Luke 10:25-37

Would You Cross The Street?

July 10, 2016

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

A couple weeks ago the name Kitty Genovese was in the news. Kitty Genovese was a young woman who was brutally murdered in New York City in 1964. She had returned home from work at 3 am, and a complete stranger brutally stabbed her to death. The reason she was in the news again was because the man who murdered her died a couple weeks ago in prison at the age of 81. Lots of people get murdered in New York City, and lots of murderers die in prison. But what made this particular case unique is that when she was stabbed to death in the middle of the night, 38 people heard her terrible screams and some even looked out their windows and saw the brutal murder take place. But not one of them ran to help her. Not one yelled at the murderer to stop. Not one even had the compassion to lift up the telephone to call the police. Nobody did anything.

Would you have done something to help this poor woman? We breathe a sigh of relief and thank God we’re not like the people of New York. This morning Jesus is going to have all of us take a closer look at ourselves. Let’s look closely at Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan and at the same time take an honest look at ourselves. With his revealing look into our human nature, our Savior himself is asking us today: “Would You Cross TheStreet?’

1-The parable. It says an expert in the law came to Jesus. He was not an expert in the law with offices downtown like Dan Newlin and who represented people in a courtroom. He was an expert in God’s lawThis man did not come to Jesus because he wanted to learn something. It says he came to test Jesus. He wanted to trip Jesus up and make a fool of him. He asked a question perfectly designed for that purpose. He asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. He thought he had the answer already. He thought he was doing everything he had to do to get to heaven, and he wanted Jesus to tell him so. “I’m a good person,” he thought, “and Jesus will certainly say so.But Jesus saw through the man. So he let him answer his own question. “What is written in the Law,” Jesus asked. You ask me what you have to do to get to heaven. What does God’s law say you have to do? The man rattled off the ten commandments word for word from the Bible. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”The unbelievable thing was that the man thought he was doing this. What can you say to such a man? Jesus simply told him he was right. If he did this perfectly, he would go to heaven.

But then the man made his fatal mistake. He asked one too many questions. He didn’t want anyone to get the impression that he hadn’t done these things. So trying to defend himself he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” In other words, how can I always love my neighbor as myself, if I don’t really know who is rightfully my neighbor? Then Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This is the only parable Jesus ever told about love for our neighbor. It’s amazing that there are no prohibitions: you shall not do this or that. It’s all positive. It describes a love so selfless that it even helps one’s enemy. It defines our neighbor to include not just the people we live with or the people who live around us, but anyone who need our help. A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was jumped by robbers who took everything he had, even his clothing, and beat him up so bad he was almost dead. At first two very religious, church going men came along, a priest and a Levite. Priests were like the preachers; Levites were the choir members. Both went to church a lot But they would not cross the street. Then along came a Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans hated each other. They were mixed race. Their religion was all messed up. When the Jews traveled north from Jerusalem they always made a wide detour around Samaria so they wouldn’t have contact with “those” people. Yet this Samaritan crossed the street for this Jewish man, bandaged his wounds, helped him on his donkey, carried him to a hotel, spent time, spent money and did not give up until he was sure the man would be okay.

2-The application. Would you cross the street to help someone who needed your help?Once there was a good Lutheran man who went to get gas. While he was getting gas, a guy came over who needed help. He asked if he would give him a jump. The good Lutheran thought to himself, “I’m in a big hurry, and I don’t even know if I can trust this guy. And he passed by. Another person, who may well have been an unbeliever, overheard and said, “I don’t have any cables, but I’ll go into the store and buy some and give you a jump, and he did. Once there was a lady in a Christian congregation who was very sick. Her name as often mentioned in the prayers. One person who heard her name said, “I don’t even know this person and passed by. Another said, I know this person, but I’m too busy to go visit her.” And passed by. Then a co worker who was not a Christian and not a Lutheran took off his job, visited her, and helped her when she got home. Once there was a homeless man sitting by the side of the road. One good Lutheran saw him and said to his son, “Those are the kind that mess up the welfare system; he should get a job or his family should help.” Then a social worker came along, not a Christian, worked for the government. She took an interest. Talked to him. Gave him a little money.

Once there was a letter that came in the mail in which there were many starving people. All the good Lutherans got this letter. One said, “These outfits are all dishonest and threw it in the wastebasket. Another read it and felt a little sympathy and then thought, “I’ve got kids to feed and a mortgage to pay and he threw it away and ordered a pizza. Another person got the letter, eyes filled with tears and heart with compassion and sat down and wrote out a check for $25. Once there were souls dying all over the world. The signs of judgment day were all around. One said that the church is always asking for money and passed by. Another one said that those heathen deserve to die. But the Mormons who don’t believe in Jesus were interested. They sent missionaries. They traveled around the world to bring them their false teachings. And they made the poor heathen twice as much sons of hell as what they were before.

3-The firm conclusion:Are we really better than the indifferent people of New York? Do we think our goodness will get us in? We won’t go to heaven unless we have Jesus. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but has eternal life. There is away to eternal life. I’m the way, Jesus said, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Paul told the Romans: The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Jesus came to do what we could never do. He kept the commandments perfectly as our Substitute. He lived the perfect life God demands He offers it freely to everyone. When the Holy Spirit leads you to believe that Jesus did this for you, then God gives you the personal credit for what Jesus did. He looks at you through Christ as a perfect person, a saint in his eyes, an heir of eternal life in heaven.

Conclusion:Now if you want to say thank you to Jesus for crossing over from the highest heaven to the lowest hell, if you want to thank him for the forgiveness of sins, for the status of a saint, for eternal life, for heaven, for peace in your conscience, for a life free from worry – he says:Go and do likewise. Amen.