Category: Published

Luke 10:25-37 MSG

²⁵ Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

²⁶ He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

²⁷ He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

²⁸ “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

²⁹ Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

^30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.  ^33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

³⁶ “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

³⁷ “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

Observation

The Samaritans were a racially mixed people of Jewish and pagan ancestry. Although they worshiped Yahweh, their religion was not “pure” Judaism.  So, the Samaritans were a despised people by this religion scholar.  The divide was so marked that, even though passing through Samaritan territory was the most direct route between Judea and Galilee, “to avoid contamination” Jews who were traveling from Judea to Galilee or vice versa would cross over the river Jordan to the east in order to bypass setting foot in Samaria, only crossing over the river again to the west as they neared their destination.

The antipathy and enmity existing between Jews and Samaritans gave this story so much more sting.  The only man who inconvenienced himself to show kindness, care and compassion, even at a significant cost to himself, was the hated Samaritan.  Here was an in-your-face story providing the unexpected and challenging answer to the religion scholar’s interpretation of the Law.  Jesus is making it very clear that the law of love has priority over ritual law in God’s Kingdom and sets no limits on who we are to consider our neighbor.  Jesus defines neighbor as anyone who needs our help.

We need to understand that those hearing the story would have understood how the priest and the Levite rationalized avoiding the man.  Touching him would have made them unclean and unable to perform their religious duties for a period of time.  (We’ll keep the clean and unclean issue for another time.)   However, it is interesting to note that they were traveling away from the Temple, not toward it (“down the road” would be away from Jerusalem).  Jesus was making a point to this religious scholar about placing ritual and duty before mercy.  This was not the only time He did so.

Matthew 23:^23-24  PHILLIPS “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you utter frauds! For you pay your tithe on mint and aniseed and cummin, and neglect the things which carry far more weight in the Law—justice, mercy and good faith. These are the things you should have observed—without neglecting the others. You call yourselves leaders, and yet you can’t see an inch before your noses, for you filter out the mosquito and swallow the camel.

Impact on Me

“And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”  Webster’s dictionary defines it as “1: one living or located near another; 2:  fellow man.”  Neighbor as illustrated by Jesus in the story of the Good Samaritan fits this description exactly. There is no indication of race, religion, political beliefs, lifestyle – no tags to identify anything about my neighbor other than location and member of human race.  It is easy to be kind and compassionate to nice, friendly, pleasant friends or strangers.  However, it is more challenging for me when the person is “difficult,” such as:

• a family member who is critical, divisive or vengeful,
• one I might think is deserving of what he or she gets,
• one who has opposing traditions, values, or ethics,
• a believer who shames the Cross by the way he or she lives, or
• one who is angry, arrogant, antagonistic or passionately disagrees with me in areas I consider non-negotiable.

All of these and more are my neighbor according to Jesus!  I must honestly confess that there have been times when I shamefully recognized myself as that priest or Levite – allowing commitments to get in the way of compassion, unwilling to get involved, too busy with my own affairs, primarily concerned with what I would be required to invest in time or resources, and so on.  It is then that the Holy Spirit reminds me that I have been all of the characters in that story at some point –  the victim, the priest or Levite as well as the Good Samaritan. The one constant throughout has been God’s unwavering love, compassion and care for me in all of those roles, whether I was stranger, friend or foe to Him at the time.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NASB).   When I first came to Christ, I was the half-dead victim along the side of the road, beaten up by life and robbed of hope.  So many in my Christian walk have been like the Good Samaritan demonstrating God’s law of love at their own expense.   The Levite and the priest thought they were serving God by strictly observing rituals and performing their duties.  They completely misunderstood the service God was asking of them.  I don’t want to do the same.

Prayer

I bow before You and remember that You are Love, the One Who created and redeemed us all.  Lord, redeem my perspective of Your heart for us all.   Expose and replace with Your truth any misunderstandings rooted in my upbringing, traditions, values, and ethics, so that all I am and do will be rooted in and activated by Your eternal perspective. Let me see through the eyes of Your Holy Spirit rather than with my limited, prejudiced viewpoint. I pray that I will be able to see past the barriers and strongholds that make someone difficult for me to the battered soul that needs Your love.  Help me to be willing to invest myself as did the Good Samaritan to see that battered soul redeemed and restored. Never let me forget that all I am and have I owe to You. I pray all of this in Jesus’ name.

Luke 18:9-14 MSG  He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people:  

“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’ 

¹³ “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’” 

¹⁴ Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.” 

 Observation

Pharisees demonstrated their piety by strict adherence to the Law and the oral traditions.  They were educated in the Law and their commitment and dedication were commendable. Being judges of the matters of the Law was their full time job, so among the “common people” Pharisees were well respected and considered pious spiritual authorities, ones who kept themselves separate from the profane and secular. However, over the centuries in their zealous desire to define what is obedience to the Law, they developed hundreds of additional necessary actions required to comply with the Law. (I am told that there were 60 pages on how and when to wash your hands in the Mishnah, the written version of the oral laws!)

You can see that it would be a full time job to try to live up to all the requirements. It was truly impossible for those who had to work for a living, those common people. So, the Pharisees were put on a pedestal by the people. Because they allowed themselves to become prideful and take the praise for themselves, they got off track and tended to set themselves up as judges of the spiritual worth and physical compliance of everyone else. Unfortunately, no one else was good enough to please God. This was one of the issues they had with Jesus’ teaching, a teaching of redemption, mercy, grace and a Heaven open to the common people and, oh no!, even the profane and secular wicked sinner. Jesus said of them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”  For more on how Jesus judged the Pharisees zeal, see Matthew 23.

These two were probably in the Temple Court, a common public place for people to come to pray.  It was also customary to pray out loud, so these two very probably heard each other’s prayer.   This Pharisee wanted to make sure that everyone within hearing was aware that he strictly obeyed all the rules. His prayer would have sounded right to others listening as he was a Pharisee, a step above them spiritually and in God’s sight .  He was shaming the tax man and praising himself for all his godly works. Jesus expressed His opinion of this attitude of “nose in the air” in the Gospels calling these religious snobs a brood of vipers and hypocrites (see Matthew 23 above).   

The tax man, on the other hand, was despised as a Roman collaborator and oppressor of the people (the profane and secular wicked sinner to be avoided).  He would have been scorned by both the Pharisee and the populace who would believe he had no hope of ever making his life right with God.  The tax man’s prayer would have surprised them as he recognized and confessed his sinful state and cried out for God’s mercy.   

Even more astounding would be Jesus’ statement, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God.”  We hear the echo of the reformed prostitute, the thief on the cross, the lepers and others who found that same hope, mercy and redemption at the hand of Jesus.  If this tax man can be justified before God, then there is hope for all.   This was truly good news.  Jesus is teaching that the way to salvation and righteousness is not earned by good works, but rather by confession, humble repentance and embracing  the free gift of salvation provided by the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus. 

Impact on Me 

Parables are stories that teach a lesson requiring heart searching and a response.  Jesus is not teaching me here about the mechanics of prayer, but rather is giving me insight into maintaining right standing with God by contrasting the attitude of prayer between the two – the proud and pious Pharisee and the broken and humble tax man.  This parable is not about what I do as I pray or the specific words I pray, but rather about the condition of my heart when I pray.   

I don’t need to list all the good things I have done.  God knows what I have done in His name, but, more importantly, He also knows my “why” (the motivation of my heart) in the doing.  If I do good works so that others will see me as devout, spiritual and worthy of praise, I am the Pharisee above.   The praise of people will be all the right standing I get for all my efforts.  ⁵ “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat? ⁶ “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.” (Matthew 5:5-6 MSG)

If I approach God with a humble and contrite heart to seek what it is He asks me to do and be – seen or unseen, recognized or unrecognized, approved or disapproved by others, submitting myself to His will, plan and purpose rather than my own – I am like the repentant tax man who found right standing with God.  This does not give me license to sin nor does it tell me to be lazy in my worship and ministry for God. This story challenges me to recognize that there is no one so vile, secular and wicked a sinner (including me) that cannot be redeemed.

So, in response to this parable, I ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart for the prideful places, the selfish and arrogant pieces of me, those places where I have become the Pharisee, so they can be revealed, removed and replaced with humble, selfless and Jesus-like meekness and submission to God’s plan and purpose for my life. 

Prayer 

Lord, You are my Creator, my Redeemer.   I come to You as the tax man asking for mercy and grace to keep me in right standing with You.  As David prayed, so do I.  Make it so in Jesus’ name. 

Psalm 139:1-3, 23-24 NIV You have searched me, Lord, and You know me.  2 You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.  3 You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways…²³ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 
 

Philippians 2:12-16a (PHILLIPS) So then, my dearest friends, as you have always followed my advice—and that not only when I was present to give it—so now that I am far away be keener than ever to work out the salvation that God has given you with a proper sense of awe and responsibility. For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.  14-16a Do all you have to do without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be God’s children, blameless, sincere and wholesome, living in a warped and diseased world, and shining there like lights in a dark place. For you hold in your hands the very word of life.

Observation

Paul is writing this letter from prison.  It is a letter filled with the joy of serving his Master.  He encouraged the Philippians “to work out the salvation that God has given you with a proper sense of awe and responsibility.”   This is the work we are called to allow and encourage within us because “it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.” 

Paul is telling us that we are responsible for the obedience and cultivating a life of worship, praise and prayer.  God is responsible for the results – in us and through us.  Working out the salvation that God has given us may (and usually does) require a sacrifice of our pride, our rights, our wills, our comfort, our reputations. 

• Paul had such clear perspective, kept his focus on the purposes of God while ignoring the cost to himself – the mark of a good and faithful servant. 
• Paul did not concern himself with what people said, did or thought about his actions; his reputation was expendable if it’s loss was necessary to obey and faithfully serve his Master.
• He did not grumble or complain about his circumstances or experiences (at least not out loud), but, rather, gladly, even joyfully, endured whatever was necessary to faithfully and fully serve his Master.
• Paul constantly sought God for His instruction on how to honor, glorify and fulfill His will and purposes in every situation, trusting that he was there to be used by God, content in the assurance that God was in charge of the results of Paul’s obedience.
• Paul didn’t waste time or energy in prayer asking to have his situation improved, but, rather, prayed that he might be effectively used (good and faithful in service) wherever he found himself. 

He allowed God to do the cost/benefit analysis, trusting in the wisdom, grace, power and plan of His Master.  Jesus was the ultimate good and faithful servant – the innocent bearing the pain and shame of the Cross for the guilty (all humanity) that the plan of God would be fulfilled.   Jesus is our example in setting aside rights, reputation, comfort and even life itself to have the faith to trust and serve the Father’s will and purpose, fulfilling His plan to redeem whosever will come.

Impact on Me

Oh, my!  Paul tells me to imitate him only in the ways he imitates Christ. This is a tall order when I consider his life and ministry.

• Learning to be content in all circumstances – whether abased or abounding – with no grumbling or complaining
• Always seeking to keep my feet in the footsteps of Christ, following His example as He marks the way He would have me go whether the road appears easy or tough
• Letting God judge whether the cost to me is worth the benefit to His kingdom
• Gladly, even joyfully serving when faced with a painful or difficult task
• Being willing to sacrifice my pride, my rights, my will/wants, my comfort, my reputation to fulfill His will and purpose

These are all characteristics of a good, obedient, loyal and faithful servant. This is what I profess I want to be. Am I willing to pay the price?  Will I risk my reputation, my financial security, my rights for His cause, for the souls inhabiting the darkness of this “warped and diseased world”?  How much do I really trust God?  How much do I really believe that all I own is His?  How much of me and mine am I willing to spend if He asks me to do so?  These are questions that will determine what I truly treasure, count as precious and worth owning, and where my heart truly is.

Prayer

Lord, You are our Creator, our Redeemer, the only wise God. You made a perfect plan to redeem us before the foundation of the world. You are the only Master who can be trusted to be just and right in all You do and ask. Give me the wisdom to submit to You in all things, to seek You always for what You would have me do and be. Give me the courage to always choose obedience to You and Your will regardless of the cost to me. May I consider obedience to You the treasure worth all I am or possess. In Jesus’ name, make it so.