February 8, 2015 ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON SERVING NEIGHBORS, SERVING GOD MINISTRY INVOCATION O God: We give thanks to You for the manifold blessings to us. You did not have to bless us but You did. We shall remain eternally grateful. Amen. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND The parable of the good Samaritan teaches that when the faithful serve their neighbors, they serve God. THE APPLIED FULL GOSPEL DISTINCTIVE We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost for all believers and that the Holy Ghost verifies and validates the Believer as part of the Body of Christ. TEXT: Background Scripture Luke 10:25-34 Key Verse Luke 10: 36-37 Lesson Scripture Luke 10: 25-37 Luke 10:25 37 (NKJV) How to Inherit Eternal Life 25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? 27 So he answered 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. 28 And He said to him, You have answered rightly; do this and you will live. Parable of the Good Samaritan 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? 30 Then Jesus answered and said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and 1
he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, 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? 37 And he said, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. COMMENTARY Verse 25. And, behold, a certain lawyer. It seems probable that in St. Luke s general account of our Lord s teaching during the six months which immediately preceded the last Passover, certain events took place at a short visit which Jesus paid to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Dedication. This question of the lawyer was probably asked on the occasion of this visit, and the little episode connected with the Bethany family of Lazarus took place at the same period. The lawyer is sometimes termed scribe. There is little difference between these appellations. They were professional teachers and expounders of the Mosaic Law and of the vast complement of traditional sayings, which had gathered round it. As the whole life of the people at this period was ruled and guided by the Law, this profession of scribe and lawyer was an important and influential one. Stood up. The Master was evidently teaching in a house or a courtyard of a house. Many were sitting round him. To attract his attention, this lawyer stood up before putting his question to Jesus. And tempted him; that is to say, tested Him and His skill in answering questions out of that Law which was the rule and guide of daily life in Israel. It is not unlikely that the lawyer hoped to convict the broad and generous Rabbi of some unorthodox statement, which would injure His reputation as a Teacher. It was a hard and comprehensive question - this query how eternal life was to be won - and possibly one carefully prepared by the enemies of Jesus, Verse 26. He said unto him, What is written is the Law? The Lord replied, perhaps pointing to one of the phylacteries, which the lawyer wore on his forehead and wrist. These phylacteries were little leather boxes In these leather boxes were little parchment rolls containing certain texts from the Pentateuch. Certainly the first of the two great rules, that concerning God, was one of these texts (Deut. 6:5); possibly, but not certainly, the second concerning the neighbor formed another text. Verse 28. This do, and thou shalt live. The learned Jew was evidently confounded at the Galilean Rabbi s first answer referring him to the sacred Mosaic Law. His perplexity is increased by the Lord s quiet repartee when He had rehearsed the two duties, to his God and his neighbor, This do, and thou shalt live. It seems as though the clever, unfriendly critic of Jesus of Nazareth 2
forgot the hostile purpose with which he stood up to question, and, really conscience-stricken, willing to justify himself, in real good faith put the query which called out the famous parable. Verse 29. And who is my neighbor? The self-righteous, but probably rigidly conscientious, Jewish scholar, looking into the clear, truthful eyes of the Galilæan Master he had been taught to hate as the enemy of his own narrow, lightless creed, was struck, perhaps for the first time, with the moral beauty of the words of his own Law. Of the first part, his duty towards God, as far as his poor distorted mind could grasp the idea, he was at ease in his conscience. The tithe, down to the anise and cummin, had been scrupulously paid; his fasts had been rigidly observed, his feasts carefully kept, his prayer-formulas never neglected. Yes; as regards God, the Pharisee-lawyer s conscience was at ease! But his neighbor? He thought of his conduct towards that simple, truthful-looking Galilean Rabbi, Jesus, that very day; trying to trip Him up in His words, longing to do him injury injury to that worn-looking, loving Man who had never done him any harm, and who, report said, was only living to do others good. Was He, perchance, his neighbor? So, vexed and uneasy but it seems in perfect honesty now, and in good faith he asks this further question, Master, tell me, who do you teach should be included in the term neighbor? Verse 30. And Jesus answering said. For reply, the Master told him and the listening by-standers the parable-story we know so well as the good Samaritan the parable. The story was one of those parables especially loved by Luke (and Paul), in which instruction is conveyed, not by types, but by example. It was very probably a simple recital of a fact, which had happened, and at some period in the Lord s life had come under his own observation. The local scenery, the characters of the story, would all lead to the supposition that the parable was spoken in or near Jerusalem. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. We are not told who the traveler was, Jew or Gentile; not a word about his rank, descent, or religion; simply that he was a man, a human being. It seems, however, from the whole tone of the story, most probable that the wounded traveler was a Jew. The way he was travelling was the road leading down from Jerusalem to Jericho, a distance of twenty-one miles not the only way, but the most direct. It was a rugged, rocky pass, well adapted for the purposes of thieves and desperadoes, and was known, owing to the many dark deeds of which it had been the scene, as The Way of Blood. The Lord s words tell the story. The traveler, likely enough a Jew peddler, had fallen among thieves, who had robbed him, and then had left their victim dying or dead, what cared they? lying in the pass. 3
Verse 31. There came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Both the priest and Levite were frequent travelers along this road between the capital and Jericho. Jericho was especially a city of priests, and when the allotted service or residence time at the temple was over, these would return naturally to their own homes. It has been remarked that the grave censure, which this story levels at the everyday want of charity on the part of priests and Levites, fills up what would otherwise have been a blank in the Master s many-sided teaching. Nowhere else in the gospel narrative do we find our Lord taking up the attitude of censor of the priestly and Levitical orders. We have little difficulty in discovering reasons for this apparently strange reticence. They were still the official guardians and ministers of his Father s house. In his public teaching, as a rule, He would refrain from touching these or their hollow, pretentious lives. Once, and once only, in this one parable did He dwell but even here with no severe denunciations, as in the case of scribes and Pharisees on the shortcomings of the priestly caste. The bitter woe was fast coming on these degenerate children of Aaron. No woe that the Christ could pronounce could be as crushing in its pitiless condemnation. The very reason for the existence of priest and Levite as priest and Levite would exist no longer. The selfish life of the doomed order, in which holiness seemed effectually to have been divorced from charity, is portrayed in the lifelike picture of the parable of the good Samaritan. Verse 32. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. They both, priest and Levite, shrank from the trouble and expense of meddling with the poor victim of the robbers; perhaps a cowardly fear of being identified with the robbers was mixed with these feelings. The whole of their conduct was inhuman, but not unnatural; how faithfully is it copied by multitudes of men and women professing Christianity now! The Levite s conduct was better and worse than his official superior s better, in that he did feel a little pity, and stopped to look, no doubt compassionately, on the sufferer; and worse, because he selfishly strangled the noble impulse in its birth, and passed on to his own place without so much as throwing a cloth over the poor maimed body to shelter it from the scorching sun or the cold night dew. Verse 33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. Now, for the sake of strong contrast, Jesus paints on his canvas the figure of one who, as a Samaritan, was as far removed as possible from being a neighbor to the sufferer (who, most probably, was a Jew) in the sense in which the Jewish lawyer would of himself understand the term neighbor. The Samaritan, hated of the Jews, and most probably, in common with the rest of his nation, hating them he, in his turn, 4
was journeying along the ill-omened Way of Blood; he too sees, like the priest, the form of the man, wounded perhaps to death, lying by the way, and, like the Levite, draws near to look on the helpless sufferer; but, unlike priest and Levite, stays by the wounded man, and, regardless of peril, trouble, or expense, does his best to help the helpless. Verses 34, 35. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. All these little tender details of the Samaritan s pitiful love are sketched in by a master-hand. There is first a noble, generous impulse, at once crystallized into a kindly brotherly act. Not satisfied with merely carrying out the first impulse, the Samaritan puts himself to inconvenience, perhaps to peril, and, after dressing the wounds, takes the wounded one along with him, provides lodging for him, and even takes care of the sick and friendless man s future. The wounded man was no rich and powerful merchant or noble that is clear from the necessity of the little provision which the Samaritan made for him at the inn when he went on his journey; probably just an itinerant Jew peddler. The piled-up acts of kindness were all clearly done to a poor stranger, without hope of recompense or reward. The life of that kindly man was evidently one, which finds its high but secret guerdon in the blessedness of its own deeds. The Master had been called by his bitter foes, in their blind rage, a Samaritan was he in any way picturing himself? To an inn. The Greek word is not the same as the inn of chapter 2:7. In Palestine at this period was to be found the Greek type of inn, where a host or landlord entertained the guests. Verses 36, 37. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said. He that showed mercy on him. The deep pathos of the little story, the meaning of which the trained-scholar mind of the lawyer at once grasped, went right home to the heart. The Jewish scribe, in spite of prejudice and jealousy, was too noble not to confess that the Galilean Master s estimate of a neighbor was the true one, and the estimate of the Jerusalem schools the wrong one; so at once he replies, He that showed mercy on him? Even then, in that hour of the noblest confession his lips had ever made, the lawyer trained in those strange and mistaken schools, could not force himself to name the hated Samaritan name, but paraphrases it in this form. The scene closes with the Lord s charge, Then imitate that act. Go, and do thou likewise. The parable thus answers the question Who is my neighbor? Any one, it replies, who needs help, and whom I have power and opportunity to help, no matter what his rank, race, or religion may be. Neighborhood is made 5
coextensive with humanity; any human being is my neighbor who needs aid, or to whom I can render aid. But it answers the other and the still larger and deeper question with which the scene which called the parable out began. Master, asked the lawyer (verse 25), what shall I do to inherit eternal life? What is the virtue which saves? The Scriptures teach that without holiness, no one shall see the Lord, that is, shall inherit eternal life; and in this parable two kinds of holiness are set before us. The spurious holiness is that of the priest and Levite, two officially holy persons; spurious holiness is sanctity divorced from charity. In the person of the Samaritan, the nature of true sanctity is exhibited; we are taught that the way to please God, the way to genuine holiness, is the practice of charity. The wounded traveler represents seats mankind at large, stripped by the devil and his angels; he is left by them grievously wounded, yet not dead outright. Priest and Levite were alike powerless to help. Moses and his Law, Aaron and his sacrifices, patriarch, prophet, and priest, these were powerless. Only the true Samaritan (Christ), beholding, was moved with compassion and poured oil into the wounds. RELATED DISCUSSION TOPICS CLOSING PRAYER My God: I am grateful to have found You and kept You in the forefront of my being. Bless us continually with Your grace and mercy. They represent bountiful blessings for all of us. Amen. 6