Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event, the Good Samaritan. This is found in Luke, chapter ten, verses 25 through 37. Follow along with us as we read.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit it? Eternal life. He said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered, you shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.
And he said to him, you have answered correctly do this and you'll live.
But desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down the road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him into an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor? To the man who fell among robbers he said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise.
So here we have this very famous story. I think outside of Christianity there might be people who know this story. It's a lawyer who's coming to put Jesus to the test, ask him a question, and Jesus responds back to him with another question, asking him to answer. And we're taught that good questions are answered by other questions.
What do we learn from this man? Can we learn anything from him at all?
[00:03:18] Speaker B: This lawyer, so it seems that this lawyer, or a specialist in the law of God, he knew exactly how to obtain the eternal life. But it seems that, like with a rich young ruler, it was a little bit of empty space in his heart something was missing, or he felt that something was missing, so he decided to ask this question.
What is interesting is that Jesus commended him for his answer.
But Jesus answered to the last part about the neighbor, because he really asked the question and who is my neighbor?
And if we read carefully this parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ, doesn't quite answer who is your neighbor?
But will take your mind through a story step by step until will teach you to be a good neighbor for someone else.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I am blessed with great neighbors all around me. And it's really nice when I have a need, I can go to them and they help out. And when they have a need, they come to me and we help each other out. We're there for each other. And so it makes dwelling in that area very enjoyable.
When I see this, who is your neighbor? I look around to them and hey, it's easy to do things for them. But then you hear stories of people with bad neighbors.
Maybe they shine a light towards you at night or play loud music or things like that, and you don't want to do anything nice for them. And so I think Jesus is touching a very he's hitting a nerve here.
As the Israelite was thinking, as this lawyer was thinking when Jesus asked the neighbor, he's probably thinking, the fellow Jews around me, the chosen people of God.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: What is interesting is that the main character, the hero of this story is from the other side.
It's from the side of the enemy is a Samaritan.
And it was a century long competition between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans were reading a different version of the Torah.
They were believing in a different version of God.
They were worshipping in a different temple.
The Jews and the Samaritans kind of accused each other that their style of worship and their beliefs were an offensive to God.
So to have a story with a character from the other side, from among your enemies, that is amazing.
Imagine that Jesus Christ will be in Israel today and will tell the story about the good Hamas or the good Hezbollah, or this story will be somewhere in the south and like in Alabama or Louisiana. And the character of the story is the good KKK.
So this story is really know.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: One of my probably, I don't know, most unsuccessful sermons I've given was it was a little while after 911 and I talked about this, that would Osama bin Laden be the Samaritan?
Are we praying for his salvation or his destruction?
Because there was anger, there was pain, there was hurt. We lost loved ones, we lost friends, and we wanted to see justice happen.
But was there room in heaven for him still?
And that created a lot of discussion and people weren't happy, weren't ready to even contemplate that. And I think that's what Jesus is getting at here, that the enemy is the people that we are to treat.
Know, think of the Israelites when they were surrounded by the Babylonians under siege and Nebuchadnezzar's on the outside.
And what does God call nebuchadnezzar? He calls him my So it really makes it hard when you look at the Samaritan as the enemy.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: People from the other side, from those neighbors that annoy us, from those who cut our way to success, for those who do not promote us when we feel that we deserve a promotion, for.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Those who don't see life the same way we do, these are the people that we're to reach out.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: And Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter five, the last group of verses, starting with 40, he says, love your enemy, pray for those who persecute. You.
Think well about those who then treat you as you expect.
But here, Jesus Christ takes that teaching to a new level.
Not only you have to love them, but those people can be a role model for you. Because the end of the story is go and do likewise, like this Samaritan.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: So I want to go back because the teacher asked the or the lawyer, excuse me, asked the question what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus'answer to him is, love your neighbor as yourself. Do this and you will live.
So do we inherit eternal life based on works?
Is that what this is saying? That we need to show mercy to those around us, that we need to work for salvation?
[00:10:05] Speaker B: We're going to have one of the following episodes about Mary and Martha shows the opposite.
Where Mary, who sits at the feet of Jesus Christ, is commanded, and Martha, who was working, she was not choosing the right side.
No, we are not saved by works.
But if our faith does not translate into appropriate Holy Godly action or lifestyle, it seems that that faith might not be right.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: And this is what I like about this parable.
Think about the Jew. It seems to be a Jew who was robbed and was left almost dead in the ditch.
Before hitting the ditch, that man thought that the Levites and the priests are the holiest people in the land. They are the role models, that you have to follow them, you have to learn from them.
But when this man woke up in that inn early in the morning in a clean bed with the wounds being taken care and the expenses paid off in advance, he realized that someone else should be a role model.
Someone else is the right person.
So before we have our experience, we learn that the difference between right and wrong is what is taught or what is in a popular culture. But after we have an experience as the man who was robbed, we learn that the right and wrong is not quite as clear as it used to be before.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I think as I look at this question, works or faith, how do they relate?
We are saved by Jesus'gift on the cross and by us accepting that gift. I think of my kids, and I did this when I was a kid, so I can say any kid, but when one kid does something to another and annoys them and they start fighting. We tell them, tell each other you're sorry.
And oftentimes the I'm sorry comes out. Like I'm sorry.
The words come out. But as a parent, you know that there's no meaning behind those words.
The meaning comes in the action. The meaning comes in the tone. The meaning comes in everything.
And we can say, I want to go to heaven, but those are just words coming out of our mouth. It's not really the desire that we have. And I think accepting Jesus'gift is more than just words coming out of our mouth. It is that desire that I really do want to go to heaven. And when we have that desire, we are changed. It's a natural. If you are saved by Jesus Christ and you've accepted that gift of eternity, you will do good things to other people.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Heaven is big enough, both for you and for the person from the other side, from your enemy, for the Samaritan or Hamas or Hezbollah or KKK or whatever.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Let us pray. Father God, heaven is a place that we want to be in, and I want to be there to spend time with you.
But, Father, I also want my friends, my family, my neighbors, and yes, even my enemies to be there as well.
Father, I pray that you will work in our lives, that you will draw us close to you, that you will give us hearts that sees humanity even in the worst. I pray that we will look beyond ourselves and look for good. Look for your hand at work. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
