Belhaven University Chapel Series

One day, an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this.

Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus replied, what does the law of Moses say?

How do you read it?

The man answered, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

Right?

Jesus told him, do this and you will live.

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Jesus replied with a story.

A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, left him half dead beside the road.

By chance, a priest came along.

But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.

A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there.

But he also passed by on the other side.

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.

Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.

And then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he took care of him.

The next day, he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, take care of this man.

If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.

Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?

Jesus asked.

The man replied, the one who showed him mercy.

Then Jesus said, yes, now go and do the same.

Well, the Parables of Jesus.

Jesus told stories to help us understand how different the kingdom of God is from the world.

We know not to see the world through sin's distorted eyes, which is how we see it every day, but to have the perspective through God's eyes, to see how God designed us to live and to relate and to flourish.

The kingdom of heaven he talked about is like.

And then he told these stories upside down from what the world values, not just a little different.

It's like hate versus love.

Complete opposites.

But to understand the kingdom, what the kingdom of heaven is like.

It's a process day by day, day by day, to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly.

So today's story takes us further into this journey, asking the question, who's my neighbor?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

He had it beautifully read for you from the chair of our theater department.

But essentially, the story, is this a Lawyer, Jewish lawyer, asked Jesus a question.

What?

What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said, well, what's the scripture say?

Well, he knew the scripture, so he quoted it back to him, and essentially he said, love God completely and love your neighbor as yourself.

And Jesus responded with the question, well, then, who's your neighbor?

The lawyer was looking for a line.

Who do I have to include?

Not who do I get to include?

And still I'm okay.

He was looking for a line.

Sure, he would want to be neighbor to his family and his friends, communities.

And in those days, people lived in very close communities.

They knew everybody, and so they were happy to take care of their own.

No problem there.

This was a different Jesus turned it up upside down like he often does when he tells these parables, not pointing the story to someone that this lawyer despised that he had to take care of and love.

He turned it even more upside down by telling the story of someone that he despised taking care of people like the lawyer.

Pretty remarkable.

Why not the story of a Jew helping a Jew?

That would have gotten the point across.

Why not the story of a Jew helping a Samaritan?

That would have been really magnanimous to the Samaritan.

Because the Samaritans were hated by the Jews.

No, the story instead was of a Samaritan helping a Jew.

The Samaritans were anything but good to the Jews.

They would never put good and Samaritan together in the same sentence.

Samaritans were marginalized people.

Samaritans were ethnically different from Jews.

In fact, they had blended ethnically, which was a horrible thing to Jews.

There was deep, deep, deep prejudice against Samaritans in those days.

Samaritans believed parts of the scripture and other parts they kind of discounted or didn't follow the rules.

And so the Jews considered them really heretics.

Not only are they ethnically different, but they kind of take our faith and they made it their own.

And they're not true believers.

In fact, it was so bad that to get from Galilee to Judea, Jews would often travel around Samaritan rather than going through it because they didn't want to be exposed to Samaritans.

This was a prejudice and a hatred that built up over 800 years by the time Jesus told this story.

And in one story, one story, Jesus turns despised people into good people and tells the story of the good Samaritan.

It's a story of fear and failure and prejudice, but it's also a story of compassion and love and mercy.

So let's get the players.

The Jewish man who was attacked had to be a person of stature and wealth.

Why else would they attack him?

They attacked him to take his money.

He was targeted for that.

The road to Jericho was a very dangerous road.

It came down the hill.

There was a lot of ways.

You couldn't see what was coming.

It was a very dangerous thing to do.

Usually people would go in groups.

This man wasn't going in group.

He was going individually.

He got attacked, he got beaten, he got robbed, he took his clothes from him.

He was left really for dead.

So that's the first player.

Second player we have is a priest who came along.

Well, the priest came along and saw what was going on.

Saw this man bleeding and dying in the road, I'm sure crying for help.

And he avoided him.

Was he too busy?

Was he afraid?

Was he unwilling?

There is something about a priest.

Can't get, couldn't touch things that were unclean or somebody bleeding.

So maybe he thought he was fulfilling duty.

It was probably just pride that blow him, especially for some person like that.

He's not going to do that.

And then a Levite came along.

Well, Levite is a person who has the administrative work within the temple.

And so they're supposed to help.

They're the people who are equipped to help.

He had more ability.

But when he came, he also passed by on the other side.

He probably saw the priests up ahead not doing it.

So he said, if he's not doing it, I'm not supposed to do it.

So he just followed along.

And then we had the Samaritan.

The Samaritan came down this risky road.

He gave up his plans when he saw the man beaten and injured.

He risked his life in some ways because he could have been attending to them and somebody else come along and say, well, you did it, and charged him with it.

Or the robbers could have come back and gotten him.

He used his own resources, oil and his wine and his donkey and his money.

He put his own resources into it.

He didn't plan to do any of that.

And then you got the people in the inn, which is really an interesting group because the inn was not a hospital.

Now, this man was near death.

The scripture is real clear.

This man was near death.

So they brought him to this inn.

Can you believe?

You know, imagine this.

This isn't a Holiday Inn.

This is a little tiny place.

You know, bring him in.

This man's bleeding all over the place.

He's probably crying out, there's a lot of pain going on.

They didn't have anything that we have now to kill the pain.

He's dealing with that.

There are other guests there who have paid to stay there.

And that's the last thing they want is this guy coming in.

And so there are people at the end who did not initiate the mercy, but they were drawn into it.

And when we're drawn into mercy, we have a choice.

And they had a choice.

You could join in, you could push back and say, he's not coming in here, or you can run away and just leave.

So the people of the inn are also part of this story.

Now, whether it's the Samaritan or even the people of the inn, mercy, merciful love, requires taking risks.

It takes giving up, and it takes being inconvenienced.

You can't show mercy, you can't show love unless you're willing to do those three things.

And that's what they did in this story.

They took a big risk.

They gave up their own resources, their own convenience, their own comfort.

And they were significantly pushed out of the plans that they had for the day.

Showing love without sacrifice is kindness and is decency, but it's not love.

Love always requires a level of sacrifice.

So did the Good Samaritan love the injured man?

Is kind of a natural question that comes out of this scenario.

Then he didn't know him.

There's no indication that he had any connection with the man.

But he was his neighbor to love because God loved the Samaritan and the Samaritan loved the people God loves.

And the Samaritan knew the scripture.

And I'm sure the scripture which guided him was from Micah 6, 8, which reads, this is what God requires of you, to do what's right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

That's what God requires.

Those are not serving suggestions.

Those are not options.

Those are not.

Pick one out of three.

No, those things are required.

Mercy is the most selfless expression of love.

This man that the Good Samaritan took care of was very different from him.

Maybe he didn't like him.

I'm sure he didn't know him.

And he probably thought, he doesn't deserve mercy.

These Jewish guys have been beating on our people for 800 years.

Why in the world should I help him?

That's the natural reaction.

That's sin's way.

The kingdom of heaven is totally different.

But in giving mercy, there's a high cost to pay, a very high cost to pay.

Scripture says, now which of these three would you say was your neighbor to the man who was attacked by the bandits?

Jesus asked.

The man replied, the one who showed him mercy.

And Jesus said, yes, go and do the same.

You see, mercy is the only option for followers of Christ.

It's the only option we have.

You say, well, I don't have the temperament for mercy.

Well, you may not.

Some people have the temperament for mercy, some don't.

My son, shortly after he got his driver's license, you know, nervous as can be, and he goes out driving on his own.

He comes back about the fifth or sixth trip back, he comes back and he's got two dogs in the car.

Say, grady, what are you doing bringing the dogs home?

He said they were on the side of the road and they couldn't find the owner.

And so I got them and they have a collar.

So I brought them home and we're going to call them and then we're going to take them to them.

That's just him.

He got a temperament to have mercy on an animal.

I don't care what kind of animal it is or what shape it's in, he's going to take it in.

Some people have a temperament for mercy.

Most people don't have the temperament for mercy.

It really doesn't matter what you're temperament.

Temperament is.

It's required.

Some people, you know.

Second thing is, do you have the time for mercy?

I guarantee you this, there's never time for mercy.

It's not going to happen.

When you happen to have time to give to somebody, the time for mercy is always going to disrupt your schedule.

Maybe you say I haven't got the talent for mercy.

Well, that's why I like in this story, the Good Samaritan didn't have all the talents he needed, and he teamed up with the people at the end in order to help.

And sometimes in giving mercy, we've got to team with others in order to have the talent to help.

But mercy is the only option for followers of Christ.

So whether you got the temperament or you got the time or you got the talent, it's still required.

And Jesus made it very clear we have to be merciful.

And the Good Samaritan showed mercy at every single level.

Now, this man, as we talked about, I mean, he couldn't speak.

He was near death.

But we know because of who he is, he despised Samaritans.

If he would have woken up and seen this guy helping him and realized he was Samaritan, he probably would have gone into panic attack because he despised Samaritans.

He had the Good Samaritan had every reason not to care for him, but he showed mercy anyway because of who God is, not who the Jewish man was who was injured.

The priest, the Good Samaritan showed mercy to him.

The priest knew better.

The priest knew better.

He's supposed to take care of the flock, and he didn't do it.

The Good Samaritan didn't go running after him and say, you know, grab that Pierce.

Bring him back here.

You come back and do what you're supposed to do.

He didn't do that.

He showed mercy to the priest.

He showed mercy to the Levite.

The Levite had the resources to do better, and he didn't do it either.

And the Good Samaritan showed him mercy.

The Good Samaritan's mercy was to all the people in the story, none of whom were merciful toward him.

None.

Nobody was merciful toward the Samaritan, and yet the Samaritan was merciful to everybody.

You see, mercy is not dependent on the receiver.

Christ gives us mercy not because we deserve it, not because we earned it, not because we did anything that made him smile.

Christ gives us mercy because he loves us.

And we are to give mercy to others because Christ gives it to us.

You see, mercy changes everything.

Absolutely everything is changed when mercy gets thrown into the equation.

News story came on tonight.

Somebody did something to help somebody in the Belhaven neighborhood.

I hear Maggie Wade coming on.

A Good Samaritan showed up in the Belhaven neighborhood this afternoon.

Everybody goes, oh, yeah?

That means there's a good person.

In those days, a Samaritan was despised.

People in Jesus Day would have laughed at that because nothing good comes out of Samaria.

The heroes of this story should be the priest and the Levite, not the Good Samaritan.

When giving mercy, there will always be, on your road of giving mercy, hypocrites.

That's the other part of mercy.

Every time you try to give mercy, there will be some hypocrite, probably who's gone behind you or after you who should have helped.

So the question is, are we going to let the hypocrites set our standard as followers of Christ?

Should we let the priests set the standard as followers of Christ?

He had high stature.

He had influence.

He's the person who should be a role model for mercy, and he wasn't.

So if he wasn't, why do I have to?

Maybe the Levite temple administrator.

He had all kinds of resources to do this.

He could have called in a group of people, take care of this guy and the whole thing.

It would have been easy for him and he didn't do it.

So if he doesn't do it, why do I have to?

Hypocrites will always be on the road.

But hypocrites are not an excuse for not showing mercy.

You see, hypocrites, they know what to do, but they don't live it.

So they know exactly what to do.

They're just not going to do it.

And they'll be the first to judge you.

In fact, they'll quote scripture back at you because you didn't do it their way.

They're pretty good at that.

They'll put effort Hypocrites will put effort into not helping.

The scripture says the priests went to the other side of the road.

The Levite went to the other side of the road.

Well, this probably was a very small trail.

This wasn't very wide, because the bandits wouldn't attack somebody where you could escape.

They would attack at a very narrow place where you had no way to getting out.

And so there was blood all over the place.

There was stuff all over the place that they'd left behind.

It was a mess.

And you can just imagine that priest very carefully trying to work his way around that, to not touch any of it.

And maybe the Levite working his way around it to not really even see it.

I don't want to see it.

Hypocrites will go as far as possible to avoid mercy.

Hypocrites are almost always driven by pride.

The priest of stature and robes and significance wasn't going to get himself bloody and dirty.

The Levite probably saw the priest ahead, somebody he admired, somebody who could do good things for him, give him a promotion.

Well, if he's not going to do it, I'm not going to do it either.

So he's just following the example.

Why is there so little mercy around us?

Why is there so little mercy in this kingdom, in this world destroyed by sin?

I think one does it and the others follow, just like these two.

See, that's why online, the algorithm's so dangerous, because one doesn't show mercy and others just follow it.

And they think, well, if they don't, I'm not going to.

And the algorithm that comes up on your phone and the algorithm that is embedded in your mind because of that can push you away from being a merciful person just because others don't do it.

I think there's also a temptation to just use excuses.

It's justifiable.

First of all, he's dirty, he's a mess.

I got things to Do.

I've got places to go to Jericho.

That's why I'm going down this road.

The priest would say to himself, I cannot stop and do this.

I've got all kinds of justification for not being merciful.

I think those who don't show mercy lower the standards for all of us.

Think, well, God's kind of grading on the curve.

If the priest didn't show mercy, the Levi didn't show mercy.

I guess I don't have to.

I still get a passing grade.

Doesn't work that way.

It's not what Jesus called us to do.

But here's the real reason there's so little mercy.

True character is only shown under stress.

In times of greatest stress is when your true character comes out.

And my true character.

There's so little mercy because under stress people get selfish.

Rather than realizing God has called us to be merciful.

Mercy keeps giving and giving and giving.

Mercy is decision.

It's not an emotion.

Yes, the scripture is real clear.

The good Samaritan had compassion on him.

There was an emotional response, but it was to a decision.

A decision to show mercy to someone who despised him.

It was a decision to give mercy to someone who never has done a thing for Samaritans.

It was a decision to give mercy to somebody who has more than he had to give as a Samaritan.

Since Samaritans would not have had the kind of wealth that Jewish people, merchants had.

You see, the real focus of mercy is what it does for us, not simply what it does for for others.

To become a merciful person because Christ is merciful in our lives is to begin to live in the kingdom of God.

Remember, Jesus said at the beginning of this, we talked about the parables.

He said, the kingdom of God is not just out there somewhere in heaven, it is now.

And when we show mercy, we step more fully into the kingdom of God.

Jesus redefined neighbor with this story.

It's not about proximity.

It's not about similarity or comfort.

Jesus said, you, neighbor, is anybody in need who's in front of you, whoever it is.

But you have to be purposeful.

You have to be purposeful in that.

So here's a way to do that.

First of all, see, see, notice hurting people around you.

I can guarantee you, if you will start seeing before the end of the day, you'll find somebody in your path on his campus who's hurting.

But so often we're so absorbed in our own world, we don't even see it, look for it, see it.

Secondly, stop.

Allow compassion to interrupt your schedule.

It's easy.

Just keep going.

You're busy, I'm busy.

We got stuff to do.

Important stuff to do.

But sometimes you just got to stop and help, serve.

Use your resources, your time, your money, your skills.

Sometimes you give up.

But again, mercy is not all in what you do for somebody else.

It's what it does for you.

And sacrifice, love costs something.

Love is not free.

Jesus, love for us was not free when he died on a cross for our sins.

Jesus paid the sacrifice.

And it will sometimes require sacrifice of us in order to show mercy.

Well, the story of the prodigal son was told to answer the question, who's my neighbor?

Now, which of these three would you say is a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?

The lawyer said, the one who showed him mercy.

Pretty obvious.

And Jesus said, yes.

Now go and do the same.

Do the same.

Do the same.

Let's pray together.

Our benediction.

No eye has seen, no ear is heard.

No mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

God bless.

Have a great day.