Tuesday: The Good Samaritan
Read Luke 10:25-27. The lawyer who questioned Jesus offered a standard summary of the Old-Testament commands for living a life acceptable to God. How are these two commands linked?
When Jesus was questioned, He often concluded His answers with an outcome quite different from what the questioner was seeking.
The Good Samaritan
In response to the instruction in Leviticus 19:18 (NIV) to “love your neighbor as yourself”, it seems many of the religious people of His day had spent much time and energy debating the extent and limits of this “neighbor” principle.
Jesus had already sought to expand His followers’ understanding of this term, urging that not only should they love their neighbors, but they should do good to everyone: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:44-45, NIV).
But when an expert in religious law sought to test Jesus, he fell back on the much-debated question: “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). In response, Jesus told the story of the good Samaritan, but the ultimate response to the lawyer’s question was not to define the “neighbor” terminology. Instead, Jesus said—in effect—“Go and be a neighbor to anyone who needs your help” (see Luke 10:36-37).
Read Luke 10:30-37. What is the significance of the contrast Jesus makes between the three characters who see the man on the side of the road needing their help?
As was common in Jesus’ teaching, His harshest criticism was aimed at those who claimed to be religious but showed little concern for the suffering of others. “In the story of the good Samaritan, Christ illustrates the nature of true religion. He shows that it consists not in systems, creeds, or rites, but in the performance of loving deeds, in bringing the greatest good to others, in genuine goodness”. – Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 497.
In Jesus’ teaching, He points to an outsider, someone considered unfaithful to God, to demonstrate what the call of God is to all who claim to be His followers. Like His first hearers, when we come to Jesus asking what we need to do to inherit eternal life, He ultimately instructs us to go and be a neighbor to anyone in need.
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Jesus reserved his highest condemnation for the conservatively religious Pharisees, not because they were conservative, but because they were hypocrites. They could argue a point of doctrine for hours but their own actions were self-centred and self-justifying. The story of the good Samaritan was a challenge to the notion of religious privilege. Jesus deliberately chose the three potential rescuers of the wounded traveller to indicate that the religious and the privileged did not own moral behaviour. The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side, while the Samaritan, whom the Jews despised was the one who offered help. Learning something from a Samaritan was a challenge to the academically religious Jews.
The back-story to this parable is that there had been a discussion about inheriting eternal life. And to be fair when Jesus asked the lawyer how he read the law he had the right answer:
Jesus complemented him on his answer, but the lawyer wanted to continue the discussion: "Who is my neighbour?"
And then Jesus turned the argument and used the illustration of the despised Samaritan as an example of true neighbourly moral action.
Even today, in the warm cocoon of our own church and belief system, we sometimes need to be reminded that we do not hold the ownership on justice and mercy. Religious knowledge and cerebral assent does not necessarily make us good people. We too need to learn the lesson from the despised Samaritan
“Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
The lawyer of the law was looking for an easy answer to that question, there isn’t one, because wrapped up in the question itself are human beings — individuals, people with personal histories they’ve brought to the place.
What is making this church experience what is being called “phenomenal growth?” What does it have that other churches don’t?"
"They are: empowering leadership, functional structures, gift-oriented ministry, holistic small groups, inspiring worship, loving relationships, need-oriented evangelism, and passionate spirituality."
https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2005-09-05/church-growth
How often we have been neighborly to those in need?
We wanted to have the comfort, the joy, and the strength first, so we could do the work easily and without any feeling of difficulty or self-sacrifice.
But He wanted us to do what He said in the obedience of faith, without worrying about whether we felt weak or strong, or whether the work was hard or easy.
Christianity is all about living the life of faith in Jesus.
James 4: 13-15
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
In Christianity self is surrendered so every move of our humanity is based on the will of God.
The will of God is to agape everyone regardless of race, color or creed.
" Service and obedience were the thoughts that were uppermost in the mind of the Son when He was on earth. Service and obedience must become the chief objects of our desires and aims, even more so than rest, light, joy, or strength.In them we will find the path to all the higher blessedness that awaits us."
With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray
Church growth is the by product of obedience and service.
Who do you invite those who invited you and will invite you?
How do you serve others?
Do you expect a return for the service provided?
The Samaritan story: An answer to the question asked to Jesus “who is my neighbor” .... And the focus is: Do as the Samaritan did, and not as those who passed by ignoring the hurt-one.
Yet, have you find yourself doing the work of the inn keeper sometime in your life? Isn’t the inn keeper doing a caring job also? ...Even when getting paid? (Health workers?)
Have you been “emotional hurting and almost dead” sometimes past in your life, and been ignored when you most needed help? Did such experienced made you more sensitive to care for others who are hurting now?
Luke 10:25–27 (ESV): 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
When all is said and done, we see a learned lawyer who stood up to put Jesus to test, as Dr. Luke writes. How many times and in what way have we tested Jesus/God in our so called comfort zones??
A neighbor is a person living next door or nearby. Jesus enhanced this meaning to "anyone with whom we cross our way and may need some help". Helping others can be an art. As any talent, it can always be improved! Normally, the person who helps is the most benefited!
Why do you call me good?
No-one is good- except God alone. Mark 10:17-22.
Why do we call this samaritan 'good'while Jesus clearly calls him 'a certain man?
English is a language with many nuances and sometimes a single word can vary greatly in its meaning depending on its context. It is worth remembering that we have to consider three language scenarios about Bible quotations.
a) The original language
b) the language at the time of translation into English (significant in the case of the KJV)
c) current usage.
I suggest that what Jesus is saying in Mark 10 applies very differently to the modern use of "good" as a descriptor of the Samaritan.
“There are many who ask, as the lawyer did, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ The answer comes down to us; everyone who is in suffering need is our neighbor.” Review and Herald November 12, 1895.
THANK you so much. Today was the very first time that I actually caught the significance of this message, and I am a great grandmother! I use this lesson from Jesus to teach cultural competence, yet only today did I catch the intent. I am the focus in terms of being the neighbor, NOT SOME OTHER PERSON. If I am neighborly, there is no need for the question, "Who is my neighbor?" WOW! I am grateful.
Brothers and sisters, we may not all comment in these lessons. But your discussions re really impacting positively in our lives. Don't relent, you are actually just fulfilling the scripture of being salt and light. God bless you all abundantly.