Luke 10:25-37

Transcript

00:00:00:34 – 00:00:23:34
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for closing out the week with us. I think a great passage today. Without a doubt. One of the best known stories in the scripture. If you talk to people who don’t know a great deal of Bible and maybe don’t consider themselves believers, there’s a good chance they still know something about this story.

00:00:23:42 – 00:00:52:37
Clint Loveall
It kind of works its way into almost our cultural language. We know it as the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s only found in Luke, which, as we’ve talked through, Luke, shouldn’t be real surprising. If there was a gospel that was going to add this or include this, I mean, it’s going to be Luke. Luke. This fits a lot of Luke’s ideas and a lot of Luke’s agenda, so I’ll read it briefly.

00:00:52:38 – 00:01:09:38
Clint Loveall
I probably don’t need to. I know you need you know this, but I’ll try to run through it here quickly. Then we’ll come back and unpack it. Just then, a lawyer stood up to test Jesus teacher. He said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What’s written in the law? How do you read it?

00:01:09:43 – 00:01:30:18
Clint Loveall
He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, You’ve given the right answer. Do that and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell into the hands of robbers.

00:01:30:23 – 00:01:50:08
Clint Loveall
They stripped him, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road when he saw him and he passed on the other side. So likewise a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near to him, and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.

00:01:50:13 – 00:02:08:03
Clint Loveall
He went to him, he bandage his wounds, he poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to the end and took care of him. The next day he took out to dinner I and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, Take care of him and when I come back I will repay whatever more you spend.

00:02:08:07 – 00:02:29:01
Clint Loveall
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell in the hands of robbers? And he said the one who showed mercy. Jesus said, Go and do likewise. So one of the important things off the front end of this is that we have to remember that the story here is bigger than the parable itself.

00:02:29:06 – 00:02:58:25
Clint Loveall
The occasion of the parable is vitally important in this. We have a lawyer, and that is to say, an expert in the law, not not an attorney, as we think of it, but a religious expert who stands up. And we’re specifically told he stands up to test Jesus. And if you’ve ever experienced this, somebody who is asking a question that isn’t really a question, they think they already know the answer and they’re trying to prove how much they know.

00:02:58:30 – 00:03:21:45
Clint Loveall
And so he calls Jesus teacher here and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And again, remember, this isn’t a real question. There is an ongoing debate about the answer to this question, and the lawyer already knows what side of the debate he’s on. But as typical Michael, Jesus kind of throws a wrench in it and he asks him what the man wants to say.

00:03:21:45 – 00:03:51:09
Clint Loveall
Anyway, Jesus turns this around. Probably very obvious that the man has an opinion. So he says, You know what? How do you read what’s written in the law? And this is a beautiful response for Jesus because it gives the man the opportunity to do what he wants. But it also sets I think Jesus, in a sense, is setting him up as a so-called expert.

00:03:51:14 – 00:04:03:20
Clint Loveall
The man now has to be the one that risks giving an answer. So Jesus is kind of sidestep, sidestep the trap, and he’s put the attention back on the man, which I think is really interesting in the text.

00:04:03:25 – 00:04:21:58
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And I think all the more interesting, Clint, not to go backwards and to deal with yesterday’s study. If you missed yesterday, go back and listen or watch that. But I do want to point out what Jesus said just previous to this. Clint, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. Many prophets and kings have desired but didn’t see it.

00:04:22:03 – 00:04:43:59
Michael Gewecke
Make no mistake about it. Now you have a lawyer, a teacher of the law, who should be right on top of the gospel. You should understand the Word of God and rightly here answers. I mean, it’s striking where Jesus says, Here you’ve given the right answer. That doesn’t happen very often in the gospels where a person is told, Yeah, you’ve answered correctly, here he has.

00:04:44:04 – 00:05:10:13
Michael Gewecke
But what Jesus is going to do is show how limited this man’s understanding of that correct answer actually is, because while that individual has come to test Jesus to trip Jesus up, inevitably, as we see is the case with Jesus over and over and over again, you think you’re arguing with Jesus on level one? Jesus has skipped level two, and he’s at level three already.

00:05:10:13 – 00:05:40:30
Michael Gewecke
And this happens over and over and over again in these debates and arguments with the religious leaders. And I think it connects in an interesting way with that previous text, because we had those very difficult woes against the majority Jewish cities. Right. And this idea here that the Jewish leader who should be the one who has the right answer and in fact, in this case, he does have the right answer, doesn’t have the whole right answer, that he’s been blinded to see how applicable the answer actually is.

00:05:40:30 – 00:06:07:39
Michael Gewecke
And, Clint, that I mean, we could stop right there without having the parable to follow and still find direct application. In modern Christianity, we live with the same temptation that we fixate on the technically correct answer and we missed the divinely appointed human answer. And the reality is it’s one thing to talk about who you forgive or who you love or who you care for.

00:06:07:44 – 00:06:26:58
Michael Gewecke
In abstract, it’s an entirely another thing to practice that across the boundaries that we create for ourselves. And that’s where Jesus is using this incredible rhetoric to allow the man to answer correctly to to laud him for that correct answer and then show how pitifully short his answer has has carried him.

00:06:27:10 – 00:06:47:42
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think there are two things here that are of interest to me. The first is that if if this text just stopped at verse 28, if we if for some if somehow this man could have just bitten off the next words, this would be called, you know, the story of the lawyer who got it. Yeah, yeah. Jesus.

00:06:47:47 – 00:07:14:49
Clint Loveall
Jesus said, That’s a great answer. Go do that. You’ll live. And he went and was happy. And we know him as a character who listened. Right. But that next verse wanting to justify himself, he does not want to allow to allow Jesus to be the one who speaks authoritatively. Right? Jesus has now taken the position of evaluating the man’s answer.

00:07:15:01 – 00:07:38:47
Clint Loveall
Yeah, that’s good. You said the right thing. Go do that. That puts Jesus in the driver’s seat in a way that this man is comfortable with because he sees himself as the one who should test as the one who has. So there is this there is this next phrase wanting to justify himself. And whenever we want to justify ourselves, we’re on dangerous ground.

00:07:38:47 – 00:08:00:39
Clint Loveall
So he asks the follow up question Who is my neighbor? In other words, what are the limits of my compassion? What are the limitations of what I need to do? Who is it that I don’t need to be merciful to? Who is it that I don’t need to love my neighbor as myself? Right. Love your neighbor as yourself.

00:08:00:39 – 00:08:26:40
Clint Loveall
Okay. Who is and isn’t included in that? And so on the on the heels of that, we get this response from Jesus that is this wonderful and famous parable. An unnamed man is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He gets robbed, he gets beaten. He’s left by the side of the road, terrible circumstance. And then you have a priest and a Levite.

00:08:26:40 – 00:09:01:00
Clint Loveall
The two representative categories of religious leaders in Jesus Day. And this parable has been so popular, Michael, there’s lots of there you can go read the you could spend the rest of the day reading commentary on this parable. Maybe they think the man is dead and therefore they would be unclean, unable to report to work. Maybe they think it’s a trap and that there are other bandits, that this man is a fake and there are other bandits waiting in the wings there.

00:09:01:04 – 00:09:33:09
Clint Loveall
There are excuses given, or at least rational, rational explanation given as to why they don’t stop. I would argue that while that stuff is interesting, it’s irrelevant. The parable only judges that they don’t stop. They see a person in need and they walk by and all the other information may help give an explanation to that. But I really think in some ways, ironically, it takes you further from the parables, meaning and not closer to it.

00:09:33:14 – 00:09:55:44
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that’s one of the scandalous parts of a parable like this actually clinched, is because when scholars turn to it, they look for all of these historically bound facts and ways of looking at the rhetoric or the story or the storytelling, and they look for how that might shed light on the particular aspect of the story.

00:09:55:44 – 00:10:14:11
Michael Gewecke
Like, for instance, just to add to that list, I once write in the commentary about how this is a real road and how everybody knew that on this real road, bandits were a real problem and this would have been something that would have been sort of in the common vernacular, right. The things that people are talking about, that coffee break.

00:10:14:11 – 00:10:37:30
Michael Gewecke
Right. And I think that’s what makes the parable so interesting is because no one who heard it originally would have found any of that necessary or helpful for understanding what Jesus is saying here. In other words, this is Jesus walking into a common experience that his hearers would have understood and then portraying with really a very economic use of words.

00:10:37:30 – 00:11:05:20
Michael Gewecke
There’s not a lot of story here, but with the little bit just introducing the hero characters, these religious leaders, and then this individual who quite frankly is outside the realm of responsibility in many of the folks, his understanding of the gospel, that then Jesus shows us that the well, sorry, I mean that about the Samaritan, the Samaritan who comes, the one who is the underdog of the story.

00:11:05:20 – 00:11:32:07
Michael Gewecke
In many ways, he’s the one outside of the round that anyone would have expected to get the answer right in the in the story itself. And we’re I think interpreting a parable like this today is difficult is because we struggle with the same question that the teacher of the law has. And that question is specifically Jesus, who is my neighbor in verse 29, Who’s the person inside the fold and who’s not?

00:11:32:07 – 00:11:58:24
Michael Gewecke
And we do today continue to spend a lot of energy and time on boundary questions like that. Who fits inside the circle, who doesn’t, who has made the cut? What is the morality or the guide that that cut can be made? And here Jesus simply looks beyond that and invites this teacher to see that He’s essentially looked for the argument in the wrong place.

00:11:58:24 – 00:12:22:58
Michael Gewecke
He’s looked to figure out who’s out instead of recognizing the surprising nature of who might be in. And that would be the same for us. And we could tell that same story for us. It wouldn’t be a road to Jericho. It might be the path down to Arnolds Park, and for us, it wouldn’t be a Levi, but it might be a pastor or another community leader who’s looked up to it, whatever it is, and however it gets translated into our time.

00:12:22:58 – 00:12:37:22
Michael Gewecke
The thing that makes this difficult, Clint, is that it’s all about the doing and not the philosophy. This isn’t moral ethics, this is So then what will you do? And Jesus is going to paint that picture in a way that is impossible to slither out of.

00:12:37:31 – 00:13:09:00
Clint Loveall
Well, I think Jesus flips the script here in two ways. The first is with the character Samaritan, which I think you probably are aware, Samaritans are not well considered by the Jews. They’re historically people who mixed Judaism with other people groups, so they are impure bloodline. So that sort of they were considered a half caste kind of thing, half class.

00:13:09:05 – 00:13:41:42
Clint Loveall
And so to to cast one of the Samaritans as the one who does the right thing is already going to be a problem for this religious leader to take the person that he looks down upon. And the clear answer to who’s outside the bounds. Everybody in Judaism agrees it’s the Samaritans and he takes the Samaritan, he being Jesus here and makes him the character that does all of these extravagant things.

00:13:41:42 – 00:14:03:52
Clint Loveall
He he spends money on this stranger. He bandages him. He takes a risk in helping him. He says, I’ll come back and pay. He checks on him and he he sees for his future. So that, of course, is a reversal that is very difficult. The other thing that he does is more subtle and in some ways may be more powerful.

00:14:03:57 – 00:14:36:33
Clint Loveall
Notice the perspective he’s asked the man, the lawyer, to take. Which of the ones do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? What he’s done here is asked this very confident, well-established, high class person to imagine himself as the one in the ditch, to imagine that he is the one in need, that rather than being the one determining who do I have to be good to?

00:14:36:37 – 00:14:59:40
Clint Loveall
The question for him is who would be good to me if I needed it? Who could I count on? What would it look like to be in the ditch and have the priest and Levite walk past and instead have a Samaritan be the one who helps and notice at the end scholars have made a big thing of this.

00:14:59:45 – 00:15:33:59
Clint Loveall
He he can’t bring himself or doesn’t bring himself to see Samaritan at the end. He can only say the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said, Go and do likewise. So now he’s been challenged to live up to the example of a low person, live up to the example of someone he considers beneath him. This is a humbling, humbling moment for the lawyer, and it is in some ways the true beauty of the way Jesus tells this parable, particularly the way he tells it to this man.

00:15:33:59 – 00:15:37:05
Clint Loveall
I think that’s part of what gives it its power.

00:15:37:10 – 00:16:10:48
Michael Gewecke
It’s powerful because of the position that Jesus puts this man in rhetorically. I think the thing that makes this parable continue to be so effective in our own faith in discipleship is because the parable speaks to us as clearly as it spoke to this teacher the same day. It is easy for us to imagine the circumstance in which we justify the action of not showing mercy for any laundry list of what would be inevitably a list of things that we think are good reasons.

00:16:10:53 – 00:16:37:09
Michael Gewecke
And the beauty of this parable is it includes a lot of nuance as it relates to humanity. This Samaritan, who everybody would have painted with a simple brush, this Samaritan has complexity. They have the money that they’re willing to give for this person. They have the time that they’re willing to give to make this happen. The even the willingness to accept the risk that those bandits might still be around.

00:16:37:13 – 00:17:05:38
Michael Gewecke
And yet, in the midst of the story, the nuance that’s forced back onto the teacher is do you see the world with the same kind of complexity of this person that you would dehumanize or that you would make? Very simple. Are you as complicated as that person is? And we all know how easy it is in our own lives for us to give in to our baser instinct, for us to categorize others, for us to paint them with a broad brush stroke.

00:17:05:38 – 00:17:27:11
Michael Gewecke
And here Jesus makes it clear it’s the eyes of compassion that matter. It’s not the rightness of our ethic. It’s not how much scripture we can quote or how advanced we can be in our religious community. It’s ultimately all going to boil down to that very simple two letter word that leads to as we have a translate in English, do do likewise.

00:17:27:16 – 00:17:45:48
Michael Gewecke
It’s the actual doing that Jesus has in mind. And it’s one thing to sit around the table and to Josh around the idea, you know what? What is the thing that I owe my neighbor? What happens if they do this and this? What is the limits of love? Look like? That’s a conversation that people have had for millennia.

00:17:46:03 – 00:18:07:43
Michael Gewecke
But Jesus is not interested in sitting and bantering through imaginary lines of love. Jesus is interested in going and doing likewise. And anybody who’s practiced faith for any period of time knows that’s where the rub is. That’s what makes faith hard. It’s not the idea that you can cram stuff into your brain and memorize it or even think about it rightly.

00:18:07:48 – 00:18:38:11
Michael Gewecke
You don’t need a Ph.D. in theology. You’re going to struggle, including the Ph.D. in theology. He’s going to struggle to do likewise. And I think that’s one of the reasons that this parable, I think, is so well, remember this because it’s so universal in its force. And if we’re willing and able to open ourselves up courageously because this is going to critique every single one of us who hears it, if we’re able to open ourselves up courageously, Jesus has something to teach us about how we order our priorities in life.

00:18:38:25 – 00:18:40:41
Michael Gewecke
And that’s a beautiful gift to be given.

00:18:40:46 – 00:19:01:46
Clint Loveall
We’ve been going through some sections of Luke that have been kind of difficult, but this is I think Luke’s showing his best where he takes, I don’t know, 15 verses or so here. Maybe even in less than that, a few less than that. And there’s a lifetime of lesson here that, you know, the man wants to talk about where are the limits?

00:19:01:51 – 00:19:28:15
Clint Loveall
And Jesus says, Who needs you? Who is my neighbor? And for the man, that’s a question to debate in the synagogue and for Jesus, that’s a question answered out in the ditches. Who needs you? Who’s in the ditch? The one who showed mercy is a neighbor. Go, do likewise. Go be a neighbor. Who is my neighbor? The one who needs you to be a neighbor.

00:19:28:15 – 00:19:54:16
Clint Loveall
The one who needs a neighbor and there’s a sense in which, for all the ways we complicate this and for all the complications and layers in it, Michael, And it is a beautifully layered text. It is a the simplicity of this is a punch to the gut. Who is my neighbor? Who needs your help? It is that simple in Luke’s story here in Jesus’s words.

00:19:54:16 – 00:20:03:00
Clint Loveall
And so a beautiful, challenging text. And I hope there’s been something in it that, you know, speaks to you because there’s a lot here.

00:20:03:05 – 00:20:24:04
Michael Gewecke
I think this is one of those parables just by way of conclusion that actually enriches your understanding when you read through it, looking for the perspective of each character. I think it would be an interesting study if you would just simply return to this text. Look at it through the lens of the one who’s been robbed. Look at it through the lens of the Samaritan.

00:20:24:05 – 00:20:53:29
Michael Gewecke
Look out through the lens of the religious leaders and allow each one of those perspectives to be shaped because something as simple as what is it like to receive the mercy of a Samaritan? This robber might not have been totally thrilled when they found out who saved them all. So there’s so much that we could explore in this about human assumption and some of the lines that we make in our own lives and in our structure of society that I think we benefit from reading a text like this slowly.

00:20:53:29 – 00:21:02:00
Michael Gewecke
And though it is famous, though, it’s beloved. And I just think this is a text worth returning to because it has a lot to teach us in every reading.

00:21:02:13 – 00:21:10:12
Clint Loveall
Yeah, And again, vintage Luke only and Luke and, and it is a gift that he recorded it for us.

00:21:10:17 – 00:21:27:21
Michael Gewecke
If you’ve made it this far, our friends, then this may be an invitation for you to subscribe so that you can continue on with studies like this. It’s of course, a joy to get to share this time together. Hope that you’ve been blessed. Let us know what you think in the comments. Subscribe for more videos Like it and we will see you all next week, Monday, 2:00.

00:21:27:23 – 00:21:28:06
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.