Why Should I Care About My Neighbor? Luke 10:24-37 Rev. Min J. Chung (Friday Night Large Group, November 9 th, 2018) Luke 10:24-37 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said to him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? 27 And he answered, You shall love the Lord y6 our 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. 28 And he said to him, You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live. 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 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. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 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. 35 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. 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? 37 He said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You go, and do likewise. Introduction There was a story in California of a man named John Chen and his wife Stella. John was 62 years old and Stella was 63. They migrated to California in 1979 as Cambodian refugees. They ran a donut shop in Seal Beach California called Donut City for 3 decades. They worked every morning until Stella suffered brain aneurysm (a brain aneurysm is an abnormal bulge in the wall of an artery in the brain). Although customers of Donut City wanted to financially help, John was unwilling to accept donations. What John wanted was not more money but more time to spend time with Stella who was at a rehabilitation center. So, the customers found another way to help the Chens. They spread the word to buy donuts by a dozen instead of only buying one donut. Therefore, Donut City started closing as early as 7:30 am when its regular hours were from 4:30 am to 2:00 pm, allowing John to spend more time with Stella. Everyone feels warm in their hearts when they hear stories like this. Stories about people s sacrifices and cares for others have power. Through this parable, Luke 10:24-37, we are going to answer the question of why should I care about my neighbor?
I. We are created to care for our neighbors [25-27] 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said to him, What is written in the Law? How do you read it? 27 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. Lawyer meant teacher of the Law and he was testing Jesus because he felt he knew the Law better than Jesus. As deduced from the lawyer s question in verse 25, he believed eternal life was inherited by works. It is important to note that whenever a person in the Gospel of Luke is mentioned, Luke is concurrently referring that every person is included in the fallenness of humanity. Essentially, even the lawyer who knows the Word of God and lives to keep the Law is still included in the fallenness of humanity. Luke 3:38 - the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God Luke 3:38 refers to two sons of God. The first son is Adam who failed and fell into sin and the second son is Jesus Christ who saved humanity. God created man for the purposes of loving, glorifying, and representing Him. However, man sinned by wanting to glorify himself. Knowing this, the lawyer asks what he can do to inherit eternal life. Essentially, he is asking what he can do to save himself from fallen humanity or what he can do to become what God created him to be. Jesus responds in verse 28 that one must keep everything in the Law. The summary of the Law is to love God and to love people as summarized by the lawyer in verse 27. We are created to love God and to love other people. Even if one disagrees with the purpose of why God created man, the world values the beauty of love. There are two things the world claims as beautiful. First beauty is physical beauty whether in nature or in a person. We enjoy physical beauty because it mainly gives us selfish pleasure. Second beauty is sacrificial love as heard in the California story. The world also considers genuine intention of love for other people as beautiful. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible which states that whatever one does without the genuine intention of love is meaningless. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Verse 1 says that without love, one cannot pray to God. Verse 2 says that without love, one s words for other people will have no power. Verse 3 says that without love, one can be selfish in one s sacrificially giving or even die for someone out of selfish gains.
Imagine if a husband on Valentine s Day gives his wife a bouquet of flowers while complaining, I guess I have to give this to you because it s Valentine s Day. Who would gladly accept those flowers? But that s what we do all the time with God and with others. We selfishly do things because there is more pleasure and less pain. However, in Luke 10:25-27, Jesus implies that we are created to care for our neighbors. We are created to love God and to love people with the right intentions and motives. So, is it possible for us to love people with the right intentions and motives? II. We need to see that we are incapable of caring for our neighbors [28-32] 28 And he said to him, You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live. 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 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. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. The lawyer asks what he can do to receive eternal life. For the lawyer, the basis of love was doing something. However, Jesus responds that in addition to doing or keeping the essence of the Law, which is to love God and to love people, he must do it with the right intentions and motives in his heart. You can t just do the act of loving, you must have the intention of loving. Jesus illustrates what he means by doing with the right intention in one s heart through the parable in verse 30. The purpose of the parable is to illuminate human being s incapability to love apart from God. When Luke says a man he symbolically means humanity or every human being. Jesus describes the most religious people as a priest and a Levite. In verse 31, the priest sees the half dead person and passes him by on the other side of the road. The priest is keeping the Law because the Law says that one cannot touch a dead body or blood as a religious figure. If one does, you become unclean. The Levite, a helper of a priest, also keeps the Law and passes by on the other side of the road. Through these examples, Jesus says that one can keep the Law like the priest and the Levite while not keeping the intent of the Law. They failed to keep the Law because they failed to love. The purpose of this parable was to show our incapability to save ourselves because our inability to keep the Law. Not even the best of us, the priest and Levite, can keep even one law completely. Let s examine two words from 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 to see how there are selfish desires and motives in our hearts. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; The first word is patient. Verse 4 says that love is patient which does not necessarily mean that patience is love. As an example, a tall kid slaps a short kid s face and the short kid does not slap the tall kid back because he believes that love is patient. The short kid is
not loving the tall kid by being patient. Rather, he is loving himself because if he is not patient, he will most likely experience more pain from the tall kid. Whether it is the tall kid or the short kid and whether there is loss or gain in a certain situation, one must be consistently patient. If not, we are breaking the Law because we are selfish in our hearts and love ourselves. The second word is resentful. Verse 5 says that love is not resentful. Not resentful means not counting or not accumulating the wrongdoings of other people and rather, focuses on forgiveness. One does not become resentful because one learns to forgive, and forgiveness is a subset of love. Matthew 6:14-15 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The essence of verses 14 and 15 is that we are incapable to forgive, to care, or to love others apart from God s grace. These verses are not talking about receiving salvation by one s forgiveness of others or the condition of receiving God s forgiveness through one s forgiveness of others. Instead, the verses state that one can never forgive others apart from receiving God s grace in His forgiveness. To receive God s forgiveness, one must have a repentant heart. Only then, our hearts can soften to others who sin against us because we now have the power of God living in us. One s ability to forgive others is the proof that one has received God s forgiveness, not the condition of forgiveness. There is no such thing as genuine love in the world apart from the love of God. The motives of our hearts in our sacrificial giving are essentially for ourselves. Only the foreign love of God in our hearts can propel us to love. III. We must realize that we absolutely need a neighbor [33-36] 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 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. 35 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. 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? Luke 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In verse 29, the lawyer s focus was on someone in need. However, in verse 36, Jesus s focus was on the one who was helping. Jesus calls the Samaritan who helps the man as the neighbor. One possibility of why Jesus answers this way is to say rather than seeing who is in need, you need to focus on yourself as a helper; become someone loving because everyone is in need. The second possibility is that Jesus may be pointing out that the lawyer is the one who is in need and that he needs a Samaritan to come and help. You
are incapable of helping yourself, you need a Samaritan. When you ask, How can I love? You can t. You first need to be loved. Who is a Samaritan? A Samaritan is a half Jew and a half Gentile. About 400 years ago during the Babylonian captivity, some Jews lost their racial purity through the intermarriage with Syrian invaders. Through a Samaritan, Jesus is physically illustrating the union between God and man. Someone who consisted of both the nature of God and the nature of man needed to save humanity. Jesus had both human nature and divine nature and was The Samaritan. Verse 33 says the Samaritan journeyed, which depicts how Jesus journeyed from heaven to earth to save those who were in sin and in depravity. Jesus came to where we were. Like the Samaritan in the parable, Jesus was The Samaritan who came and showed the ultimate compassion to those in need of saving. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, The characteristics described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 personify love. Paul pictured a loving person and that person was Jesus. Corinthians 12 and 14 talk about the body of Christ or the church of Jesus Christ. When we read chapters 12 and 14 in conjunction with chapter 13, we see that Paul is underlining the body of Christ to picture Jesus. All the Laws point to Jesus Christ and showing us how we can be like Jesus Christ. Luke 10:24 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Verse 24 is essentially saying everyone in the Old Testament was trying to see Jesus. Verse 25 begins with And behold. In other words, see Jesus. Jesus the Samaritan, who came to die on our behalf so that we can become loving people like Christ. IV. We are called to care for our neighbors through His power [37] 37 He said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You go, and do likewise. A. Our calling to care for our neighbor Luke 10:36-37 - 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? 37 He said, The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, You go, and do likewise. In verse 37, Jesus tells the lawyer to go and be a merciful neighbor. Likewise, we are called to be neighbors to those around us. We are Samaritans called to picture The Samaritan who saved us. This is the message of the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 13:5-6 - 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Not being resentful means not counting the record of wrongs. Paul says not to count the record of wrongs as he also writes in Romans that God does not count the record of wrongs for those who are justified in Christ. In other words, you can go to God again and again and again because Jesus Christ s blood never runs out. When we show that kind of love with the power of God in our hearts, we are powerfully delivering the forgiving grace of God to the world. When we do everything by the power of God, it will show some aspect of Jesus to the world. That is the kind of power we can have when we have love. 1 Corinthians 13:6 shows the aspect of justice, which is widely used for social justice causes. Justice ministry seeks to alleviate sin, and mercy ministry seeks to show love to those in need. i. Theological justice: Mercy and justice of God The Biblical reason why we participate in justice ministry is to show God s attributes to those in need. God is both loving and holy. ii. Self-justice: Repentance and faith Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? The context for Micah 6:8 is that Israelites were living unjustly. Therefore, to do justice means to first repent of your own sinful hearts before showing mercy and loving kindness to others. Biblical call to justice is first and foremost self-justice. iii. Comprehensive justice: balanced in ordinary and extra ordinary justice Many ministries talk about extra-ordinary justice works, which include works like fighting against sex trafficking and partaking in adoption. These are works that people must prayerfully choose to partake in or not. Because if you partake in these things, you are choosing to say no to a different ministry. However, there are ordinary justice works that everyone should be involved in. Justice work at its essence is showing the love of God. There are many small things we can do to alleviate sin such as discipling children as parents or helping a poor family member or friends in need. We want to be balanced as the church between extra-ordinary and ordinary justice work.
iv. Preview justice: the perspective of temporary and eternal justice Every justice work is temporary, and the purpose of each work is to show that eternal justice is coming. You do your best because God will make everything right in the end. Do not try to be God, rather you are called to introduce God. v. Gospel justice: leading them to repentance and faith Our justice should always be centered around the Gospel justice. We point others not only to the eternal justice but also to the Gospel justice so that they can be led to repentance. We need to care about not only the poor but also the rich. Only wanting the abused to be saved and not the abuser suggests that you yourself do not know what you deserve or what you were saved from. If we received eternal forgiveness from God, then we should want every human being to also receive eternal forgiveness. B. Our growth in caring for our neighbor i. Repent 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Replace the words love and it with your name. Always examine ourselves in the mirror of the Scripture while remembering that God doesn t count the records of our wrongs ii. Rely It s about glorification. Replace the words love and it with the name of Jesus. Keep on repenting and relying on him for strength. You become who you behold, so keep your eyes on Jesus. iii. Repeat Keep doing it. Repeat. These attributes are not nouns but verbs in the original language. A loving person keeps on being patient and kind. When you fail to be patient, you go back to Jesus and try again. You keep on doing it until you become a loving person like Jesus. When you need His strength, He will give you more so that you may continually to grow. Jesus has given us His DNA through the Spirit. As we care for people, we will become like the one who cares for us.
1 Corinthians 13:10-11 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. Paul talks about imperfection and perfection as well as a child and a grown man. When you are predominantly selfish, you are imperfect. But as you become more like Jesus and grow in your spirit s nature, you are becoming more perfect. When you are selfish, you cannot control your selfish desire like a child. As you fight your heart and grow in your spirit, you become more like a man and a woman of God. We need to pray, Lord, help me to grow up to be like Jesus. The more we become like Him, the more we can lead others to Him. Can we dare to become the people that refuse to live in fear. Can we live in defiance against our discouragement? People that do not let pain stop them from loving people? Only if we live by God s supernatural grace and alien power will others see Jesus through us. Conclusion [Video on a husband loving his wife who has multiple sclerosis] On the couple s tenth anniversary, Carl Gilbertson enlisted the help of students representing Liverpool Media Academy to surprise his wife Laura with flowers and a song called Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. Laura was seen weeping as she heard the song because she probably knew that she cannot really do much for him due to her condition. We are similar in the fact that we cannot really do much for God and yet, He loves us. All we can do is love Him and do the little things in our lives to show His love to the world. That is why we need to care about our neighbors.