Christianity 104: Be Good Neighbors

Lesson Passage:

Luke 10: 25-37

Background Passage:

Luke 9:51–13:21

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Shortcuts What is the Quadratic Formula good for?

A shortcut to reduce risk, involvements, work…

BUT without sounding out how it works, you won’t appreciate the math.. What happens then, when the formula doesn’t seem to apply? We have to have a sense of the fundamentals, to derive something similar that will actually WORK.

What is Profiling? Categorizing? Why do people do it?

E.g., Joy’s plight among the educational establishment’s heavily-laden shirkers with formulas.

We criticize… BUT Do we compartmental-ize or profile others, to make our Christian walk “easier” (under our ‘control’)?

“BUT JESUS” gave in unlimited ways! (Matthew 9:36, Mark 6:34) 36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd.

He healed, taught and fed the huge crowds when His disciples and He were on the way to vacation!

The Pharisees were like professional “filers and profilers”. They had their lives so figured out – and GOD so CONTAINED from bothering them!

1. Follow the Scripture (Luke 10: 25-28)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.”

‘Lawyers’ were religious authorities who had turned pleasing God into formulas >Holier (more successful) than thou’s (Lk. 18:9-14)

>created man-made hoops to jump thru ‘for God’, but really Heartless (Matt. 23)

>card-carrying members of the M. A. S., a.k.a. G.O.B.N. (Lk. 6:26, 14:7-14)

>‘Climb-over-the-sheepfold-wall’ robbers, instead of thru-Christ-the-gate (Jn.10)

>Hypocrites (play actors) when it came to really Caring – false shepherds

JESUS played 0 games - showed the Power of Love, fulfilled by helping others!

Jesus constantly reproved them – a threat – SO they wanted to defeat Him, & so were all about testing Jesus, like Biblical “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

This question was most fundamental – Jesus threw it back at Him, courteously

The ‘expert’s’ textbook “Sunday School” answer was trivial: Lev. 19:18 & Deut. 6:5 = the Shema, was memorized from one’s youth. SO brief, SO naïve….! God’s wisdom trumps man’s (Lk. 10:21, 1 Cor. 1:25, Is. 55:8)

29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?” 30 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. 31 Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. 32 Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. 33 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. 34 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. 35 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.’

Priest, Levite, Samaritan: ‘most important’ to least. The ___ stopped to help! In what ways do we Christians often excuse ourselves, in order to pass by

on the other side? (1 John 3:17, James 2:15)

Some have Antiseptic (avoid-germs-at-any-cost) Rx, VERSUS True healing EXTRA CREDIT: The ‘low-life’ Samaritan did what 7 things, moved by pity?

1. Went over to him 2. bandaged his wounds (‘First Aid’) 3. included costly meds 4. put him on his own transport (he himself walked) 5. to a hotel where he gave more care 6. paid the Hotel Mgr. for now, and 7. hired future care !!

2. Listen to Jesus (Luke 10: 29-35) [The Message]

3. Show Compassion (Luke 10: 36-37)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.”

Jesus had spoken unmistakably to the man, about his own “profiles”

3 examples were presented, but what matters to God is more than just politics: ‘WILL you really care enough to help heal this person?’

Pity is not pitifully weak: It grows strong, moves out & learns in faith, not satisfied just with ‘formulas’ and ‘theory’

1 Timothy 1: 5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6 Some have deviated from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion.”

James 2 says: 17”…Faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.”

To please God, you must be really practicing Love. 1 John 3 says, “18 Little children, we must not love with word or speech, but with truth and action.”

1 Thessalonians 4 9 “But concerning brotherly love, you have no need to have anyone write you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other’

Love should be our Goal – see 2 Peter 1:5-9 (Christian growth path), 1 Cor. 13 What ‘emergencies’ have you responded to ‘on the Road’? What Resulted?