A Question of Loving Your Neighbor

November 15, 2015

Luke 10:25-37 (text v. 36)

In this message we will consider the very popular story of the Good Samaritan. I’ve preached on this passage several times in the past. But this time, I want to deal with it from the context of the lawyer’s questions that lead up to the story and it’s concluding question in verse 36.

I. The initial APPROACH of the lawyer (vs. 25-29).

A. He asked an INSINCERE question (v. 25).

He wasn’t really interested knowing how to have eternal life. He hoped to entrap Jesus, but Jesus trapped the lawyer!
Jesus answered with another question (v. 26). This question was designed to reveal the lawyer’s failure to keep the law.

B. He gave an INCRIMINATING answer.

1. The lawyer answers by quoting the O.T. law (v. 27 cf. Dt. 6:4- 5; Lev 19:18).

2. Jesus confirmed his answer (vs. 28).

Note, the lawyer did not ask, “How do I love God?”
(v. 29). This religious legal beagle, like any good lawyer, seeks to find a “loophole” to get himself out of the place he has put himself in.

II. The instructive ACCOUNT of the Samaritan (vs. 30-35).

Jesus responded with the familiar story of the “good Samaritan.”

I don’t believe this is a parable, but an account of an actual event.

Some preachers try make this story an allegory with each part as a symbol of of something:

The victim pictures the lost sinner, wounded by sin, and left half dead on the road of life.
The priest and Levite represent the failure of organized religion to help a person wounded by sin.
The Samaritan is Jesus who saves the man, pays the bill, and promises to come again.
The inn stands for the local church where believers are cared for. The “two pence” are the two ordinances, baptism and communion.

(This may make for a good devotional message. But if you take this approach to all Scripture, you can make the Bible teach almost anything, and miss the real message God wants you to get.)