September 10 2006 Lectionary Reading

Reading: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and with all your mind: and love your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10.27 (NIV)

Haddon Robinson is a very well known preacher in the United States, and he tells the story of how he and his son, Tory, were coming back from Church one Sunday morning. What story did you have in Sunday School this morning Tory ? he asked his son. We had the story of the Good Samaritan, said the boy. What was it about ? his father replied. Tory went on to tell the story, blow, by blow. His dad says, he seemed more enthusiastic about the robbers than about anybody else in the story !

When he had finished, Haddon Robinson said to his son – Now - what was that story all about ? What does it mean ? Tory paused for a moment and then said “The story of the Good Samaritan means – whenever I’m in trouble you’ve got to help me………!”

His dad says – well, that’s one way of looking at it !

You and I have heard the story of the Good Samaritan very many times, in Sunday School, Bible Class, and in morning services.

But sometimes when we hear a thing often, it actually becomes more difficult to grasp because it has become so familiar,

we have to make the effort to hear it afresh, to hear it as new……..

This is what we do as we listen to the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Actually, when we read Luke’s gospel, we find that the story we know as the Good Samaritan is in two parts….

first, there is a discussion between Jesus and a lawyer

second, Jesus tells the story….. of the man who was helped by a Samaritan.

First the discussion:

A young lawyer comes to Jesus, a young man with a very sharp mind, and asks a direct question; What must I do to receive eternal life ? Now this question is only a beginning– the young lawyer has a whole set of questions to follow, depending on the Lord’s answer.

In return, Jesus asks this young lawyer what he thought, What do you think you should do to inherit eternal life ?

The lawyer replies Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and with all your mind: and love your neighbour as yourself.

You are right, replied Jesus. These are life giving, life bringing words. Do them and you will find life.

But then the lawyer asks: Yes but Who is my neighbour ?

And so it is we come to the second part of the passage, where Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.

Those listening would immediately identify with what Jesus was talking about:

Professor Willie Barclay tells us that:

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notoriously dangerous in those days. In the space of less that 20 miles, the road dropped three and a half thousand feet on its way down to Jericho. It was a narrow road, of sudden turnings, with cliffs and rocks on either side. So that small groups of bandits could easily lie in wait. Even in the fifth century Jerome tells us that it was called the Red or Bloody way. Up to a hundred years ago it was still necessary to pay the local Sheikhs a backhander before you could travel on it, and H.V. Morton tells how, in the 1930s a bandit called Abu Jildah was holding up cars and robbing travellers and tourists on the road. So this road ran right through bandit territory, Mafia country. To travel along it, you always went with a group, if you wanted to guarantee safety.

The poor traveller in the story, was on his own.

What he most fears – happens - he is attacked by robbers and left lying for dead.

First a priest comes by, hurrying on his way to the Temple. For two good reasons, he does not stop, he cannot touch the man, for if the man is dead, then the priest will be unclean and cannot enter the Temple. This would disrupt the Temple schedules, and the priest’s whole journey would be pointless. He wouldn’t be able to take part in worship.

A Levite, a man who assisted in the day to day management of the Temple, came by next. He stopped to look, but not for long, pressing on towards Jerusalem.

Finally, a travelling salesman comes by, he uses this road a lot, we know this since he knows the innkeeper further along the road very well. The Samaritan picks up the wounded man, bandages his wounds, pours oil and vinegar on them to clean them, puts the wounded man on his donkey and takes him to the inn, so that he can recover. The Samaritan is a busy man, but leaves enough money with his friend the innkeeper for the cost of the wounded man’s stay.

Jesus then asks the lawyer a question:

Out of those three – the priest, the levite and the Samaritan, which one was a neighbour, to the wounded man ?

The one who was kind to him, helped him, showed compassion… says the lawyer.

You, then, go and do the same, says Jesus.

Jesus has turned the lawyer’s question round….

The question is not – who is my neighbour, who should I help ?

But, am I a neighbour to those who need me ?

Jesus says:

Go and do the same, as that kindly, compassionate, Samaritan man.

Show kindness, love, to those who need your help.

Jesus says: Show kindness to the wounded, to those bruised and battered by life,

take time for the lonely, the bereaved, the dying,

Rather than avoiding the needs of the other,

be generous in spirit, be generous in your care for others.

This is the call of Jesus Christ to us.

Back in January 1994, Rush Yarnell was driving through rush hour traffic in Detroit, with the icy wind blowing the temperature had plummeted to minus 50 degrees. He just happened to glance in his rearview mirror and saw a little boy collapse on the snow-covered pavement. Without thinking twice, Yarnell, a member of a Lutheran Church in Michigan, crossed four lanes of traffic, and made two U-turns before stopping right in the middle of the road. Running from his car, he picked up the African American boy, his hands had turned completely white.

"I thought he was dead," Yarnell recalled.

Despite blaring horns and motorists' shouts, he carried 9-year-old Darrin Harvey to his car and sped to the closest police station. The police immediately transported the boy to the hospital.

Darrin's mother arrived, looking everywhere for him, after he had set off home from school alone, instead of waiting for her.

After eight days in the hospital and the threat of losing his hands to frostbite, Darrin made a full recovery.

This is the call of Jesus Christ to us.

It is simple, straightforward, direct……

Show kindness, love, to those who need your help.

Jesus says: Show kindness to the wounded, to those bruised and battered by life, take time for the lonely, the bereaved, the dying,

Rather than avoiding the needs of the other,

be generous in spirit, be generous in your care for others.

This is the call of Jesus Christ to us.

It is simple, straightforward, direct……

I know for many of you, that this is what you are doing already.

You are already answering the call of Jesus Christ……

showing kindness, love to those who need your help.

May the Lord bless you in what you are doing………

for you are answering the call of Jesus in your own life – this is what He calls you to, this is the way you are serving Him.

showing kindness, love to those who need your help

Now - we noticed earlier on, that the verses we read in Luke chapter 10 are in two parts:

we read there the story of the Good Samaritan…..

but first, there was a discussion between Jesus and the young lawyer about much wider things.

Let’s go back to that discussion for just a moment…….. because it is very important too.

What was that early discussion about ?

It was about these words:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and with all your mind: and love your neighbour as yourself.

We read in the gospels of Matthew and Mark that the Lord considered

the command to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and with all your mind: as the most important comman of all.

and the second most important was to:

love your neighbour as yourself.

There are indeed truly great depths of truth, gospel truth here:

Take these words first: we are to Love the Lord your God with all our heart, all our strength, and with all our mind:

John, in one of his letters, tells us that our love for God has its source, first and foremost, in His love for us.

This is what love is: says John,

that God first loved us and sent His Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

Our love for God springs clear, and deep,

out of His love for us,

because He first loved us:

That’s why John can say:

Whoever loves, knows God.

But he then goes on to say:

Christ gave His life for us. We too, then ought to give our lives for others…….

And says John, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in what it does.

Let’s put this in a few words:

From God’s faithful love for us comes the love that we have for Him,

And from God’s faithful love for us comes the love that we show others.

This is the way of Jesus.

The life of love that He calls us to

John again: This is how we know what love is, Christ gave Himself for us……

What does all this mean ?

Well, to show kindness to the wounded, to those bruised and battered by life, to the dying, is not easy, it is often very hard and demands a lot from us.

It would be so much easier to wash our hands of the thing, and go on our own way – avoiding the issue. To be generous in spirit, generous in care, to love others, following Jesus Christ can sometimes be thankless, and hard.

But look at Jesus,

Living, moment to moment, in the Father’s love, walking within the light of the Father’s love all His life, we see our Lord Jesus finding in the Father’s love, the strength to live, the strength to love others.

It is in the Father’s, unfailing, steadfast love,

that we will find, the strength to live, the strength to love others, with Christ.

AMEN.