Putting Love into Practice - The Parables of Jesus

Well, this morning we are going to be wrapping up the summer series that we've been working

our way through over the last few months.

We've been looking at the parables of Jesus, these stories that Jesus tells to try to help

us understand what it's like to live life in the kingdom of God, to help us better understand

who He is, who the Father is, and how we can relate to them.

So we're going to be concluding that this morning.

Next week, we're going to be kicking off a new series together that we'll be in for

the bulk of the next year.

We'll take a couple breaks for Advent and Lent, finish up early next summer, but we

are going to take a large chunk of time to teach through 1 Corinthians.

It's one of Paul's longest letters.

There's a lot of rich content there, and so we're really excited to kick off that series

next week and to study that together over the course of the next year.

Well, this morning, though, as we wrap up our study,

of the parables of Jesus, we are going to be looking at one of the most, if not the most,

well-known parables that Jesus told.

This is the parable of the Good Samaritan.

As I say that, there's probably a lot of content to that story that comes to mind for you.

I'm guessing there's some level of familiarity that you have with the parable of the Good

Samaritan.

Whether you've been coming to church every week for your whole life, or this is your

first time in a church building.

I'm guessing that you are at least in broad strokes familiar with this story that we're

going to look at today.

The story is so well-known in our culture that we actually have laws that are named

after this parable that Jesus told.

We have Good Samaritan laws, they're sometimes called.

California has them.

All of the other states have them.

And these are laws that are meant to protect you from being prosecuted or sued if you come

across somebody who is a good Samaritan.

And if you come across somebody who is a good Samaritan, then you're going to have to

in need of emergency care, emergency medical attention, or some other kind of emergency

situation.

And if you get involved in good faith and try to help that person, there are laws that

protect you from being prosecuted or sued if something goes wrong.

So this story is so common, so prevalent, that we actually have laws in our states and

in our nation that are designed and named after this story.

And last week, as Paul was teaching, he looked at the story of the Good Samaritan.

And he looked at a series of parables, one of which was the parable of the net, which

is a parable about judgment.

And he acknowledged, as he was teaching about judgment, that this is an uncomfortable topic

for us.

It's an uncomfortable topic to teach on, even.

And that's in large part because it's in such contrast to our culture.

The idea of a divine being who would bring judgment on people is really at odds with

the way that many people in our culture think.

The parable of the Good Samaritan that we're going to look at today is like exactly the

opposite.

This is a great story to look at.

This is a fun story to preach.

This is a parable that everybody inside the church and outside the church, basically everybody

is going to agree on these words that Jesus has to say.

We might ask ourselves then, if that's the case, why don't we find more people or why

don't we find in ourselves more of us actually living?

Living out this teaching of Jesus, which we're going to see as a teaching to love our neighbor

as ourselves.

Why is it, if we can all agree with everyone in this room and most people in culture, if

we can all agree that this is something that we want, that the world would be better off

if there were more Good Samaritans out there, why is it that the world doesn't reflect that

reality?

Why is it that our own lives don't always reflect that reality?

These are some of the questions that we're going to explore.

As we look at this very familiar parable, and my hope is that we can come away with some

tangible ways that we might be able to grow more in love for other people.

So that's what we're going to be looking at as we make our way through this text today.

Before we jump into the parable itself, we need to take it in the context that it comes,

which is the context of a conversation.

Much of Jesus' teaching, especially his parables, arise while he's engaged in a

conversation with somebody.

And then in order to make a point, he tells a particular story, which is exactly what

we find here.

So this conversation that Jesus has begins in Luke 10, verse 25.

We're going to look at verses 25 to 28.

Here we read this.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him, that is Jesus, to the test, saying,

Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him,

This man who comes to Jesus is described as a lawyer.

Not exactly what might come to mind when we think of a lawyer, as in someone who has,

as an expert in the laws of our land.

But this would have been an expert in the Jewish law, in the Mosaic law, in the law

that we find in the Old Testament.

This is somebody who had given his life to studying God's word and to leading the people

and teaching this word to the people of Israel.

He, as he answers, as he brings this question to Jesus, he does so to test Jesus and he

tests him.

With one of the most fundamental questions that a Jewish person might ask of a rabbi.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

We ask the same question.

We might ask it a little bit differently.

What do I have to do to be saved?

Or what do I have to do to get into heaven?

Or what do I have to do to ensure that I have a favorable outcome in the afterlife?

All different ways of asking the same question that this man asks.

What do I need to do to be saved?

How do I find salvation?

Jesus answers this question, as he often does, with another question.

He says, well, you're the expert in the law.

Why don't you tell me what you think?

How do you read the law?

And as this guy answers Jesus' question and answers his own question, he gets the answer

exactly right.

He says, you should love God with every fiber of your being.

And love your neighbor as you love yourself.

He gets it exactly right.

He gives exactly the right answer.

In fact, when Jesus is asked in the Gospel of Matthew what the greatest commandment is,

he gives the exact same answer.

He identifies these two Old Testament laws that sum up the whole thing, saying, love

God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Here, these same words come from the mouth of this lawyer.

He gets it exactly right.

And Jesus looks to him and says, you've answered correctly.

Well done.

Now go and do this.

Now, if our story were to end right there, we might imagine that this lawyer goes on

to be a star student in the rabbinical school of Jesus.

This guy maybe becomes even something of a teacher's pet, where Jesus is out, he's teaching

the crowds, and he poses a difficult question, and everyone kind of looks around confused,

and then Jesus glances over at him and says,

all right, go ahead, give the answer.

That's kind of what we're expecting from this guy.

But as the story continues, we'll see that that's not at all who this guy turns out to be.

So we look at the next verse, verse 29.

It says,

And he, that is this man, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus,

And who is my neighbor?

Now, he's not asking here out of...

some kind of genuine curiosity.

He's not saying, well, Jesus, I'm not quite sure what the law has to say about this.

Like, could you make this a little bit more clear for me?

No, no, no.

He's trying to justify himself, it says.

In other words, he knows that he is not really keeping the heart of this command.

He's not really loving his neighbor like God intended.

But he's wondering if he can get off on a technicality, right?

Well, Jesus, could you just...

Could we get a little more pinpoint accurate on who exactly...

is my neighbor so that I can be sure that these people who I have no intention of loving over here

fall outside of that category?

That's the question that this guy brings.

Who exactly is my neighbor?

Not genuine curiosity, but a hope that he might get off the hook.

Now, I want to highlight again that this guy was a teacher of the law.

He was an expert in the law.

He knew exactly what the law said.

And when he tries to clarify...

what is necessary for salvation, he gets it exactly right.

This guy had all of the right answers in his head.

But what we're going to see as the story plays out...

is that that information hadn't made its way into his heart,

into the deep places, and out into his life in transformation.

He had information with no transformation.

He had all of the right answers in his head,

but he wasn't living those things out in his heart and in his life.

Now, I imagine that if this lawyer were to walk into Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California,

that he might feel kind of like he was at home.

Yeah, skip over a couple thousand years and a very different culture,

but this was a very well-educated man.

Many people in this room have had some education ourselves.

And he was somebody who knew God's Word.

Many people in this room have had some education ourselves.

Many of us here know this book pretty well.

So I wonder if he might walk into this room

and feel like he was at home around people like him,

perhaps we need to be worried that we might fall prey to the same temptation that he did.

That we might be really good at knowing the right information,

but perhaps we lack some level of transformation in our lives.

I remember when I was a freshman,

I was a freshman Bible major at Biola.

I had a class the first semester of my freshman year

where it was an Old Testament survey, right?

It was an overview of the Old Testament.

And I had grown up in church and I had gone to a Christian high school

and I was pretty familiar.

So I thought, okay, you know, we'll just kind of brush up.

But I was amazed as we started this class,

these lectures that honestly,

some parts of the Bible that I had just kind of dismissed as not all that relevant,

we just kind of skip over it.

It's how we get to Jesus.

But as we were diving deep into this book,

I was finding that there were all these connections that I was making,

that there were things that I was seeing that I hadn't seen,

that my mind was open to a whole level of depth in this book

that I hadn't realized was there before.

And I wonder if you've had a similar situation.

Perhaps you were in college

and you got involved with a campus fellowship

and they taught you how to do inductive Bible study for the first time.

Like observations and interpretations and applications.

And you're studying this book in small groups

and it's just blowing your mind.

This is amazing.

Maybe for you that happened here at PBC over years

through listening to sermons

or being involved in discipleship groups

or going through the Leadership Institute.

And you're finding that as you're growing

in your knowledge of this book,

that it's just coming alive

and there's so much information that you're learning.

A lot like that lawyer, perhaps.

The real question that this parable is asking us,

inviting us to ask of ourselves,

is are we willing to take the next step

and letting the information work its way out into our lives

in a transformed kind of living

that really frees us up to love people like we love ourselves?

And so, as the man asks this question of Jesus,

who really is my neighbor?

Jesus responds with a story.

A story we call a parable

that we now know as the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And so, this parable goes like this.

Starting in verse 30.

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.

The setting of this story

is on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho.

These two cities were about 17 miles apart,

about 3,600 feet of elevation drop

that you would go from Jerusalem down to Jericho.

Windy road through the desert,

very rocky terrain

and a part of Israel that was known

for being an easy place for robbers.

To hide out

and to mob people on their way

between the two cities.

And so Jesus tells the story

of a man who is making that exact journey

when these robbers come out,

they attack him,

they beat him,

they take his possessions,

they take his clothes,

they leave him bloodied,

naked and half dead on this road.

A really dire situation

that this man finds himself in.

But then the story takes a turn.

And we're feeling hopeful

because we hear about these two men

who are passing by.

And these are men

who we're gonna be thinking very highly of.

This is a priest and a Levite.

These are men who serve in the temple,

probably on their way

from the temple in Jerusalem,

perhaps back to where they lived in Jericho

after some season of service in the temple.

And we're expecting that these men

are going to see this man

and notice him and help him.

But what we don't know is that these men are going to see this man and notice him and help him.

And we're expecting that these men are going to see this man and notice him and help him.

But one after another,

first the priest and then the Levite,

it says they see him

and then they pass by on the other side,

intentionally walking around him on their way.

Why do they do this?

Why do these men pass by this needy man?

We're not told exactly,

but scholars have thought through some various things

that these men may have been thinking.

Perhaps they were wondering,

perhaps they were worried

about becoming ceremonially unclean,

which is something that would happen

if you had contact with a dead body.

These were men who served in the temple,

being ritually pure was important.

And if you touched a dead body,

you'd become unclean for seven days.

So perhaps they thought this man was already dead

or they worried that he might die in their arms

and so they decided that they better keep going.

Maybe they were just busy.

Maybe they just wanted to get home

and it had been a long day,

a long couple of weeks of serving in the temple

and they just wanted to get home to their families.

And then so they just had other things on their mind.

Maybe they were afraid, right?

This is a dangerous road.

This guy clearly got attacked.

Maybe these robbers are still around.

Maybe if they stop and show concern,

perhaps they also might fall victim to the robbers.

It's possible.

We don't know exactly what it was

that caused these men to walk by.

But what we do know is that they saw him

and they chose to go.

They chose to step to the other side of the road

and to walk around him.

I'll never forget this day when I was in college.

I had just started a new job

and it was one of the first few days

and I was walking with some coworkers

to get lunch on the short break that we had.

And as we were approaching the restaurant,

there was a man who was kind of walking in front of us

to the side and it was apparent that he was blind

and he had his cane and he was trying to,

to find the ramp that would bring him up

into this restaurant.

And as we were walking,

I was kind of in the back of this group of coworkers

and I imagined that as we got close,

that somebody was going to say something to him,

to direct him in the direction that he could go,

to offer some assistance.

And one by one, I watched my coworkers

walk right past this man.

Until eventually I was up next to him

and I have this decision to make.

Do I stop and help him

or do I continue walking like the rest of my coworkers?

And I decided to step to the side of the road

and to walk around him.

Why?

There was a lot of reasons going through my mind.

We had a short lunch break,

this was my first few days on the job,

we needed to be back on time.

What if I stop and this takes some time

and makes me late or makes me miss something?

What if I stop and this takes some time and makes me miss something?

There's probably a little bit of fear.

These coworkers all just walked by

like it was the normal thing to do.

If I stop and if I do something,

if I say something, if I get involved,

are they going to think that's weird?

A little bit of perhaps social fear there.

Also, maybe just a diminishing of the need.

Like, ah, this guy, he's making his way,

he'll get there eventually, he'll be fine.

Or maybe someone else will come who has more time

and they'll help him.

I stepped to the side and I walked around.

And I wonder if you've done the same thing.

In fact, I can be pretty confident

that all of us here have done the same thing

at one point or another.

Maybe you have a coworker who begins to open up

about some challenging things

that are going on in their personal life.

And it feels like there's a window,

an opportunity to speak into that,

to give some encouragement,

or to ask how you could help.

But this is a professional relationship,

not a personal relationship.

This is a professional relationship,

we don't really talk about those kinds of things at work.

And what are they gonna, you know,

are they gonna think I'm overstepping if I try?

And so maybe I just better not.

Or maybe you have a friend

who is really struggling with their mental health

and you know that this is a situation

that to get involved with, there's no clear answers.

There's no obvious solution,

that this is going to be a long road

of walking with someone.

And you look at it and just go,

I don't know if I have the bandwidth

to step into that.

I'm not sure that I have,

I'm not sure I would be much help anyway.

And so maybe I'll just kind of keep my distance

and not get that involved.

So we step to the other side of the road

and we walk around.

These two men, they see this man.

They see him.

They know there's a need.

And they choose, like we do as well sometimes,

to step aside and to move on with their lives.

But there's a third man.

There's a third man.

There's a third man who comes down this road.

This man is identified as a Samaritan.

We don't know anything else about him.

But that right there would be enough

to get us startled if we were the ones

hearing Jesus tell this parable for the first time.

Because what we would have been expecting

as Jesus makes his way down the social hierarchy

of Israel at the time,

from this priest to a Levite,

that we're expecting that he comes down

to just an ordinary Israelite.

Just a common Jewish person.

But that's not where Jesus goes.

That's not his third character.

His third character is this Samaritan.

And there was this feud between Jews and Samaritans

that went generations back.

And this feud was motivated by religious differences

and ethnic differences and cultural differences.

This man, when we hear him,

we're expecting him to be a villain.

But we're gonna see that as Jesus presents him

in the story, he actually comes across as the hero.

And this man, when we hear him,

this man, who none of us would expect to do this,

he also sees the man on the road.

But he stops.

It says he takes compassion on him.

That's a kind of inward, internal description

of what was happening in this man, in the Samaritan.

He's moved in some way.

He feels the pain of this man.

He empathizes.

And this inner state of compassion,

moves him into an external state of action.

And he gets involved in a really messy situation.

He begins to clean the man's wounds

with the supplies that he has,

and he bandages them up.

He puts the man on his animal,

and he takes him to an inn,

where he leaves him with the innkeeper

and enough money to care for him in his stay there.

He takes on risk.

He sacrifices some things.

He stepped into a danger zone.

He stepped into a dangerous situation.

He didn't know if he was going to be attacked.

And yet he did so out of love for this man.

The implicit assumption is that

the priest and the Levite

must have been lacking the same love

that this Samaritan showed.

That that really was the root problem

with why they passed by.

Sure, there were other things.

There were other reasons.

There were other excuses playing out in their minds.

But at the end of the day,

they failed to love this man,

whereas the Samaritan exhibited love for this man.

And as he does,

he sets a pattern for us

for what it looks like to care for people who are in need.

First, to see them.

To notice.

And not just to see and then let our eyes glance by

because we feel a little bit guilty,

but to see and to look.

To give this man the dignity

of recognizing his humanity.

And the seeing of the man

moves him into compassion,

which then flows out into action.

Could we have eyes that are open

to see the needs around us?

Not to quickly divert our gaze

because we feel uncomfortable

or because we feel guilty

because we're worried about what happens

if we really take a closer look

or try to get involved.

Could we see in a way

that we are moved to compassion?

Deep care for people.

And could we allow that compassion

to move us to a place of action?

This is what the parable of the good Samaritan

is supposed to do in us.

It's supposed to move us

from just knowing the right things,

I'm supposed to love my neighbor,

into actually doing them in our lives,

looking for needs,

having compassion towards those in need

and looking to actually meet them,

even if that requires personal sacrifice.

So the Samaritan,

gets it right.

And in so doing,

he serves as a model for us as well.

After Jesus tells this parable,

he turns to this lawyer again

and he has a question for him.

We read their dialogue starting in verse 36.

Jesus says,

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,

go and do likewise.

Jesus is like,

yep,

you got the right answer again.

The problem is not with the information.

The question is,

will you let the information

work its way through your heart by the spirit

and flow out into a transformed way of living?

Jesus says,

go and do likewise.

And it's an open question for us

as to whether this man actually does that.

So the question for us,

then today is,

will we go and do likewise?

Will we allow this information

to flow through our hearts and lives

by the power of the spirit

into a transformed way

of actually loving and caring for those in our lives?

Now, as I say that,

I bet that there is nobody in this room

who hears that and goes,

yeah, I don't know that I want to do that.

I don't really want to be the kind of person

who loves my neighbor.

I don't really want to be a good Samaritan.

Now, we might recognize that it's hard.

We might not be excited about all the ways

that that's going to happen,

that's going to play out,

but I'm pretty sure all of us

and probably anyone who's going to hear this sermon

or think about this question is going to go,

yeah, I want to be more like the good Samaritan.

I want to be willing to make those sacrifices

of my own time, my own security,

my own well-being, whatever,

for the sake of another.

I want to be the kind of person who does that.

So the question for us is,

why are we not more that kind of person?

And perhaps even more importantly,

what could we do

so that we become the kind of person

who finds the love of God

just flowing out through us

to those around us

in practical and tangible ways?

I want to give us a couple of suggestions.

Suggestions that I think are both very practical

and also deeply biblical

for how we might become the kind of people

who find ourselves loving those around us more naturally.

The first suggestion that I would give us

is to practice self-care.

That might strike you as a strange place to start,

but I think this is really important.

If we are going to love those around us,

we need to focus on being healthy as people.

I don't know about you.

I'm pretty sure I do know about you,

but I'll speak for myself.

When I am exhausted,

when I am tired,

when I haven't been getting enough sleep,

when I am overworked or overstressed,

I'm not always the most pleasant person to be around.

Get a little more snappy,

a little more short-tempered,

a little bit less gracious.

So I know that if I am going to love the people around me well,

I also need to be a healthy person.

I need to take care of myself.

Enter the spiritual discipline of sleep.

Some of you are like practicing that hardcore this morning.

I'm just kidding.

I don't see anyone sleeping, but it could happen.

We want to take care of ourselves

so that we are in a place where we can better

let the love of God flow through us

without our own sinful nature

getting in the way of our own self-care.

We take care of ourselves.

Jesus did this all the time.

I love this story of Jesus on the boat

when the storm kicks up

and the disciples are freaking out

and what's going on and it's chaos

and they're looking for Jesus

and he's sleeping in the bottom of the boat.

Yeah, he knew everything was going to be okay.

Yeah, he's God.

He can get up and calm the storm,

but also Jesus knew the value of being well-rested.

We see him regularly getting away from the crowds

when there are pressing needs

so that he can care for his own soul

and nurture his own relationship with the Father.

And in so doing, he offers a model for us as well

to take care of ourselves

so that we can take care of other people.

So practice self-care.

That's the first bit of advice I would give us.

The second one sounds a little bit like the opposite

and that's to practice self-denial.

Now, I think we can do these two things at the same time.

We don't have to pick one or the other.

They can often go hand in hand.

We need to practice self-denial

and I use the word practice very intentionally

because we don't just need to practice.

We need to practice self-denial.

We need to naturally become the kind of people

who find ourselves wanting to sacrifice for other people.

This is something we have to work at.

And one of the ways that we can work at it

is by in small ways denying ourselves of things

that we don't have to.

This could be through the practice of fasting

where we deny our bodies food,

something that we need

in order to, among other things,

practice this ability to say no to our own desires,

to say,

this can wait.

It could be generosity

where we sacrifice our money

for the sake of another or another cause

or we sacrifice our time.

There are various ways to do this

but we can practice regularly and repeatedly

self-denial in small ways

so that when the big opportunity comes up

and we find the man on the road,

we are practiced at giving ourselves to other people.

So that's another way.

We can practice self-care.

We can practice self-denial.

And the third,

the last thing I would say

is that we can practice bringing the love of God,

God's love for us, that is,

into our conscious awareness,

reminding ourselves of the things that we know to be true,

that God loves us so deeply

that he sent his son Jesus to die for us.

John, in his epistle,

writes about the priority of God's love

and being loved by God

that comes before our own ability to love.

1 John 4, 10 through 11 says this.

In this is love, not that we have loved God

but that he loved us

and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another.

What John's saying is that the key

to being the kind of people

who are more full of love for God

and love for other people

is to first open our hearts up

to receive the love of God.

And as God's love for us flows into our hearts,

as we remind ourself of this truth over and over,

we allow it to sink deeper into our hearts

and into our lives

so that it overflows in love for God

and in love for the people around us.

We don't become better at loving people

by just trying really hard to be more loving.

We start first by receiving the love of God for us

so that that love,

can flow out of us up towards him and to those around us.

One of the ways that we practice bringing the idea

of the love of God back into our conscious awareness

is by coming to the communion table.

This is a practice that Jesus gave his first disciples

and have been passed down through generations to us today.

Where Jesus, as he was gathered in the upper room

with his disciples on the night before he would be betrayed,

he took bread and he blessed it.

He broke it and he poured wine in cups

and he passed it around.

And he said, this bread is my body, which is broken for you.

This cup is my blood, which is poured out for you.

And then he says, do this, that is take these elements

as often as you do in remembrance of me.

The biblical idea of remembrance

is not reminding ourselves of something

that we have forgotten, but rather,

bringing into our conscious awareness

something that we already know to be true

so that it can work its way out into our lives.

Jesus says, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to remember what you already know to be true,

to bring it into your conscious awareness

so that the reality of the love of God

can sink deeper into our hearts and souls.

And so we're going to do that this morning.

We're gonna come and take communion together.

And as we do, my invitation to you is that,

we're gonna come and take communion together.

And as we do, my invitation to you is that,

you might just use this as an opportunity

to remind yourself of what you already know to be true,

which is that God loves you.

God loves you so deeply

that Jesus loved you enough to give up his life

for the forgiveness of your sins

so that you could be with him forever.

If you're sitting in the main sections here,

you'll be dismissed by road to come forward.

You can take a cracker, dip it in the juice,

or take the prepackaged elements if you prefer.

If you're in one of the wings,

as soon as I'm done praying,

you can come forward and receive the elements

whenever you're ready.

Would you join me in prayer?

Lord, we pray that by your grace,

we would become people who overflow with love

for those around us,

that we could truly love our neighbor as ourself.

Easy to say, hard to do.

Spirit, we need you to come in and do the job.

We need you to come in and do the deep work.

We pray, Lord, now that as we take communion,

the bread and the juice,

that we'd be reminded of your self-giving love for us,

that you gave up your life for us, Lord Jesus.

We are so grateful.

Would you allow that truth to sink deep into our hearts,

deep into our souls,

so that we could overflow with love for you

and for the world?

We ask this.

We ask this in your name.

Amen.