Easter Sunday Today is the big day! Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and learn about God’s definition of LOVE. We will wrap up our FUEL series by talking about Love.
FUEL stands for faith in unity engaged in love. The word love can mean different things to different people. What you base your definition of love on, is how you have experienced love in your life. When I was just a kid in the 70’s there was a movement that had started taking hold in the US. It was called the free love movement, and it’s tagline was: FREE LOVE = Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. The base idea behind Free Love was “do what ever makes you feel good” and “there are no moral absolutes”. Free Love caused us to do some crazy things. The world will tell you that love is based on what you want. It’s all about you and your desires.
Those faulty ideas have had a devastating affect on our country that can still be felt today. The divorce rate rose to about 50% in the 80’s, but is now on the decline. On the surface that sounds like great news, but it’s not, because the divorce rate is lower because younger people are just not getting married. They have decided to go ahead and live together without the marriage commitment. So when they eventually split up, it’s not counted as a divorce. 19.7 million children live in Fatherless homes. These children are at 4 times greater risk of poverty, the girls are 7 times more likely to become pregnant as a teen. And the likelihood of substance abuse, committing crime and dropping out of high school is at least double. Jesus tells the parable in the book of Luke that shows us what free love is really supposed to look like. It’s the familiar story of the Good Samaritan. This the story, as told by Jesus Luke 10:30-35 “...A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to
him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ What a nice story Jesus told, to teach us that we should take care of people who are hurting. Yep, that’s all you get, if you don’t read further and don’t seek the Kingdom principle behind the story. We have to look at the context to understand the deeper meaning. The parable starts at verse 30. But the story behind the story starts back in verse 25. There is another character in the passage we never talk about. And he is actually the main character behind the parable. The Lawyer. The story actually begins like this: Luke 10:25 “25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus told this parable because a Lawyer asked Him how to have eternal life, but he was using the question as a test to see how educated Jesus was in the law. So Jesus answered his question with a question, because He knew this lawyer wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to show how smart he was concerning scripture.
Luke 10:26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” As expected, the lawyer quoted the scripture correctly when he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The Lawyer then understood that Jesus was also skilled, so he took it to another level and followed up with a “gotch ya” question. In verse 29 the Lawyer asked: Luke 10:29 “And who is my neighbor?” He was more interested in trying to “one up” Jesus than actually finding out how to have eternal life. So Jesus, knowing this, told him a story that he could relate to. The Good Samaritan. As the story begins, a man has been robbed and beaten nearly to death and left by the side of the road. The first person who happened by was a Jewish priest. Now the Jewish law forbids a priest from touching a dead body, so of course the priest wanted nothing to do with the man he saw laying by the road, because he couldn’t tell if he was dead or not. But that’s probably not the main reason Jesus put a priest into the story. It was because the priest was responsible for offering sacrifices on behalf of individuals, and this makes the priest a gatekeeper to salvation and eternal life, thus connecting the story to the original question He was asked. The lawyer, being an expert in the law, would have known this. Just as the priest in the parable used a loophole to avoid the inconvenience of helping his neighbor, the lawyer is looking for a
loophole to avoid the inconvenience of loving his neighbor. This parallel is intentionally drawn by Jesus and the lawyer would have realized it. In the story, the role of the priest is to raise his hopes and then to dash them, because a priest being a full time church staff guy would be the obvious best choice to stop and help someone. This pulled the lawyer into the story as he could relate to the priest as one educated in the law. The next person to come by is a Levite. He represented the non professional religious guy. He wasn’t on the church staff full time. He would be more like a volunteer leader, so maybe he would be willing to stop and help. But again, Jesus says that the Levite passed the man without helping. The reason Jesus brought a Levite into His story is because the Lawyer was in all likelihood a Levite himself. This was getting personal and I’m sure the lawyer was beginning to get uncomfortable as he started to prepare his response. Here is where the story takes an unexpected turn. The 3rd person to come by is a Samaritan. Everyone knew that the Jews and Samaritans were enemies so a Samaritan would make an excellent villain for the story. But as usual Jesus didn’t say what everyone expected. Instead He made the Samaritan the hero. I’m sure you remember how the Samaritan took action and helped the injured man Love requires action Luke 10:33-35 “33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his
wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ The Samaritan gave the inn keeper about $500 and said if you need more, I’ll cover it. Jesus finishes the story by asking the lawyer another question. Luke 10:36-37 “36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Go and Do are action words. Jesus was saying it’s not enough to just talk about loving people. It’s not actually love unless you put an action to it. Scripture doesn’t record if the lawyer ever replied to Jesus’ command, but the idea that Jesus communicated is clear. Even someone you consider to be your enemy is in fact your neighbor, and you are to care for them as you would your own family. It’s really easy to love people who are lovable. But Jesus has called us to go far beyond our circle of friends and family when it comes to loving people. Matthew 5:44-47. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” Loving people is not optional for us as followers of Jesus. It’s the one thing that separates us from those who don’t follow Jesus. It’s the evidence that will show everyone that we are His disciples. John 13:34 “34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” We are supposed to be known by our love Unfortunately a lot of times we are known by our division. We have a hard time getting along with other denominations, other churches in our own denomination, even other believers in our own body. If we are not loving each other how can we love those outside our walls who consider themselves our enemies? The question we have to ask ourselves isn’t are we going to be like the Samaritan? The real question is are we going to be like the Lawyer? Are we trying to out smart Jesus by asking questions that we think might justify our feelings toward others Are we trying to find a loophole that will allow us to exclude some people from our love list?
How do we make sure everyone stays on our list? Whenever you have a problem loving someone, there is a test you can use to determine if they have wronged you enough so that you are justified in not loving them. Just ask yourself these questions: Did they falsely accuse you? Did they beat you until you were unrecognizable? Did they hang you on a cross until you were almost dead? Because that is what they were doing to Jesus and it was at that point when He said: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23:33-34 “33 When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. 34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” The love of God caused Him to do things that we can’t imagine doing. Especially for people who hate us. But that’s just how much God loves you. You see, that’s God’s definition of free love. He loved you so much that he was willing to allow His son to take your punishment. The cost of your salvation is this: It’s free for you, but it cost Him everything. Without the sacrifice and death of Jesus, there wouldn’t have been a resurrection. We would not have anything to celebrate today. But praise God that He loved us enough to do everything it took to reconcile us to a right relationship with Him.
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