00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 602 of the inspired stewardship podcast. This is Wendy Gentry from Baker university. I encourage you to live your life from the inside out and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her. Been all of these at different times in my life and with different situations and I still am, but I find this story really, really powerful because when I'm in those situations where I'm trying to figure out what's the right thing to do,
00:00:46 like so many of the parables of Jesus, this story becomes a powerful filter for me to run it through and think, welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling and the inspired stewardship podcast. We will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world in today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others,
00:01:29 I talk with you about Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37 the parable of the good Samaritan where you can find yourself in this story and how focusing on that can affect what you do. Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37 the parable of the good Samaritan. You know yesterday's episode, you heard Matt paraphrase this story and it's one of my favorite Bible verses it's found only in the gospel of Luke and it goes like this. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus and said,
00:02:12 teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law? Jesus replied, how do you read it? And the expert answered,
00:02:24 love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
00:02:34 Jesus replied, you have answered correctly, do this and you will live. Now, here's where it gets interesting.
00:02:41 Then the expert says, but he wanted to justify himself and so he asked Jesus and who is my neighbor in reply?
00:02:52 Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes,
00:03:00 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,
00:03:08 he passed by on the other side, so to a Levi when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side,
00:03:19 but a Samaritan as he traveled, came where the man was and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
00:03:26 He went to him and he bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey,
00:03:34 brought him to an end and took care of him. The next day he took out two dinero and gave them to the innkeeper.
00:03:41 Look after him. He said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expenses you may have.
00:03:47 Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers and the expert in the law replied the one who had mercy on him and Jesus said,
00:04:00 go and do likewise. There is so much buried in this story. I mean at at first glance we've all heard it.
00:04:08 It's one of those Bible stories that if even if you're not deeply immersed in the Bible and you haven't spent a lot of time with it and read it,
00:04:16 you've probably heard a version of this story. You've seen charities that use the term Samaritan as part of their marketing.
00:04:25 You've heard the term good Samaritan is an idiom about somebody who's doing good, but there's so much buried in this story.
00:04:35 I want to kind of point out a few of the characters here and, and think about where you are in this story.
00:04:44 So first off, the person that the priest that steps in and avoids the person that's been robbed, that's laying in the ditch recognize something that is actually what a priestly person would be called upon to do in this society.
00:05:01 See dealing with injured or dead people was something that could make someone unclean. And as somebody who was in the priestly realm,
00:05:10 if they were made unclean, then there was a long ritual process before they could be made clean. Again,
00:05:16 there were people whose duty it was to deal with the unclean, like the injured, the sick and the dead.
00:05:24 And if you weren't one of those people, you would avoid it. So at first glance, you know,
00:05:28 we look at the priest and we go, Oh, look at that person being selfish. And to a degree that's true,
00:05:33 but recognize also he may have thought the man was dead, but if he did, then what this is showing is here is someone who's over looking the real need of this person.
00:05:47 Instead, he's putting his own convenience in his own ability to avoid this ahead of the needs of this other person.
00:05:56 He's not. There's a need there that he could serve and so he avoids it. The same is true of the Levi to,
00:06:04 again, this is of the priestly class. This is somebody who would not necessarily at first glance be called upon to help this person,
00:06:14 but we often put our modern eyes on it and say, well, of course somebody who's a pastor or a priest should help others.
00:06:22 And the Samaritan, the Samaritan is somebody who is not just disliked but is a hated into me of a Jewish man.
00:06:32 He, he's somebody who would go out of his way to not help a Jew and in this case,
00:06:39 without asking any questions, the Samaritan steps forward and not just helps the person, but actually opens his wallet,
00:06:47 puts him on his donkey, inconveniences himself and goes out of his way to make sure that the Jew,
00:06:54 his hated enemy is taken care of. Now, there's also the characters of Jesus in this story who is answering the questions of the expert and the expert.
00:07:06 The lawyer, if you look at it says, but he wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus,
00:07:13 who is my neighbor? This is somebody who understands the idea that love God, love your neighbor as yourself.
00:07:23 These are the commandments. He understands that this is what it means to follow. The law. He understands that it means that he should actually serve other people,
00:07:33 but what he's seems to be trying to do perhaps is draw that definition of who is my neighbor as narrow as he can so that he doesn't have to go out of his way and be inconvenienced by having to serve and help people that perhaps he doesn't agree with.
00:07:54 I'll tell you the truth. I found myself in this story all over the place. I find myself in this story sometimes being the priest,
00:08:01 sometimes being the person who doesn't want to inconvenience myself. He doesn't want to go out of my way to help somebody who perhaps doesn't want to get my hands dirty with the hard work that's needed to really take care of another person and instead I just go to the other side of the road and pretend like I didn't even see it like the need that was there.
00:08:25 Well, if I ignore it, it'll go away. At times I've found myself to be the robber.
00:08:32 I found myself to be the one that's actually stepped forward and harmed someone else. Maybe not intentionally, maybe not exactly the way a robber was done in this story,
00:08:42 but I've certainly inflicted harm on somebody and left them metaphorically by the side of the road needing help from someone else to pick up the pieces.
00:08:52 I've also been the man who was robbed. I've also been beaten up by the world and left by the side of the road needing a hand up and at times I've been the Samaritan.
00:09:05 I've been the person that goes out of my way to help somebody else, either monetarily or in other ways who steps forward and breaks free of the surface level glance at this is somebody I should hate and steps out of my way to help them anyway,
00:09:23 and I've also been the expert in the law, the person questioning and trying to make sure that I draw that definition as narrow as possible,
00:09:31 that I look for the exception and the loophole so that I don't have to work as hard to be a good neighbor.
00:09:40 I've been all of these different times in my life and with different situations and I still am, but I find this story really,
00:09:49 really powerful because when I'm in those situations where I'm trying to figure out what's the right thing to do,
00:09:56 like so many of the parables of Jesus, this story becomes a powerful filter for me to run it through and think,
00:10:03 who in this situation is my neighbor? Am I acting like the expert of the law and trying to draw the circle as narrow as possible?
00:10:11 Are? Am I being like the Samaritan and going out of my way to take care of somebody, even somebody that perhaps I don't agree with and I would challenge you to ask yourself that same question when you face different decisions in your life.
00:10:29 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:10:41 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling.
00:10:52 If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
00:11:18 Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.