Love Your Neighbor

I want you to think about a moment, and most of us have had one, where you saw somebody who needed help, and you kept walking. Maybe you told yourself you were too busy. Maybe something about the situation made you uneasy. Maybe you just did not want to get involved. You kept moving, and somewhere in the back of your mind, you knew you should have stopped.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is the most dramatic story Jesus ever told. Easy to read and walk away thinking it is simply about being a better neighbor. But if that is all you take from it, you have missed the whole point. Luke 10 is showing us this: the law of God demands that we love our neighbors perfectly, completely, and all the time. Not one of us has done that. But there is One who did. When we see what that cost Him, and what He did it for, it changes everything.

The Lawyer and the Law

The passage opens with a scholar of the Law standing up to put Jesus to the test. His question sounded sincere enough: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” But it was not a sincere question. It was a trap. Jesus did not take the bait. He answered with a question of His own.

The lawyer answered correctly. Jesus confirmed it. Do this and you will live. But notice what Jesus was doing. He was not handing the man a way to heaven. He was holding up a mirror. The law was never meant to be a magnifying glass to examine everyone else, a set of binoculars to see what is going on with that group over there. It is a mirror, and it is pointed at you.

The self-righteous lawyer did not catch on. He pressed further. “And who is my neighbor?” He was looking for a boundary. If he could just define the edges of his obligation, he could satisfy himself that he had kept it. So Jesus told him a story, and this story was going to make it impossible to draw that line anywhere.

Three Men on a Dangerous Road

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, about seventeen miles, with a drop of four thousand feet in elevation. It was a hard road to travel alone. He fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead.

Then came the priest. A man of God, familiar with the Mosaic law. He knew Leviticus 19:18 and Proverbs 21:13. He saw the beaten man and crossed to the other side of the road.

Then came the Levite. Another religious man, set apart for the service of God. He looked at the man lying there and passed by on the other side as well.

Two men who knew the law of God. Two men who could have quoted Scripture about loving their neighbors. And neither one of them stopped.

Before we shake our heads at them, we need to do something harder. We need to look in the mirror. How many times have we walked around someone in need, telling ourselves we did not want to get involved? Maybe the person smelled bad. Maybe they were a different kind of Christian, a different kind of Baptist, maybe they used a different Bible version. Examine your own heart. The reality is we fall short, a lot more than we care to admit, and that is true for even the most gracious among us.

The One Who Stopped

Then a Samaritan came along. For Jesus’ original hearers, this was jarring. The Jews and Samaritans had been hostile toward each other for generations. An unlikely hero, by design.

The Samaritan did not go to the other side of the road. He went to the man. He bandaged him with his own provisions. He put him on his own animal. He paid for his care and promised to cover whatever else was needed. He loved this stranger at personal expense, without any guarantee that he would ever be paid back or thanked for it.

That is the standard the law is holding up. And if you are sitting here thinking you have met it, think harder.

The Apostle James put it plainly: “Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27 LSB). And Jesus Himself said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35 LSB). Not by your baptism. Not by your Bible translation. By your love.

You want to know why more churches are dying than are being started? Because this has been missed. We are not any better than the Levite or the priest. And for years, many of us have missed this.

Who Could Do This Every Time?

Jesus asked the lawyer which of the three proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers. The answer was plain: the one who showed mercy.

But here is where the parable presses past a moral lesson. If this story simply motivates you to be a more generous neighbor, that is good. Go and do it. But if that is all you take from here, you have missed what I believe Jesus most wanted that lawyer to see.

The deeper question is not just who is your neighbor. The deeper question is, who could ever love his neighbor the way this story demands? Who could do it perfectly, every time, at any cost, for anyone? Not the priest. Not the Levite. Not you. Not me.

So who, then, is this Good Samaritan?

There is only one who could possibly obey the law perfectly every time. Only one who would ever stop for a stranger, someone different, an enemy even, and give more than he deserves, more than he could ever repay. The way the Good Samaritan loved the wounded man on that road is the way God loves sinners.

The Samaritan sacrificed his time and his money for a stranger on the road. God gave His only begotten Son to die for sinners who were His enemies. That is not a figure of speech. That is the gospel.

Two Calls from One Parable

Confess your sinfulness as revealed in the mirror of God’s law. You can see it in your lack of compassion, in the moments you crossed to the other side of the road. Turn to the only hope you have. With repentant faith, I point you to Jesus Christ, the only one who fulfilled what the law demanded. Repent of your sins and believe in Him.

For those of you who have already fled to Christ, who have trusted Him and know His grace, hear this. You have been loved by the Good Samaritan. He found you on the side of the road. He bound up your wounds. He paid what you could never repay. Now go and do likewise. Not to earn anything, not to impress anyone, but because that is what His people look like in the world.

This week, think of one person outside your comfortable circle. Someone you would naturally pass by. And do not pass by. Stop. Help. Spend something on them. That is not a suggestion. That is what it looks like to follow the One who stopped for you.