Today is Palm Sunday, today we are celebrating the Triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. I am sure you guys know the story, Jesus rides a young colt into Jerusalem and the Passover crowd goes wild. They lay their coats and palm fronds onto the street to cover his path and the cried Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the Highest.
Last week we talked about doing hard things, and if you ever have the time I would encourage you to do a study of the week that Jesus spent before his crucifixion. It is such an interesting study because there are so many key moments where Jesus chose to move closer to crucifixion. He had lots of opportunities to alter the course of history but he kept doing the hard things that he needed to do to accomplish His Father's will. Including coming to Jerusalem so long ago.
Today I want to look at something that Jesus said about doing hard things, in Luke chapter 10 Jesus meets a Lawyer, I am know you guys are familiar with this story but the Lawyer says to Jesus what must I do to inherit eternal life.
I want to just stop there for a second because I believe this is the central question that in one way or another we are all asking.
Teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? How is it possible to reach God? The answer to this question is what every religion in the world is trying to work out. Jesus asks the lawyer, what does the law say, how do you understand it. And the Lawyer replies,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And love your Neighbor as yourself.
Jesus replies, Yes, thats it! Go and do that and you will live!
Can I just submit that this guy is a terrible Lawyer, because as Kenny Rogers says you got know when fold em. I mean he has won the case hasn't he? He has successfully answered and now he should walk away. But instead the text says he wanted to justify himself, he wanted to prove himself right. This is interesting because the original question was what do I need to do to inherit eternal life but is seems as if he was really more interested in being right. Lets examine our hearts this morning church, are we more interested in eternal life or proving that our own lifestyles are ok?
So the Lawyer says to Jesus, ok teacher well that is all fine and good but who is my neighbor?
Remember a few weeks ago we were talking about bearing one another's burdens? And we talked about the difficulty of making such a large commitment? This is what is at the heart of the question who is my neighbor. The Lawyer is saying ok, what is the limit of my liability. I recognize that I need to be loving but how much do I have to love?
So Jesus tells this story, he says a man was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
When he was robbed, the robbers stripped him naked, beat him, took all of his possessions and left him for dead.
Luckily a priest happened by, but when the priest saw the man he crossed the street and walked by.
A little later a Levite walked by and he too walked saw the wounded man but walked by without helping.
Finally Jesus says a samaritan man walked by and seeing the injured man rushed to his aid. He dressed the mans wounds and put him on his donkey and took him to an inn. He got the man all settled in and gave the inn keeper some money saying take good care of this man and if this does not cover all of your expenses then I will reimburse you when I return.
Jesus asks the Lawyer, which of the three were a neighbor to the man. If you read this passage carefully you will catch a nuance that helps to open up the story a little bit. Do you notice that the Lawyer says the one who showed him mercy, or the merciful one. Jesus says go and do likewise.
Who do you think Jesus wanted the Lawyer to identify with in this story? Remember when we have talked about finding yourself in the story who do you identify with? Is it the Priest? How about the Levite? The Samaritan?
One of the most interesting things about this parable is that Jesus simply tells us that the man is on the road. The road to Jericho was a treacherous one, Jericho is about 17 miles from Jerusalem and about 3,300 feet lower so the road is very steep and there were very sharp turns in the mountains, lots of nooks and crannies for robbers to hide. Not to mention the physical danger of traveling such a road.
The thing is that Jesus does not tell us why the man was on the road just that he was. This is significant to me in understanding the who I identify with because to be honest I want to know what he was doing. It helps me to decide if I should help him or not. Isn't that how we are, when we see someone suffering don't we try to figure out if they are somehow at fault for their suffering? Doesn't that sort of free us from responsibility to help. I mean when we see a homeless person don't we think to ourselves if they hadn't drank so much or used so many drugs or if they were more willing to work they would not be in this situation. Ask yourself, how do you react when you hear about people in trouble or when you see someone suffering. Do you wonder what they did, how they put themselves into the situation, do you try to get to the bottom of their sin issue or do you respond with love and generosity? The Priest he looked and the man and asked himself what had the man been up to, had he been running with the wrong crowd, had be been involved in something shady? And he kept on walking because he recognized the man as a sinner.
The Levite was probably on his way to the temple and he had a responsibility to stay spiritually clean and so when he saw the man all busted up and broken he thought to himself, I have a godly responsibility to steer clear of this guy and all people like him. Look deep inside this afternoon church and ask yourself how do you respond to the people around you who are hurt and broken and spiritually not as arrived as you? Do you look for ways to serve them in their brokenness, do you look for ways to give mercy and love or do you say to yourself I already have so many good Christian friends why would I put myself into this kind of uncomfortable situation?
So who does that leave us with? The merciful samaritan. AHH yes that is good we can relate to him and avoid dealing with our judgmental, self righteous, self deluding hearts. That is so good! Except that if you had been in the original audience hearing Jesus tell this story you would rather be anyone in the story but the samaritan.
Remember that Jews would walk around Samaria, miles out of their way just so they would not have to step into that land. Imagine if Jesus were telling this story but instead of Samaritan he said member of al queda or Osama Bin Laden? That is not to say that the samaritan was an evil man like bin laden but Jesus meant to shock his audience, he meant for it to be impossible for them to want to identify with this merciful man.
So where does that leave us? Where did it leave the legal expert and the rest of the people listening that day?
I think it leaves with two things, first it leaves us with the victim. It leaves us to identify with the man on the road, he was beaten and broken and left for dead. He would have died without direct intervention, and so were we. The biggest issue with Christians is that we forget that we were lost, we were broken and dying. Are any of you ex-smokers? The weirdest thing about ex smokers is that they absolutely hate smokers. Is that what Jesus was trying to tell us? That we are only capable of mercy if we stay connected to our own need for mercy? That we can only act in love when we remember how badly we needed God's love?
Listen do me a favor lets just spend a few second on an exercise. I want you to close your eyes with me and imagine a moment in your life when you desperately needed help. Think about a time when you were overwhelmed by grief and sadness, a time when you were broken and afraid. A time of significant loss, a time of turmoil. Not remember how God came to minister to you, to care for your wounds and to heal you. That is the place we need to minister from that is the place we need to meet our neighbors. And maybe some one in the room is saying I am still waiting for God to meet me here, I am still struggling in brokeness and pain. I have been judged by everyone around me and I desperately need mercy and love.
And that brings me to my second point today, as we prepare to observe Good Friday and Easter in the next couple of weeks, we know that self righteousness will not save us, spiritual experts all over the world are asking, how do we inherit eternal life and apart from Jesus Christ no one is justified.
All of the ritual and man made godliness, being a good person and having just the right friends and just the right lifestyle could not save us either.
It was the stone that the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone, remember that people asked if anything good could come of Galilee?
Jesus is the way the truth and life!
And that is good news.
Lets Pray!
