The Great Commandment: Luke 10:25-37

 

The great commandment is also found in Mark 12 when a question is asked, "How can I  have eternal life?'  This is also in Matthew 22:34.  The parable we'll examine this morning, the parable of the Good Samaritan, probably comes in second place to the parable of the Prodigal Son.  It's a close second.  This is an important reading for us.  When I study the Bible it helps for me to check three boxes:

1) I need to be careful to read the passage in its entirety.  I need to observe the text in it's context.  Who are the characters?   What's the context?  This is a familiar story we are examining this morning and because it's familiar we can lose it's meaning.

2) The second box I check when I read Scripture is interpretation.  What's it mean?  Where is my curiosity stirred?  What questions come to me?  What does this passage teach me about God?  About humanity?  About who Jesus is?  What does God want me to know and do?  First I make observations and then interpretation.

3)  Finally I move to application.  I ask the question, "So what?"  What does this mean for me?  Does this challenge me to look at myself?  To look at God?  How does this passage move me to respond to God?  I hope this morning we can have fresh eyes to look at this passage together.

There's a danger in reading a passage out of context.  Notice in Luke's Gospel there's an attention to self-justification.  There's trouble with an expert in the law, an attorney.  Attorneys were experts in the law and this attorney knew the first five books of the Old Testament, the Law.  Jesus knows this attorney knows the law.  The attorney comes to test Jesus but he finds himself concerned as he is cornered by his own question.  He's looking for a theological loophole to justify himself.  Let's not throw too many stones just yet because we do this all the time.  We are all the attorney and this happens all the time.

I do a lot of weddings and years ago I was in Stokes County, where I'm from.  A bride to be took something out of context.  She asked me, "Are you gonna so that smitten thing?"  I didn't know what she was talking about.  I asked her if she can repeat her question.  In Stokes County, sometimes we make up words.  Sometimes my dad made up words on the farm that I couldn't repeat at the dinner table!  I finally realized this bride was asking me about submission.  I asked her if she's read Ephesians 5:21 where Paul tells all of us to submit to God.  This falls upon the leader of the home.  Once I cleaned up the context for her she understood.  We need to be careful that we read in context.

Verse 25 is the point of this parable.  This is a good feeling story.  If you do not read this in context it can give the impression that religion can lead us to self-justification.  The Good News, the Gospel, leads us to die to self.  Jesus asked about 150 questions in the Bible.  Jesus wants you and I and the hearers to discern something deeper.  The attorney's motives are exposed.  Jesus was being tested.  There's a red flag.  The attorney knows the law and is trying to trick Jesus.  The crowds that followed Jesus grew in size.  People were trying to hurt Jesus.  Good conversations are led by good questions.

What's the focus of the parable?  Now we come to the application part.  What will I do with this?  It's a feel good story, so I'll go help people.  Paul says we are not saved by good works but FOR good works.  The expert in the law wanted compassion without repentance.  If he was really seeking God he would have asked, "How can I be a better or more loving neighbor?"  In Luke 18 a tax collector asked God to have mercy on him, a sinner.  The religious pray lofty prayers, but we can pray, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  Some think they have all the right theological answers.  None of us can follow the law perfectly.  The bridge we need to help us live better is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ loved us first and His grace enables us to do what the attorney missed.  Jesus makes right our imperfections.  God makes it right.

The last several months we've been working on finding a way to live a new normal.  We've had some imperfect times.  I remember when I got a call about a funeral.  We had eight funerals in 6-7 weeks.  I went to a home where a father died and his children were there.  I had trained myself not to touch anyone.  When I arrived I asked if it was ok to enter the house, or to meet on the porch.    We met on the back porch and the daughter was so stricken with grief she was wailing in tears.  I folded my hands together.  I had my mask on.  I heard her grief.  She almost fell to the floor but her brother came to help her up.  When I left it hit me as I drove home that I never touched her.  I missed the ministry of touch.  Yes, I need to respect the virus and I do.  Sometimes God makes us perfect when we are imperfect.  Did I miss something?  I went back the next day to plan the funeral.  One of the daughters talked about her father for over 20 minutes, how he was going to teach her to drive a stick shift.  After she spoke the wailing began.  This time I sat my water bottle down; I put my phone in my pocket and I laid my hands on the grieving daughter.  God made it right.  God took my imperfections and made them right.  We don't always touch people, but God gives His people the nudge they need when they need it.  Christ loved us first. and enables us to respond to Him.  God makes our imperfections right.  My last question today is, "When might your next roadside call be?"

Sermon notes are taken, transcribed and posted by Jeni Martin Johnson.  Sermon by Mark Hall.