, this right, this potential to become his children, then we can become heirs of life eternal. In other words, we can inherit it.

You see? Now notice the difference. It's not salvation. Think about this just with me briefly. Salvation is not transactional.

In other words, I don't give God something, and then he gives me back something. Everything I have is His.

Which means it's more like when my children get me something for Christmas or my birthday.

Guess where they're getting that money from? You know, they come in with a big haul from Walmart the other day. I said, whoa. Did you spend your money on those groceries? No, sir.

Oh, okay. But you're getting to enjoy them, right? As if they were yours. Why? Because I actually provided for them.

Now, it's a nice gesture for them to give me something, you know? I guess. But nevertheless, it's my money that did it. My potential, my power to buy. Okay, do you get the point?

When we hand God anything, we say, lord, here's my life. And in turn, I say, well, we really did. You didn't do much at all. You gave back what was rightfully his. Here's what the scripture says.

You are not your own. You're not. But notice you were bought with a pro. Now, who paid for that? Us?

Absolutely not. But Jesus did. You. Me? He saw that we were worth it.

He saw that we were worth it. He did what he did because he saw you were worth it. And he bought us. And now he's invited us and even empowered us to become children of God.

The Spirit himself bears witness. Romans says in chapter eight that we are children of God. And get this. And if children, then what? Heirs of life eternal.

Do you see how it's not transactional? I don't give God something, he gives me back something. There is no equal when it comes to God. We have to be in the faith family to receive from him. And what a beautiful way to tie this doctrine in to baptism.

This morning. Do you think that Lena asked to be baptized? No, she did not. Do you think she asked to be in my arms? No, certainly not.

She's a little freaked out for a minute, maybe the whole time.

She didn't ask for it. And yet her parents, being Christian as they are, said, you know what? We're going to raise children that are not secularist, that are not atheists, that are not neutral. We're going to raise Christians, we're going to disciple them. And you know what?

That's exactly actually what the Bible tells us to do with children. Read Deuteronomy again. By the way. The Shema ends with, teach your kids to do this. And teach them when you're lying down or when you're getting up, put it on the doorpost, put on the front of their head the cross.

We're just doing what the Bible tells us to do here when we raise up children and nurture them in the faith. Now can we save them? Of course not. That's why we even say in the liturgy that when she comes to that saving knowledge of Jesus. But guess what?

You know what Lena is. She's a little Christian. She is. What else would she be? Answer that question.

Now, we can get into some of this stuff, but this gets into what happens to children and what happens to the mentally ill and what happens to the mentally incapable. And you know what? I think the grace of God extends far and wide. That's what I read in my Bible. I think if we think we're pretty gracious, sometimes he's all the more gracious.

And I pray that is so. We ought to hope that is so. And we ought to act as if it's so now to be his children. We're not born naturally his children, are we? We're told that because we are born into sin, okay?

So by nature we are not his children. It's by supernature that we become his children. And then we have to learn in very natural ways how to live out that supernatural life. Does that make sense? In other words, that's why it's a born again experience.

We've already been born once naturally into sin, into an inward. You remember incurvatus inse, that is to say a heart curved in on itself. We're self interested, we're self conceited, we're self consumed. But when we receive Christ now we're outward focused, we're self giving like our Lord is. But it happens by adoption.

And the scriptures speak of salvation as adoption. Now I've had the honor actually of going to a couple of adoption. I call them ceremonies because they really have a ritual to them, even if they are legal matters before a judge. And one thing, I was very surprised. Maybe you already know this and it's not a big deal, but maybe you don't.

When someone is adopted, do you know that they take their legal records of their past, they close them up and they seal them up and no one has access? That's what the judge told him. Nobody can access this again. You won't be able to find, in fact legally, that other name that they have, it's gone. They've taken on another name.

Isn't that a beautiful picture of how we are adopted into Christ family? Our past, Jesus says because of what he's done is sealed up and nobody going to find it. Because isn't he the good judge that's overseeing the adoption, welcoming us into his family in this way? You see, salvation comes by association. It's not by what we do transactionally, it's by being in his family that we inherit eternal life.

It's the only way we must be adopted into his family. And so faith adopts us as children. And also faith unites us to Christ, who's the true heir. Notice what Galatians says. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.

You remember who Abraham becomes, right? Israel. Okay, so Abraham's offspring is what we call the true Israel. And can I just say this without, you know, trying to be controversial at all. The true Israel is not the nation of Israel.

Everybody gets that. Right? Like the true Israel, Paul says, is by faith and not by birth. So the true Israel that is blessed if you bless them is actually the church, not a nation. Okay?

It's the kingdom of God. Yeah, let's just be clear about that. It's nothing against the actual national, ethnic people of Israel. It's fine to bless them, but that's not what the Bible is talking about when it's talking about the true Israel. Once Christ comes, the true Israel is the church, period.

It's all those who just I mean, Paul says right here in Galatians, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring. Well, who's Abraham's offspring? Well, everybody that would believe.

Now, in Romans, it says, if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs are joint heirs with Christ. And in Ephesians, again, in him we have obtained an inheritance. What kind of inheritance? Well, again, a new name. A new name?

You know, the tradition of brides taking on their husband's name actually is a. Is a kind of a sacramental image of us taking on another name. In other words, we are not the same. Once we unite to Christ, we take on a new name, and it's a name he gives us, and it's as his children.

In fact, CS Lewis will talk about this in Mere Christianity as the good infection. It's a type of contractual thing that we have to be near someone and we get infected by it. That's what discipleship is. And he calls it the good infection because, well, the Gospel is the good infection. But it's infected from person to person.

It's not transactional. It's not something that you just do from a distance online. But purchasing salvation. You remember what Deuteronomy says, right? Our Deuteronomy reading said, look, this commandment is not far away.

It's not up in heaven where we're like, man, I wish somebody, go up there and get it. Or it's not down in the sea where we'd say, oh, man, I wish somebody go get it. No, no, no. It's what on our mouth. It's on the tip of our tongue.

It's in our mind. It's right here at the tip of our fingers. Do it and you will live. That's what Jesus tells him. And then he reiterates it after his story of the Good Samaritan says, go and do likewise.

Because again, Shema, it's not just about hearing and saying, yeah, I believe that. No, no, it's. I believe that. Now I'm going to do it. Now I'm going to do it.

Now I'm going to trust enough to do it. And in fact, it was interesting that our. What was it, Colossians reading. Yes. Mentions faith, love and hope as something that is the outworking, the bearing of fruit of faith.

So faith adopts us as children. Faith unites us to Christ, and finally, faith transforms us to love our neighbor. You see, here's the thing. When we trust Christ and have this faith, faith that works, okay? That means that all of a sudden, now we begin to resemble God our Father.

You know, when all of our children were young, they all sort of came into the world with this little dimple here. I know people call it other things, but it's a dimple. Okay, here's a little dimple right here, you know, at the bottom of my chin. And every one of our children were marked with that thing. Every one of them.

I mean, some of them very, wow, looks just like you, dad. And they hand them to me, you know, every time and, you know, yeah, they ought to resemble me, right? And not only that, unfortunately, whether for good or for ill, their mannerisms are going to resemble me. You know, I've had people that I didn't even know, and they came up to me and said, hey, you're Justin's brother. I'm like, yeah, okay.

How do you know that? You know, he's taller and looks a little different than me. I'm a little thicker, he's a little taller. You know, we got something going on there. But that wasn't what gave it away.

No, it was the mannerisms, actually. We have the same mannerisms. You know, we don't necessarily hear it, but they're there, and people can see that there's a resemblance. Why? Because we're part of the same family.

And oftentimes families, in fact families, they. You ever seen those psychological studies where it says, like married people, the longer they stay together, they start looking like one another. It's very interesting, isn't it? That's so interesting, so intriguing. The point is, if you're right there, in touch, connected, encountering day after day, being discipled in the way, you'll start looking like your Father in heaven.

We are to reflect God in this way. And this is why in James, he's so clear. 2:17. So faith by itself, so laethida, right, if it has no works, is dead. It's dead.

Instead, faith works into good works always. And good works are not bad. It's insane to think that good works are somehow bad. Good works are the most natural thing in our subconscious. We know when we need to help out somebody.

You know, somebody. All of a sudden trips and all their papers fly out. To just step right on them and keep moving is just insane. Like, what's wrong with you, man? You know, there's something natural in us as much as supernatural.

When the Holy Spirit comes, that will lead us into good works. In fact, here's the way that Paul says it. We were created by God for good works, so good works can't be bad. Instead, we Ought to pursue good works. And it's interesting that the one list I mentioned to you that Jesus gives, that I'm aware of, maybe he has another one, but this is kind of a longer one.

And a very important one is the whole sheep and goats. You remember this in Matthew 25. And he gives a list. It's a very specific list. And, you know, I ran into this in seminary.

Dr. Matt Friedemann, who I'm actually still in a group with, just met with him Friday in our. In our group. And, you know, he put me onto this, and once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. And that is, they're not judged in Matthew 25 because, you know, at the end of it, he says, go to hell, you goats, go to hell. And everybody else enter into eternal life.

So it's pretty clear that, number one, Jesus believes in hell. Now, if you don't, then you're actually saying that you know more than Jesus. It's probably not a great thing to do as a student, as a learner, as a disciple, because, you know, disciple means learner. Okay, Jesus knows. And if he believes in hell, then we're gonna have to.

Okay, we're gonna have to. You don't have to like it. I don't think we should like it, in fact. Okay, but he believes in hell. And he says, depart from me and enter into the fire.

Eternal fire, by the way. Well, you say, well, goodness, Pastor, what caused that? Were they murdering or doing something? No, actually, here's what happened. He said, you know what?

You didn't feed the hungry. You didn't give drink to the thirsty. You didn't welcome the stranger. You didn't clothe the naked. You didn't care for the sick, and you didn't visit the imprisoned.

And see, Jesus doesn't just say it in a general way. You know, the way he says it, he goes, you didn't visit me when I was in prison. You didn't feed me when I was hungry. And that is, they say, jesus, hold up. If I would have known it was you, I would have fed you.

I'd have had you over for dinner. I would have gone while you were sick and visited you. I would have. He says, well, here's the thing. When you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me.

And likewise, when you haven't done it to the least of these, you didn't do it to me. Jesus joins himself to the least of these.

Our mandate seems clear here that our neighbor is the next person we encounter, the next person you have a conversation with, that's your neighbor. Now you say, well, hold on, that might be an enemy. Yes. That might be a heretic. Yes.

That might be someone politically different. Yes. Different culture. Absolutely. You remember the Samaritans.

That's why this story kind of is a punch to the gut. Because the best I can really come up with is the equivalent today of a Samaritan would be a Muslim, okay? Pieces of the Bible intact. The Samaritans, remember, were heretics, right? So they had a different Old Testament.

It was mainly the Old Testament, but they had changed some things. Just like in Islam. They changed some things. Or a Mormon perhaps. Right, Same thing.

Jehovah's Witness. Same thing. They're all heretics, which means they're outside of orthodoxy. They're outside of the Christian faith because of their beliefs. And yet Jesus doesn't focus on that.

Notice what he focuses on the doing of good. Now, that's not to say that it doesn't matter what you believe. Of course it matters what you believe. You could be worshiping the wrong God, and that's idolatry. Okay?

That's against one of the Ten Commandments, right? But if you have all right, belief, which I'm assuming most all of you do, you have no problem there believing in one triune loving God. The problem is we're not going and doing likewise. That's the big issue. And when Jesus turns that table on the guy, he has to accept that the Samaritan, the heretic, that's actually his neighbor.

And then he does one other little trick. He turns neighbor as a noun into a verb and says, be a good neighbor. You see what he does there at the end? He turns it right around to us, the reader, and says, go and do likewise. Be a neighbor.

It doesn't matter what they believe. It doesn't matter what kind of life they're living. It doesn't matter what. How they got into this situation. This guy was going away from Jerusalem.

That's a bad thing. And he got called and it got messed up. And that's what sin always does. But we're not supposed to come along and say, hey, that's what sin always does. See, you like the priest or the Levite, but rather we're to engage our neighbor in love.

It doesn't mean we accept what they believe. Never, never. But it means that we love. Not in thought, but indeed. So are you being the kind of neighbor that Jesus is pointing this scholar to be?

Do you have the kind of faith that has adopted you into the family of God. The kind of faith that has united you to Christ and. And that is transforming your life. If so, then you've caught. You've caught the good infection.

Hallelujah. Your name is written in heaven. Now let's go spread it. Let's go spread it in our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our homes, brothers and sisters. That's ground zero in our homes.

And then to the ends of the world, may it be so. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.

Total Duration 00:37:06