Who Is Your Neighbor? The Good Samaritan
Luke 10:25-37
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Good morning, everybody. How are we doing today? You know, I normally work in kids' church, so I might shout stuff up, get you guys going, and get the blood pumping, because that's just my normal context. I'm super excited to be here with you guys today. I've been serving at River's Edge Church as a pastor there for eight years, and my husband, Evan, is a pastor there as well. I think we might have a family photo to throw up. We have two daughters: Zoe is the oldest, and Junia is the youngest, five and three years old. This was taken a couple of weeks ago. Our oldest, Zoe, is super into musicals, and that's definitely her thing. I'm not a singer; I muted my mic during worship. She loves performing on stage, so at her musical, we got to go see her perform in Madagascar. It was a lot of fun.
If you guys don't know this church, River's Edge, we are a part of the same family of churches, and that's the Wesleyan Church, the Wesleyan denomination. Honestly, I love being a part of this family of churches. There is amazing partnership and community that happens. One example of that is that about six years ago, I traveled to another Wesleyan church over in the Arden area, Faith Legacy, because I had heard about their kids' summer camp, which is called Camp Awesome, and I love the way they structured it. I love the outreach component that it had, so we implemented a simpler, similar ministry at River's Edge. We call it Camp Awesome. A few years ago, the Snider Kiddos came and joined us for Camp Awesome at River's Edge, and last spring, Pastor Andre reached out to ask more about Camp Awesome. Now, you guys had your first Camp Awesome this last summer. That's just one example of the amazing partnership that happens when you get to be a part of this family of churches.
As they mentioned, my husband and I are planting a church. Now, this was not something we ever thought we would be doing. When I met my husband, he was a professional road cyclist traveling the world, and I worked in after-school programs. God has called us to this place of ministry, and we're super excited to say yes to church planting. There should be some pictures; I brought a little bit of the area that we're going to plant. It's in the Hollywood Park neighborhood of Sacramento. If you're not familiar with Sacramento city geography, Hollywood Park is just directly south of Sac City College and Land Park. It's an older, historic neighborhood. What we found so interesting as we first looked into this area is that there really isn't a church there that's investing in the neighborhood. There isn't a church that's reaching out, that's sharing the gospel. So we're really excited to go into this community. We've already started some partnerships there, and we're praying and seeing what God will continue to do. Our plan is to launch next fall, fall 2027. The name of our church is Neighbors Church, and I'm really excited to share with you guys today, because the passage we're going to be talking about actually informs the vision of this new church. It's out of Luke 10:25 through 37. I'm going to pray, and then we're going to jump into our passage today.
Jesus, thank you again for bringing us all here. I pray for every person that has said yes to being in this space: the kids, the volunteers, the adults. Jesus, I pray that we would have open hearts and open minds to hear from you. We love you. And all God's children said. My daughter, my five-year-old, said, “Make sure you say that: all God's children said.” That's what we say in kids' ministry. So I said it, Zoe. I said it if you watch this later. All right, let's jump into our passage. If you have your Bibles, you can open it up. That's Luke chapter 10, verses 25 through 37. It'll also be up on the screen.
On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law,” he replied, “and how do you read it?” 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 love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this, and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself. So the man asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
We're going to pause here for a second. Right off the bat, we meet these two men: the expert in the law and, of course, Jesus. Now, the expert in the law is an expert in the Jewish law. For us, that looks like the first five books of the Old Testament. He would have known the answer that he's asking to Jesus. He is an expert. He knows the law through and through. But he's sort of wanting to test, What is this teacher? What is this rabbi? What is he going to say? Does he know as much as me? The expert in the law quotes some Old Testament passages out of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and he basically sums up all of the law in these two parts: loving God and loving others, loving your neighbor. Then he asks this follow-up question again to justify himself, to show more of what he knows: Who is my neighbor? Now, most Jews at this time would have thought that the idea of loving your neighbor meant just loving someone else in the Israelite nation. Maybe you wouldn't know the person well, but it would have been about just loving people who are like you. But Jesus has something more to speak into this man's question. So let's pick up in verse 30.
In reply, Jesus said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. He put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’”
Jesus answers this man's question with a story, with a parable. This was a common teaching practice for Jesus, using parables. A parable is a word picture to show a deeper meaning. Now, this road that Jesus is mentioning, that this man travels on, was well known to be probably not the best route that you would want to pick. A little sketchy, and some people might have even thought, Well, I told you so, you shouldn't have traveled down this road. No wonder this happened to you. No wonder something bad would have happened on your traveling. A lot of people assume that the person that Jesus mentions here who gets injured is an Israelite. There are two people that Jesus mentions in the parable who pass by the injured man: a priest and a Levite. Now, these people are religious leaders. They are the elite leaders and influencers in their community. They are the ones that everyone looks to. They are the most holy. They uphold God's law. And in order to do that, they live by these cleanliness codes to help them stay pure and clean. Because if they were to become unclean, they would have to go through all these purification rituals in order to connect with God. In Leviticus 21, it talks about this idea that even if these leaders were to pass by a corpse, even if their shadow were to fall upon a corpse, they would be considered unclean. So these two leaders see this injured man, and they weigh the cost. It is a high cost for them to help this injured man. They would be considered unclean. What would that mean for their community? What would that mean for them? This would take a lot of time and energy and resources. And so again, they pass by on the other side. As far as they can get away from this man, just to be safe, they leave him there.
Jesus then brings up the Samaritan. At the very least, Samaritans were unfriendly toward the Jewish people, and at the very most, they were really enemies. These people had a long history of strife between these two communities. It would have been shocking for Jewish folks here hearing this parable to hear that Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, would use a Samaritan really as the hero of this story. And the Samaritan doesn't just give a handout to this man. He is so generous in how he cares for him. He goes out of his way. He gives all that he has to help him. Let's read the last two verses together. Verse 36: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” That's Jesus speaking. The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
So Jesus now poses a question back to the man who originally asked the question, right? This back-and-forth dialogue. And it's so interesting how the expert in the law responds. He says, “The one who had mercy on him,” that's the one who's the neighbor. Now, is it possible that for this man it was so shocking to hear that a Samaritan was the one that Jesus used to share who was a neighbor to this injured man? It was so shocking that the expert in the law couldn't even utter the name Samaritan. It was so upsetting and so bothersome that Jesus would use this type of person that he couldn't even say the name. He just says, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus leaves him, and he says, “Go and do likewise.” Jesus says, Go and be like the Samaritan. Go, yes, love your neighbor, the people who are like you, but also love your enemy. Love the person that you disagree with. Love the person that you're so different from that you can't even utter their name.
We're going to spend the rest of our time this morning breaking down these two things that Jesus and the expert in the law discuss as the most important from God's law, the things that truly bring us life, and that's loving God and loving our neighbor. And while these ideas might seem simple or might have been things we've heard at church, I think that Jesus might want to invite us this morning into a deeper understanding of what this looks like to practice in our lives.
First, loving God. This is what is discussed first by the expert in the law and Jesus as to what brings us life. And why? Why is this first? Well, for those of you who follow Jesus, you know that loving God is where transformation first happens for us. This is how we experience new life, and this changes everything. Loving God, knowing God changes everything in our lives. And the expert in the law, he's looking here to Jesus for the right answer, right? The answer from the law, the religious answer. But loving God isn't something about just checking a bunch of boxes. It's not about just going through the motions and showing up on Sundays and reading our Bibles and going to groups. Well, those things are so good. If we're just doing those, just to do them, we're missing the point of loving God. It's about relationship. It's about connection with God. That's what God desires. In 1 John 4:10, it says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” We are to love God, but first God loves us. God loves us so much that He made a way for us to enter into a restored relationship with Him, like we sang this morning, celebrating out of the abundant love He has for us. And this invitation is for everyone, right? Even for the Samaritan.
Now, what does this look like practically? Love can be shown in so many different ways, but I think one practical way that we can show love to God is through giving Him our time. In the culture that we live in, it can be hard to be fully present. We have a lot of things competing for our time and our attention. We have social media. We have our phones in our back pocket. It can be hard to just slow down and just to be. It can be hard to make space for the still, small voice of God in our life. And many things that we fill our life with are good and honoring to God. But where does God fit into all of that? Where does God fit into our day? If others were to describe your life, would they say that person loves God? Now, a tangible way that I personally have experienced the idea of loving God with my time is by practicing the Sabbath. And this is a discipline in which one pauses from the regular rhythms of work for a set period of time, maybe half a day, a whole day, in order to be present with God. And the whole point here is just about being, not doing, not performing, not achieving, just being present with God. When we rest, we're reminded of our limits. We're reminded we can't do everything. We're reminded that the hustle and bustle of life is not what gives us purpose. What gives us purpose is about being loved by God. And I know personally when I choose to neglect this time, when my schedule feels so full, I feel more anxious. I feel more overwhelmed and insecure. I've lost sight of God's love in my life. And even as we step into this ministry of church planting, our schedule is full. And I can already see how if we don't have the right priorities, we will start a church that's just built around being busy and meetings. And that's not what we want to offer people, right? We want to introduce people to Jesus. A lot of people do amazing things in our community. A lot of people value loving others. There are tons of organizations that do great things. But our love has limits. Our love gets tired. Our love, if it's not coming from a place of first being loved by God, then it will run dry. Only God's love is perfect. Only God's love can transform someone else's life. And so if we're just trying to love others without first being loved by God, it will fall short. This is why this is the first part that they talk about that brings true life: loving God. Because without love for God, we are lost. But the good news is God's love is free for all. God is actively pursuing you. God is actively pursuing your neighbors. And again, not just your physical neighbors, but everyone, because He loves them. He wants a relationship with you. And I believe that a community of people who love God is what truly will impact a neighborhood.
The second thing that they discuss here is loving your neighbor. And that means loving everybody, right? Jesus expands this idea, not just to people who are like you, which again was shocking at this time to bring that up. It's not about just loving people that you're more or less comfortable with. It really means everyone. And loving others, honestly, is beautiful, and it can bring us so much joy. But we also see from this parable that love requires risk. It can be messy and awkward and uncomfortable. And we see again from this parable, it might cost us something, right? The priest and the Levite weren't willing to enter into this uncomfortable situation to show love. So they passed by, right? They counted the cost, and they felt like this is not, we can't say yes to this. This costs too much. Now it can be easy to judge these men for their actions and say, How did you not know? This is why God created the law: to love others. But I think it's important to know that we can fall into these same categories as well. When we think our own lives and our own agendas are more important than someone else, then we've just immediately fallen into that trap. Now, I wonder if the Samaritan was worried about the same thing. I wonder if he was worried about what others would think about him for helping this man, especially if that injured man was an Israelite. What does it cost for us to love those that maybe people in our families or our communities would say, why are you helping them? They don't deserve it. They should do it on their own. In verse 33, it says the Samaritan saw the injured man and took pity on him. In other translations, it says the Samaritan had compassion. Loving others means that we actually have to see people for who they are. And not just out of being nice, right? But out of truly loving others with God's love. And this could look very simple. This could look like just being present in your daily life, getting to know the barista who makes your coffee, the person at the checkout at the grocery shop, your neighbor who you see walking to the mailbox, maybe other families at the soccer games, caring for immigrants in your community or unhoused people that you see often.
This last week, my husband and I celebrated our nine-year wedding anniversary. I was really excited because we had this gift card for a massage. Like I said, I have little kids, so any time I can have quiet and peace is the best. I had been looking forward to this. We went to the massage place, I was getting ready, and I met with the person who was going to do the massage for me. She asked me some questions, and it came up that I had younger kids. She shared with me, “You know, I just found out I was pregnant a few days ago.” Now, like I said, I really just wanted to go into this massage and be quiet and relax, and maybe fall asleep. But I could tell that this person wanted to talk. So I decided to be open, asked her some questions, listened to a little bit about her story and how she was feeling, and shared a little bit about being a mom and pregnancy and birth. I was also able to share my faith with her. At the end, I said, “You know, I'm going to be praying for you and your baby.” As I was leaving, she said, “You know, thank you so much for talking to me. I just, I really need to talk to someone. I've had no one to talk to about my pregnancy.”
We never know when a neighbor might show up in our life. And we have the opportunity to lean into that, to lean into where the Holy Spirit might be leading us to serve and to love others. And in this story, we see this man; he had some physical needs, right? He physically was unwell, but sometimes we meet people who have spiritual needs. Sometimes we meet someone who doesn't yet know Jesus, and the way that we can show them mercy is by sharing the gospel with them. And again, it doesn't have to be this big gospel presentation where you bring out a tract and a book and all that. You can just share about your own story. That's a great place to start.
So who is my neighbor? That question? Everybody. Especially those who are different from you. Especially people with whom there are barriers to building a relationship, especially those who are spiritually lost and don't yet know God. It might be someone honestly that you have been overlooking because of those barriers. And I want to invite you, even in this moment, maybe God is already bringing someone up. I want you in this moment to pray and ask God for forgiveness and ask God to open your heart to love this person.
So when I first moved to Sacramento about 12 years ago, I moved to Midtown and lived in an old Victorian home on 20th and Q. It had been split up into eight studio apartments. The people who lived in this building joked that we were actually roommates instead of neighbors because our apartments were so tiny and smushed together that it was basically just one big house that we all lived in. There was a woman who moved in the hall across from me. We'll call her Michelle. She and I got to know each other really well. Part of it was just the practicality of living across the hall. We would look out for each other. We were two young single women living in these apartments, so we looked out for each other. She helped me with my dog, and I eventually had a key to her place because she always locked herself out of her apartment all the time. So we just kind of got to know each other this way. As we started to build this connection, we also started to share a little bit more about our lives. Honestly, we could not have been more different from each other. I had moved to Sacramento because I was looking to make new connections, and I had just started dating my husband. I didn't know he would be my husband, but I had just started dating him. I was excited and thinking about marriage. I'm very passionate about my faith, and I was serving at church on the elder board. This woman was actually in the process of getting a divorce. She was at a very broken, hurt place and was very disappointed at where life had taken her. She had just started a new business, and she was concerned because she had just quit her full-time job. She was like, “How can I manage all of this stuff together?” She did not have faith in Jesus. She actually pursued a lot of different faiths and spiritual things, and she went on this Buddhist retreat. You know, I came to this point where I was like, “I could just kind of leave our relationship here. I could not go deeper with her because, you know, we're really different. She's not a Christian, I don't have a lot of friends, and maybe I shouldn't be spending a lot of time with this person who's so different from me.” But I felt this invitation from God to go deeper. As we started to talk more, as we started to connect, I had to be really open to hanging out with her and doing things that I wouldn't normally do, and asking her questions about her Buddhist retreat and what that experience was like for her. You know, what it gave me was this opportunity to share more of my faith. I found out that Michelle had grown up in a home of believers, but the way they had lived out their faith was very judgmental. She only knew a Jesus who didn't care about her because of how she dressed or her choices. She felt like just following God was all about judgment. And she had a lot of pain from her family from that. She shared with me, “I've never met a Christian.” I invited her to do stuff at our church and meet some of my friends who are Christian. She was like, “I've never met Christians who loved people the way that you guys do. I've never met people who are so willing and open to getting to know people who are different.” I'm still good friends with Michelle. Although she doesn't know Jesus, she and I have stayed connected, and we continue to build this relationship. You know what's crazy? The business she owns is actually really close to the area we're planting a church. I'm meeting with her in a few weeks, and she's actually helping us with different things in launching our church. She's been so supportive and so excited. And this is coming from someone who originally wanted nothing to do with Christians.
Jesus says, this is what will bring you life: loving God and loving your neighbor. And Jesus has the same invitation for us to go and do likewise. We get to be a part of God's mission here on earth, and that is so exciting and so humbling. It is hard, it's messy, it requires us to repent. It requires us to take off all those judgments, again, and acknowledge the barriers that we have. But it also fills us with so much joy. It draws us closer to God. God, remember, loves you first, and He's inviting you to go and do likewise.
So, as we wrap up this morning, we're going to have some time of prayer and reflection that will happen during this last song. And I just want to invite you to be open to how God might want to be speaking to you today. You should have had a little paper heart that was sitting on your seat as you came in. And as the next song is playing, and as you're praying, I want you to pray and ask God the question: Who is my neighbor? And you might be surprised at who God brings to mind. And as God brings their names to mind, write their names down and start praying for them. But don't just pray for them today. Pray for them this entire week. Pray for them this entire month. If they're local, pray for them to come to this church. And ask God, what does it look like for me to show love to this neighbor? It might be a small thing, a big thing, just an encouraging word, building a relationship. But during this next song, take the time to slow down and listen to the voice of God.
Let's pray together. Jesus, we thank you so much that you are God who loves us first. That you are a God who pursues us. You created us. And that you invite us into this deeper relationship with you. And so I pray right now, God, for anyone in this room who maybe hasn't said yes to first loving you, God. Maybe we've been coming to church or somewhat connected to faith, curious, but maybe we haven't made that next step of acknowledging that you are the Lord of our lives, that we want to love you and be loved by you. And so as we pray with everyone's eyes closed and heads bowed, I want to invite you, if you have not said yes to Jesus before and you are ready to say yes to His radical love, then please raise your hand. It can be hard to make this next step to say yes to God. But Jesus says, “Do this, and you will live.” So just one more invitation. If you are wanting to say yes to Jesus, raise your hand and acknowledge that you want to accept the love that He has for you. Jesus, for all of us here, you have put people in our lives that you want us to minister to. And so I pray, God, that you would help us identify who is our neighbor? Who is the person that we have neglected building a relationship with? Because they're so politically different or socially different or have different faith backgrounds or different interests. God, I pray that you would help us identify that neighbor. And show us, God, what it looks like to love them. And not just love them with our love, but God, to love them with your love. I pray, Jesus, that you would transform this community, that as we are sent out to go and do likewise, that everyone here would feel called to love and to serve. And to invite their neighbors to know more of you, God. Would this community be marked by your love? Would it be marked by loving their neighbors? And as we continue to pray and to worship you, God, we just invite you, Holy Spirit, to speak to us. We love you so much. It's in your name we pray, Jesus. Amen.