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Sermon

The Good Samaritan

Speaker
Greg Ho
Scripture
Luke 10:25-37

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 is far more than a moral lesson about being kind to strangers. A lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus responds with a parable whose deepest meaning could only be understood after the cross. We are reminded that we are not the Samaritan in this story — we are the broken, helpless traveler on the road. The true Good Samaritan is Jesus himself, who loved us when we were his enemies, paid a debt we could never pay, and promised to return.

Key Lessons:

  1. The standard for earning eternal life — loving God completely and loving every neighbor as yourself — is an impossible standard that condemns us all.
  2. We are not the hero of the parable; we are the helpless traveler, and Jesus is the true Good Samaritan who rescues us at his own expense.
  3. The meaning of Jesus’s parable was veiled until after the cross, revealing that only Jesus can perfectly keep the command to love your neighbor.
  4. Having received Jesus’s mercy, we are now empowered and commissioned to go and love others — including those we would least expect to serve.

Application: We are called to identify specific people we have excluded from being our “neighbor” — whether through fear, selfishness, or indifference — and to go love them sacrificially on Jesus’s behalf, sharing the gospel with those who are broken and dying around us.

Discussion Questions:

  1. When you hear the Parable of the Good Samaritan, do you naturally see yourself as the Samaritan or as the traveler? How does shifting your perspective change the meaning of the story?
  2. What are the modern equivalents of “crossing the street” — the ways we avoid loving neighbors who are inconvenient, different, or even hostile toward us?
  3. Who is someone in your life right now that people would be surprised to see you love and serve? What would it look like to be their neighbor this week?

Scripture Focus: Luke 10:25-37 — the Parable of the Good Samaritan, with supporting references to Deuteronomy 6:5, Leviticus 19:18, John 3:16, and Matthew 23:5.

Outline

Introduction

Well, open with me in your Bibles to Luke 10:25-37.

Luke 10:25-37.

The Power of a Simple Question

And as you do that, I want to tell you the story of a pastor who lived in London, England in the 1950s. His name was Francis Dixon.

Francis Dixon had a congregation and he would have a Bible study. In this Bible study, he would ask various people to stand up and give their testimonies.

One day, he asked a man named Peter to stand up and tell him how he came to Christ. This is what Peter said: “I was in the Royal Navy. We were stationed in Sydney, Australia. As I was walking down George Street, a man came up to me and asked me a question. The question was, if you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?

I couldn’t get that question out of my mind. When I returned to England, I sought out a pastor and I was saved.”

What was remarkable was that a few weeks later, the same pastor had another Bible study where he asked somebody else to come up and give their testimony, and they said almost exactly the same thing.

He said, “I was in Australia and I was walking down George Street and a man came up to me and asked me a question. He asked me, if you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? I couldn’t get that out of my mind. When I came back to England, I came to Christ.”

As this pastor, Francis Dixon, traveled across England, he kept hearing the same story.

One day he said to himself, “I need to go to Australia and meet this man.” And he did. He went to Australia and found this man. He wasn’t hard to find. He was right on George Street like these people said.

As he started to talk to him, he realized this man’s name was Frank Jenner. This man had come to Christ maybe 15 years ago.

When he came to Christ, he made a commitment. He said, “I’m going to get up every morning at 5:00 a.m. and I’m going to pray. Then I’m going to go out and share the gospel with 10 people that day. It might be that I’m just able to ask a question.”

When Pastor Dixon told Frank Jenner about all the people he’d met in England who had come to Christ as a result of that one question, Frank Jenner broke down into tears.

What he said was, “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, but I saw very little fruit until that day.” It’s the power of a simple question.

“It’s the power of a simple question.”

The Most Important Question

If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?

It’s in fact the most important question that we can ask ourselves in this life. The stakes are unbelievably high. You cannot afford not to have an answer right at this moment to that question.

“It’s the most important question we can ask ourselves in this life. The stakes are unbelievably high.”

And if your answer to that question is, Greg, I don’t know, then you need to ask a different question. And that question is, what must I do to obtain eternal life? How do I get it? How can I have eternal life?

That should be the question that obsesses you 24 hours a day until you have an answer.

And who better to answer that question for us than Jesus Christ?

In our text today, we will see that somebody asked Jesus this very question. But Jesus’s answer to this question may surprise you.

Jesus answers this question in a very strange way. He gives a parable, and the parable he gives is possibly the most famous parable in the entire Bible: the parable of the good Samaritan.

We all know this parable. In fact, we have hospitals named after this parable. We have laws named after this parable.

But what does this parable have to do with eternal life?

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-37

Let’s find out. I’m going to read for you Luke 10 starting from verse 25.

And the lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And he said to him, “What is written in the law? How does it read to you?” 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 will live.” But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.”

And by chance, a priest was going down on that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him. And when he saw him, he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. And he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

On the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, “Take care of him.” And whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.

Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?

And he said, “The one who showed mercy towards him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

Let’s pray. Father, I pray as we look at this magnificent parable, this magnificent account that your Holy Spirit would help us to understand this passage and give us attentive minds to your word, humble hearts to understand where we fall short, and zeal to obey your word and to do your will in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Act One: The Lawyer’s Question

We’re going to tell the story of this account today in five acts.

The first act will be the lawyer’s question. We’ll just break it down.

Lawyers are people who are skilled at interpreting the law. And the law in this case was the Old Testament or books based on the Old Testament.

This is the scenario. The lawyer comes up to Jesus and asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is the dream. Nobody has ever asked me that question. I wish they did.

But there are some hints in this passage that this question was not exactly asked in a genuine way. It says that the lawyer is putting Jesus to the test.

And why would that be? Well, earlier we know from the other gospels and even from the book of Luke that Jesus was going around telling people that their sins were forgiven because of their faith. And even in John 3:16, that famous account where he was talking to Nicodemus, you guys all have memorized it.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus has been going around telling people some version of that. And the lawyer comes up to Jesus to challenge him. See, the lawyer knows better. He is a student of the law.

But Jesus is on to him, right? Jesus knows the heart of the lawyer. And so Jesus basically just throws the question back at him and says, “You know the law so much, don’t you? All right. You are the teacher of the law. Tell me then, how do you obtain eternal life?”

This man, this lawyer, he can’t barely restrain himself. He’s ready for this debate. And he unloads on Jesus.

The Lawyer’s Answer from the Law

And he enlists two things in his answer.

First, you have to love God with your heart, your soul, your strength, and your mind.

And that is straight from Deuteronomy 6:5. He can quote the verse.

And then secondly, you are to love your neighbor as yourself. And that is also straight from the Old Testament. It’s in Leviticus 19:18.

Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

So the lawyer comes armed with these texts.

Wham. Bam. Right? One-two punch. What are you going to say, Jesus? I’m ready for a debate.

But Jesus simply looks at the lawyer and he says, “Yes, you are correct. You are right. You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. You will live eternally.”

All right. So now the lawyer is a little bit confused. What? You’re not supposed to have agreed with me, right?

The Critical Word: Neighbor

And that this takes a little bit of the wind out of his sales. But this lawyer is a smart man. He has thought about this for a long time, and he knows that there is a problem with what he said.

There is a problem. What is that problem?

Well, if you set up the standard that this is what you have to do to get eternal life, then you have to measure yourself by this standard. You have to measure yourself by the standard. Do you do this? Do you or do you not love your neighbor as yourself?

The lawyer, being a lawyer, knows that the answer to this question hinges upon the definition of a single word. If you can define a single word favorably, then you win. But if the definition of the word is off, then you lose. What is that word?

It’s the word neighbor.

If your neighbor is simply your friends and your family or the people that you like, well then we can all say we’ve obeyed this law.

“If your neighbor is simply your friends and family, then we can all say we’ve obeyed this law.”

But if the word neighbor refers to people you don’t know or perhaps even refers to people you don’t like, well then he by his own words is condemned.

How are you supposed to love everyone? That is an impossible standard.

The lawyer then puts this difficult question in front of Jesus. All right, I didn’t get you there, but I’m going to get you here. Who is your neighbor? He asked Jesus.

Who is your neighbor? And by the way, we have to understand he’s not actually asking who is your neighbor. What is he asking? He’s asking who is not your neighbor. Who am I allowed not to love?

So, how does Jesus respond?

Act Two: The Parable

Here’s act two, the parable. Jesus tells a story.

The Bloody Road to Jericho

Jesus tells a story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now, what you have to know about this road is that this is a notoriously dangerous road.

This road is 18 miles long and it’s straight downhill. The setting of this road is on a mountain and there are numerous caves, numerous nooks and crannies, and hills behind which robbers can hide.

This is a well-known thing. In fact, the road has a nickname.

It’s called the bloody road because it’s a well-known dangerous road to travel.

“The road has a nickname — it’s called the bloody road.”

And the rule is that if you have to travel this road, you have to go armed. Preferably, you go with a large group.

But the rule is you just go as fast as you can. You don’t stop for anybody. You don’t stop for anything. You just go down that road downhill as fast as you can. And if you’ve ever driven through a dangerous neighborhood, that’s what it’s like. You’re kind of flooring the accelerator. You’re hoping that you don’t hit a red light.

Well, that’s this road. It’s an exceedingly dangerous road.

And this man predictably is on the road and he’s alone and he is attacked by a group of robbers. Very predictable.

And these robbers, they take everything he has. They even take the clothes off his back and they leave him naked, half dead in a bloody heap.

This man is going to die in minutes. If help does not arrive, he will die in minutes.

The Priest and the Levite Pass By

But look, lucky him, somebody comes down the path.

And even luckier, this person is a priest. This person is a religious leader, somebody who teaches the word and who knows the word.

Back then, priests wore something called phylacteries, which is they tape something on their forehead and on their left arm that contains the law. In fact, the verses that go into these phylacteries are exactly Deuteronomy 6:5: “You shall love the Lord your God.”

So this priest knows the law. In fact, he wears it on his body. And even Jesus addresses this practice of wearing these things in Matthew 23:5. It says Jesus is not condemning the practice of wearing them, but he said that they do all these deeds to be noticed by men, for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels on their garment.

The tassels are also supposed to remind you of God’s commands. So by the time Jesus came on the scene, it became a fashion statement. More than that, it became a statement of how righteous you are. The bigger your phylacteries, the longer your tassels—well, the more righteous you are.

And this priest decked out in all of this law crosses the street to avoid him.

“This priest decked out in all of this law crosses the street to avoid him.”

Okay. Well, that’s unfortunate. But hold on, there is another man. Maybe this one will help.

This person is a Levite. A Levite works under the priests in the temple. They also wear phylacteries. Obviously, this person is also righteous. He’s also a teacher of the law, but he also crosses the street.

Why They Crossed the Street

Now, the story doesn’t tell us why the priest and the Levite would cross the street, but we can imagine, right?

It comes down to really one of three things: fear, selfishness, or indifference.

“It comes down to really one of three things: fear, selfishness, or indifference.”

Fear—maybe they were afraid. They don’t want to get involved. They don’t want to stop because it would put themselves at risk. What if it’s a trap? What if this is a ruse for them to stop and then robbers will attack them?

It could be selfishness. They don’t want to be inconvenienced. They have families to get home to. They have things to do.

And it could be that they just undergone a lengthy purification ritual, and if they touched a corpse or blood, they would have to redo that. That’s just so tedious.

Or maybe they were just indifferent. They’ve seen this too many times before. It no longer moves them.

We Are No Different

And before you judge the priest and the Levite too harshly, you need to think: don’t we do the same things?

How many homeless people with their hands out have you passed on the street?

How many traffic accidents or people stranded on the road have you simply driven by?

We are no different than the priest or the Levite.

“Before you judge the priest and the Levite too harshly — we are no different.”

The Samaritan Arrives

But Jesus is the master of the plot twist. He loves a good plot twist.

And in verse 33, in comes a Samaritan. Now what you have to know about Samaritans is that Samaritans and Jews hated each other.

There was a deep animosity. They had extreme racial and religious hostility towards one another. They had competing religious systems. And historians tell us that this hatred often would turn violent.

“Samaritans and Jews hated each other with extreme racial and religious hostility.”

In fact, Samaritan gangs were known to ambush Jewish travelers and in retaliation, Jews would attack Samaritan villages.

This perpetuated a bloody cycle of violence between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Again, some things don’t seem to change.

When Jesus introduces this character of the Samaritan, what is everybody thinking? He’s done for. This is either another robber or the same robber’s come to finish the job.

This guy is up to no good. And in fact, it’s deeply suspicious that a Samaritan will be found on this road at all. This road is on the opposite side of Samaria.

But the Samaritan is on a journey.

And here is the surprise. The surprise is that the Samaritan, who the entire crowd expects to be hostile to this traveler who’s a Jew.

The Samaritan’s Radical Compassion

He does not kill him. In fact, against all odds, he has compassion on this traveler. And at great risk, perhaps to himself, he approaches this man.

At his own expense, he binds up this man’s wounds with his own supplies, oil and wine.

He takes responsibility for him. He puts him on his beast and he carries him to the inn and he rescues him.

This man, the Samaritan, really goes above and beyond to help this traveler. He could have just driven him to or given him to the local authorities or waited for somebody else to come along and flagged him down, but he takes responsibility.

He goes above and beyond.

“The Samaritan goes above and beyond — he takes responsibility for the wounded man.”

And that’s the parable. What then are we supposed to make of the strange tale that Jesus told?

Now let’s remember that Jesus is answering a specific question.

The question is, who is my neighbor?

Act Three: The Neighbor Revealed

So then here’s act three. The neighbor revealed.

Jesus turns to the lawyer in act four.

Yeah, act three. Jesus turns to the lawyer and he asks him a question. He asks him, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And the answer, of course, is obvious.

“Which of these three proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

It’s a Samaritan.

But watch what the lawyer says.

He has such deep hatred towards Samaritans that he likely doesn’t even want to utter the word. He can’t bring himself to say that. So he just says the one who shows mercy.

Your Neighbor Is Everyone in Need

Well, it seems then that the message is clear.

The answer to who your neighbor is: everyone who you come across who is in need. Your neighbor is everyone who you come across who is in need. And this is regardless of what race. It’s regardless of religion. It’s regardless of what country you come from. It’s regardless of whether they are richer than you or poorer than you. It’s regardless of whether they like you or whether they hate you and whether they deserve to be in the situation they’re in.

“Your neighbor is everyone who you come across who is in need — regardless of race, religion, or country.”

What’s the traveler doing? Traveling by himself on this dangerous road.

The Samaritan knows none of these things. He doesn’t know why he’s there, what his socioeconomic status is. He doesn’t know anything about this before he goes and helps the traveler.

And you and I, we ought to be convicted by this message. It is a deeply disturbing message actually.

Jesus then looks at the lawyer and says, “Well, you have your answer.

A Convicting Self-Examination

Go and do the same. Go and do the same as that Samaritan.” It’s a clear command. Love your neighbor. Now, I just want to pause for a little bit with you.

I want you to think deeply about whether you are living this out yourself. Do you, Calvary, do you love your neighbors this way?

I think some of us don’t even love our family members this way.

In fact, this is probably how you love instead. You have mercy only to those who deserve it. You help only when it’s convenient for you. You love those who love you.

You avoid people where there is even the slightest danger.

Although you don’t always cross the street physically, maybe you cross the street emotionally to distance yourself. You surround yourself with neighbors that can benefit you.

When you do love, instead of being a concrete action, it is just a sentimental feeling or perhaps a vague emotion.

“Instead of being a concrete action, your love is just a sentimental feeling or a vague emotion.”

That’s how most of us love.

Bad News for the Lawyer

Now realize that for the lawyer, Jesus’s answer is bad news. In fact, it’s horrible news.

Imagine you’re the lawyer who asked this question. Your whole eternal destiny rides on this question: Who is my neighbor?

Or who is not my neighbor? Who can I safely ignore?

And Jesus answers him in the worst case scenario. There actually are no exclusions to who is your neighbor, lawyer.

And if you have not loved everyone that you come across, then you have failed to live up to the standard that you yourself have just articulated.

You have failed to live up to that standard.

And therefore you have no eternal life.

“If you have not loved everyone you come across, you have failed the standard — and therefore you have no eternal life.”

How deeply depressing to the lawyer.

Okay, some of you here are saying now he’s ready for the gospel. Right now we hit him with the gospel. But look at how this text ends. That’s it.

Tough luck, buddy.

Jesus just closes out this interaction with “go and do the same.” And then the next verse is he goes to his friend’s house for dinner.

This is the last we see of this lawyer.

I suppose if Jesus left him there like that, it would be Jesus’s prerogative to do so. He is, after all, the son of God and salvation belongs only to him.

Something Deeper in the Parable

But is that truly all there is to this account?

Once in a while you run into something in scripture that amazes you so much that you say, “Only God can write this.” Once in a while you run into something and it just makes you sit back and think.

I want to show you what I think is really going on.

Let’s look again at this parable.

If you stare at this parable long enough, you start to realize that there are some strange things about it.

First, there’s a question of why Jesus told this parable at all. If the moral of the story is just that your neighbor is everybody, why would that require a parable? After all, he’s come right out and said, “Love your enemies.” We just read that verse right on the Sermon on the Mount.

“If the moral is just that your neighbor is everybody, why would that require a parable?”

Also, what is the bit with the innkeeper?

If Jesus’s point was to simply say that the Samaritan was a good neighbor, he could have just stopped at verse 34.

But there was this bit about the innkeeper.

And finally, this is the big one.

When you hear a story like this, you tend to take the view of the person who is the protagonist. The protagonist is the person who is constant throughout the story. The person who’s constant throughout the story is the traveler.

If you take the traveler’s point of view, then Jesus’s parable actually did not answer the lawyer’s question.

The lawyer asked, “Who should I be a neighbor to?” Right?

But what did Jesus answer?

Who proved to be a neighbor to you?

It’s a different question.

Act Four: Through the Traveler’s Eyes

With that in mind, I want to take you through this parable again, but this time let’s take the point of view of the traveler.

I think this is act four or act five. You were a traveler traveling down this road and you are attacked. You find yourself beaten, naked, and half dead, just praying that somebody will come along to help.

You can’t move. You’re barely conscious.

Down comes a man, the religious leader of the day. You might even know this person. He’s a priest, maybe from the same synagogue that you attend, but all he does is give you an annoyed glance and pass by.

A second man comes. Same story. He glances at you, clearly knows you’re there, and turns his back on you.

But then a Samaritan comes. Now you hate Samaritans. There’s a blood feud between your people and the Samaritan people. He is your enemy. He’s not even from your religious tradition. What does he know about the law?

But you’re desperate. To your surprise, this Samaritan, this enemy, he sees you when the religious establishment does not. He has pity on you and compassion on you when others left you to die.

When you look into this man’s eyes, you see not your own hatred returned, but you see pity and compassion and love.

“This enemy sees you when the religious establishment does not, and has compassion when others left you to die.”

The Samaritan Pays Your Debt

And despite the danger to himself, he comes over to you and he binds up your wounds from his own provisions and he picks you up and he brings you to the inn. As you realize that he’s bringing you to the inn, you start to panic because you don’t have any money to pay for this inn.

Everything you have was stolen.

But imagine your surprise when he simply pulls out his pocketbook.

And not only does he pay for your stay, he does something even more incredible.

He goes to the innkeeper and he says perhaps the most, or perhaps the dumbest, eleven words ever uttered: “Whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.” Now, come on.

You would not ever say that to anybody because what’s going to happen?

They’re going to rip you off. Suddenly, there’s going to be all these extra costs. You’re going to be taken advantage of.

Jesus leaves a blank check. He said, “I need to leave for a bit, but I will come back to you in a bit.” And do you see it yet?

“Jesus leaves a blank check — ‘Whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’”

The Samaritan begins to bear a striking resemblance to Jesus himself.

“The Samaritan begins to bear a striking resemblance to Jesus himself.”

Act Five: The True Samaritan

Act Five: The True Samaritan

I have to say that this interpretation of the good Samaritan is not one that I made up.

In fact, it was the accepted interpretation even referenced by Origen and Irenaeus back in the early church until the time of John Calvin. Something happened there. But I want to tell you what I think is the true meaning of the parable.

I think what Jesus is saying to the lawyer is that there is nothing you can do. There is nothing you can do to have eternal life. In fact, that ship has sailed, man.

You can’t. You haven’t loved as you should. And even if you tried to, you couldn’t do it. You cannot obtain eternal life by anything you do.

However, there is a way.

In the story, you are not the Samaritan.

You’re the traveler.

You are broken, helpless, and naked on the road. Your only hope is that somebody will come to rescue you.

What does that rescuer have to do? He’s going to have to love you even when you are his enemy.

He’s going to have to restore you from death to life at his own expense. He’s going to have to be willing to pay the debt that you owe to God for your sin that you have no hope of paying.

And that is past, present, and future debt.

The Samaritan will not abandon you, but he will come back for you.

That rescuer for us is exactly Jesus himself.

Jesus did that for you on the cross where he went to pay for your sins, including for your sin of not loving your neighbor.

Sins that he did not commit, sins that you committed.

Jesus Is the Only One Who Can Keep the Commandment

And the real point of the parable is that Jesus is the only one who can keep that commandment perfectly.

He’s the only one that can keep this commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. When he went to that cross, he kept that commandment for everyone who is his neighbor. We know from other scriptures who his neighbor is. His neighbor is everyone who believes.

“Jesus is the only one who can keep the commandment to love your neighbor perfectly.”

A Meaning Veiled Until the Cross

But here I think is the most amazing part of this story. The reason that Jesus delivers this in a parable is because when Jesus told this parable, it could not have been understood this way. Jesus had not yet gone to the cross.

It could not have been understood this way.

The lawyer didn’t get it at first. Even though this lawyer came to Jesus with a combative stance, and even though he came to Jesus not asking a genuine question, Jesus in his mercy did give him a real answer: “How can I obtain eternal life?”

But the meaning of his answer was veiled until after the cross.

I have no idea whether this happened, but I’d like to imagine that this lawyer, who no doubt heard this parable from Jesus and was puzzled for months, woke up in bed someday after the crucifixion. Suddenly his eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped, and he understood what Jesus was saying.

What message did Jesus leave for him in that parable?

“The meaning of his answer was veiled until after the cross.”

What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus gave him the answer: you can’t do what you need to do.

And who is my neighbor? Instead of giving him a true answer to that question, Jesus instead became the neighbor that the man needed to have eternal life.

And who can tell a story as amazing as this? I think only God.

Go and Do the Same

If you today are not a believer, then this is Jesus’ call for you to repent of your sins today.

Believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only good neighbor and he will pay for your debt and you too will inherit eternal life and you cannot delay even a day.

But if you are a believer today then this passage is such a comfort to us. Jesus is our neighbor when we were his enemy.

But it doesn’t let you off the hook because the last words of this account is Jesus saying, “Go and do the same.” And let’s remember, you couldn’t do that before, but now that Jesus has saved you and you have been changed from the inside out, you can go and do the same.

You have experienced love at Calvary, so now you can go love others.

“Jesus is our neighbor when we were his enemy. Now that he has saved you, you can go and do the same.”

You have experienced mercy. Now you can give mercy.

I would ask you then to open your eyes and look around you. There are wounded, dying travelers around every corner of this world.

Maybe in your mind right now, I would just ask you to think about this and try to think about who is on your path.

Who have you maybe excluded either purposely or subconsciously from being your neighbor? Who is it that would just shock people if you love them? Identify that person in your mind right now. Think about that.

The person who needs a neighbor—not a son or a daughter, not a husband or wife, but somebody who people would be surprised that you would consider a neighbor.

And Jesus’ commission to you, my fellow travelers, is to go on Jesus’s behalf and to be their neighbor.

And when they come into you and they ask you, “Why would you do that? Why would you do that for me?” You can tell them about the one and only true good Samaritan who proved to be a neighbor to you.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. What an amazing, miraculous story.

We’re moved, Lord, by how tenderly you treated this man.

And Lord, we know that we cannot obey these laws perfectly. But because of your saving work, you have changed us more and more to be like you.

And we want to emulate you. We want to be the good Samaritan.

Not just to help people in a physical sense, but to give them the thing they truly need, which is eternal life. Pray you would empower us by the power of your Holy Spirit to live out these words, however challenging they are, and help us to be a force for your gospel.

Pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

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