2024-08-25 - San Jose CRC - Sermon Only - Gil Suh

Transcript

Luke 10:25-37 

Scripture:

Good morning again. I will be reading the scripture passage this morning and you can find it on your pew Bibles on page 843 or follow with me on the screen. Uh it's found Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37. It's the parable of the Good Samaritan. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.

Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law, he replied. How do you read it? He 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. You have 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 was attacked by 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, and 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. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was. And when he saw him, he took pity on him. He 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.

The 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. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him.

Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. This is the word of the Lord.

Sermon:

Pray with me one more time. Your word is being read, and now, Lord, use this time to speak to us as I'll open up this word so that your voice can be heard. Make our hearts open and respond to your truth revealed to us this time, in Christ's name, Amen. When people ask me how I am, I used to reply quite often, Oh, really busy.

And I felt good inside by saying, I'm kind of busy because I was not lying. Because being busy meant I thought I was important and valuable. Cool. But I don't feel good anymore saying that. Because I realize being busy can also mean my priorities are mixed up. And I don't have much space in my life, and I can't actually neglect what really matters.

So I'm very self conscious nowadays when I catch myself saying, I'm really busy. That is kind of almost like admitting they're like, oh, my priorities are not in order. But in our modern society, that's not just me. I think we are all actually quite busy trying to manage many things, including tasks, responsibilities, and even relationships.

What I mean is that we consciously or unconsciously try to manage how much time and energy we can carve out for certain people in our lives. We have only so much time and energy that we can be selective about who to relate to and how much to relate to. That's why we can all relate to this question. We have some interest in this question.

Who is my neighbor? The expert in the law asks that question to Jesus because we tend to size up people and decide who to relate to and how much. Basically, we want to better manage our relationships like we do our tasks.

So it's not just that the expert of the law, which is basically the Old Testament scholar, it's not just his question, it's our question too. But then Jesus’ answer is quite surprising.

He came to test Jesus, which means his heart was not sincere. When he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" he was not really interested in eternal life. He wanted to find out what this rabbi would answer this really big question.

And then Jesus, of course, knowing his heart, he replied by asking back. Amen. Okay, you are the expert in the law. What does the law say? What is written in the law? How do you understand it? How do you read it? To that question, the scholar, Okay, I know that answer. Yeah, his answer was a very actually good one. He understood the essence of the law, right?

Loving God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That, too, summarized the whole commandment, the law. And Jesus says, good, good answer, you got it. And do this, and you will live.

Then the scholar asked, who is my neighbor? Why is he asking that question?

I think he knew how hard it is, almost impossible, to love others as himself, igf we're really honest. So instead of admitting, God, Lord, Rabbi, it's actually impossible. I try. Instead of confessing his shortcomings and asking Jesus for help. The scholar still kind of wanted to kind of compose himself, like, Oh, okay, I'm still good in control.

And he wanted to justify himself and still earn merit by managing his relationship. Basically, he wanted to control who to love. And in reply, Jesus told him. You know, we could almost expect Jesus answer is everyone, right? Who is my neighbor? Everyone. But he told him a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

This parable is about a man who was robbed and beaten up unconscious and left on the side of the road. And then three different individuals, who came across and their different reactions to this man. First two, a priest and Levi, religious people, who are respected highly, they saw him, and then they passed by on the other side of the road we heard.

We wonder why this priest and the Levi, instead of engaging help, passed by on the other side. We don't have, like, you know, answer in the text, but we can kind of guess, right? Basically, they don't want to be involved in a stranger's situation. It's not their priority. It's none of their business, they thought.

They're also very probably busy, right? Preoccupied with their own business. They're going somewhere for something else. Probably, they're on the way to synagogue. So they are busy, and they are on their busyness. But you know what? To add that sort of guess, maybe they have never been in that situation themselves.

In other words, they have not received mercy from others themselves. Then, the third traveler was a Samaritan. He came to where the injured man was lying unconscious. And here is what Jesus said. When he saw him, he took pity on him. He 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.

The next day he took out two denarii, which is two days of wages at the time. 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. What is he doing? He's basically going the extra mile. He's doing everything that he can do to help this wounded man.

Why? Again, we can just guess. He's doing this out of love. Good heart, right? Out of compassion. He didn't expect something bad. He just felt pity and compassion toward this suffering man. So he's just doing that. Maybe, again, maybe he experienced, maybe he received similar kind of mercy when he was in suffering or he was in the hardship.

So he's now kind of, in a way, paying back what he received. Here, now, if we think kind of logically, at this point, we expect Jesus will say, after saying this story, to that expert of the law, the scholar, you ask who your neighbor is. And now I'm telling you, your neighbor is that wounded man on the side of the road.

And just love that person. That's kind of what we expected to hear. Because that would make sense for Jesus to say that. Because the man had asked, who is my neighbor? And so Jesus shows an unidentified man who could be anyone. But his answer is not what we expected. That's not what Jesus says. Instead, Jesus turned things around and asked, Which of the three passers by acted as a neighbor to the crime victim?

You know, we tend to think like the lawyer, that scholar. We think that what we need to do is scan the society around us and to see who out there counts as my neighbor. So that I can control who to love, who can, who I can be selective about. But here Jesus says that figuring that out is not as important as you think.

Actually what is really important is to make sure that you yourself act as a neighbor to everyone you meet. He wants us to become bearers of love everywhere we go.

If our hearts are full of grace and compassion and love, then we won't ask, who is my neighbor? Because it won't matter. The question becomes irrelevant if we ourselves already being a neighbor.

I understand, I'm sure you too, why we ask that question to God and ourselves, who is my neighbor. I understand, I'm sure you too, why we want to control who to love and how much, because we are afraid of getting overwhelmed and getting hurt.

We have experience too. We know it's risky. A few years ago, before I came to San Jose, we lived in Grand Rapids for a while after Cambodia. One night, I don't know how late it was, but our family was still up. But then we saw these two ladies outside, you know, we had kind of fairly big window, like a living room, kind of coming and then knocking on the, not door, the window.

And, then I opened the door, From a certain point of view, that was a mistake. Don't open the door. And I just disregarded, but I opened the door. And basically, they're saying, one of them said, they came from Detroit and have car trouble.

Looking back, that was strange. Again, another, that could have, I could have just, later on, my children said, Dad, you should have just called the police or just told them to call the police. But somehow, I couldn't just ignore them. I'm already involved. I opened the door. So next, I stepped out. And next, I went with them.

Okay, where is your car? Well, basically what they want is, you know, some money for gas or car or whatever. But I took what they said. So I went with them and spent my, you know, precious resting time just engaging these two women. One is older, and one is younger. I went all the way down, and just looking back, I think one of them was drunk.

Um, I didn't ask, "Are they my neighbors? " I did it just out of compassion and goodwill, I think. Maybe I was naive and even foolish. I tried to be a good and unbusy neighbor.

I think God knows why I did what I did. And that moment, looking back, that compassion and that sort of sense of, like, I want to do something for them, drives out, you know, like, oh, you know, a lot of thinking or fear.

Of course, am I always like that? No, I'm not consistent. I know better. Sometimes, it's like, nope, not engaging, or don't open the door. I know what not to do. Most of the time. I can tell you more stories and examples of things I did not engage in than this. But, in today's story, Jesus is challenging us.

Instead of asking who my neighbor is so we can control ourselves, Jesus is challenging us to make sure that we are a neighbor first. Maybe that's what we need to focus more on. Then we will be less worried about who to love and busy, and maybe we can be a good and unbusy neighbor. Again, love drives out fear. So what would help us then?

If that's our desire, if that's really what, Lord, I really want to be a good unbusy neighbor. Although we can relate to this expert in the law, try to control our life and manage our tasks, including our relationships. But as we follow you, Lord Jesus, I want, we want to be like you. Then here is the thing.

In the parable. You know, Jesus said, who is like of three is a neighbor. But you know what? First, we need to see ourselves as the injured, anonymous man. I think that's why Jesus made this person very vague. You know, others are very specific, right? Levi, priest, Samaritan. In the original Greek, it says a certain man.

It could be anyone. It could be any one of us who could be in trouble.

That person was in critical condition without help. Then, we need to see Jesus as the Samaritan who comes to humanity in need of rescue. and coming near enough to truly be near the suffering and binding of our wounds and paying for our salvation at great personal cost. And if we can see that in this story, before we think about who is, who am I of those three, then since Jesus is the ultimate good and unbusy neighbor to us all, then as his body.

Together, and as individual followers, we can be, too, good and unbusy neighbors.

So, I want to leave this question: What kind of neighbor am I? What kind of neighbor do I want to be? Then this parable, this story, has a lot to offer us to meditate on in the weeks to come. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, help us to see beyond our busyness and the boundaries we create around who we consider our neighbors.

Teach us to act with compassion like the Good Samaritan, reflecting who you are and what you did for us.

Help us to be, Lord, true neighbors to people we encounter. May we remember and follow Christ's example of selfless love, recognizing He is the ultimate neighbor who came near us in our brokenness. O God, fill our hearts with Your grace and mercy, so we may love others without fear. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.