Exhausting Christianity (Luke 10:25-37)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.040 Luke ten. It's a famous passage that most of us have we been around 2 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:11.789 the church for very long, have heard salute ten first twenty five through thirty 3 00:00:11.830 --> 00:00:16.710 seven. This is God's word. And behold, a lawyer stood up to 4 00:00:16.829 --> 00:00:20.989 put him, that's Jesus, to the test, saying, teacher, what 5 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:26.140 shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what is 6 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:29.940 written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered you 7 00:00:30.059 --> 00:00:32.460 shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and your with 8 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:35.259 all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and 9 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:39.810 your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you've answered correctly. 10 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:45.369 Do this, you will live. But he, the man, desiring to 11 00:00:45.530 --> 00:00:51.960 justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied 12 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:57.560 a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who 13 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:02.799 stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, 14 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:06.510 by chance, a priest was going down that road and when he saw him, 15 00:01:06.510 --> 00:01:11.030 he passed by on the other side. So, likewise, a Levite, 16 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:15.549 when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on 17 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:19.140 the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where 18 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:23.019 he was and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to 19 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:27.819 him, bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he 20 00:01:27.859 --> 00:01:32.500 set him on his own animal and brought him to an Inn and took care 21 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:37.489 of him. And the next day he took out to Denari and gave them 22 00:01:37.689 --> 00:01:41.569 to the innkeeper, saying take care of him and whatever more you spend, 23 00:01:41.609 --> 00:01:46.129 I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you 24 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:49.480 think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? 25 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:56.319 He said the one who showed him mercy? Jesus said to him, you 26 00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:00.560 go and do likewise. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the 27 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:06.109 word of our God will stand forever. We pray with me. Father, 28 00:02:06.269 --> 00:02:13.270 we cannot expect to hear your voice unless your spirit works, but you've promised 29 00:02:13.310 --> 00:02:17.060 to use your word, through your spirit, to transform us, to speak 30 00:02:17.099 --> 00:02:22.860 to us, and you promised to speak through this word. So we asked 31 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:24.819 that you would do that this morning, that our minds might be shaped, 32 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:29.860 in our hearts and our wills might be shaped to be more like Jesus and 33 00:02:30.009 --> 00:02:32.569 to rest in your mercy and your grace. We pray that you would do 34 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:40.409 that this morning. Amen, you may have a seat. The S Welsh 35 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:47.400 Theologian Bonnie Tyler opens one of her most popular songs with these lines. I 36 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:53.319 guess we're all theologians, so that was a joke. Her Song says, 37 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:59.469 where have all the good men gone, and where all the gods? Where 38 00:02:59.590 --> 00:03:05.189 is the street wise Hercules to fight the rising odds? Isn't there white night, 39 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:09.349 upon a fiery steed? Late at night I toss and turn and dream 40 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:15.020 of what I need. I need a hero when it comes to Christianity, 41 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:21.259 when it comes to navigating the world around us, we think deep down that 42 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:28.090 we must be the hero that Bonnie Tyler is dreaming of and needing, the 43 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:31.930 hero that the people in need need, whether that's our spouse or our children, 44 00:03:32.009 --> 00:03:38.050 or our classmates or our friends or the people living in Tucson around us. 45 00:03:39.449 --> 00:03:44.800 We think that we're the hero that we areselves need even to play the 46 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:47.039 good person, to prove it to ourselves, to prove it to our loved 47 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:52.280 ones, to prove it to God, to keep all the Herculean rules, 48 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:57.629 to ride the fiery steed, to conquer all the evils in the world, 49 00:03:57.669 --> 00:04:01.750 even if that's just the evils of dirty diapers in ignorance, needing to be 50 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:08.110 moved towards greater knowledge and Truth and, at the same time, inviting people 51 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:12.500 into the Kingdom of Jesus, whether there are children's or the people are children 52 00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:16.939 of the people at work or in the classroom. History tells the story of 53 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:23.660 a Bright College Student with the weight of being a good person and the great 54 00:04:23.699 --> 00:04:29.009 hero on his shoulders. He was the pride of his parents. He was 55 00:04:29.050 --> 00:04:32.930 studying to become an attorney. He was almost done with his law degree and 56 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:39.680 his parents had been very successful in the copper industry and had put him in 57 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:43.600 the best education they could afford, and he was the first person in his 58 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:48.439 family to go to college. He was excelling in his studies and he showed 59 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:53.269 a lot of promise. He was going to be the pride and joy in 60 00:04:53.310 --> 00:04:59.550 the financial security of his family. He was also a good kid. He 61 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:02.069 grew up in the church. She loved the church, he loved the heroes 62 00:05:02.310 --> 00:05:06.860 of the faith, of the church, and they influenced him in a lot 63 00:05:06.899 --> 00:05:10.860 of ways and he wanted to be like them. Like a lot of college 64 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:14.980 students who worship in your myths in the OPC, not just a covenant but 65 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:20.930 throughout the presbytery. But then on one July he was walking back to his 66 00:05:21.089 --> 00:05:25.970 university after holiday and he was caught in the middle of that thunderstorm. Boom, 67 00:05:26.290 --> 00:05:29.769 boom, the lightness struck around him. The concussion of the air knocked 68 00:05:29.769 --> 00:05:33.689 him back on the ground and involuntarily he prayed and cried Anne Out, Saint 69 00:05:33.810 --> 00:05:39.680 Anne, save me and I'll become in bunk. And even though the cry 70 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.720 was involuntary, he was very conscious about keeping his vows to God and the 71 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:49.029 saints. And so on July seventeen o five, when he was twenty two 72 00:05:49.029 --> 00:05:56.550 years old, Martin Luther enter the Augustinian monastery at effort. And my guess 73 00:05:56.589 --> 00:05:59.990 is if you are a college student here and you did that, your parents 74 00:06:00.029 --> 00:06:03.189 would be quite upset. And my guess is those of you who are parents 75 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:09.899 with students who are almost college age or have college age students, if your 76 00:06:09.899 --> 00:06:13.939 student did that, you would be quite upset. His parents definitely were. 77 00:06:15.459 --> 00:06:19.209 Throughout his life Martin Luther Struggle with this affliction of doubts of whether or not 78 00:06:19.329 --> 00:06:25.769 he was a good enough Christian. In the same doubt entered with him to 79 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:30.290 the monastery because the monastic life was filled with rules. How and went to 80 00:06:30.370 --> 00:06:34.399 bow, how to speak, how to walk, how to eat. It's 81 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:40.439 filled with rules or of religious duties. When to leave his tiny sale sell 82 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:45.920 at certain points of the day and the night to pray. In the words 83 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:49.430 of church history. In Michael Reeves said, life was dedicated to climbing the 84 00:06:49.509 --> 00:06:58.350 steep ladder to heaven and Martin Luther Excelled at the rules. Externally he was 85 00:06:58.550 --> 00:07:01.579 the hero of the rules, but the more he excelled at the rules, 86 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:05.660 the more troubled he became. He knew the rules must go deeper than the 87 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:13.899 service the surface. Did a really pray that prayer from my heart, that 88 00:07:14.019 --> 00:07:16.370 I really mean it? Did I have a good, appropriate, right, 89 00:07:16.529 --> 00:07:25.730 loving attitude. He filled his confession time with his priests, constantly racking his 90 00:07:25.889 --> 00:07:30.439 brain in his heart, never fully being satisfied. Now for some of us 91 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:34.319 that sounds crazy because we live on this side of the reformation, we've grown 92 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:41.160 up in the church and understand grace. We think really, come on, 93 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:47.029 Martin, but there's others of us who understand grace. We realize that we 94 00:07:47.149 --> 00:07:53.310 come before the father through the son, because of God's grace, but it 95 00:07:53.389 --> 00:07:56.750 still hits pretty close to home. We not might not keep the same religious 96 00:07:56.750 --> 00:08:01.899 rules that Martin kept, that we keep other rules to prove that we're a 97 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:05.500 good person worthy of being a hero in God's eyes. We feel the burden 98 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:11.379 of living missionally in Tucson and all the rules that will prove that we are 99 00:08:11.579 --> 00:08:18.089 good missional Christians, sharing the Gospel with strangers, sharing the Gospel with co 100 00:08:18.250 --> 00:08:24.769 workers, being willing to go on service trips for the presbytery, reading apologetics 101 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:31.200 and theology books so can be equipped to share the gospel. We also try 102 00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:37.120 to prove ourselves as good Christians by how we parents for parents, by how 103 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:39.840 we good of a child we are to our parents, if we are a 104 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:43.070 child, to a parents still living in their home or under their authority, 105 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:48.429 but how we speak to them, but how we bay them, but how, 106 00:08:48.470 --> 00:08:52.509 if we have children, we speak to our children and how we lovingly 107 00:08:52.669 --> 00:08:58.259 but firmly discipline them. We have other, more broad and basic definitions of 108 00:08:58.340 --> 00:09:01.100 being a good Christian. Treating people right, saying kind words, working hard 109 00:09:01.500 --> 00:09:05.740 in our job, in the home, in the classroom, being a good 110 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:09.330 roommate, whether that's to somebody were married to or live with or not married 111 00:09:09.409 --> 00:09:16.169 to because we're in college or some other place. We exhaust ourselves with religious 112 00:09:16.289 --> 00:09:20.970 rules, even some we make. We also exhaust ourselves with how to be 113 00:09:20.049 --> 00:09:24.919 accepted and seen as good in the world around us. The rule of being 114 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.240 a successful student, if we're a student, studying long and hard enough, 115 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:33.799 having good boundaries on our time, taking the right classes with the right professors. 116 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.230 We have rules of being a good friend, listening well, always showing 117 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:43.389 up, staying late with our friends, picking up the phone at two am. 118 00:09:43.470 --> 00:09:48.110 We have good rules of being a good church mate, showing up early 119 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:52.139 to set up chairs and break down chairs, always showing up at the evening, 120 00:09:52.659 --> 00:09:58.220 the morning and evening service and Sunday school and every other time that covenant 121 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:01.220 meets. Not Saying we shouldn't do all these things. These are good things, 122 00:10:01.419 --> 00:10:05.779 but often we allow them to become rules in our life. When we 123 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:09.450 take an honest when we take an audit of our life, it seems like 124 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:13.970 there's so many rules that we need to keep and so often, when we 125 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:20.169 come to Christianity and practicing our faith before God and really our whole lives, 126 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:24.000 we want some rule to follow, we want some rules to meet and be 127 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:28.639 approved of as good, but the more that we strive to keep the rules, 128 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:35.639 the more exhausted we become. We still look for the elusive list of 129 00:10:35.830 --> 00:10:39.710 rules that will make us be seen as good and right. And that's what's 130 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:45.309 going on in this passage, this very knowledgeable law. You're a religious expert 131 00:10:45.669 --> 00:10:52.220 who had studied God's Law and knew all the different rabbis different interpretations of God's 132 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:56.740 Law. Stands up to test Jesus with a question. He wants to know 133 00:10:56.860 --> 00:11:01.259 and he wants everybody else in the crowd to know. Is Jesus a really 134 00:11:01.299 --> 00:11:05.769 good rabbi? Can you stand up to the test? So we asks, 135 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:13.169 what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now Jesus knows that it's a 136 00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:16.769 test and answers the question by shooting it back to him, like good college 137 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:20.960 professor does. He says what's written in the law? How do you read 138 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:26.200 it? How do you interpret God's law? And the man, being a 139 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:31.950 good student, reflects back to the professor's own interpretation. His, Jesus is 140 00:11:33.110 --> 00:11:35.350 own summary of the law and he says love God with your whole self and 141 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:39.750 love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus affirms the man's words. He says. 142 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:43.870 If you continue, you to do this, you'll continue to be living in 143 00:11:45.110 --> 00:11:46.500 what Jesus is saying is, yes, this is the key to eternal life, 144 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:50.340 but it's also the key to your present life right now. Do this 145 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:56.259 and you'll truly be living as a whole person. But this is really broad 146 00:11:56.340 --> 00:12:01.330 right. It's to all encompassing and when we're honest with ourselves, we know 147 00:12:01.450 --> 00:12:05.009 we can't keep that law. But we got to be honest with ourselves. 148 00:12:05.169 --> 00:12:11.929 Love God with my whole self, love my neighbor as myself. It's even 149 00:12:11.970 --> 00:12:18.600 more exhausting than rules. It's like someone saying to a thirteen year old kid, 150 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:24.120 jump the Grand Canyon on your BMX bike and then you'll enter bike glory. 151 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:31.029 There's no matter how much we train, no matter how fast we pedal, 152 00:12:31.429 --> 00:12:35.230 no matter how long the distance of the runway is, there's no way. 153 00:12:35.269 --> 00:12:39.230 When we're honest, it's exhausting, but it's also laughable because it's so 154 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:43.429 ludicrous. But if we think about really trying to do it, it's exhausting. 155 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:48.539 Now, if the man was being honest with himselves, he would say 156 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:52.059 to Jesus, Jesus, I hear the words coming out of your mouth that 157 00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:56.100 that's impossible, and the way that Jesus would have responded, as the way 158 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:00.490 that he responds to a similar question later in Luke Eighteen, he would have 159 00:13:00.570 --> 00:13:05.769 said yes, with man it's impossible, that God, with God it is 160 00:13:05.889 --> 00:13:11.129 possible. But, like us so often, the man let's that broad command 161 00:13:11.250 --> 00:13:18.759 wash right past him and not reveal his inability and an exhaustion. So ignores 162 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.039 the weight of it and instead he wants to know what to do. So 163 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.629 he pushes another question back to Jesus, and the Bible makes a very interesting 164 00:13:26.870 --> 00:13:31.549 comment here that helps us understand what's in the man's heart and, I think, 165 00:13:31.549 --> 00:13:37.070 what's in our hearts. To the Bible says he wanted to justify or 166 00:13:37.149 --> 00:13:41.259 them means, to prove himself to other people that he was good enough and 167 00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:48.220 he could be the hero. So Jesus says to him, okay, are 168 00:13:48.299 --> 00:13:52.980 he says to Jesus, okay, WHO's my neighbor? Now, in the 169 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:58.409 mind of the people of Jesus's Day, and neighbor was someone like your brother 170 00:13:58.649 --> 00:14:03.690 and his family, your sister and her husband and their kids, your cousin's, 171 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:09.370 the people clearly related to you by religion, anyone outside of that especially 172 00:14:09.450 --> 00:14:15.000 non Jewish people were seeing as enemies. Here it'd be like people at Covenant 173 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:18.559 are your neighbors, people in the present this presbytery of the OPC would be 174 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.519 your neighbors. Maybe the people in the PCA would be your neighbors, or 175 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:28.950 other napark churches would be your neighbors, other Christians in town. This man 176 00:14:30.029 --> 00:14:33.909 wants Jesus to give him a checklist so that he could prove to Jesus and 177 00:14:33.029 --> 00:14:37.659 everyone else that he was worthy. How to know we like this man. 178 00:14:39.220 --> 00:14:43.820 We want to list, we want qualifications. We might be exhausted from trying 179 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.340 to be good, but we have the certainty that we want this certainty that 180 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:54.529 if we do a certain amount, then we'll get what we deserve. There's 181 00:14:54.570 --> 00:15:01.009 a stereotype when you are a pastor or youth leader working with college students or 182 00:15:01.250 --> 00:15:05.570 youth. It's a stereotype that other pastors have said to me before is like, 183 00:15:05.649 --> 00:15:09.279 Oh yeah, College Ministry people, Youth Ministry people, all you do 184 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:16.559 is play video games. It's not my favorite stereotype because I'm not good at 185 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:24.710 video games, but when in Rome you play video games. So at our 186 00:15:24.789 --> 00:15:28.990 previous campus that we were at in Texas twice a year I would have a 187 00:15:28.149 --> 00:15:33.110 guy's night at my house and the guys would bring their fancy video game consoles 188 00:15:33.269 --> 00:15:39.740 to our house and we would surround ourselves with manly junk food like fancy cheeses 189 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:43.779 and cream soda and root beer and chips and Saltza and, because it was 190 00:15:43.820 --> 00:15:50.929 east Texas Wild Hog sausage and Venison Jerky, and it was great and it 191 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:56.009 was a glorious and was fun. There's one particular nights at my house when 192 00:15:56.169 --> 00:16:00.730 the game of the evening that everybody was competing on was some battle between two 193 00:16:00.809 --> 00:16:04.159 people on the video game screen, on the TV screen. There was a 194 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:11.440 lot like the old school in the s and s mortal Kombat and street fighter. 195 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:17.000 Two superheroes would battle it out against each other and you would button mash, 196 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:21.950 which means you just smash buttons, not really with much technique, to 197 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:26.269 see who would have the victory and become the hero. And at it's a 198 00:16:26.470 --> 00:16:30.190 certain point in button mashing, there's a meter that would rise on your side 199 00:16:30.190 --> 00:16:32.789 of the screen and if it got to a certain point you could push another 200 00:16:32.860 --> 00:16:37.179 button and you would unloose leash the fury of this superheroes superpower on the other 201 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:44.419 person and they couldn't escape. We want this with God. We went to 202 00:16:44.539 --> 00:16:48.129 guarantee that we can push the right buttons at the right time in the right 203 00:16:48.289 --> 00:16:52.570 place, and guarantee that God cannot escape from seeing us as a good hero 204 00:16:55.009 --> 00:16:57.809 and letting us have eternal life, or, if we're good reform Christians, 205 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:00.370 not just having eternal life, because we get that. We already know that 206 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:07.480 the reformation has happened, but letting these have a productive, fruitful, successful 207 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.720 life now in our sanctification, in our personal ministry, in our family life, 208 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:17.990 in our dating life, in our school life, as children growing in 209 00:17:18.029 --> 00:17:22.750 the faith. But Jesus wants us to look at our hearts, not our 210 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:29.869 ability to button mash with God's law. The law is more than a list 211 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:34.019 of rules. So to get to our hearts, Jesus tells the story. 212 00:17:34.859 --> 00:17:41.220 Tells a story to answer the question of who is my neighbor? A man 213 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:47.130 was traveling the eighteen miles down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was 214 00:17:47.369 --> 00:17:52.049 a dangerous known the road, known to hide the ruthless robbers and sure enough, 215 00:17:52.289 --> 00:17:56.890 like the Conte text of Jesus's parable tells, the people listening, Yep, 216 00:17:57.450 --> 00:18:02.880 it happens? A man is attacked by robbers. He fell among them. 217 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:04.599 They beat him, they robbed him, they stripped him and left him 218 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:08.960 for dead. The man was left unconscious and naked and if he could speak, 219 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:12.309 he would cry out from Bonnie Tyler's song, I need a hero. 220 00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:18.829 But he was unconscious. So how do you know who your neighbor is? 221 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:23.869 In Jesus is day, the easiest, the quickest way for you to tell 222 00:18:23.910 --> 00:18:27.900 if someone was your people, were your type of people, was by how 223 00:18:27.980 --> 00:18:34.140 they talk and how they dressed. We picked that up later in the Gospel 224 00:18:34.180 --> 00:18:40.019 accounts when the Young Servant Girl Calls Out Peter when Jesus is being tried and 225 00:18:40.099 --> 00:18:44.049 he's standing around the fire, and she says you're one of that Guy Jesus 226 00:18:44.130 --> 00:18:47.250 is people, aren't you essentially saying I know by the way you talk and 227 00:18:47.289 --> 00:18:51.369 with the way you dressed, I know that you're a Galilean, though. 228 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:53.130 That's the way that you would know if somebody was your neighbor, how they 229 00:18:53.130 --> 00:18:56.240 spoke, in the dialect they spoke, the words they used and how they 230 00:18:56.279 --> 00:19:00.599 dressed. But for this robbed man, there's no way to tell whose people 231 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:06.000 he is. There's no way to tell if he's your neighbor, the person 232 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.519 you're supposed to take care of. Instead, he's just a human being in 233 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:14.390 need on the side of the road. So first, this priest comes down 234 00:19:14.430 --> 00:19:18.829 the road from Jerusalem. He's likely been serving his two weeks of duty in 235 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:25.019 the temple. He's ritually clean. Priests were normally of an upper middle class 236 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:30.819 status and he would have been riding a donkey or a horse down the road 237 00:19:30.619 --> 00:19:34.140 he sees the robbed, beaten, unconscious, naked man. But for him 238 00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:38.009 to stop would be extremely costly. He would have to be rich. He 239 00:19:38.049 --> 00:19:42.809 would have to risk being made unclean if the man was dead, or if 240 00:19:42.809 --> 00:19:48.250 he got the man's blood and filth on to himself, or especially if the 241 00:19:48.329 --> 00:19:52.809 man was an unclean foreigner. If this happened, he was made unclean, 242 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:56.960 he would have had to pay for material for an elaborate ritual cleansing, and 243 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:03.200 unblemished red female cow burned all the way down to ashes would have also been 244 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:07.910 costly for his family. If he was richly unclean, he could not work 245 00:20:08.869 --> 00:20:11.589 in a part of the benefit of his work as a priest in the temple 246 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:17.190 was him getting to eat of the sacrifices and then also take the sacrifices home 247 00:20:17.470 --> 00:20:19.829 for his family to eat. So this was part of his income and providing 248 00:20:19.910 --> 00:20:23.339 for his family. And so, because of the cost, he passes by. 249 00:20:25.660 --> 00:20:30.579 Next to Levi walks down the road. Levi is a lay priest. 250 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:34.660 For those of you who grew up Anglican or Piscopelian or Catholic, he's like 251 00:20:34.730 --> 00:20:40.130 a deacon. He has official duties and worship, but not all the time. 252 00:20:40.170 --> 00:20:44.250 He's not the professional. He's likely returning to his wife and his kids 253 00:20:44.289 --> 00:20:48.450 after the two weeks that he has serving in the temple. He sees the 254 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:52.839 man as well, but for him to stop would be extremely costly to the 255 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.680 robbers were likely still in the area and he is of a lower income bracket, 256 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:02.039 so he would have been walking. We see this because he doesn't he 257 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:07.069 can't carry the man. He would expose himself for the himself for the robbers 258 00:21:07.109 --> 00:21:11.589 if he had to wait, because all he could do is give him first 259 00:21:11.589 --> 00:21:14.589 aid. He couldn't pick him up and carry him. So for him to 260 00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:17.990 give him first aid, the robbers would come out and get them. They 261 00:21:18.029 --> 00:21:22.900 surely would. It was also costly because of the example to the priest. 262 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:26.940 Like any good mountain road you could see down the road and see what's happening 263 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:30.299 before you, somewhat as the ends and outs, and he could almost likely 264 00:21:30.380 --> 00:21:33.609 see the priests and example that the priests set as he passed by. To 265 00:21:33.730 --> 00:21:37.849 stop would be to implicitly rebuke the priest, who is of a higher class 266 00:21:37.930 --> 00:21:45.289 and authority. That would be extremely costly, culturally and socially costly for this 267 00:21:45.369 --> 00:21:48.920 levite. So it seems like he moves in a little bit to check it 268 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:52.000 out, but seems that when it's curiosity is satisfied, he passes on by 269 00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:02.910 and then the Samaritan comes along. Samaritans had been hated by the Jewish people 270 00:22:03.029 --> 00:22:07.430 for centuries. The Jews thought, and for good reason, that they were 271 00:22:07.470 --> 00:22:12.029 sacrilegious, heretical and spiritually unclean. There were statements written by the rabbis that 272 00:22:12.069 --> 00:22:17.460 said that you are forbidden to eat food or wine served to you by a 273 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:22.420 Samaritan. There was other statements written by other rabbis that said something along the 274 00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:25.940 lines of this. If you see a heretic or a sinner injured on the 275 00:22:25.980 --> 00:22:30.450 side of the road, push him into the ditch. That would have included 276 00:22:30.490 --> 00:22:37.569 a Samaritan. The Samaritan as likely an upper middle class merchant returning from conducting 277 00:22:37.609 --> 00:22:42.009 business. He likely has more than one animal with it, because it says 278 00:22:42.049 --> 00:22:45.920 that he put the man on his own animal, implying that he had others 279 00:22:45.119 --> 00:22:49.519 in his train. So we imagine him on his animal, leading a train 280 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:55.279 of animals down this road. He too is alone, traveling in the country 281 00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:00.230 that is hospitile to his type of people. He knows this road is dangerous, 282 00:23:00.230 --> 00:23:04.390 he knows that he's unwanted, rejected by these people. He knows that 283 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:08.910 he's a prime target for robbery. But he sees a beaten, naked, 284 00:23:08.950 --> 00:23:15.500 unconscious man lying on the side of the road and it says the Samaritan was 285 00:23:15.619 --> 00:23:22.700 moved with compassion, implies at a deep gut level. Unlike the priest, 286 00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:26.289 he goes toward the man in need. He dismounts, he walks gently to 287 00:23:26.369 --> 00:23:33.730 the and to examine and he acts unlike the levite. He acts by applying 288 00:23:33.890 --> 00:23:37.730 first aid, by binding the man's wounds, by pouring wine and oil and 289 00:23:37.849 --> 00:23:41.440 the wounds to clean them. But knowing that he can't stay there because the 290 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:48.599 robbers in the area, he stoops down, he reaches under him, getting 291 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.880 himself dirty with the sweat and the blood of this man, the dirt and 292 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:56.109 the nakedness of this man, he hoists him up on the horse and begins 293 00:23:56.150 --> 00:24:00.670 to lead him down the road to Jericho, where he knows that there's an 294 00:24:00.750 --> 00:24:07.109 end. Like a servant leading his master, this wealthy Samaritan lays down his 295 00:24:07.269 --> 00:24:12.539 rights and leads this man to whom he owes nut, who owes him nothing, 296 00:24:12.940 --> 00:24:19.500 whom he owes nothing on his own horse. This is risky, this 297 00:24:19.740 --> 00:24:23.369 is costly. If the man is a Jew, which he likely is, 298 00:24:23.450 --> 00:24:30.250 because he's in Jewish territory and was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Fe's a 299 00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:34.849 Jewish man, that man's family would likely curse the Samaritan or blame him for 300 00:24:34.930 --> 00:24:40.920 his injuries. One Bible scholar noted that this would be like if a sue 301 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:47.119 warrior walked in to General custer's camp with a white man who's been scalped on 302 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:52.190 his horse. No one but believe that he didn't do it. But the 303 00:24:52.269 --> 00:24:56.630 Samaritan ignores the cost. He takes the man to the end. He says 304 00:24:56.710 --> 00:25:00.789 the night with him to care for him and protect him from the robbers and 305 00:25:00.829 --> 00:25:07.380 then savory people that likely inhabit ends that day and age, the next morning 306 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:10.700 the Samaritan must go on his way, but the man is still in need. 307 00:25:10.779 --> 00:25:15.980 He's completely broke because he's been robbed and he's still helpless. If the 308 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:19.140 man stays at the end he'll be indebted to the innkeeper and if he couldn't 309 00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:23.690 pay the income keeper he'd be thrown into debtors prison and they would say sorry 310 00:25:23.730 --> 00:25:27.690 for your misfortune, but you owe him, you owe him money. So 311 00:25:27.849 --> 00:25:33.289 the Samaritan has more compassion on him, he absorbs more cost, he pays 312 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:38.559 extra and pledges to pay more to care for his ongoing needs. The robbers 313 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:45.200 beat him, stole his money from him and left him naked. This the 314 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:52.309 Samaritan administered first aid, gave him money and left him closed. This is 315 00:25:52.509 --> 00:26:00.990 costly active love, socially, financially, physically, emotionally, temporally costly active 316 00:26:00.589 --> 00:26:06.220 love. His compassion moved him to action when he saw a human being in 317 00:26:06.859 --> 00:26:14.059 need. So Jesus ends his story with a question. He flips the question 318 00:26:14.180 --> 00:26:17.259 on the head. He says which of these proved to be a neighbor to 319 00:26:17.339 --> 00:26:22.529 the man who fell among the robbers? What Jesus is doing is he turns 320 00:26:22.650 --> 00:26:26.890 that the the question of proving to others that you are worthy of eternal life, 321 00:26:26.289 --> 00:26:32.450 to proving to those in need that you actually love. Jesus says, 322 00:26:32.490 --> 00:26:34.960 in a sense, don't think of love as a checklist, in your neighbor 323 00:26:36.279 --> 00:26:38.839 as a check box on that list, because it's not what you do, 324 00:26:40.200 --> 00:26:44.000 it's about your heart and the love that flows out of your heart into action. 325 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:48.670 Think of yourself as a neighbor and love anyone you see in need as 326 00:26:48.750 --> 00:26:52.430 you go about your daily life. This is the law of love that comes 327 00:26:52.470 --> 00:26:57.589 from the heart that God works in his people. The lawyer wanted something attainable, 328 00:26:57.630 --> 00:27:03.259 that he could prove himself as the hero of his own story. Jesus 329 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:07.539 gives him a standard that is never fully attainable. In Bonnie Tyler's song, 330 00:27:08.099 --> 00:27:11.900 the next part, in the next stanza, she calls out for someone who's 331 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:15.380 got to be strong, God, to be fast, got to be fresh 332 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:19.009 from the fight, got to be larger than life. And I think often 333 00:27:19.210 --> 00:27:23.650 as Christians, when we're honest, that's what it feels like Jesus is calling 334 00:27:23.690 --> 00:27:29.049 us to hear, to love people with the love that is strong, fast, 335 00:27:29.690 --> 00:27:33.160 fresh from the fight, larger than life, never with any weakness, 336 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:37.920 never with any failure, always seeing every need of every person in our realm 337 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:45.269 and meeting those needs with everything that we have. The homeless man at one 338 00:27:45.309 --> 00:27:51.789 of the parts just west of campus or along Fourth Avenue, the orphan kids 339 00:27:51.829 --> 00:27:57.029 in Haiti or in southern California, the people affected by Hurricane Michael through and 340 00:27:57.579 --> 00:28:02.940 the OPC giving an effort to help care for them, the poor people in 341 00:28:03.019 --> 00:28:08.420 Tucson, the lonely people, if you're a students in class, the people 342 00:28:08.539 --> 00:28:17.410 jeering at Christian street preachers, the street preachers themselves. The call to love 343 00:28:17.569 --> 00:28:21.890 is all encompassing and when we let our minds in our hearts think about it's 344 00:28:21.970 --> 00:28:27.279 all exhausting as well, because there's so many needy people in the world around 345 00:28:27.319 --> 00:28:33.799 us and in our families and beyond our families. When we're honest, we 346 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:38.839 so often fail to love. Sometimes our failure is to to love is active, 347 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:45.829 hurt, like the robbers lashing out at our aging parents on the phone 348 00:28:48.109 --> 00:28:51.470 when they really just want to hear from us or hear from their grandkids. 349 00:28:51.670 --> 00:28:56.420 Are Their Great Grand Killed Kids? Those of us who are children are our 350 00:28:56.500 --> 00:29:00.299 parents home, lashing out at our parents because they embarrass us, cutting them 351 00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:04.819 down to get what we want, using harsh words with our spouse, but 352 00:29:04.980 --> 00:29:08.339 with a friend in a fight to prove that we're right, but at the 353 00:29:08.339 --> 00:29:15.009 end of the fight more damage has been done than we even anticipated, or 354 00:29:15.089 --> 00:29:18.650 gossiping about a friend that eventually makes it back to them and hurts them, 355 00:29:18.890 --> 00:29:25.319 cutting down other Christians from other denominations. Sometimes our failure to love is the 356 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:29.559 passive hurt of neglect, like the priest or the Levite, because we don't 357 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:37.039 see the need or don't want to pay the cost ignoring a roommate, if 358 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:41.950 we have roommates we suspect might have an eating disorder because we're too distracted and 359 00:29:41.069 --> 00:29:48.430 too busy with our studies. Avoiding a homeless woman this holding a sign as 360 00:29:48.509 --> 00:29:55.859 we exit into Phoenix to do some business, because we don't want to enter 361 00:29:55.940 --> 00:29:59.940 into the awkward conversation because we don't have any money with this right then. 362 00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:04.259 So instead of offering her the dignity that she already has, we passer by, 363 00:30:04.299 --> 00:30:10.650 avoiding the cost of an awkward conversation with someone who comes up to you 364 00:30:10.769 --> 00:30:15.450 and is awkward in the grocery store. It doesn't quite fit the norm of 365 00:30:15.529 --> 00:30:22.599 what it means to be a person of good repute and Tucson. So often 366 00:30:22.640 --> 00:30:26.720 we fail to love, to actually love in the costly ways that Jesus calls 367 00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.880 us to love. When we consider Jesus is call in this famous good Samaritan 368 00:30:32.039 --> 00:30:34.359 Story and really all of his ethical teachings as well, especially the sermon on 369 00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:41.789 the mount to love God with our whole self, in our neighbor as ourself, 370 00:30:41.430 --> 00:30:45.869 leaves us in a place of despair, much like Martin Luther all of 371 00:30:45.990 --> 00:30:49.819 the doubt and all of the voices of despair into our mind, because you 372 00:30:49.859 --> 00:30:55.140 can't prove yourself to be the good hero because at the end of the day, 373 00:30:55.259 --> 00:30:59.299 someone will find out, someone will see, someone will know your failure 374 00:30:59.460 --> 00:31:03.940 and if they don't, you'll at least know your failure and how you don't 375 00:31:03.940 --> 00:31:11.730 measure up. Bonnie Tyler ins her song with the Stanza up where the mountain 376 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:15.849 meets the heavens above or where the lightning splits the sea, I could swear 377 00:31:15.890 --> 00:31:19.319 there's someone somewhere watching me through the wind and the chill and the rain and 378 00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:22.920 the storm and the flood. I can feel his approach like a fire in 379 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:27.839 my blood. I need a hero. Deep Down, you and I realize 380 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:33.269 that we need a hero like me that even if you get grace, you're 381 00:31:33.309 --> 00:31:37.309 exhausted from trying to keep all the rules, trying to trust in everything but 382 00:31:37.390 --> 00:31:40.990 Christ to make you right in the world. If you're not a Christian, 383 00:31:41.029 --> 00:31:45.630 you're exhausted to trying to keep the rules, but the rules that cannot prove 384 00:31:45.670 --> 00:31:49.380 that you're good enough. The beauty in the message of Christianity is that you 385 00:31:49.579 --> 00:31:55.339 are not the hero. Yes, you're called to love your neighbor as yourself. 386 00:31:55.420 --> 00:31:59.940 You're called to grow and your sanctification and loving your neighbor. You're supposed 387 00:31:59.940 --> 00:32:01.849 to do it in costly ways, but you can never be the hero. 388 00:32:02.049 --> 00:32:07.930 You can never prove yourself enough to be the good person and you're not meant 389 00:32:07.970 --> 00:32:13.529 to. The whole arc of the Bible points of Jesus as the hero, 390 00:32:13.809 --> 00:32:16.880 not just the good tea teacher, not just as the righteous man. We 391 00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:22.079 know that because we're reform Christians, but so often we treat him like that 392 00:32:22.440 --> 00:32:25.039 and treat ourselves in response, the hero and prove that he was good enough 393 00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:30.589 to God. Instead, he god sent the hero for Jesus is ethical teacher 394 00:32:30.910 --> 00:32:37.670 that keeps us in God's grace, but the one who came to bring God's 395 00:32:37.869 --> 00:32:43.950 grace and rescue us. He later encapsulates this thought. He, Martin Luther, 396 00:32:43.990 --> 00:32:45.420 later in Captu, lates this thought with this line. He says, 397 00:32:45.460 --> 00:32:49.779 I must listen to the Gospel. It tells me not what I must do, 398 00:32:50.220 --> 00:32:52.099 but what Jesus Christ, the son of God, has done for me. 399 00:32:54.339 --> 00:33:00.369 When we begin to realize this, the Good Samaritan story becomes deeper than 400 00:33:00.410 --> 00:33:04.250 Jesus is ethical teaching, which it is, but he becomes deeper as well. 401 00:33:06.730 --> 00:33:10.170 It points a deeper reality of another one, another one who is despised 402 00:33:10.569 --> 00:33:15.640 and rejected by the people with whom he lived, another who left his position 403 00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:21.039 of authority to stoop down to those who need, people who were unconscious of 404 00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:25.200 their need, vulnerable and the unable to help themselves, not just from the 405 00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:29.950 wounds inflicted by other people, but the wounds inflicted by their own sin and 406 00:33:30.349 --> 00:33:36.390 selfishness and rebellion, people not just on the brink of death but in death 407 00:33:36.789 --> 00:33:40.819 itself. Jesus stooped down and with the cost of his life, not only 408 00:33:40.900 --> 00:33:44.940 love, the way we should have loved, but the death we should have 409 00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:49.420 died, that our sins might be paid for, our wounds might be healed, 410 00:33:49.779 --> 00:33:54.849 our shame and our nakedness might be clothed in his righteousness, that we 411 00:33:54.890 --> 00:34:00.690 might be brought not into an end but the grand house of the great heavenly 412 00:34:00.730 --> 00:34:06.769 father. Through a sacrificial love, Jesus proves himself worthy of eternal life and 413 00:34:06.970 --> 00:34:09.840 gives it away to us. He frees us from the Law of checklist and 414 00:34:09.960 --> 00:34:16.840 empowers us to actually live out the law of love without a worry that will 415 00:34:16.840 --> 00:34:21.480 be condemned if we fail. He frees us to look and see the needs 416 00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:23.590 of the other people around us, not as a check box for a grade, 417 00:34:24.469 --> 00:34:28.550 but as a people in need that we can come to as neighbors. 418 00:34:29.789 --> 00:34:32.269 So, whether this is the first time or the thousandth time, allow the 419 00:34:32.349 --> 00:34:37.469 one who is approaching you as the great good Samaritan to embrace you as his 420 00:34:37.579 --> 00:34:43.500 neighbor, as his friend, as his sister or his brother, who claims 421 00:34:43.539 --> 00:34:49.619 you as his father's daughter, his father's son. He has come all you 422 00:34:49.780 --> 00:34:52.929 are, exhausted and heavy laden. He has come for you. Will you 423 00:34:52.969 --> 00:35:00.170 let him embrace you so you might rest and heal and then be empowered to 424 00:35:00.329 --> 00:35:05.050 go love the people in your family and the people outside of your family and 425 00:35:05.130 --> 00:35:07.760 the people that Jesus calls you to love and Tucson and the world around us. 426 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:09.519 Would you pray with me?