Luke 10:25-37 ‘Love doesn’t earn eternal life, but it does demonstrate we have it’

How good were you at showing love in the last week?  If you are living in a house with other people have you been consistently considerate and caring?  If you go to a place of work would your colleagues say that you went out of your way to show them kindness?  When you watched the news and saw people suffering were you moved with compassion?  If someone wronged you were you quick to forgive?  Were you kind in how you spoke about people?  As you drove in your car were your courteous and patient? 

The story of the compassionate Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most loved parables.  I think that it does a couple of things when we read it.  It reminds us how shallow our love has been—this man crosses boundaries, takes risks and suffers cost for the sake of another.  When we think of this sort of love, and we think of how weak our love is, we are brought again to pray, ‘have mercy on me a sinner.’  We also see something of the love we are to have as Jesus’ followers.  While we may not love perfectly, if our faith is real it should be making us more loving.

1.  Only the naïve think they can earn eternal life (25-29)

An expert of the law stood up to test Jesus.  He wants to catch Jesus out.  Perhaps Jesus will make some claim to be the Messiah and get himself on the wrong side of the authorities.  Maybe Jesus will contradict the Old Testament law and so be exposed as a theological light-weight.  ‘Teacher … what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

We might see a problem in this man’s question.  His emphasis is on what I must do.  The Apostle Paul writes, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no-one can boast (Eph 2:8-9).  We don’t earn eternal life, it is a gift.

Jesus turns the question back on the expert.  What does the Law say?  How do you read it? The man answers, ‘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 neighbour as yourself.’  It’s a good answer.  These commands sum up the heart of the Old Testament law. Jesus declares, ‘You have answered correctly … Do this and you will live.’ 

The problem is that no one lived up to the perfect demands of the Old Testament law.  The law exposed their need for mercy.  However this man wanted to justify himself.  He had not humbled himself and admitted his moral bankruptcy.     

If, like that religious expert, you want to earn eternal life you will have to reduce God’s demand for holiness to something manageable and fool yourself into believing that you have attained it.  It is interesting that the expert does not focus on the first command.  Can any person really claim that they have perfectly loved God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind?  That certainly exposes my need for mercy!  This religious expert thinks he can gloss over this command.  As for the second command, he wants to have it interpreted as easily as possible.  ‘Who is my neighbour?’ ‘Who do I have to love, and who do I not need to care about?’  I think he expected that Jesus would say that he only needs to love his fellow Israelites and he believed he had done that.

Many people in our society believe that they can earn eternal life.  They think that God looks on them and says ‘Well done!  I see that your friends think you are a decent person.  You have never been in much trouble with the police.  You have even given some money to charity.  As for the fact that you attend church; surely that is above and beyond what most people do.’  What a terrible shock they are in for!  The Bible’s verdict is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  No-one can justify themselves.

Jesus tells this man a story that shows how God demands an all-embracing love.  It accused the religious people of that day of not even fulfilling their narrow interpretation of this command.  He challenges sectarian bigotry.  He highlights our need for mercy.    

2.  Jesus-like love is practical, risk-taking and costly (30-37)

One night, when I was working in Dungannon, I could not sleep.  I felt oppressively lonely.  Of course friends don’t want to be woken for a chat in the small hours of the morning.  But I went to make a phone call.  I started to ring the Samaritans.  Although I stopped before I dialled the last number.  It doesn’t surprise us to think of someone called a Samaritan being portrayed in a positive light.  I know that there is at least one person in our congregation who has volunteered with the Samaritans.  They do a valuable work.

However, Jesus’ listeners would have resented a Samaritan being used as a positive example.  Jews considered Samaritans to be racial and religious half-castes.  The Samaritans had set up their own temple in Mount Gerazim in 128 BC.  The Jews responded by burning it down.  A couple of years before Jesus was born a group of Samaritans had broken into the temple in Jerusalem at Passover time and scattered human bones around the place and so defiling it.  Jews and Samaritans hated each other.  No Jew would have thought of portraying a Samaritan in a good light.

I hate the attitude you sometimes hear about Catholics.  People have said to me things like, ‘I have no problems with Catholics, but you could never trust one.’  It lumps all Catholics together and assumes Protestants are somehow superior.  Such people could never stomach it if Jesus had told a parable where it was a Catholic who set the example to follow.

The story involves a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.  That 17 mile journey was literally a downward road.  Jerusalem was 2,700 feet above sea level, while Jericho was 820 feet below.  If there had been ‘News at Ten’ in those days the scene that Jesus portrays might have been a regular feature.  This road was notorious.    Jesus’ listeners would not have been surprised to hear of a man beaten, stripped naked, robbed, and left to die on that road.

A priest happened to being going down the road in the same direction and saw the man.  Here was a man we might have expected to help.  This man knew the command to love your neighbour as yourself.  What does this religious person do?  He passes by on the other side.  His religion does not lead him to action.  Then a Levite too comes down the road.  The Levites’ job was to help the priests—especially in providing music and ensuring temple security.  Again we have a pillar of the religious establishment who knew what the law commanded him to do but does not do it.  Their religion was all in the head but didn’t impact their attitude towards others.  At the Irish Bible Institute, where David is studying, they talk about ‘head, heart, hands’.  Our knowledge of the Word is to shape our thinking, stir our emotions, and result in a changed lifestyle.

But a Samaritan comes along, sees the man, and takes pity on him.  I read that the only other person the word translated ‘take pity on’ is used of in the gospels is Jesus.  The Samaritan is acting with Jesus-like compassion.  This is the sort of love Jesus’ followers should be imitating.  The Samaritan doesn’t see a Jew, he doesn’t see an enemy, he sees someone in need and he is moved to do something.  He shows a love which is willing to be inconvenienced—he puts the man on his donkey, thus slowing himself down and making himself more vulnerable to bandits.  It is a love that is practical.  Sometimes it is easier to write a cheque for a foreign charity than go out of our way and spend time with a lonely neighbour.  It is a love that is costly—he comes back to the inn-keeper the next day, pays to have the man looked after and offers to reimburse him for any extra expense.

Jesus answered the question ‘who is my neighbour?’  ‘Anyone in need is my neighbour.  There are no religious, racial, or social limitations’ (Melvin Tinker).  The expert in the law had tried to justify sectarian bigotry while simultaneously satisfying his smug religious self-righteousness.  Jesus asks him, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’  Now the teacher of the law, who had approached Jesus in order to catch him out, is being put in the uncomfortable position.  He does not seem to be able to utter the words ‘the Samaritan’, and replies, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’  Jesus tells that man, ‘Go and do likewise.’

3.  Love is a sign that we have eternal life

The parable exposed that the expert in the law had failed the law.  He too was guilty of sin.  He had interpreted the command to love his neighbour too narrowly.  Indeed it is implied that he wouldn’t even lived up to his watered-down understanding of this command.  Like all of us he needed mercy.  If you are still trying to earn eternal life don’t be so naïve.  Swallow your pride and accept your need for mercy.  It is only by grace through faith that we can be saved.

If you have placed your trust in Jesus and received God’s mercy then let’s take Jesus’ words ‘Go and do likewise’ for ourselves.  Love is a fruit of being saved.  We don’t earn our salvation through loving people, but we do demonstrate our salvation through loving them.  In the parable of the sower the person who responds to the word lives a fruitful life.  The Christian’s confidence is not based on being able to name the day and hour we prayed the prayer; the Christian’s confidence is based on a life that is being transformed by Jesus.  If we are known as a gossip, if we are slow to forgive, if we have a critical spirit, if we are not moved by compassion when people hurt, then we may have reason to doubt whether we have truly been converted.

A friend witnessed a senior figure in a workplace giving out to a junior colleague.  The man showed little mercy to the young woman.  He shouted at her and was unrestrained in his language.  After giving this dressing down, the senior figure went to his office.  My friend needed a question answered and it was suggested that he ask that senior figure.  He knocked on the door and a reply came to enter.  What surprised my friend was to find this man with his Bible reading notes out having a quiet time.  His actions towards the younger colleague didn’t fit with his claim to be a Christian.  Such behaviour might cause one to wonder if the man’s faith is actually genuine.  Do our attitudes towards others show that our faith is real?

So who is testing our love at the moment?  Are we finding it difficult not to be sharp towards our spouse?  Do we have an insensitive and demanding boss?  Are there people who have done things to us that you find hard to forgive?  Would we rather stick to our own type of people and not reach over cultural boundaries?  Are we willing to risk rejection and share the good news of the gospel?  ‘Lord, have mercy on us for the many ways we have failed to love, and work within us to produce Jesus-like compassion.’

(Preached in Richhill Methodist before 2011)