Date: 7 April 2024 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Luke 10:27–37
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

Jesus is risen. As rede­e­med and recon­ci­led peo­p­le, we are cal­led to disci­ple­ship and equip­ped with wis­dom and strength by the Holy Spi­rit. But what should this disci­ple­ship con­sist of in prac­ti­cal terms? Jesus hims­elf explains this to us in his exam­p­le of the Good Sama­ri­tan. In its figu­ra­ti­ve lan­guage, this exam­p­le is both an expl­ana­ti­on and a challenge.


A man falls among the rob­bers. He goes from Jeru­sa­lem (whe­re God lives) to Jeri­cho (the con­dem­ned city). Is it his own fault? In any case, Jesus beg­ins his exam­p­le of disci­ple­ship with this man. Short­ly befo­re, a tea­cher of the law had asked how to live a pro­per life with God. The right ans­wer was:

«You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And: «Love your neigh­bour as yours­elf»(Luke 10:27 NLB). Or to put it ano­ther way: if you want to love God, you should love your neighbour.

«Do this…!» said Jesus. 

But how does that work in prac­ti­ce? That’s what the tea­cher of the law wan­ted to know. Jesus then gave the fol­lo­wing example:

«Then Jesus ans­we­red and said, «The­re was a man going down from Jeru­sa­lem to Jeri­cho, and he fell among the rob­bers, who strip­ped him and beat him and depar­ted, lea­ving him half dead.Now it hap­pen­ed that a priest was going down the same road, and when he saw him, he pas­sed by.Likewise also a Levi­te: when he came to the place and saw him, he pas­sed by.But a Sama­ri­tan who was tra­vel­ling came the­re, and when he saw him, he was distres­sed; so he went to him, pou­red oil and wine on his wounds and ban­da­ged them, lifted him up on his ani­mal, brought him to an inn and nur­sed him.The next day he took out two pen­nies and gave them to the inn­kee­per, say­ing, «Take care of him; and if you spend more, I will pay you when I come back» (Luke 10:30–35 LUT).

This exam­p­le of Jesus is full of clues and images for our lives. Let’s dis­co­ver some of them:

Part 1: Man on the way

A man is on his way from Jeru­sa­lem to Jeri­cho. He lea­ves the city whe­re God lives at 750 met­res abo­ve sea level and walks downhill to Jeri­cho, the con­dem­ned city which, accor­ding to Joshua 6:26, should never have been rebuilt – 250 met­res below sea level.

  • It is the image of fal­len huma­ni­ty, which has distanced its­elf from God, on the path to dam­na­ti­on that will end in death.

The man is caught by the rob­bers, who strip, beat him, make off and lea­ve him half dead.

  • Man, who is distanced from God, falls under the con­trol of the devil, who hates peo­p­le, God’s crea­tures. He wants to rob peo­p­le and take their lives: 
    • Naked as after the fall of man – wit­hout a gar­ment – wit­hout for­gi­ve­ness and reconciliation
    • Bea­ten, destroyed
    • Aban­do­ned, alone
    • Half-dead – exis­tence wit­hout life.

This per­son is the very image of a per­son wit­hout God. He needs help, sal­va­ti­on, heal­ing, recon­ci­lia­ti­on. The­re are so many peo­p­le living around us who may not have fal­len vic­tim to rob­bers phy­si­cal­ly, but who are tra­vel­ling along the same paths and have been atta­cked, rob­bed, maltrea­ted and half-kil­led by rob­bers of the heart. Too much to die, too litt­le to live.

Part 2: Three men who could help

Disci­ple­ship means loving your neigh­bour: three men meet this «neigh­bour»:

First comes a priest. He goes down the same road. He sees the maltrea­ted man, but sim­ply pas­ses by. A priest is one cal­led by God to bring sacri­fices for recon­ci­lia­ti­on – to be God’s mouth­pie­ce. But he is on the same wrong path. No empa­thy for the plight of man. He is cer­tain­ly reli­gious, but mis­ses the real tar­get – the neigh­bour. A Levi­te would be a ser­vant of the Lord cal­led by God for the prac­ti­cal ser­vice of God. He too is on this road to Jeri­cho, he sees the inju­red man, pas­ses by and also mis­ses his mis­si­on to his neighbour.

Then a Sama­ri­tan comes along. He is tra­vel­ling – not on his way to Jeri­cho. He also comes across the man. When he sees him, he «laments», the Sama­ri­tan is touch­ed. Jesus descri­bes this «lamen­ta­ti­on» seve­ral times: at the sight of the scat­te­red peo­p­le wit­hout a she­p­herd, the blind man, the leper, the widow with her dead son… Jesus allows hims­elf to be touch­ed by people’s suf­fe­ring. This fee­ling is often descri­bed as com­pas­si­on and cited as an essen­ti­al cha­rac­te­ristic of God and Christ. As fol­lo­wers of Christ, we too should be merciful:

«I want you to be mer­ciful; I do not want your sacri­fices» (Hosea 6:6 NLB).

In con­trast to pity, whe­re I sym­pa­thise with someone who has suf­fe­r­ed through no fault of their own, mer­cy means having com­pas­si­on for a per­son who has fal­len into suf­fe­ring through their own fault. This com­pas­si­on cha­rac­te­ri­ses our Sama­ri­tan. Alt­hough the per­son was on the wrong path, the Sama­ri­tan helps. This «allo­wing ones­elf to com­plain» is the key moment in Jesus» example.

What do we see with the­se three men?

The priest and the Levi­te sym­bo­li­se a prag­ma­tic reli­gious­ness. The Good Sama­ri­tan is about peo­p­le. It is the same with Christ: fol­lo­wing him is not pri­ma­ri­ly about reli­gious issues, but about people.

The Sama­ri­tan did not spe­ci­fi­cal­ly set out in search of peo­p­le, but he was pre­pared to encoun­ter inju­red peo­p­le on his journey.

Now – which of the­se three peo­p­le are you, am I? Do I see my neigh­bour, even if he is lying down through his own fault?

Part 3: The Samaritan and his service

The Samaritan’s sub­se­quent actions show the effect of divi­ne mer­cy. The Sama­ri­tan is an image of Christ’s actions, which we as his fol­lo­wers, empowered by the Holy Spi­rit, are now to live out in the same way as ambassa­dors of Christ:

  • And he went to him: Don’t let them come, but go. Com­pas­sio­na­te peo­p­le, fol­lo­wers of Christ are moved people.
  • Wash the wounds with oil: To wash wounds means to cle­an­se from dirt. Oil stands for the Holy Spi­rit. The Holy Spi­rit wants to lead peo­p­le into the truth – also about them­sel­ves. Whe­re have you/m I been wron­ged, whe­re have you/have I done wrong? We need truth in our lives, we need cle­an­sing so that we can be saved.
  • Wash the wounds with wineThe alco­hol dis­in­fects and clo­ses the pores and pro­tects against fur­ther dirt. The wine with its alco­hol is also an image of the Holy Spi­rit. The Holy Spi­rit explains to us the mea­ning of the sacri­fice of Jesus Christ, who took the punish­ment of death in our place and the resul­ting grace of God that he for­gi­ves our sins – forever.
  • For wine to be made, gra­pes must be crus­hed and a fer­men­ta­ti­on pro­cess is requi­red. Christ took all the filth of this world upon hims­elf, died on the cross, was dead for three days and rose again. On the basis of this sacri­fice for us, we recei­ve sal­va­ti­on by grace (an unde­ser­ved gift).

The Spi­rit of God reve­als the truth to us and explains the grace that is in Jesus Christ.

«He, who is the Word, beca­me man and lived among us. He was full of grace and truth» (John 1:14 NLB).

As Sama­ri­tans sent by Christ, we are now to bring the gos­pel of truth and grace to woun­ded people.

«But God decla­res us righ­teous by grace. It is his gift to us through Jesus Christ, who has freed us from our guilt» (Romans 3:24 NLB).

The truth sets us free, grace recon­ci­les us with the hea­ven­ly Father. Christ has «washed away» ever­y­thing that stood bet­ween us and God through his sacrifice.

  • Ban­da­ge the wounds: Pro­tect them from fur­ther inju­ry, give them space to heal, sup­port them. Inju­red peo­p­le need «ban­da­ges» that we app­ly to them. The ban­da­ges are God’s pro­mi­ses that teach us to think cor­rect­ly and thus heal our injuries.
  • Pick up on your own ani­mal: The image that we allow inju­red peo­p­le into our own lives. We often shy away from this. The Samaritan’s sadd­le could have been stained with blood. As the half-dead man is sit­ting on the ani­mal, the Sama­ri­tan has to walk, which is dif­fi­cult. But the Sama­ri­tan allows his own dis­com­fort in order to help the other per­son and is not afraid to include his own belon­gings. He goes out of his com­fort zone. So let us also allow tho­se in need into our homes and into our lives.
  • Take them to the hos­tel and care for them or have them cared for the­re: The hos­tel is an image of the Chris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ty. The­re I con­ti­nue to look after peo­p­le ent­rus­ted to me. Others look after the inju­red per­son there
  • The pri­ce has been paid: The Sama­ri­tan pays for now and for later – ever­y­thing is paid for. Jesus has paid the pri­ce for our guilt, our inju­ries, our heal­ing, our res­to­ra­ti­on – for ever­y­thing – for my past, for my pre­sent and for my future.

What did the inju­red man have to do? Not­hing – but he allo­wed hims­elf to be trea­ted. If you too are such an inju­red per­son, then come to Christ and his grace and truth and you will be healed.

What did the Sama­ri­tan do? Did he heal the inju­red per­son? No – but he crea­ted space for heal­ing. Heal­ing comes from God.

That was the exam­p­le of Jesus. What does that mean for me?

Jesus asks the tea­cher of the law and the­r­e­fo­re also you and me, who want to be fol­lo­wers: Who has best ful­fil­led the mis­si­on of love for their neigh­bour? Who has lived disci­ple­ship correctly?

«Which of the­se three, thin­kest thou, was neigh­bour unto him that fell among the thie­ves? He said, «The one who show­ed mer­cy to him. Then Jesus said to him: So go and do the same!» (Luke 10:36–37 LUT).

 

Possible questions for the small group 

Bible text: Luke 10:27–37

  1. Why did the priest and the Levi­te in the sto­ry of the Good Sama­ri­tan see the inju­red man, but just kept walking?
  2. To what ext­ent can the suf­fe­ring of others influence or even affect my life?
  3. For which peo­p­le am I respon­si­ble for pro­vi­ding assistance?
  4. How are love for God and love for our neigh­bour con­nec­ted and what does this have to do with discipleship?