Suppose I wrote you a letter, about 5 pages lengthy, through which I clarify in some element a controversial conduct of mine every week in the past that folks have been misinterpreting. And suppose that within the letter, I describe the conduct in a paragraph, and I give the background for it, and I clarify my motivations, and I let you know in regards to the consequence and the place all of it led, and I clarify the way it pertains to my religion in Jesus and the way his loss of life and resurrection give me hope.
And suppose you learn the letter, and then you definately take the paragraph from the letter, the one which merely described the controversial conduct, and also you lifted it out of the letter, and also you ignored the whole lot I stated in regards to the background and my motivation, and the whole lot I stated in regards to the consequence of the conduct, and the whole lot I stated about the way it pertains to my religion and the loss of life of Jesus, and also you merely unfold throughout social media that “John Piper has this conduct” — with not one of the context that I offered.
What would you be doing?
Love’s Surest Measurement
One reply to that query is that you’d be disobeying this textual content. When the lawyer says on the finish of Luke 10:27 that you shouldn’t solely love God, but in addition love your neighbor as your self, Jesus authorized of that reply. Verse 28: “You could have answered accurately.” So, one of many teachings of this textual content is that we should always love our neighbor as we love ourselves — which is about as radical a factor as you’ll be able to say.
“Love your neighbor as your self” just isn’t about shallowness. It’s about the truth that each one in every of us does what we predict will make us comfortable. We don’t stroll in entrance of vehicles. We don’t drink poison. We don’t soar off buildings. We put a roof over our head when it’s raining. We put on heat garments within the winter in Minnesota. We attempt to get sufficient sleep and train to operate. We wish good grades for ourselves in class. We wish a job that can put bread on our desk. And we need to be handled pretty. We wish folks to learn our letters pretty.
So, to like our neighbor as we love ourselves is to maintain them from strolling out in entrance of vehicles, or ingesting poison, or leaping off buildings. To assist them have a roof over their heads. To assist them have garments in winter and sleep and train and good grades and jobs and be handled pretty. As a result of all of that we would like for ourselves, which is what it means to like ourselves.
The apostle Paul utilized this command to marriage in Ephesians 5:28–29, saying, “Husbands ought to love their wives as their very own our bodies [as they love themselves]. He who loves his spouse loves himself. For nobody ever hated his personal flesh, however nourishes and cherishes it.” That’s what “self-love” means. And of itself, it’s not flawed. To like your neighbor as you like your self is to make your personal self-care the measure of your take care of others. It’s very radical. Loopy radical. It’s completely life-revolutionizing. Church buildings full of individuals like this, scattered all through the cities, can be gloriously unusual.
Will You Love Luke?
To learn my letter in a method that you’d by no means need your letter to be learn is to disobey this textual content. Why on the planet am I pointing that out? As a result of that’s the best way tens of millions of individuals learn the Gospel of Luke, particularly on the subject of this parable — the parable of the nice Samaritan. Thousands and thousands of unbelievers love this parable and ignore what Luke teaches. And I’m saying that whenever you learn the Gospel of Luke that method, you might be disobeying the Gospel of Luke. You’re disobeying Jesus and never loving Luke.
It’s disobedient to Jesus and unloving to Luke to take this parable, carry it out of its Gospel-setting, and use it to construct your personal wrath-omitting, repentance-omitting, faith-omitting, blood-omitting, justification-omitting ethic of excellent deeds. That’s the playbook of theological liberalism, which rejects the authority of the Bible however retains the Bible, choosing and selecting the elements it likes, and treating the remaining as legend or mythology.
And I’m saying that’s disobedient to Jesus and unloving to Luke. Once you deal with a biblical writer that method, you might be breaking the commandment to like your neighbor as your self. On this case, to like Luke as you like your self. In the event you love Luke, in case you deal with him the best way you need to be handled — in case you learn him the best way you need to be learn — you’ll take into account the opposite essential issues that he says whenever you learn this parable.
For instance, John the Baptist warns in regards to the wrath of God that’s coming (3:7). Jesus warns that except we repent, we are going to all likewise perish (13:3). Jesus stated to not worry those that merely kill the physique, however to worry him who, after he has killed, can forged into hell (12:5). So, one burning query not just for the lawyer, the priest, and the Levite on this textual content, but in addition for the Good Samaritan is that this: Will they escape the wrath of God?
And if we are saying to Luke or to one another, “There’s no wrath on this story,” wouldn’t Luke say, “Do I’ve to place the whole lot in each paragraph? Isn’t it sufficient that I let you know about these items throughout my Gospel? Is it an excessive amount of to ask that you’d preserve them in thoughts as you learn? And, oh — this can be a story about inheriting everlasting life [verse 25].”
One other instance is the forgiveness of sins. Jesus says in Luke 5:24 that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” And in Luke 7:47 he says, “He who’s forgiven little, loves little,” implying that real love for others goes to circulation from a way of getting been forgiven by God.
Luke’s Record Goes On
Or then there’s justification. In Luke 18:11–14 Jesus says there was a boastful man who went as much as the temple, and there was a damaged man who went as much as the temple. The damaged man stated, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” To which Jesus responded, “I let you know, this man went all the way down to his home justified, slightly than the opposite.” That has one thing to do with everlasting life.
After which there’s inside transformation. In Luke 6:43–44 Jesus says, “No good tree bears unhealthy fruit, nor once more does a nasty tree bear good fruit, for every tree is thought by its personal fruit.” And later he says, “Didn’t he who made the skin make the within additionally? However give as alms these issues which can be inside” (11:40–41). Outward good deeds with out inward change is Pharisaism. So, what’s the lesson of the Samaritan’s good deeds?
Or what about religion in Jesus, allegiance to Jesus? In Luke 12:8–9 Jesus says, “Everybody who acknowledges me earlier than males, the Son of Man additionally will acknowledge earlier than the angels of God, however the one who denies me earlier than males might be denied earlier than the angels of God.” Will the Good Samaritan be acknowledged earlier than God?
Or what about that different time a person got here to Jesus in Luke 18:22 and, like this lawyer, requested find out how to inherit everlasting life? And Jesus says, in spite of everything the person’s law-keeping, this: “One factor you continue to lack. Promote all that you’ve got and distribute to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven; and are available, comply with me.” Backside line: “Observe me. Confess me. With out me, no everlasting life.” Does it matter if the Good Samaritan follows Jesus?
Or most vital, what in regards to the blood of Jesus shed for the forgiveness of sin? Jesus says in Luke 22:20, “This cup that’s poured out for you is the brand new covenant in my blood.” And the brand new covenant is that this: “You consider in me; I forgive your sins.” As Luke 24:47 says, “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins [will] be proclaimed in his title to all nations.”
“Jesus modified the query from ‘What sort of particular person is my neighbor?’ to ‘What sort of particular person am I?’”
So, after we come to learn the parable of the nice Samaritan, we should always love Luke the best way we love ourselves. We should always learn him the best way we’d need to be learn. As I used to be making ready for this message, I heard Luke, so to talk, say to me, “Pastor John, as you speak about this parable, please remind folks of what I stated about wrath and repentance and justification and the blood of Jesus and forgiveness of sins and religion in Jesus.” Sure, Luke, I’ll.
With that nice imaginative and prescient of actuality, let’s watch this story unfold.
Legislation-Maintaining Isn’t the Path
In verse 25, an professional within the Mosaic regulation, known as a “lawyer,” places Jesus to the take a look at by asking, “Instructor, what shall I do to inherit everlasting life?” You don’t need to method Jesus like that — placing him to the take a look at. In the event you ask Jesus a query, it higher be since you need to know, not since you need to journey him up. In the event you come to Jesus just like the lawyer, he’ll entice you in your personal phrases. We’re going to observe it occur.
In verse 26 he turns the take a look at round and says, in impact, “You’re the professional within the regulation — you inform me.” The lawyer solutions, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your coronary heart and with all of your soul and with all of your power and with all of your thoughts, and your neighbor as your self” (verse 27). To which Jesus responds in verse 28, “You could have answered accurately; do that, and you’ll stay.”
Now, there are two methods you’ll be able to perceive Jesus’s approval of the lawyer’s reply. Jesus could also be saying, “That’s proper, Mr. Lawyer, in case you select the trail of law-keeping as a method of getting proper with God and a method of incomes your method into everlasting life, then following these two commandments is the best way to go about it. Love God along with your entire being, and love your neighbor as your self. And you could do it completely in case you’re going to indicate that you just need to be within the presence of the peerlessly holy God by law-keeping.”
If that’s the best way you perceive it, then Jesus can be exhibiting the lawyer that he’ll by no means be capable of try this, and that he ought to look away from law-keeping to the work of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, justification by religion, and salvation by grace, not works. That will be a theologically, orthodox, and biblically devoted method of understanding Jesus’s approval of the lawyer’s reply.
Love Is on the Path
However there’s one other technique to perceive this textual content, which I’m inclined to suppose is nearer to the thoughts of Christ. Specifically, Jesus agrees that loving God and loving your neighbor is the trail that results in the inheritance of everlasting life — the solely path that results in that inheritance. It’s the path that you’re on proper now, if you’re a Christian — if you’re saved by grace by way of religion.
Luke needs us to know, within the context of his entire Gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, and that we’re justified, and that our sins are forgiven by religion, not by works of the regulation, and that we obtain the Holy Spirit and are modified from the within by turning to Jesus and renouncing law-keeping as a method of incomes everlasting life. However rejecting law-keeping as a method of incomes everlasting life doesn’t imply rejecting love — for God and neighbor — as the trail that results in everlasting life. And the one path.
The apostle Paul stated to the Christian church at Corinth, “If anybody has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22). No love for God, no everlasting life. That’s true for Christians. And earlier in the identical ebook he stated, “If I give away all I’ve, and if I ship up my physique to be burned, however haven’t love, I achieve nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). No love for folks, no everlasting life.
Why? This isn’t about incomes life. The apostle John places it like this: “We all know that now we have handed out of loss of life into life, as a result of we love the brothers. Whoever doesn’t love abides in loss of life. . . . Anybody who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, as a result of God is love” (1 John 3:14; 4:8). Loving God and loving neighbor is critical to inherit everlasting life not as a result of it’s a work of advantage to earn life, however as a result of it’s a fruit of the Spirit that proves life is current.
So, on this parable, we’re going to be proven the trail of affection that results in everlasting life. We are able to stroll this path by religion, trusting the blood-bought guarantees of Jesus, or we will miss the trail and be part of the lawyer in his want to justify himself. Self-justification is the other of religion and the other of affection.
A (Stunning) Story for an Reply
Verse 29: “However he, needing to justify himself, stated to Jesus, ‘And who’s my neighbor?’” In different phrases, “Which teams of individuals don’t I’ve to like?” Jesus likes questions — however not that sort. Questions which can be designed to flee the sacrificial path of affection, Jesus received’t reply. So, as a substitute of answering, he tells a narrative. And on the finish of the story, he’s going to show the lawyer’s query the other way up — and look us proper within the eye. Verses 30–35:
A person was taking place from Jerusalem to Jericho [a drop of about 3,500 feet in 17 miles], and he fell amongst robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half useless. Now by probability a priest was taking place that highway, and when he noticed him he handed by on the opposite facet. So likewise a Levite, when he got here to the place and noticed him, handed by on the opposite facet. However a Samaritan, as he journeyed, got here to the place he was, and when he noticed him, he had compassion. He went to him and sure up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his personal animal and introduced him to an inn and took care of him. And the following day he took out two denarii [two days wages, maybe $400] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Care for him, and no matter extra you spend, I’ll repay you once I come again.”
There are at the least three surprising issues right here.
First, it’s surprising that the individuals who go by on the opposite facet, leaving the person half useless to die, are those who serve most carefully to the holy place of God: the priest, who serves within the temple, and the Levite, who assists clergymen. I assumed perhaps Jesus would make one of many unhealthy guys a lawyer. That will work, wouldn’t it? However evidently the purpose is that this: getting religiously “shut” to essentially the most sacred acts, occasions, and locations doesn’t essentially make you a loving particular person. That is very sobering to these of us who spend most of our lives with God’s sacred ebook and God’s sacred church. Very sobering.
Second, it’s surprising that the hero of the story is a Samaritan. John 4:9 says that “Jews haven’t any dealings with Samaritans.” Luke 9:53 says that the Samaritans wouldn’t obtain Jesus and his apostles as a result of they had been going as much as Jerusalem. The Samaritans are Jewish half-breeds who intermarried with the pagan folks of the land and arrange their very own temple. They’re outcasts and unclean.
And the surprising factor just isn’t {that a} Samaritan cared for a Jew (the half-dead man isn’t known as a Jew), however {that a} Samaritan surpassed a priest in changing into the form of particular person Jesus got here into the world to create. The message is evident: this Christ doesn’t restrict his reworking work to at least one ethnicity.
Third, it’s surprising how over-the-top lavish the Samaritan’s care is for a complete stranger. Certain his wounds. Poured oil and wine. Let him experience the Samaritan’s animal. Took care of him at an inn. Gave him $400 for his wants. Promised to return and pay extra. “Let your gentle shine earlier than others, in order that they could see your [lavish] good works and provides glory to your Father who’s in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
“Christ died to create a people who find themselves so safe, and so content material in Christ, that we transfer towards want, not consolation.”
What’s the distinction between the non secular leaders and the Samaritan? The one distinction that Jesus factors out is that the Samaritan felt compassion. Verse 33: “A Samaritan, as he journeyed, got here to the place he was, and when he noticed him, he had [felt] compassion.” Compassion is a sense, not an act. However oh, the way it overflowed in lavish acts — presents of money and time and danger. However the root was compassion. And compassion rooted in love for God requires a brand new coronary heart.
How Compassion Strikes
The story ends in verses 36–37 with Jesus turning the lawyer’s unique query the other way up. The lawyer asks, “Who’s my neighbor? Which group don’t I’ve to like?” Jesus says,
“Which of those three, do you suppose, proved to be a neighbor [became a neighbor] to the person who fell among the many robbers?” [The lawyer] stated, “The one who confirmed him mercy.” And Jesus stated to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Jesus modified the query from What sort of particular person is my neighbor? to What sort of particular person am I? He modified the query from What standing of persons are worthy of my love? to How can I grow to be the form of particular person whose compassion disregards standing?
How can I grow to be the form of one that, as a substitute of transferring to the opposite facet of the highway (or the opposite facet of city), strikes towards want and sacrifice and danger? For many years at Bethlehem one in every of our standing mottos for the neighborhoods and for the nations was this: “Christians transfer towards want, not consolation.”
And a whole lot have discovered, as Jesus says, that “it’s extra blessed to provide than to obtain” (Acts 20:35). Extra blessed to maneuver towards want than consolation. The danger of crossing the highway, or the ocean, is value it.
As we transfer to the Desk, keep in mind this: among the many many issues in Luke’s Gospel through which this parable is embedded, is that this nice phrase of Jesus: “This cup that’s poured out for you is the brand new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Christ died to create a people who find themselves so safe, and so content material in Christ, that we transfer towards want, not consolation.
