God calls us to be "other-centered" in our lives. As we seek to serve others, we serve God. In seeking out others needs, we seek and find God's Kingdom.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is jam-packed with practical applications of how we are to live God's way. We find that just because we may be religious, and we may be serving Him in "church ministry", we may have forgotten the "spirit of the Law".
In the Good Samaritan, Part 1, we touched on the questions of "how do I inherit eternal life?" and "who is my neighbor?"
As we experience the parable of the Good Samaritan, we are touched. Last week we spoke of the need to discover, as it were, who are neighbor is. In class we debated the idea of who needs help or how do we know who needs help. Many spoke of times in their lives where they came in to contact with a person who, on the surface, was in need. And seeing that need, they provided aid or assistance. With others the question became, and I'm paraphrasing, "there was something that told me that this person was trying to take advantage of my kindness..." That's using discernment - the fourth aspect of living the parables. We'll go into more depth of Discernment in lesson 8.
The parable of the Good Samaritan exposes the reality of sin in the world. The effects of sin can be palpable. The effects of sin are often ugly. Sin is real. Sin can smack us full force in our lives. But then what do we do with it? I don't know about you, but there were a couple of times that I came close to tears as I watched the video. The emotions of Love, compassion, mercy for the assaulted older gentleman - a grandfather, like me - battled against the emotions of guilt, sadness, and even anger that welled up in me toward the doctor and the youth leader.
Before we get to the second aspect of living the parables, Who does God call us to Be or the question of Character, let's look at a couple of questions that will better set the stage.
If it is our duty to Love others (love has attributes), then what are some practical applications of love as we live life? What are the differences between home or work or school or church? Are we helping out of a sense of duty or is there something more? Have we allowed love for our fellow man - and therefore God - to be the driving force in our lives?
As we realize our responsibility to our neighbor, again we ask the question, is it out of guilt or out of love? Is it possible to "love" God and not our neighbor? That's a good provocative question isn't it?
Jesus puts all of this into great context when, in Matthew 25, He speaks of separating out the sheep and the goats. Verses 31 through 46 read:
"'When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"'Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
"'Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
"'The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
"'Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
"'They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
"'He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"'Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.'"
Even here, Jesus tackles the two-fold questions of "how do I inherit eternal life" and "who is my neighbor."
In situations like the one demonstrated in the parable, we understand that it is our duty to help. We discussed Duty last week. Duty is what God has called us to do. He has called us to do many things in our Christian walk. And those may be all well and good. But do we feel love? Is there an overwhelming sense of compassion and urgency to participate in the situation or are we doing Duty strictly out of compunction?
How do we express the love of God?
This is the question of Character. The second aspect of living the parables.
Back in week one, we went back and forth debating whether there was a "heirarchy" of the Aspects: Duty, Character, Goals and Truth (Discernment). Some said that Duty came first, others argued in favor of Truth. Still others put forth the idea that the aspects are in a circle and it depends where you come in and you'll eventually go through all of the aspects as you mature in your Christian life.
Me, well I still think that there's a lot to be said for the original heirarchy. We learn how to do things as children, as one of our class members said. As we learn our Duty, our Character is formed, which is then built up and strengthened through repetition.
Let's face it, good Character doesn't just appear in our lives. Understanding that we all have a sinful nature, good character is going to be the last thing that shows! But when we know our Duty, Character can then be built in.
Think about it; we do our duty - whether it's to God or our fellow man doesn't make too much of a difference - we can perform it one of two ways: out of "duty" or compunction or out of love and compassion. Duty by itself is nothing; you're just doing it. But love and compassion, that's where the power of the duty comes into play.
Here's a personal example: for those of you who know me really well, you know that I'm not the neatest person alive. On the other hand, my wife is very neat. Barbara is neat and orderly and organized. Now, on the one hand, I can keep the family room and other public parts of the home clean and tidy by duty and slug through it so that I don't get "nagged". Or, on the other hand, because I love my wife, I will seek to please her and willingly help to make sure that the house is tidy as much as humanly possible - even with a teenage boy.
In our Modern Parable, the doctor's son Peter was kind of our "collective conscience" if you will. He saw a need, the hurt old man. Peter knew that something had to be done. He allowed his character to be affected by his father and his youth leader. And yet he still had doubts, he still knew that something wasn't right. His "character" was bothering him. I asked myself if he would go running up to his dad's office and relate the rest of the story to him...
And yet our taxi driver, who may have known what it was to be "beaten down", knew what he should do and acted upon it. Not only did he act upon what was right, but he followed through. The driver was a person of character. At that moment, he knew who he was called to be: a Good Samaritan to an old, beaten up man who was in need.
Heavenly Father, build your Character in us. Help us to view the world, and more importantly, the people around us through Your eyes. Give us your Spirit of Compassion and Love and Mercy. Give us willing hearts and hands and feet. Fill our mouths with soothing words of Godly comfort and encouragement. Help us to find our neighbor. Amen.
To return to the Modern Parables series, please click here.
Music Video: Leeland with Brandon Heath - "Follow You"
