Luke 10:25-37 — Certified Sunday School Classic

READ THIS: Luke 10:25-37

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 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.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 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. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 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. 35 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.’ 

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

This story is a Sunday school classic… “The Good Samaritan!” But just because many of you may have read or heard of this story before, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something new here!

Before we get into one of Jesus’s most famous parables, we see a really cool conversation between a Pharisee (expert in the law) and Jesus. This Pharisee tries to test Jesus’s knowledge and asks Him how he can have eternal life. We know that eternal life is freely given to anyone who believes in Jesus, but Jesus explains how we can put our faith in Him in these verses! In classic Jesus fashion, He asks a question back… “what does God’s Word say?” To which the Pharisee essentially says “love God with everything we have, and love people the way I would normally love myself!” Believing in Jesus is more than simply saying “yep… I believe." It is about showing our belief in Christ through the way we love God and the way we love others!

Then, the man asks "well okay... but who is my neighbor?" And the truth is that we've all likely felt this way. We've all probably had a moment in our walk with Jesus where we want to ask, "Jesus... is everyone my neighbor? Even them?" And that's where this amazing parable comes in!
 
In this story, a Jewish man is robbed and beaten and essentially left for dead, and the most unlikely person comes to save the day! It wasn't the priest. It wasn't the Levite (one of God's chosen people). It was the Samaritan! If you've been reading with us for a while now, you know that the Jewish people and the Samaritan people do NOT get along. The hatred between these groups lasted for hundreds of years, but in this story, the Samaritan put aside any reason for hatred to serve his neighbor.

That's the lesson we are left with here: NO ONE is too far gone to be our neighbor. How do we know this? Well, that's the way that Jesus sees us! We are all sinners, right? We have messed up countless times and the only thing we truly deserve as a result of that is death, yet Jesus looks past those reasons and saw a group of people that needed saving! THAT is the kind of love we have to imitate... the love of the Samaritan, and the love of Jesus!

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Who is your Samaritan... or the person in your life that you question if they are really your neighbor?

2. How does loving our neighbor and loving God prove our faith?

TRY THIS:

Verse 27 is often known as the "greatest commandment!" If you don't know it yet, take some time to memorize it!

“‘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.’”

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