November 3, 2024 Recap

Yesterday was a wonderful time together. Meeting, praying for needs, and opening the Word is what the Body is supposed to do. Functioning properly, it brings honor to her Head, Jesus!

Last week we read a very familiar passage in Luke 10:25-37, what we refer to as The Good Samaritan. It includes Jesus' response to a lawyer who stood and asked two important questions, one being, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" As Jesus begins His final months of ministry on earth, it only seems fitting that He encounter Jewish leaders who want to test Him. His Perean Ministry involved detailed teachings on eternity and the purpose of His life and His death. His words always stirred the religious leadership to anger and jealousy.

Confronted with this question, a question that is relevant to every single person on earth, Jesus responded to him with a question, "What is written in the law, and how do you read it?" The lawyer, knowing the written and oral traditions, answers with Deuteronomy 6:4-5, The Shema. “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.”

Jesus commended the lawyer and told him to do this and he will live. In Luke 10:29, the lawyer asks the second question, "Who is my neighbor?" He asks not out of genuine concern for the truth or his neighbor but in order to justify himself. He wanted to know where is the line. How far do I have to go? Who do I have to love? What must I do? How little can I love and still be within the law? He wanted Jesus to give him a list of people that he had to love. That is not LOVE, that is the LAW. What? Who? How much?

The parable that follows is one of Jesus' most famous teachings. In summary, a man is beaten, stripped naked, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. Two men, a priest and a Levite, passed by the man and offered no assistance. When the Samaritan, a half-breed outcast, sees the man, he is moved with compassion. This word for compassion is the greek word splagchnizomai. It means to be moved in the inward parts. 1 John 3:17 in the KJV says, "But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" This Samaritan felt compassion for the stranger that was helplessly lying on the side of the road. Often translated as pity, it is what motivated him to help this man by bandaging his wounds and taking him to an inn to continue administering aid through the night. He then left the stranger and promised to return. The Samaritan paid the debt and would cover any other expenses relating to the man's care.

Jesus then asked the lawyer, "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor...". The lawyer answered, "The one who showed mercy". Jesus commanded him, "Go and do the same".

After thinking about this story that Jesus told the lawyer, I realize something that I never noticed before. I always tried to put myself in the place of the Samaritan. And then, it hit me. I am the helpless, naked, left for dead man on the side of the road. The LAW could never heal me, it could not apply the oil and the water, or take me to the place of rest. Trying to help myself through works only made me more hopeless. But Jesus stopped and demonstrated His compassion for me by His mercy. He healed my wounds and paid my debt, a debt I could not pay. And He will return for me again.

It was LOVE and not the LAW that rescued me.