Who is your neighbor?

In Luke 10, a lawyer tries to justify himself by asking Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this sermon, Dr. Toby Holt unpacks what real love for neighbor looks like.

Questions this sermon answers:

1. Why did the lawyer ask the question? To justify himself — to narrow "neighbor" down to a manageable few. Jesus widened it instead.

2. Why was a Samaritan the hero? Samaritans were despised by the Jews. Making one the example exposed the lawyer's prejudice and redefined neighborly love.

3. What does Jesus call us to do? To show mercy to whoever is in need, crossing the lines we would rather not cross.

"Go and do likewise." "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?... And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do likewise.'" — Luke 10:36-37 (NKJV)

Speaker: In Luke 10, a lawyer tries to justify himself by asking Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this sermon, Dr. Toby Holt unpacks what real love for neighbor looks like.

In Luke 10, Jesus told a parable about the Good Samaritan.

Specifically, he told the story of one man's willingness to come to another man's aid,

even after several more likely sources of help had passed him by.

What is this parable all about, and how does it apply to us?

This will be the focus of today's study.

In today's text, we're going to read about a man who's in dire need.

A man whose very life hangs in the balance and in his hour of greatest need, two men are going to

draw near to him. And both of these men, they have the ability, they have the office, they have the

responsibility to assist. And yet, both these individuals will pass him by. Fortunately, as

we're going to see, that's not the end of the story because a third man, a third man is going

to come by. And this guy, he would be the least likely candidate of all of them to assist. And yet,

He's going to be the one.

And we'll show the hurting man the grace that he needs

and the hour that he needs it.

All right, let's pick up the story now

as we return to verses 25 and 26.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him,

saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

It's an interesting way to phrase it.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, well, what is written in the law?

Verse 26. What's written in the law? What is your reading of it? All right. Today's text is part of

a lengthier address that Jesus is making in Luke 10. In this address, which is given in a region

called Bethany, Jesus has been teaching just this master class of theology. He's been teaching with

the wisdom of God, not of man. With that said, look what happened. Look what happened when he

stops to catch his breath for a minute. We see this phrase in verse 25, and behold, behold, a certain

lawyer stood up and tested him. Have you never had a conversation or debate or maybe an argument with

someone? And as you're discussing and debating, you begin to realize something. I'm talking and

you're talking and we're all talking together, but you're not really paying attention to what I'm

saying. You're sitting there going back and forth, maybe done it for two minutes, maybe for two hours,

but at a certain point you say, I don't think you're listening to me. The individual you're

talking to is just readying their next rhetorical IED to drop into the conversation. They're just

readying the next thing that they're going to say. That's what we see here. He's been waiting.

He sees his moment and he takes it and he stands up. And when you stood up in this context,

you stand up not to ask a question that you really want to learn from. You do that,

you sit at the feet of the individual. You stand up, you're proclaiming that you have some

authority. Him standing up is not incidental to the text. So he stands up. Verse 25. And what we

see here is a question that at first glance, it seems kind of innocuous. Teacher, now tell me,

what shall we do to inherit eternal life? Now at face value, that's the most important question

asked of the most authoritative source that you could ever ask it of on the one hand that question

is reasonable how do I receive eternal life he noticed he doesn't ask how do I be saved

because he didn't see anything you really need to be saved from so the question is not phrased

quite right but at the end of the day it's a reasonable questions what I have to do to inherit

eternal life it seems like a reasonable question however don't forget this guy was a lawyer so his

question was loaded this is an admiral akbar special this is a trap however some of you get

that. However, Jesus had been parrying traps his entire ministry. The Pharisees, the scribes,

the elders, Dear heavens, whenever he encountered any of these people, they had questions like this.

They were trying to trap him and engage him. And so Jesus, you know what? He had his own rhetorical

device too. It was called answering a question with a question. And so he asked this man, he says,

tell me, tell me, what does the Bible say? What's written in the law? He answers the question with

a question. Let's see what the lawyer comes back with. Verse 27, and so he answered, and he said,

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength,

and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So this is his answer.

And Jesus, in verse 28, said to him, you've answered rightly.

Good job.

You've been catechized well.

You've been answered rightly.

You do that, everything you just said there, you'll live.

But, verse 29, but this man, wanting to justify himself,

wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, so who's my neighbor?

Who's my neighbor?

All right so in verse 26 Jesus asked the man to tell him what does the law say you are a lawyer

you stood up here in the teaching you took on the position of authority you're the lawyer you want

to know how do you inherit eternal life what does the law say mr lawyer what does the law say and

again this man had been categorized he knew the joshima and so he comes up with the response it's

the right response in a sense. It's incomplete, but it's right. His answer is a combination of

texts that you actually find in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And he says, basically, you shall love

your God with heart, mind, soul, strength, all of it, all of it, all of it. And you shall also love

your neighbor as yourself. Now, what did Jesus throw back? Well, in verse 28, Jesus says, bingo.

He says, you got it. You have got it. You do everything you just said, you'll live. What did

you just say? Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, all of it, all of it, all of it.

Do that and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, if you do that, because that's a summary of

the Ten Commandments. You understand that? That's a summary of the Ten Commandments. That's a summary

of the moral law. And Jesus says, if you keep the moral law the way you just said, yeah, amen,

you're in. If you keep all the commandments perfectly by loving God with all your being,

all of it, all of it, all of it, all of it. And if you love your neighbor with just this perfect,

unbroken string of grace and affection you love him as much as you love yourself. You do that, yeah, then

you'll get eternal life now most of us most of us would have understood the problem here most of us

would understand the problem here because here's the thing at best our track record of loving

God and loving our neighbor it's kind of spotty at best at absolute best calling it spotty is the

nicest word I can come up with. If the standard to hit is to love God with all your heart, mind,

soul, body, and strength, did you do that last week? No, no, you didn't do that. You didn't do

that. None of us have done that in a single hour, day, or breath of our lives. Have we loved God

with all of our soul and body and strength and the like? How about your neighbor last week? Your

neighbor, your coworker, guy down the street, guy you saw on the TV, guy at Walmart, what happened?

You love him as you loved yourself?

Well, again, no.

Being introspective here this morning,

we can kind of get that and go,

well, hold the phone here.

If that's the ticket, if that's the means,

if that's the button I've got to push

to rock it into God's golden shores,

then I can't because I'm not that guy.

I haven't done this.

If eternal life is a function of loving God

and loving my neighbor without any sin,

without any selfishness whatsoever,

if eternal life is attained by keeping God's law

with all my heart, soul, strength, and like,

then I guess I will not inherit eternal life.

That's the reasonable conclusion.

you and I haven't fulfilled the law's demands,

and neither have the lawyer,

and yet this guy,

this guy doesn't get it.

you and I might understand,

oh, wait a second,

I think I'm kind of boxed in by my own answer

about how to inherit eternal life.

I don't think I've done all that perfectly.

you and I might see that,

but not this guy,

not this lawyer, this individual.

This guy doesn't see a problem.

This guy doesn't see the contradiction.

This guy didn't grasp the most basic and essential part of the Gospel message,

which is this, that salvation cannot be found in keeping the law

because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

This guy didn't understand that because the word grace,

which is the basis for how you and I understand our being saved,

we know we've fallen short.

We know we don't measure up.

And so what's our means of salvation?

How do we inherit eternal life?

Well, not by fulfilling the law completely,

but rather by trusting in He who did,

by having faith in Jesus Christ,

that Christ's intercession,

that His living the life that we should have lived,

that His dying the death that we should have died,

that He, through our faith in Him,

that's the means by which we have hope.

That's the means by which we inherit eternal salvation.

It's not a function of works.

It's not a function of deeds.

It's not a function of merit.

It's a function of grace.

Grace was not in this guy's lexicon.

Grace wasn't in this guy's vocabulary.

And to prove he didn't get it,

they didn't have an understanding of grace,

just look what verse 29 said.

He hears all that Jesus just said,

and he probably hears the tone of voice

with which Jesus said it.

He gets all that firsthand from God himself,

looking God in the eyeball,

and look what happens in verse 29.

Then, wanting to justify himself,

wanting to justify himself,

He says, who is my neighbor?

Who is my neighbor? This guy, I think he knew that he hadn't loved everyone as he loved himself. I

think he knew that. But instead of recognizing that that jerkiness was a condemning sin, he did

what we all do when we're trying to justify ourselves. He messed with the semantics.

Boy, that's the trick of the scoundrel, isn't it? You remember a certain politician 25 years ago

trying to redefine what the word is means? Is doesn't mean is. You remember this? It's the

trick of the scoundrel when we do this. We start playing with semantics, and that's what he does.

Jesus corners him. Love your neighbor as yourself, and the guy stops. He goes, all right, all right,

all right. Who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor? Well, Jesus is ready with the answer. Let's look

at verses 30 through 35. Verse 30. Then Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from

Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, who wounded him

and departed, left him half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he

saw him, he passed by onto the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, he came and

He looked, and then he passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to

where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. And so he went to him, and he bandaged his wounds,

and he poured on oil and wine and he set him on

His own animal. Then he brought him to

an inn and he took care of him. And then on the

next day when he departed, he took out two

denarii. He gave them to the innkeeper and he

said to him, take care of this man.

Whatever more you spend when I come

again, I will

repay you. You know,

back in Christ's day

there was a highway that

had been named the way of

blood. The way of blood.

Now why do you think it was called that?

Well, it's called the Way of Blood because of all those folks who'd pour out their lifeblood upon it.

It was the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which is really not that big a distance.

I don't know, maybe 17 miles or so, but it's pretty rugged.

Pretty rugged.

What would happen is you can come around corners and bends and rocks and the like, and you could be ambushed.

You could be walking along with your wares and your donkey and your great plans for the future,

and then, you know, 10 seconds later, you're half dead.

Now, what do we know about this guy?

Do we know anything?

Is this a good man?

I don't know.

Is he a bad guy?

I really don't know.

Is he a graduate of BLC University, Bad Life Choice University?

Did he make some bad decisions to put himself in this bind?

I don't know.

I don't know if he was good, bad, stupid, smart.

I have no idea.

What I do know is he's going from A to B, and before he gets to B, he's beaten, and

He's left for dead.

Now, what if, what if you went up and you told this?

Dying man, this encouraging news. And he said, all right, you look like you're in rough shape,

but here's the good news. Any moment, any moment, the priest is coming. Any moment, the priest

is going to come around the bend. Any moment, the man who is as close to God as we have in our

jewish culture, any moment, the man who intercedes with God, any moment, the man who spends all his

time reading the Holy Writ, any moment, the individual whose very job description is supposed

to reek with charity and mercy and grace and forbearance.

Any moment, that guy, he's coming.

Good news.

If you're sitting there just sprawled out,

you say, all right, yay, the priest.

Well, then what happens?

What happens here?

Well, the priest shows up,

and he goes right on by.

Now, surely, tell me,

the most religious people are the most merciful.

Tell me that's the case.

Surely, the people like this priest

whose vocation or office or Scripture or training

should have inclined them to mercy

would be the most merciful were those

who were down on their luck, so to speak.

Well, at least not in the case of the priest.

Now, maybe he's just a bad egg.

I mean, there's bad priests, bad pastors,

there's bad individuals in these roles,

so maybe that's the case.

Well, the second man came along.

And the second man was a Levite.

Now, all priests are Levites.

Okay, that's the priestly tribe.

All priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests.

The Levites often were the choir, so to speak.

They're the praise singers, the worship leader.

We can consider this guy the worship leader.

You had the Old Testament equivalent of the pastor,

and now you have the worship leader, so to speak,

roll on in to encounter this man.

And he encounters this man.

The Levite encounters this man.

On the one hand, this guy's in terrible shape,

but the pastor and the worship leader,

the priest and the Levite, both showed up.

But, but, then they both did the exact same thing.

They crossed the other side, and they passed on by.

Fortunately, fortunately, though, that's not the end of this guy's story.

In verse 33, there's a third man,

a man that we refer to as the Good Samaritan.

Why is that an ironic phrase?

Well, if you had tried to use that phrase in Old Testament Israel,

you would have been corrected before the syllables were out of your mouth.

Because in Old Testament Israel, there were no Good Samaritans.

In Old Testament Israel, the idea, just the thought of putting those words together,

the Good Samaritan, that was a non-starter.

You would rather hang out with a Midianite, with a Babylonian, with an Assyrian than a Samaritan.

Why? Because Samaritans were turncoats.

Because Samaritans didn't share your ancestry completely.

Because Samaritans were mixed in terms of their ethnic background,

were very mixed with regards to their faith.

They had their own mountain, their own temple where they worshipped God.

They had just enough of Israel's history to dwell and walk amongst you,

and yet they were the other.

They were the other.

You know when the Pharisees wanted to accuse Jesus?

You know when they wanted a name call him?

You know what they would say?

The lowest insult that they had when they hurled it at Jesus

was to call him a Samaritan.

In fact, one time they used two words together.

They say he's a Samaritan and he has a demon

because they couldn't go any worse than that.

So that's the context by which this man is laying here.

The priest and the Levite, the pastor, the worship leader,

walked by and then, just as his five ounces of lifeblood

are about to ooze from his veins onto the way of blood,

a third man comes along and it's the least likely man

in the entire culture, in the entire society

in a hundred mile radius.

It's a Samaritan.

And yet, what we see in verse 33

is that this least likely candidate

does the one thing

that the most likely candidates didn't do.

And that was to demonstrate grace

in the moment that this man needed.

And then, not only to demonstrate the grace of,

hey, how you doing?

Could I call somebody?

Not just to do that,

but to bind him up, to put him on his own horse, which only exacerbated the risk that he himself

was going to get mugged or beaten. Puts this guy on his own horse, takes him to an inn, spends his

own money, his own money to house him, and then tells innkeeper if it takes longer, if he's going

to be here for a while and he's in pretty bad shape, I'll pay whatever the bill is. It's not

just a function of who it was that showed up to do what he did. It's a function of what he did.

He gave everything. He gave the equivalent of his life savings, so to speak, to look out after this

individual. This man had every reason to treat this Jew poorly, based on the interactions that

their two cultures had. And yet, he overcame whatever history or prejudices he probably had,

inculcated by growing up in this culture, he overcame whatever history or prejudices he had

to do the right thing, to assist the dying man who God had put providentially in his path

that day. And that is the picture. That's the picture that Christ has in mind when he looks

at the lawyer, when he looks at the religious elite. He says, all right, you, tell me who,

of these three individuals in this parable, who is this man's neighbor? You ask me who's

your neighbor? Who is this man's neighbor? Let's look at verses 36 and 37, our final verses.

So verse 36, Jesus, again, he talks this lower, and he says,

which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And the man said, He who showed mercy upon him.

And Jesus said, Absolutely.

You go and do likewise.

You go and do likewise.

Before we go any further, let me recast today's parable a little bit.

For the sake of argument, let's say that you're in a car crash in, I don't know, in New Orleans.

I know that's impossible because everyone drives so safe there.

Far-fetched, I know, but let's roll with this.

Let's say you're in a car crash in New Orleans, you're in a crash, and you're bleeding out there in the street.

Now, if you're in a car crash and you're bleeding out in the street anywhere, let alone in New Orleans, what sound do you want to hear?

What sound do you want to hear?

Well, I know we have an EMT here somewhere.

I know we've got folks who are in medical training.

You probably want to hear an ambulance.

You're in a car crash.

You're losing your lifeblood there on the street.

You probably want to hear an ambulance.

Now, let's say you're sitting there in New Orleans on the street and you hear the ambulance,

but the ambulance, it just goes flying on by, driving on by.

Well, you're thinking to yourself, oh my, good golly.

This is the worst.

I can't believe it.

Here I am.

I'm dying and the ambulance just went on by.

Now, let's say while you're contemplating this just terrible turn of events that you

hear another sound.

It's the sound of singing.

It's the sound not only of singing, but of a choir.

It's a church choir and a church bus,

and they're singing out the windows,

and you hear that, and you say,

oh, praise be.

Surely, surely these devout, God-loving individuals

will come to my aid, surely.

Well, if the narrative follows what we saw in today's parable,

the bus keeps on driving.

Now your wit's in.

Now you're really frustrated.

You think this is it. I'm out of hope, but I'm out of time. Now, just as you're thinking that

last thought, let's say again, let's say a Chevy Nova. I hope no one owns a Chevy Nova here.

A Chevy Nova drives up, slows down, and the guy hops out of that Chevy Nova. And let's say this

guy, he's got eight nose rings and 80 tattoos, and he begins to help you. And he takes off his

shirt and fashion is in a tourniquet.

He doesn't have much, but he gives what he has

and his time and supplies to help you

and then to take you and escort you

to a place where you can be treated.

If someone were to ask you in that moment,

who is your neighbor?

You'd probably say the guy who stopped to help.

The guy who showed mercy.

You know, if you're dying on the street,

you don't care how many nose rings your EMT has.

What you care about is his heart, his willingness to come to your aid.

That's your neighbor in that moment.

That's the neighbor you want for yourself,

and that's the neighbor you want to be to others.

Well, that's the same answer the lawyer ultimately came to in verse 37.

He wasn't there at the start, but he ultimately came there.

So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And this man answered.

He said, he who showed mercy on him.

Mercy was probably not a word that came out of this guy's lips very often.

But he recognized it was true.

He who showed mercy to him.

And then Jesus said, go and do likewise.

What you have heard and what your heart has received, go repeat.

Because there's going to be circumstances that will require you and test you.

You think you tested me?

There's going to be circumstances in your life, maybe right down the street from you,

well, your faith in these principles, dear lawyer, dear sir, are going to be tested,

just as you've attempted to test me.

And when that happens, when you're put to the test, go and do likewise.

Do what you are called to do by the whole ethos of Scripture,

by the demonstration of Christ himself, go and do likewise.

You know, as Christians, we like to think of ourselves as good neighbors,

and generally speaking, it's true.

Generally speaking, my experience is that it's true.

Many of the Christians that I've met and encountered throughout my ministerial life,

throughout my life in general, are some of the most generous, gracious individuals

I've ever encountered in any walk of life or situation.

Many Christians, including those in our body, are just exceptionally generous

and gracious and kind and forbearing and merciful to those who are in need.

What we need to watch out for is when we're selective in how we portion out that generosity.

By whether the recipient of grace reaches up to our standard

of what makes him worthy of that grace.

Was there anyone worthy of the grace that we see in today's parable?

Was there anyone worthy of the grace that Christ himself regularly dispensed,

regularly gave out in his walk?

Was anyone worthy of it?

No.

Are you worthy of the grace by which you sit there and breathe right now?

No.

Are we worthy of the grace by which God looked down on us as rebels

and determined to save us and pardon us

by giving that which is the most precious to himself for our souls.

Are we worthy of that?

No.

If God was to dole out grace on the basis of who is worthy of it,

who warrants it, who stacks up,

who didn't attend bad life choice university,

who's living their life the way I think they should live it,

if God doled out his grace only to those who hit that threshold,

there'd be none who would receive it.

So we have to be careful, because I know we look at individuals at Walmart, on the beach,

in any different encounters, sometimes even in church circles, and we say, ah, that person,

these other people I can get, not that person. We apply a selectivity and a threshold

to the pouring out of our grace that Scripture cannot and does not support,

and which you never once see Jesus model. With our closing remaining time, let me return

to a verse I read in our call to worship this morning. In 1 John 3, Apostle John asked this

familiar question. He said, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need,

whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him,

how then, how, how does the love of God abide in him? There are few issues as near and dear

to the heart of God

as the care and the provision of the broken.

Few issues as near and dear to the heart of God

as the care and provision of the broken,

the widows, the orphans, the hurting,

the desperate, the man lying on the street.

There are few issues as near and dear to God's heart

as our call to reflect the grace of Christ

into the environments where hurting people are,

and sometimes they come into our midst.

And throughout its pages, I could pick any book of Scripture.

If it's longer than three pages, I'll find multiple verses that apply to this.

I'll pick one.

The book of Proverbs has verse after verse that speaks to this very same issue.

Proverbs 14 and 21.

Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner.

Now, who's your neighbor?

What did we just see in the text?

Everybody.

Not everyone is your brother in Christ.

There is a distinction.

Not everyone is your brother in Christ, but everyone is your neighbor.

And so what we see in Proverbs 14 and 21,

whoever despises his neighbor despises him as a sinner.

But blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

Ten verses later, Proverbs 14, 31.

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker.

He who is generous to the needy honors him.

Proverbs 19, 17.

He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord.

Can you imagine doing such a thing?

When you have pity to the poor, you lend to the Lord and he will pay back.

God will pay back what he has given.

Proverbs 21.13, whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor

will himself call out and not be answered.

Proverbs 22.9, whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed,

for he shares his bread with the poor.

Proverbs 28.27, whoever gives to the poor will not want,

but he who hides his eye will get many a curse.

I could go on.

That's six, seven verses just out of Proverbs.

How many books are there in the Bible?

66.

Read a few pages.

Flip around.

You'll see the same premise again and again and again.

Throughout Scripture, throughout the whole

of Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament,

God emphasizes His

love and His care and His provision and His charity

and His grace to those who are broken,

to those who are hurting

and in need. And you know what? I am

glad God loves those sort of folks

because I am

one of them, and so are you.

I'm glad

that God loves these sort of folks

because I've been poor and hurting

and broken, and I don't want the God of the

scribes and the Pharisees to show up when I'm in that estate. I don't want a God who tells me I

got to get with the program before I'm a candidate for grace. I don't want a God who only loves the

greater, the mighty, or the perfect, because I'll never be any of those things, and neither will you.

I want a God who gathers me up when I'm broken and weak, when I'm lying in a pool of my own blood,

so to speak. Once upon a time, you and I were not just poor, we were dead. Once upon a time,

you and I were not righteous, we were rebellious.

Once upon a time there was a debt we could not repay,

there was a hole we could not fill.

And yet into our circumstances,

into that hurt, into the crucible

of our pain

came great light.

This morning

God is asking us

the same question

He asked this individual here in Luke 10.

Who is my neighbor?

When you answer that question

what will you then do?

We show mercy.

Let's pray.