“Reaching Beyond Myself”
Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-37
Sermon Transcript for March 19, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
The message for today, when we look at it, the Scripture that was already chosen to go with the sequence with the series, “Life With God”, became very evident to me how it fit in with what the children were singing and what they were saying, “Journey of Praise”. The “Journey of Praise” that we are showing and guiding us by music and music of the soul, and the spirit, and the words that praise God for all the things as they are telling us that story. But the Scripture today is part of that journey, and I want you to connect it together in this way. It is a very familiar story; it’s called “The Good Samaritan”. And believe me, as you have studied it and many pastor’s have read it, it has many levels and many angles from which you can go. But I just want to take a very simple approach to “The Good Samaritan” and deal with the “Journey of Praise”. Where they talk about words and music and what I want to offer you as part of the “Journey of Praise” is compassion. And compassion is at the heart of what the Good Samaritan is. In a moment as we hear the Scripture read and follow along with that, I’ll lift up a couple of points, a few, that will be the highlight of what compassion is shown and steps of compassion of how you can be a part of God’s “Journey of Praise” and love by action because if it is only the words that we say, it is only half of the story. Action is what God calls us to do; and Jesus is clearly calling the one who is asking the question in this setting.
In the tenth chapter of the Book of Luke, starting with the 25th verse is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. So let’s read and follow along as we hear these words. “On one occasion an expert of the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the law,’ Jesus replied. ‘How do you read it?’, he answered. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ‘You’ve answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ In reply Jesus said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. When he saw the man he passed by on the other side. So, too, a Levite when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
Now let me stop right there because within that is the first understanding of what compassion is about. You see, Jesus didn’t identify who that person was that was beat up—just a certain man. The basic foundation of compassion and action on anyone is first of all to respond to the needs of people not based upon worth but on need. Compassion is based on need not worth. I remember a story when I was just a boy probably eight or nine, and I was going along with my dad someplace. I don’t quite remember where it was except that it was just my Dad and myself. And there was a gentleman who, as it turned out to be, had a flat tire and was pulled off the side of the road. Dad stopped and helped. They put the tire, replaced it with the spare. They got it all finished and then the gentleman said to my dad, “What do I owe you?” My dad said, “Not a thing except one thing.” My Dad said, “Whenever you have an opportunity in your future will you do something similar for somebody else that I have done for you today?” I didn’t know that my Dad was preceding the “pay it forward” philosophy and the understanding of what it means to be serving not for ones own need.
And Dad didn’t stop and say, “Can you afford this?” or “Are you the right kind of a person?” Dad gave me a model at that time, and I want to say very clearly, that the children who are up here and the children of this church are watching us as to how we respond to other people. We need to, like this gentleman, with no understanding of his worth, we must feed them. And religious people came along and self-righteously decided, for whatever reason it was, he’s not worth caring for. Maybe they thought he wasn’t of the right class. Maybe they thought he wasn’t of the right kind of education. Maybe it was a priest who decided, “I really don’t want to contaminate myself with that type of a person and I need to keep myself holy and pure.” You can have all kinds of reasons why people do not respond to compassion. But we see clearly here, it does not matter, worth, but it is need upon which.
Then we read on what happens in the next verse. “When a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him.” He felt something. You see, compassion is a matter of feeling something. Once you recognize that someone has a need, you have to respond. And the Greek word here is really kind of a gutsy kind of a word. It means “to feel from the depth of your inner being”. And truly it would be a gut feeling what we would use for today. It means that feeling that sort of wells up from within. When you see a picture, you feel compassion towards that person. One translation says “pity” and pity sounds quite not right, doesn’t it? It’s intended to mean the same. In the Greek it means you just can not help but want to help someone else. Compassion feels something and that’s what the Samaritan felt as he saw the person injured. Whatever reason he knew doesn’t matter. If he was beat up, that’s okay. If it was an accident by something, he felt and he wanted to do something. And that makes the third point that comes along—and that’s compassion does something.
So let’s see what exactly the Good Samaritan does. “He went to him; he bandaged his wounds pouring upon oil and wine. He then put the man on his donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.” Each of those are action words. When you feel that, God is saying, “If you feel that coming from within, then do something about it.” Just to feel pity for someone, just to feel compassion isn’t enough. You are called by that moment, particularly as a follower of Christ, to take action. Going to the person who has a need, bandaging his wounds, pouring on the oil and wine—action all the way through. Compassion does something; it just doesn’t look at the situation and say, “Oh, how terrible”. The action calls us forth into action.
And moving on then, compassion costs you something as it does with the Samaritan because after he did the action and put him on his donkey, in the 35th verse it says, “The next day he took out two silver coins, 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.” What a commitment! They were strangers. The Samaritan or the person, by the way, who was reviled in the eyes of the religious people, church people sometimes gets classified as religious people when in truth it is the Spirit that calls us and it matters not the background, what we’ve done, or who we are. But when God calls us, the Samaritan is the one who responds with compassion and it costs us something. Can you imagine today taking someone to the emergency room and they have no medical insurance, and you say, “Here, I’ll pay the initial bill and I’ll come back in a few days and check on you, or a week or whenever I come back, just keep that bill and I will cover it.” It was equivalent to that. It was a costly thing for this Samaritan to do it for a stranger but he responded with the spirit that God calls us to do. He went the extra mile.
And then Jesus wraps it all up in the 36th verse when He says in this way, “‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’” He doesn’t even call him a Samaritan. He won’t even allow himself to recognize that this was the lowest person in the totem pole. This was the lowest ones on the rungs of the ladder in their society. This is the person, if you think about, would be the one that you would least expect to step forth in a compassionate way. And the gentleman couldn’t even recognize him. He just said, “The one who showed him mercy.” But maybe that is better in the long run. We get away all the social things that divide us and say, “Let’s look and see what is in the heart of a person. Do they feel it? Do they respond? Do they do so in the Spirit of Christ?” And then Jesus’ response, of course, is “go and do likewise.” And that’s the fifth point that I want to share with you, is that compassion demonstrates our relationship to God. It clearly tells our relationship to the spirit of compassion and understanding.
So quickly let’s review and see those points again. That, one, compassion is based on need and not worth; compassion feels something; compassion does something; compassion costs something; and compassion demonstrates our relationship with God. And, finally, I want to read to you from I John 3:16-18 where the writer tells us of these words, “By this we know love because He (Jesus) laid down His life for us and we also are to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth.” And let me emphasize with you again that these children are learning the “journey of praise”. They are being taught by their teachers, their leaders, and their parents, but they also must be taught by example that the “journey of praise” is based upon compassionate action. And it tells the world about our relationship with God.
So consider that when you are particularly working with the young learners and have influence on someone who may be a grandchild or even a great-grandchild or a neighbor’s child that your words, your actions will speak louder than your words and that’s what God told us to do. So the children are ready now to continue in their music and to conclude. And notice the piece that they will be singing is “Immanuel”, God with us. Christ does not call you to be compassionate. We’ve got the offer of the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to feel that response, to see the need, to respond in action so that you will know your relationship with God and others will now know too.
Let’s share together with a moment of prayer, “Gracious God, we may ask the question, ‘What must I do to go to heaven?’ But the truth is, ‘What must I do to live as a heavenly person right now?’ May our relationships with you be one that is seen by our action so that we will be known as your children. This we ask in a spirit of Christ our Lord, Amen.”
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