Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: You see, who's the neighbor? So Jesus wants to get this guy to respond, "I can't do this." In other words, what Jesus is after in this whole parable is: I cannot save myself. I cannot. That's what Jesus realized—if that's not the first step, you'll never be saved. You see, that's the whole point. I have to admit I cannot save myself.

And as I said earlier, for all religious people, that's an impossibility because they believe that their religion will save them. I'll be saved by doing things in my religion, and then God will be pleased and I'll get in. And Jesus says no, that will never, ever work. So the whole point of the Good Samaritan is to tell a religious person that he cannot keep the law perfectly. Nobody can keep it perfectly, and you cannot save yourself.

A Samaritan. And you know what you and I think? Nothing. You know why? We have romanticized that term. To people in our culture, he’s called the Good Samaritan. Oh, that Samaritan. Yeah. I mean, one of the ministries that we really support, Samaritan's Purse, helps people everywhere. You know why? Because Samaritans are so good.

Samaritans are these really good people. They're not. They're despicable, horrible people, especially to the Jews. It would be like today, when he introduced a Samaritan, it'd be like today telling a story in Iran and then saying the hero of the story was a good Israelite. What? You see, it's a complete contradiction.

Let me give you some background. The Samaritans are part of the ten northern tribes called Israel. After Solomon died and the kingdom was split, Israel was in the north, and Judah and Benjamin were in the south. Every king of Israel, every king, was evil in the sight of the Lord. Every king. They were horrible people.

So the Assyrians came down, conquered them, and left a small portion of the Jews in the land, and took all the rest back to Assyria. That's why they're called the ten lost tribes. And the Assyrians brought people from another province of their kingdom and put them in the northern kingdom of Israel. So these became half-breeds.

They married with all of these pagan Assyrian plants in there, and they formed their own religion. It was a completely different religion. It was such a different religion that they only really honored the first five books of the Bible. There were a lot of things that went on. The Jews hated the Samaritans.

If you remember and know the story of Nehemiah, when they went back into the land after the Babylonian captivity for the two southern tribes, when they got back into the land, it ended up that the Samaritans tried to stop them. They wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans, and so that turned into something terrible. Then the Samaritans knew that the Jews hated them and they had rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, so they rebuilt their own temple.

They built their own temple in Mount Gerizim. You see, in Samaria. And they had this pagan-like worship there. The Jews hated that so much that in 138 BC, they went up and tore the temple down because it was such an affront to God. That's why they tore it down. Jews didn't speak to Samaritans. You never speak to a Samaritan. Ever.

In fact, Jews wouldn't walk in Samaria. When a Jew wanted to go to Galilee, which is north of Samaria from the southern tribe, they crossed the Jordan, went up the east bank, crossed again, and went into Galilee. They wouldn't even walk on their land. That's why the story in John 4 of Jesus and the woman at the well is so extraordinary.

Jews don't ever walk into Samaria, and here's Jesus. Jews never talk to Samaritans. Ever. Here's Jesus talking. Jewish rabbis never speak to a woman publicly. Here's Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman. But a Samaritan, it'd be like if you said a terrorist or how about a serial killer? If I said that, that'd be getting the response you'd get.

Well, there was a serial killer who came. That's the response you'd get. We've romanticized Samaritans like it's just wonderful, they're the most wonderful people. They're not. You see, they're despicable people, not from the Jewish point of view. And Jesus adds this, and I'm sure that got everybody riled up. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, he came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion.

The priest saw him, the Levite saw him, and now this Samaritan sees him. The priest and the Levite ran to the other side. The Samaritan feels compassion. Compassion is not sympathy. And it's not empathy. That's not compassion. There's something compassion demands that we often forget about.

If you have compassion for something, you have to act upon it. You have to act. You can't say, "I feel so much compassion for that poor person." Well, what'd you do? "I didn't do anything, but I felt this compassion." That's not compassion. This word compassion is used by about one other figure in the Gospels: Jesus.

It says, "and Jesus felt compassion," and every time he felt compassion, he did something. If you feel compassion, you do something. You don't just say I have a feeling of compassion. You may have sympathy, you may have empathy, but that's not compassion. And so he feels in this sense a tremendous amount of compassion. Now watch what that turns into.

And he came to him, and he bandaged up his wounds, and then he was pouring oil and wine on them. And then he put him on his own beast, and he brought him to an inn, and he took care of him. These are the steps. This is what you do if you feel compassion. So the first thing he did is he bandaged up his wounds, obviously with his own clothing or what he was carrying with him.

And then he poured oil and wine. Wine is to disinfect the wound, and the oil is to soothe. That's the way they treat an open wound in that part of the world at that time. Then he put him on his own beast. So apparently he was probably riding on a donkey or something like that; he put that man on the beast. So now he's walking.

And then he brought him to an inn. Not a Holiday Inn, okay? It's not like that. This word inn is not that word at all. In any sense of the word, it's just a roadhouse. You see, the only people who would ever stay there is someone that's so desperate they have to. This isn't a place you go on vacation and stay, not on that road.

But what if you get caught in the middle of the night, in the middle of the road? You'd stay there. So he takes him and he does that. And it's an amazing thing when you think about what he's already done. But guess what he does? He drops him off at the inn, and then he spends the night with him. How do you know? "On the next day."

That's what the next verse says: on the next day. He spent the night with him at the inn. And then he took two denarii, and he gave them to the innkeeper and he said, "Take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I return, I'll repay you." Now you and I don't know much about that because we just read the word denarii and think that must be some money.

Okay, a couple things here. The word denarii means one day's wages. Two denarii are two days' wages. But it might be even different than you think. Archeologists found in the Roman Empire at this time a plaque of an inn that was advertising. And on their advertisement on their plaque was how much it cost to stay a night: 1/32nd of a denarius.

He gave him two denarii. Sixty-four days. Sixty-four days he paid his rent. And then he said, "Oh, by the way, if you need more I'll come back through here and pay you more." Now the innkeeper's thinking, "Wait, I got 64 days of rent with a guy here that's not in really in trouble?" Could you imagine doing such a thing?

You help a person, you felt compassion and you did all these things, then you spent the night with him? Remember, he couldn't call back to Samaria; there were no cell phones. His wife might be thinking where's he at? And then he decides I'm going to do 64 days of rent. Do you think that seems a little bit over the top?

It is. You see, compassion turns into care, which turns into commitment. If you feel compassion, you have to give care, and then you have to be committed to it. And this guy is committed almost beyond our imagination. Who would be committed to helping somebody for 64 days, and if he needs more, I'll come back and I'll pay?

Now, you say, "Well, it just seems to me that Jesus has gone way over in all of this." I would agree. I would agree, he went way over. But watch what happens. Jesus now is going to ask a question. "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" This is brilliant.

This man likes himself as righteous, as righteous as a priest, as righteous as a Levite. "I'm a lawyer, I'm a scribe of the law. I'm that righteous." Now, when you see those three comparisons, the priest and Levite beat it to the other side of the street, and you see what this man does who's a Samaritan. What's the answer to the question?

How can you answer that question? Now you tell me, which one of them do you think was more neighborly? The one who felt compassion and then he took his and wound up all his wounds and then he put oil and wine on them and then he took him to an inn and then he cared for him and then he paid? Or two guys that walked across the street?

Now you tell me, which one of them do you think was more neighborly? You see, you only have one answer. There is no other answer. So, this guy thinks about it for a moment, and he says, "The one who showed mercy to him." And then Jesus says something very hard: "Go and do the same."

Now, you say, wait, what's going on here? First, he answers correctly, no question about that. But Jesus says now you go and do that. What's Jesus hoping that guy thinks right then? "I can't do that. I can't. I just I can't." That's exactly what Jesus wants him to think. You see, that's the whole point.

He's saying, look, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If you said to him, can you do that? He says, "Yep, I do it." He doesn't, of course. And your neighbor as yourself. So he tries to trap Jesus and say, well then tell me who's my neighbor. And Jesus said this was what a neighbor is.

And he'd go, "I can't do that. I hate so many people. I hate all of them. If that was a Samaritan, I'd probably spit and walk by. I don't like these people." But he just said he was the neighbor. You see, who's the neighbor? So Jesus wants to get this guy to respond, "I can't do this." In other words, what Jesus is after in this whole parable is: I cannot save myself.

I cannot. That's what—because Jesus realized if that's not the first step, you'll never be saved. You see, that's the whole point. I have to admit I cannot save myself. And as I said earlier, for all religious people, that's an impossibility because they believe that their religion will save them. I'll be saved by doing things in my religion, and then God will be pleased, and I'll get in.

And Jesus says no, that will never, ever work. So the whole point of the Good Samaritan is to tell a religious person that he cannot keep the law perfectly. Nobody can keep it perfectly, and you cannot save yourself. But for us as believers, there's certainly application here. And what I mean is when you come to the Bible, there are three steps you have to go through if you want to study it.

The first step that you go through is called observation. And that means there's just you and a Bible and you just read the Bible and you observe it. And you see what comes before, what comes after, what are the keywords, how does this work? It's an observation. The amount of observations in any text is innumerable.

There are tons of observations that you can make about a verse in the Bible. There are many, many observations. I taught Bible study methods—I mean, I graded for Dr. Hendricks at Dallas Seminary with Bible study methods. And one of the assignments Dr. Hendricks gave to everyone was, "I want you men to go to Acts chapter 1, verse 6.

And I want you to write 25 observations about that verse. Just things you see in the text." And when I first got the assignment my first year at school, I thought, "Oh gosh, I hope I can come up with 25." Typical of students at a seminary, some of the students got 25, some got 30, 35. I had a student that had 100 on the first part of the exam.

He had 100 observations. It's like, wow. The trouble was, if you didn't know it, the next day he says, "Don't hand those in. I want you to go back and do 25 more." Now the guy who did 100 is thinking, "What in the world? I did 100 of these things." So there were just tons of them. I mean, you start doing—you do 50 and up of observations of one verse, Acts 1:6.

That's observations. There are many of them. The second thing you do is interpret the passage. To interpret the passage, you know how many of those there are? One. There is only one correct interpretation of every passage in the Bible. There are not 50. That's why I get so crazy when I hear people in a Bible study and they'll say, "Let's read a verse. Okay, what do you think it says? What do you think it says? What do you think it says?"

God has spoken. He hasn't stuttered. He wants one thing interpreted out of this passage. You don't make up interpretations of the Bible. So when you interpret this, this is about salvation. It's a strange thing about this. This is a parable. Of the 40 parables in the New Testament, almost every single one of them is about salvation one way or the other.

That's when Jesus spoke in parables. So the one interpretation is he wants this man to know you cannot save yourself. That's the interpretation. The third stage is application. Application is: what does this mean to me? First, what do I see? Second, what does it mean? Third, what does it mean to me, and what can I do with this?

That's called application. And there are many—there are as many applications to a passage as there are people in here. We all have our own application. What does it mean to me? And there are plenty of applications for us just with this idea of the parable. It's clearly the point: if we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—us—and our neighbor as ourselves, it tells us then how can you and I be neighborly?

How can I love my neighbor? The first step is if I see a neighbor in need, I feel compassion. You see, but there's something else here. The question is never raised by Jesus; in fact, it's answered a different way. Who's my neighbor? Jesus' answer is: everyone's your neighbor. You mean everyone? Everyone. Remember he said love your enemies, pray for them.

That's your enemy. You pray for everyone's your neighbor. You see, now what if I see a neighbor in need? You should feel compassion. You should offer care and you should stay committed. And it should cost you something. You see, when you have compassion for someone, it's going to cost you. It just is.

And from our point of view, it seemed to cost the Samaritan more than is logical to us, isn't it? I mean, he did all that, he takes him to a place, he stays with him overnight, and then he pays two months' rent? Jesus said, yeah. But think of it this way. Jesus sees us as sheep without a shepherd, as sinners lost, and he has compassion on us.

Did he do anything about it? Well, yes. He went to the cross. Was that a big commitment? Yeah, that was a really big commitment. Did it cost him a lot? It cost him beyond our imagination. Why? Because he had compassion on us. He's our master, he's our Lord. He said, "Now you go and do likewise." So it tells us something about this.

It's good for us to look at something like the Ukraine and say I'd like to help if I could. Now, the only way you and I could help—except if we left our jobs, flew to a neighboring country—but we can send money to people we trust and they could help the Ukrainian people. And that means when I sent the money, I was giving them care because of my compassion.

But how about on the smaller level? Do you ever meet anybody in your life who has a need? Do you feel compassion? You see, that's a big question because we're a little bit different here. Sometimes when I see people who have need, what do I think? "It must be a scam. They're doing it, scamming me."

You know why? Now I don't have to do anything. I know that's a scam. Now, is it possible to be a scam? It surely is. But come on, be honest. There are people you saw that have real need and you know they have need. And if you just say, look, I don't feel compassion for them, that's up to you.

But if you say you have compassion, you're obligated by the Word of God to show them care. And it's going to cost you something. You see, that's just the way this works. That's what it means to be neighborly according to Jesus Christ. And so from an applicational point of view, that's very important for us.

God, and I know this for a fact, God puts people in need and they come across our lives. Sometimes we know they're coming and sometimes we don't. And I think every time he does, he's testing whether you have compassion or not. And I can't say to him, "Yeah, I have compassion, see you." You see, I can't.

I can say I feel sympathetic, but I'm on my way. Compassion always turns to care and commitment. And that's his message to us. Let's pray.

Father, this parable, which was designed to convince a man that he could not save himself, has great application to us. The Good Samaritan represents what it means to be a good follower of Jesus Christ. When we see human suffering and human need, we should be filled with compassion.

And that compassion of ours should turn into action. We should do what we can to help those individuals, and that requires true commitment and sometimes a sense of loss to us. I thank you, Father, for this. I thank you that you looked down and you had compassion on us and you sent your son as our solution.

I thank you that he looked at us and he had compassion and he was willing to go to a cross to die for the sins of the world so that people like me can spend eternity with you, justified and forgiven. I just pray, Father, now that I will be a servant of that compassion, and when compassion comes my way, that I'll do something to alleviate the suffering of others. I pray this in Jesus' name, for your glory and our good. Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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