Our Savior finds us in the middle
Part 3 of 3
In our previous post, we examined the significance of a remarkable question an Expert in the Law posed to Jesus. We may not realize the significance of that question (who is my neighbor) until we understand what Jesus said. As Jesus relates and tells the expert in the law that his perception fell short of what God wanted, he said this. A man was traveling on a pretty normal path from Jericho to Jerusalem. It wasn’t an unusual journey to get there and it was a path that was well-traveled. Nonetheless, it was a path that perhaps his audience was familiar with. Being robbed and left half for dead would have removed someone far enough from any kind of help since one was far removed from any close vicinity of aid or city. Yet, we see, it was a traveled path. A priest, God’s own spokesman, passed right behind the man. And, the Levite, someone chosen by God to serve in the temple for years and for sacrifices did the same thing.
But, then a Samaritan. Who knows what the law expert was thinking, but if a Levite and priest passed by, surely a dirty rotten Samaritan would have.
Samaritans were people who were kinda this mix of Jew and Gentile and traced their roots back to Assyria taking into captivity the Northern tribes of Israel in about 722. The Jewish people left behind intermarried with the surrounding people and other conquered enemies brought in and the Jews regarded them as pure pagans. Talk about counter culture and even racism.
This parable illustration would have jarred the Jewish listeners. An unlikely candidate that served and saved a man who was almost dead. The Samaritan had pity on the man. He bandaged him, pouring oil and soothing wine. Giving up his own donkey, he took to the road. He carried him to the inn. He took care of him. He continued to take care of him on his dollar.
It’s interesting that Luke includes the important details that let this parable really speak for itself.
1) A man walked up to test Jesus and check how one earned eternal life.
2) That life came at the hands of something and someone great - the stakes were high as he knew he needed to love God with his heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love his neighbor as himself.
3) And even greater that revealed the matter of the heart, showing loving to one’s neighbor wasn’t a checkbox list of this person or that person.
It was a matter of the heart - showing and proving and serving those unlikely people - for no good reason, but for every Godly reason that included his mercy and love. Jesus had actually said the words a few chapters earlier in Luke’s account in his sermon on the plain (Luke 6:36) “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
This parable is certainly law-orientated for the expert in the law and really - for us too. Don’t we walk up to Jesus and test him. No, the point is not that we should be ashamed that we can’t whip out two Bible passages. Yet, as we understand how we too have failed so many times to be neighbors to people all over our communities and town, does it gnaw at the fact that it’s because we miss the matter of our own hearts. We are sinners. We can’t live up to God’s commandments of perfectly and continually loving our God with our heart, soul and mind and showing love to everyone everywhere we go all the time. We don’t just miss our neighbors, but we fail to show mercy and be a neighbor to all - because we look away from Jesus' mercy. Jesus uses the failure of the second table of the law (loving our neighbor) to show our hearts that the first table of the law (loving our God) is just as flawed as failing to see our neighbor.
But, when the stakes are so high for inheriting eternal life, for doing something perfect like loving God with our heart, soul, and mind and being a neighbor to absolutely everyone. The matter of the heart isn’t just that we fail, but that Jesus finds us. The parable delivers truth and connection with the rest of Jesus’ teaching when we see our Savior who perfectly serves us.
We are more than half dead on the road. We are wallowing in our sin and selfishness - stuck somewhere between thinking we can do something to please God (like all the other religions) or thinking we have it all figured out in life - an expert in what we think the scripture is.
Jesus finds you and saves you from losing out on a game where the odds just aren’t against us - but the devil, the world, and our sin wants to sink us to hell. A Savior - the perfect candidate of God himself bandages our sins away and to promise us he’s taking us home and will take us home forever. His death crushed our sins. His life linked ours to eternity. His power and resurrection assures us that the matter of our hearts is perfect and the stakes are won.