Lavish Love

SERMON NOTES

Lavish Love

1. Introduction
2. The Context of the Parable
   1. Interactions Between the Lawyer and Jesus
      1. Error #1: motive
      2. Error #2: theology
   2. Addressing The Lawyer’s Thinking
      1. Jesus’ Response: Answering a question with a question
      2. Lawyer’s Response: OT Scripture
      3. Jesus’ Reply
         1. correct answer (based upon original question)
         2. ‘do this’ (based upon theology)
   3. A New Question: ‘Who is my neighbor?’
3. Interpreting The Parable
   1. The Road To Jericho from Jerusalem
   2. The Tragedy
   3. The Responses
      1. The Priest
      2. The Levite
      3. The Samaritan
         1. ‘Felt Compassion’ resulting in lavish love shown through:
            1. Stopping and coming to him
            2. Bandaged his wounds
            3. Poured oil & wine on his wounds
            4. Carried him to his donkey
            5. Put him onto his donkey
            6. Took him to an inn
            7. Stayed with him at the inn all night caring for him there
            8. Paid current and future expense
            9. Returned to check up on him
   4. The New Question: “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
   5. The New Command: “Go and do the same.”
4. Connecting the Questions to the Parable
   1. “Who is my neighbor?” become, “Who proved to be a neighbor?”
   2. What must I do to inherit eternal life?
5. So What? 
   1. What We Learn From the Parable
   2. Application
      1. Correct theology: salvation by grace
      2. Love others with lavish love that’s been shown to you

SERMON MANUSCRIPT

Lavish Love

I. Introduction

We will be in Luke 10 today looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan if you want to turn there now.

I want to take just a minute to talk about understanding parables, especially as it pertains to interpreting them. (A little academic, but to properly understand the application of a passage, we need a proper interpretation of the passage – interpretation always precedes application. So to make sure we have the correct interpretation – and therefore the proper application – we need a solid hermeneutic for understanding parables.)

Parable = parabola (para: beside, or alongside + bolā: to cast or throw) something cast or thrown alongside something else. And, in the case of biblical parables, they are natural stories ‘cast alongside’ spiritual truths to help make the spiritual truths more understandable and relatable. The idea is that if I understand and relate to the natural story, then I will better understand and relate to the spiritual truth Jesus is teaching.

So, the parables Jesus told were tied to stories that His hearers would readily understand and relate to, ex. a lost sheep or a lost coin. It might have even been something that was actually happening at the time, ex. a farmer sowing seed. The key is that it was something that at least could happen and would be understood by and relatable to the hearer. Then, when cast alongside the spiritual truth, that truth became clearer and more relatable.

Secondly, and this is really important, parables have just one meaning; they teach a singular truth. They are not allegorical, ie. there isn’t some hidden, secret meaning that must be extracted from them. The key to properly interpreting parables is determining this singular meaning, the one truth that Jesus is trying to convey. And this one truth is always found in the context of the parable itself. So when studying a parable, you must be careful to understand it in its context. Context is ALWAYS key, but especially when interpreting parables!

Finally, while biblical parables have a singular meaning, they can also be instructive, ie. we can discern some truths from them. For example, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the one meaning Jesus is conveying is that we should have a heart for lost souls, so much so that we search for them and celebrate when they come to God in faith. That is the one truth He is teaching. However, the parable is instructive in that we learn something about the character of God in the parable as we see the character and actions of the father. In the parable we see the father waiting longingly and expectantly for the son’s return. We also see his response to the son, loving and forgiving him, regardless of his actions leading up to his return.

So, this morning, as we use these hermeneutical principles, we will interpret our parable to discover the parable’s singular meaning, and will also discover some great truths as well! And from this, we will see how God desires us to respond and apply what we learn!

Let’s stand together and read our parable together and, since context is king, we’re going to start a few verses before the actual parable. So, in its context, let’s read together the parable of the Good Samaritan beginning in Luke chapter 10 beginning with verse 25 and continuing through verse 37.

Luke 10:25-37 CSB – Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ” “What is written in the law? ” he asked him. “How do you read it? ” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor? ” Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. “A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. “But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. “He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. “The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? ” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

II. Context of the Parable

• • Interaction Between Jesus & The Lawyer

1. 1. • motive

The first thing we learn from this interaction is the motive of the lawyer – he is testing Jesus. This was typical of the religious leaders of that time. They were often trying to get Jesus to say or do something that they could use against Him and this occasion was no different.

1. 1. • theology

The second thing we learn from this interaction, is the lawyer’s theology, his doctrine. Notice his question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Now, first, this is a contradiction in terms. An inheritance is something that is given to you. It is why the bible often refers to eternal life as ‘an inheritance,’ because it is earned by Someone else – Jesus – and then given to you; you can’t do something to inherit it. And, Scripture is clear that salvation – eternal life – is something we receive by grace, not something that can be earned. There are not works that we can do to receive eternal life – we cannot be good enough; we cannot just have our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. The lawyer’s doctrine is wrong because he is thinking there is something he can do to receive eternal life. It was the same as the Rich Young Ruler and, frankly, many today.

But Jesus lets the conversation continue and, in a very Jesus way; He answers the lawyer’s question with a question! [asked 300+ questions, answered less than 10 directly]

• Addressing the Lawyer’s Thinking
  • Jesus’ response

Jesus asks the lawyer, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ This man was a lawyer not in the civil or criminal sense, but in that he was an expert in Old Testament and Jewish Law. Jesus is saying, you are an expert in the Law, you are obviously depending on the Law for your justification and salvation (this is why he asks, “what do I do….’), what do you think is the answer to your question?

• • Lawyer’s response

The lawyer replies by quoting the Law from Deut 6 and Lev. 19, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

And that is what God requires – love Him with all your being and love others as you love yourself. Because if you do these two things you will fulfill the Law.

Jesus confirms this in Matt 22 when He said these two verses sum up the Word of God. In verse 40 He says, “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” And just think about it, the first half of the 10 commandments deal with loving God, the second half, loving others. The rest of the law falls into one of those two categories. Love God and love others summarizes the entire Law. And the Old Testament requires perfect love toward God and perfect love toward others.

• • Jesus’ Reply

1. 1. • Correct Answer

Jesus commends his answer and tells him he is correct. Now, why is he correct? Jesus is saying, ‘You have answered your question correctly.’ We have to remember his question, ‘What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? The answer to that question is Love God with all your being and Love others as you love yourself – which is what the Law says in Deut 6 and Lev 19 as quoted by the lawyer. So it is the correct answer when you consider his original question.

• • • ‘do this’

Jesus affirms his answer and then completes the answer by telling him, ‘if you want eternal life, then do what the Law tells you to do.’ To receive eternal life, go and love God with all your being and your neighbor as yourself and do so perfectly.

Now I suppose this would have been the end of their interaction, but the pride of the Lawyer gets the best of him. He can’t just leave it there with Jesus. The text tells us that the Lawyer, ‘in an attempt to justify himself’ added another question.

• A New Question

That word, ‘justify’ is the same word the New Testament uses to describe a believer in Jesus Christ, someone who has placed their faith in the works of Christ. We are justified by faith. Romans 4 uses the same root word when speaking of Abraham’s justification and his righteousness. This lawyer is basically saying, ‘Well, I’m righteous, I’m justified before God, because I love God and I love my neighbor just like the Law says, unless you have some other definition of neighbor.’ He just comes to Jesus with this very pious, pride-filled attitude based upon his understanding of the Law and how he keeps it. Interestingly, he doesn’t even think to either question his love for God – the first part of the Law – or – and this is so telling – how his love for God relates to his love for others. This man is oblivious to the fact that he is not right with God! He believed he had passed the test of loving God perfectly and that he had loved his neighbor perfectly, but as he had defined ‘neighbor.’  So he asks Jesus – rather smugly I imagine – ‘Who is my Neighbor?’

And this begs the question, how can someone with so much hate in his heart toward others think he is right with God when it comes to loving God and loving others!? Well, we know from Matt 5 that the Pharisees taught that people were to love their friends and hate their enemies. But Jesus told them to love their enemies. The Old Testament commanded that Israel love the stranger in your midst. But the Pharisees took passages like Psalm 139:21-22 where the Psalmist speaks of hating those who hate God and turned hatred into a virtue! They took pride in the people they hated! So, if you take these two beliefs – hate your enemy and hate enemies of God – it doesn’t take long before you can justify hating just about anyone you want! And that’s what the religious leaders, including this lawyer, had done. They had made a way to only love other religious leaders – others just like themselves.

So when he asks Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ he is saying, ‘I love God perfectly, I love my neighbor perfectly, so you are going to have to give me another definition of neighbor.

So now we see the context and the CSB does a great job translating verse 30, ‘Jesus took up the question…’ which helps us to see how the parable he is about to tell connects to the previous conversation He was having with the lawyer.

The parable then is addressing the doctrine and the prideful attitude of the lawyer. I know this is a lot, but if we don’t get this right, we won’t get the interpretation of the parable right and can end up prideful ourselves!

III.   Interpreting the Parable

• The ‘Road’ To Jericho from Jerusalem

The parable takes place on the road between the cities of Jerusalem and Jericho. The text says the man was ‘going down’ because of the over 3,000’ drop in elevation between the two cities. (Jerusalem around 2,500’ above sea level; Jericho 800’ below sea level.) [Picture slide #1: descent from Jerusalem to Jericho] While on this journey he ‘fell into the hands of robbers.’ Now remember, a parable is a story that could have happened and would be known to the hearers, and that is certainly the case with this parable.

This was a well-known, well-used route that was also known for being very dangerous. Not only does it have the cliff edges, robbers, like the one in our story, were common. As you see, it was filled with dramatic drops and rocks and was filled with places for robber to hide. The road is sometimes referred to as the Pass of Addumin, meaning ‘blood.’

• The Tragedy

And tragedy happens in the story that Jesus tells the lawyer and those listening that day – the man is beaten (continuous verb: continued to beat) and robbed – of everything he had taken for his trip, even his clothes. He is beaten and left there to die. Not only is this familiar to the hearers but would have drawn them into the drama of the story. This man is robbed and beaten and left there to die, what will happen to him? What will be his fate? Will he just die there? Is someone going to come along and help him?

• The Responses

1. • The Priest

Well, it just so happens that a priest comes along. The people probably think, ‘well good, this man loves God, I mean he is a priest, he knows God’s command to help the stranger, surely he will help our poor, dying traveler. But, no, the priest passes by him. The Greek even uses a strong word, indicating that he passed by on the opposite side of the road; he took effort to not pass near our dying, needy traveler. He shows zero love for this man.

• • The Levite

Then a Levite – the ones who helped the priests in the Temple – happens to come along. Another religious man who loves God, surely he will stop and help. No, he too passes by – with the same strong wording used to describe his passing opposite the man so as not to be too near. Again, zero love for our dying traveler!

• • The Samaritan

Now a Samaritan comes down the road toward the dying man. Now it is key that we understand the importance of Jesus choosing these 3 people as actors in His story. It is not by accident or without purpose. While the first two – the Priest and the Levite – would have been revered by the lawyer and members of the crowd, the Samaritan would have been hated. The first two would have been leaders in the religious community, the third, excluded from the Temple and religious community.

Samaritans were hated by the Jews; just their mere presence was seen as evil. They were a mixed-race people resulting from the intermarrying of Jews and Gentiles when Israel was in captivity in Babylon. When Israel returned to Jerusalem, the Samaritans tried to disrupt the rebuilding of the city and the Temple. They were unclean traitors. The word itself was a derogatory term as we see in John 8:48 when the Jews called Jesus a demon possessed Samaritan.

So while the crowd may have suspected the first two who came by to assist, they certainly would not have expected this man, this enemy-of-the-Israelites-Samaritan to help in any way. And that is where our story takes a dramatic turn, for Jesus says, ‘when he saw him, he had compassion.’ Notice, not just ‘felt’ compassion, but ‘HAD’ compassion. The word means, ‘to be moved to one’s bowels,’ because the Greeks understood the connection between our internal organs and our emotions and believed that the bowels were the seat of love and purity. So, he was moved deep within himself. Now, look at how his deep compassion moved him to action, moved him to lavishly love our injured, dying man:

• Stopped and came to him
• Bandaged his wounds
• Poured oil and wine on his wounds (soothe wounds, provide antiseptic)
• Carried him to his animal
• Put him on his animal
• Took him to an inn
• Stayed with him and cared for him all night at the inn
• Paid his current and future expenses
• Returned to check up on him and pay any additional expenses incurred

Again, no one listening to Jesus would have expected the Samaritan to do anything to help, much less go to this extreme to care for this man with such lavish love! Consider the love he showed this man:

• Would have had to make bandages
• Lavishly poured his own wine and oil (word for pour)
• Physically carried him and placed him on his animal (man helpless; he walked)
• Stayed with him all night
• Paid his own money (2+ months in inn plus additional expenses – recipe for extortion!)
• Took time to come back and check on him

Who does that for others? Who loves this way!? Especially towards an enemy! Think about what this cost him: his possessions, his money, his time and his comfort! He lavished love on this man. What is Jesus saying? This is loving your neighbor as yourself. This is what you would do for you, right? You would give nothing but the best to you! I would! This is love without boundaries!

• The New Question: ‘Who proved to be a neighbor?’

Now Jesus returns to the lawyer and changes the question: ‘Who proved to be a neighbor?’ Remember the Lawyer’s question in verse 29, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ The lawyer’s question assumes that there are some people who are NOT his neighbor; his focus is on other people. Jesus’ question moves the focus from those being loved to those who are called to love. It is not about who qualifies to be loved, but are you a neighbor who loves in an unqualified way. Do you love without boundaries? Who WE are as neighbors is what is important, not who are our neighbors. See the switch?

• The New Command: ‘Go and do the same’

When the Lawyer rightly identifies the Samaritan as the one who proved to be a neighbor, Jesus tells him to go and ‘do the same,’ to go and lavishly love others – even your enemies – in the same way as the Samaritan had shown love to the dying man. And that ends the parable as the Lawyer does not respond, apparently remaining in his pride.

IV. Connecting the Questions to the Parable

Remember, the parable is addressing the lawyer and his incorrect thinking and theology. The lawyer’s questions revealed the pride that kept him from loving God and loving others. Jesus is using the parable to reveal to him – and to us – two things: 1) our love for God and our love for others are connected; one flows out of the other, ie. we love others because we love God; and, 2) if you seek eternal life through the Law, through your actions – as this man did – then you have to love God perfectly and all others – everyone, even your enemies –  perfectly ALL THE TIME! And the parable shows what this type of lavish love looks like! None of us can do that! You don’t do it; I don’t do it – not like that! Not all the time!

Again, context is king! We go back to the lawyer’s original question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus’ answer, through both the Law (expressed by the lawyer quoting Deut 6 & Lev. 19) and the telling of the parable, is to love God and love others perfectly – and this is what it looks like! A lavish, self-sacrificing love to all people all the time!

So, if that’s the case, how can anyone inherit eternal life? If it’s not possible for me to do enough, to love enough, how can I inherit eternal life?

That’s the point of the parable! There isn’t anything any of us can do to inherit eternal life! The parable reveals God’s perfect love and the perfect requirement of the Law. The response of this lawyer – and anyone else desiring eternal life – should have been to humble himself and confess to Jesus that he did not and could not love God and others the way God and the Law demanded. But he was too full of pride to see his need. That’s why Jesus told him the parable – to break the pride he had in himself and help him see his need for grace. He, like all of us, should have responded like the man in Luke 18 who ‘was unwilling to even lift his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, the sinner.’’ The humble man in Luke 18 was justified, Jesus says. This lawyer was trying to justify himself through his miserable works.

V. So What?

• What We Learn From the Parable

But does this mean that we don’t love others at all since we can’t do it perfectly? Of course not!

Remember, parables are also instructive and in this parable we also learn HOW God desires us to love and what it means and looks like to love others as ourselves, not to earn our salvation, but to express our love for others. The sacrificial love – the type of love we show ourselves – is the type of love we show to others because we love God and that is God’s way to love!

And the parable is NOT teaching, ‘just be nice to people.’ That completely misses the point of Jesus’ confronting the lawyer. But it does provide a demonstration of what it means to love God and love others as we love ourselves while condemning those who do so to somehow earn salvation or favor with God.

Think again about all the ways the Samaritan showed love to the dying man. Isn’t that the way you would love yourself? You would have compassion for you and do all those nice things for you! I would to me!

• Application

So now that we have done the hard work of interpretation, how do we apply what we have learned in the process? A couple of things I think we see from this parable:

• • Correct theology: salvation by grace

Jesus uses the parable to correct the lawyer’s theological error of thinking he could somehow do something to earn his salvation. But we all fall short of God’s requirement for salvation. Paul put it this way in his letter to the church at Rome:

Rom 3:22-26 CSB – The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.

If you are trusting in anything other than the free gift of God through Christ Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection for your salvation, you are seeking to justify yourself and you will fall short just like the lawyer in Luke 10.

• • Love others with the same lavish love that you would show yourself!

Our love for others is directly tied to God’s love for us and our love for God. The two great commandments – love God and love others – are inseparable. We cannot love God and not love others and we love and know love because God loved us and sent His Son for us.

Again, because we cannot love perfectly does not ever mean that we do not love at all! In fact, because we love God and He commands us to love others, our love for Him should compel us to love as He loves us – lavishly! And what is amazing is how when we have faith in Jesus, He changes our heart and affections so we have a desire to love others! Love for others just flows out of our love for God!

1Jo 4:19-21 CSB – We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

So we have the command to love others, and we know what it looks like: lavish, sacrificial love! So, of course, we want to give you opportunities to do just that!