Class Lesson March 17, 2013

Hey Gang,


We continue this week in our new series on “Answering Key Questions.”


Jesus often made statements, told parables, and also used questions to teach spiritual truths and to challenge religious assumptions. I have added to the title of this series, "Forget the Church: Follow Jesus!" to make this very point - sometimes the church (religious leaders or you and me) miss the point and clear direction of God's truth. This is why some of Jesus' questions angered religious leaders who refused to accept truth over tradition. The next five-week study will explore questions Jesus asked and why getting the answers right is essential to growing in discipleship.

Below is an outline of the lessons in this series:

1. March 3 God’s Word or Tradition? - Matthew 15:1-11, 17-20
2. March 10 Commitment or Lip Service? - Luke 9:20-26, 57-62 
3. March 17 Compassionate Action or Indifference? - Luke 10:25-37
4. March 24 Serve or Expect to Be Served? - Luke 22:19-30
5. March 31 Recognize Christ or Worship Another? - John 20:1-18

What’s Worse?

1. Someone not seeing you, or someone being cruel?
2. Someone misunderstanding what you need, or someone knowing your need but walking on by?
3. Someone saying they care but doing nothing, or someone simply doing nothing?
4. Your lack of compassionate action or someone else’s lack of compassionate action?

What This Lesson Is About:

God expects His people to demonstrate love toward all people. This lesson focuses on the question, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor?” (Luke 10:36).


How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:

This lesson can help you choose to live a compassionate life.


Spiritual Preparation through Personal Bible Study

Thinking about this lesson, I decided to Google “examples of good Samaritans” to see what came up. I got thousands of hits, links to one story after another about kind people who had helped others and thus were modern-day good Samaritans. One man helped a person in a boating accident who had broken both arms and had severely cut one hand. This Samaritan acted quickly to keep the man from bleeding to death and called the authorities. His quick thinking saved the other’s life and his hand.1 Numerous citizens of a nearby town spent all evening helping victims of the Mumbai train wreck in 2006, despite the fact they might not have known any of the people harmed by the accident. They just responded during a crisis to those in great need.2 Articles abound about acts of kindness and benevolence people show to others even though they don’t know them. Some countries and several states in the USA have passed laws requiring citizens to act as good Samaritans, that is, to come to the aid of those in need—and Seinfeld fans know that violation of this law is why Jerry and his three friends ended up in jail in the last episode!

 

Being a good Samaritan is rather popular these days. I do not mean this in a negative sense, for we can and should admire the hundreds of good Samaritans in our world. But comparing these stories with Jesus’ parable, one major difference separates these modern examples from the behavior Jesus demands of His followers. In none of the many examples I read about on the Internet was the Samaritan helping an enemy. Most people will come to the aid of someone they love in a time of need, and many would do so for an acquaintance or even someone they don’t know. But an enemy?! Whether the enemy is personal or cultural, coming to that person’s aid is not something we are naturally inclined to do. In fact, our inner emotions may be gratified that this person suffers; making it even less likely we would do anything to alleviate that person’s pain. But this is precisely what Jesus demands that we do as illustrated in this parable.

Life Goal

Actually show care for people. Don’t stop at just feeling compassionate.

I. ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS – LUKE 10:25-29
The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?” 27 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. 28 “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”


 

The context of Jesus’ famous parable of the good Samaritan is a conversation He had with a lawyer, a scholar in the study of the Mosaic law and the traditions, during His journey to Jerusalem. Conceivably Jesus and those following Him had stopped to rest so that they were sitting on the ground, perhaps for a meal. Just then an expert in the law stood up to test Him, which indicates that this lawyer was hostile to Jesus and His teachings. All four Gospels record the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders toward Jesus as His ministry progressed. They may have sent this man to catch Jesus in a mistake they could use against Him later. The lawyer’s question for Jesus was, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Debates among the rabbis concerning this question provided slightly different answers, but they likely emphasized the necessity of following the teachings of the elders. The Jewish leaders were painfully aware of Jesus’ blatant disregard toward these traditions (see Luke 6:1-11 for two traditions about the Sabbath that Jesus did not follow; remember our first lesson in this unit from Matt. 15).


Jesus’ answer pointed the man to the Mosaic law: “What is written in the law?” He asked him. “How do you read it?” To the man’s credit, he correctly quoted both the first and second greatest commandments (see Matt. 22:34-40): “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.” These two commandments appear in the law of Moses (see Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18) and summarize all of the laws that God gave Israel, so that every law in some way is a specific example of how the Israelites showed their love for God or others. The connection of the second one to the first is that those who love God must love those He created in His image—that is, everyone. Thus, the actions of the Israelites reflected their love for Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this showed their faith in Him. The lawyer was correct, as Jesus affirmed: “You’ve answered correctly,” He told him. “Do this and you will live.” The second part of Jesus’ statement reflects Yahweh’s instructions to the Israelites: “Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live if he does them. I am Yahweh” (Lev. 18:5).

One of the axiom’s of life is that if you ask the wrong question in a particular situation, you will inevitably get the wrong answer. This is true unless you ask Jesus the question, and then He will provide the correct answer anyway! Instead of wanting to know how to love others, the lawyer wanted to know if he could limit the people he had to love. He, like all of us, had people in his life whom he did not like and certainly felt no obligation to love. So the lawyer asked Jesus a question he hoped would get him off the hook: But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” This question betrays the lawyer’s desire to avoid the implications of the command he just quoted to Jesus.


This is not the same question as the one asked by Jesus in 10:36. Luke almost certainly was aware of this. It is quite possible that he saw Jesus in the parable twisting this improper question, “Who is my neighbor?” (i.e., what must a person do to qualify that I should love him as a neighbor?) into a proper one (“What must I do to be a loving neighbor?”).3


God’s laws were not designed to give us the easy way to please Him. In fact, as Jesus’ response in this parable shows, God’s way is often quite difficult for us to do. As we will see below, Jesus’ answer to the lawyer’s question focuses more on the nature of love than on whom we should love, for that part is simple. We should love everyone.


What kind of questions do you ask Jesus? The expert in the law seemed to be on the right track with his first question, but in “wanting to justify himself,” he betrayed his true intent. Think of questions you have asked God over the past several weeks. Were you seeking to understand and obey God’s Word, or attempting to justify or rationalize what you had already chosen? Explain.



How do you think the expert in religious law wanted Jesus to answer his verse 29 question?

• Jewish teachers typically used “neighbor” to speak of fellow Israelites. Though in Leviticus 19:18, the command to love your neighbor refers to fellow Israelites in the immediate 
context, the broader context applies the command to include loving any non-Israelite in the land (19:34).

What did the expert in the law have right? What did he still need to know and do? Why would someone ask, “Who is my neighbor?” when faced with this command? Why qualify it?

• Qualifying is like asking, “Whom do I have to love and whom am I allowed not to love?” Loving someone does not equate trusting them. Nor does it equate entering close relationship with someone evil, cruel, or rude. We do, however, treat all with love.

 



II. DON’T MAKE EXCUSES – LUKE 10:30-32

30 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. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.


A parable is often defined as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That is a good thing to keep in mind any time one is studying a parable. The Gospels record over 40 parables in Jesus’ teaching ministry, demonstrating this was one of His favorite teaching methods. A parable normally intends to teach one main truth or principle, though rather long parables, like the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) and the unforgiving slave (Matt. 18:23-35), might have two or three points. We need to give great attention to the context of a parable to determine what Jesus was illustrating by using the parable. (For that is what a parable does—it is a verbal illustration of a spiritual truth.) When studying a parable, we need to avoid turning it into an allegory so that the symbolism is interpreted in ways that are far removed from Jesus’ intent. The safeguard for interpreting this parable is that it illustrates what it means to be a neighbor.



Jesus began the parable by describing what was likely a rather common occurrence in those days for people traveling from town to town: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers.” Even though it is likely that few in Jesus’ audience had experienced this personally, they would have been familiar with the danger of traveling through the Judean countryside. Robbers roamed those areas looking for easy prey, and someone traveling alone like this man would make the perfect target: “They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead.” They took all his possessions, including his clothes, and roughed him up and left him for dead. Jesus’ intent here was to show the man’s desperate situation and that he would die if someone didn’t come along to help.



The drama of the story increases when two people come along whom Jesus’ audience would have expected to help out. “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.” Both Levites and priests were held in high esteem by the Jewish people, so it must have startled them to hear Jesus say that they refused to help a fellow Jew lying on the side of the road. This makes the Samaritan’s actions unexpected and surprising, providing a much more powerful illustration of being a good neighbor.



As a word of warning about trying to do too much with a parable, one should not speculate on why the priest and the Levite did not come to the aid of the victim. Since these are fictional characters that Jesus created for this parable, they don’t think or feel anything. It is safe to say that Jesus picked them as representative of the highest order of Jewish religion, and for His purpose in the story they utterly fail. By passing by on the other side of the road and ignoring the man’s needs, they describe the unwillingness of many of the Jews’ religious leaders to love their neighbors as themselves. Thus they did the opposite of what the audience listening to Jesus would have expected, just as the Samaritan did the opposite as well.



The characters in the parable might be fictional without discernible thoughts, feelings, or motives, but you and I are very real with real thoughts, feelings, and motives. Which of the following best describes an excuse you would most likely use?


___ I don’t have time. ___ It’s too dangerous.

___ I don’t want to get that involved. ___ It would cost too much.

___ I don’t know if it’s an honest need. ___ Other:




Put yourself in the position of the priest or Levite. What would be the pros and cons of stopping to help this man? Why might you pass by on the other side of the road?

• See cartoon on Personal Study Guide page 29.
• Fear of defilement from touching a dead body could keep the priest and Levite from helping.
• Busyness (sticking to tight schedule) might cause them not to stop to help.
• Lack of concern could prevent the priest and Levite from pausing to give aid.
• Fear for their own safety might lead the priest and Levite to keep going without stopping to help, lest they also risk getting ambushed.
• Explore other possibilities as well.

What excuses do we make in our own situations for not meeting people’s needs? What prompts us to go ahead and meet needs? What’s easy and hard about meeting a physical need? Emotional one? Relational one?



How does James 4:17 speak to the choices of the priest and Levite in this parable? When you fail to help someone in need, is it typically due to (a) not seeing the need; (b) not knowing how to meet the need; (c) not being able to meet the need; (d) not doing what you know you should; or (e) what? Explain.



How did the wounded man present a limited window of opportunity for the priest and Levite? What happens when we see a need and procrastinate or plan to come back to it later? Discuss whether we can ever be too impulsive in acting on love. Does keeping in step with the Spirit mean moving quickly and without hesitation always? When might it require time? How do we keep a balance between running ahead of God’s leading and lagging behind?

• Biblical love is action oriented. Our opportunity to demonstrate love to a given individual in a given situation may be limited. Discuss reasons why and what we should do about it.

 

 

 



III. RESPOND THE RIGHT WAY – LUKE 10:33-37

33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 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. 35 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.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”



Jesus’ audience must have been shocked when He said, “But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion.” The hearers may have expected Jesus’ story to have a hero, but not one from Samaria. That is why this parable would have had such a strong impact on His original audience, for the animosity between Jews and Samaritans was second to none.


A bit of history helps understand the situation. The Samaritans were the offspring of Jews who intermarried with other nationalities during the time of exile. Large numbers of them settled between Judea and Galilee in a territory called Samaria after the name of the capital city there. The Jews considered them half-breeds while the Samaritans believed they were the true chosen people of God. The Samaritans accepted only the five Books of Moses as Scripture, and they even had their own version of it in the Hebrew language with textual additions not in the Hebrew Bible. A major point of contention about interpreting the Pentateuch was where the temple would eventually be built. The Jews said Mount Zion in Jerusalem, of course, but the Samaritans said Mount Gerizim in Shechem, which they based on their version of Deuteronomy 12:5. The addition of the Hebrew letter yod in the Samaritan version renders the verb in that verse as “has chosen” instead of “will choose” as in the Jewish version, meaning that God had already chosen the site for His temple. This was incorporated more specifically in the Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:17; Deut. 5:21), where Mount Gerizim is identified as the location God had chosen during the time of Moses. Both Abraham (Gen. 12:6-7) and Jacob (33:18-20) had worshiped in Shechem, and this is where the covenant blessings were pronounced on Israel after the conquest (Josh. 8:33; see Deut. 27:12). The temple site was the main point of religious contention between the Samaritans and the Jews. The Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim by 330 B.C., but the Jewish ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed it in 128 B.C. The Samaritan temple stood over 200 years and had been gone about 160 years by the time of Jesus. But the hatred between these two groups of people was still strong and fierce, to the degree that Jews would normally go around Samaria rather than go straight through it when traveling from Galilee to Judea or vice versa (but compare John 4:4). Neither party would even eat a meal with the other (“associate” in John 4:9 is literally, “use together,” as in “share dishes”).


Yet Jesus said that this Samaritan had compassion (see this lesson’s word study on “Compassion”) on this dying Jew! A Jew was the natural enemy of a Samaritan, but this Samaritan’s compassion drove him to action anyway: “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 Samaritan helped the Jewish victim immediately with first-century medicine (olive oil and wine). He did what he could to provide further help. He then did more than save the victim’s life; he used his own money to assure he was brought back to full health: “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.’ ” The Samaritan financed the victim’s recovery (a denarius was a day’s wage), even willing to spend more if necessary.



One can imagine the looks of shock on the faces of Jesus’ audience when He got to the climax of this parable. To drive the point home even more, Jesus put the lawyer on the spot with a question of His own: “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” Jesus emphasized what it means for His followers to be good neighbors, not our attempts at identifying who our neighbors are. Using an argument from greater to lesser, Jesus clearly showed the lawyer that all people are his neighbors—if a Samaritan is, then everyone is! However, the lawyer was willing to admit Jesus’ point only in a roundabout way. Instead of simply saying, “The Samaritan,” the lawyer referred to the hero of the parable as, “The one who showed mercy to him.” Perhaps the words, “The Samaritan,” stuck in his throat and he simply couldn’t say them! But he did get the right answer, and this is when Jesus delivered the clincher: “Go and do the same.” Jesus calls on all of His disciples to show compassion to those in need, regardless of race, gender, economic status, political persuasion, religion, or any other factors that can separate people. Like the Samaritan, we must be willing to alter our plans to help someone. Sometimes we need to stop what we are doing and show the love of Christ to those in need even if they hate Him and us.

Story

Joseph was a Jewish Christian in German-occupied Poland in 1942. He had been hiding out in a farm house from the Nazi authorities for several weeks, but now he was trying to reach his family by taking little-known roads and cutting through thick forests. He came upon a dirt road that he knew would take him to his house in about a half mile, but after just a few minutes he saw a man lying on the side of the road. Joseph approached the man slowly, and then he saw a head wound and a lot of blood on his face and clothes. But he also noticed the uniform, the kind of uniform every Jew in Europe would have recognized. The man was a major in the Gestapo. Joseph felt his heart pound harder and harder as he thought about what to do. He knew the man would die if he left him there.


This is not a true story. It’s a parable I made up for this lesson, and I think the point of the parable is rather clear. But let me ask the big question anyway: What would you have done?



Read again Luke 10:33-37, marking and counting the right ways the Samaritan responded. Which of the types of responses are typical for you to make?


Biblical Truths of This Lesson in Focus

• We need to look to the Scriptures to find what God wants us to do.
• God still demands that His people love Him most of all and love others as well.
• Believers need to stop trying to justify their lack of compassion toward certain people.
• Religious leaders do not always live up to God’s standard of conduct on the most basic issues, like loving one’s neighbors.
• We as Christians must show compassion to those in need even if they are our enemies.
• “How can I respond in love?” is the question we should ask ourselves rather than “Who should I love?”

Why is it significant that Jesus used a Samaritan in His parable as the one who stopped to help?

• The relationship between Jews and Samaritans was characterized by deep seated hostility.
• Jews would not expect kindness from a Samaritan nor would they want to have to give it to one.
• In answering Jesus, the expert couldn’t even bring himself to say “Samaritan” (v. 37). He referred to him as “the one who showed mercy.”

What made the Samaritan a neighbor? What was Jesus trying to teach the expert?

• The Samaritan proved to be a neighbor based on what he did—showing compassion and kindness—not based on who he was.

How can you love a neighbor you don’t like?

• We may not always be able to control how people make us feel, but we can choose how we treat them. To treat the unlovable in loving ways is to act in ways God acts (Rom. 5:8).

What’s opposite to neighborly love: hatred, revulsion, indifference, rudeness, apathy, or what?

• Indifference and apathy are not neutral emotions. They can be as damaging and devaluing to that person as actively hating him or her.

 
 

 

LIVE IT OUT

How did Jesus change the question from what the expert asked in verse 29 to His final question in verse 36. Why? What is the lesson for us?

• The proper question is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but “How can I respond in love?”
• If we are to love as God loves, we will not limit whom we love, and we will be proactive in seeking ways to demonstrate love to those in need.
• Look for ways to be a neighbor to those who need love this week without discriminating in showing compassion.

Three of Jesus’ parables have compassionate characters: (1) the master who forgave his servant’s huge debt (Matt. 18:27)—his action exemplify God the Father and should exemplify believers; (2) the good Samaritan who helped the half-dead Jewish man (Luke 10:33)—he illustrates the meaning of the second greatest commandment all believers must emulate; and (3) the father who rejoiced over the return of his prodigal son (Luke 15:20)—showing that God rejoices over those who repent.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, help me to be a Good Samaritan. Amen.

Are the questions Jesus has been asking beginning to make you think any differently than you did before? Be in prayer this week as we consider who is my neighbor?

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan