Luke 10:25

Paul says, "I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Father, as we approach Christmas and are reminded of the importance of giving and receiving, we pray that You would speak to us today from Your Word. By Your Spirit, help us to make application from Your Word to our lives today. In some clear and measurable way, may we see Your transforming power in us. Transform us by the renewing of our minds. This week, as we are at school, work, or in the community, may we be able to show and display from our lives what is Your good and perfect will. Lord, make us more like You, that this time this morning would have an impact. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

I'm sure you all noticed that the 2016 Christmas shopping season is more than underway. Maybe you braved the crowds on Friday or Saturday, or perhaps the turkey went to your brain on Thursday, and you decided to go out at 5 p.m. on Thursday night. I'm sure you noticed that over the last decade, Black Friday begins on Thursday night, Thanksgiving night. If you saw some of the pictures from Walmart on Thanksgiving night, it looked like standing in the middle of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2003. It is not a good place to be; it's kind of crazy to go out at those times.

No doubt, when we come to this time of year, with Christmas just 28 days away, we are reminded of giving and receiving. We are taking time between now and Christmas to look at some passages of Scripture that have to do with this concept of giving. Last week, we talked about giving thanks as we approach...

Thanksgiving is here, and today we're going to be looking at another topic. We will use a passage, a story from the Gospel of Luke. Last week, we were there, and we will be again today. If you're in the Book of Acts right now, just turn to the left a couple of books. You'll pass the Gospel of John, and then you'll come to the Gospel of Luke.

Luke chapter 10 is where we're going to be for our time together today, and we're going to begin reading at verse 25. Luke records for us, "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him," Him being Jesus, "saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

The lawyer answered and said, "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." Jesus said to him, "You've answered rightly. Do this, and you will live."

But the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him. They departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked, and he passed on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn, and he took care of him. On the next day, he departed and took out two denarii. He 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."

So which of those three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves? He answered Jesus and said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said, "Go and do likewise."

This is probably not an unfamiliar passage to you, even if you have not been a student of the Bible or in church for very long. There are people in our nation who have never even looked at the Bible.

Many people who have never even gone to church have heard at least the words "the Good Samaritan." There are laws in virtually every state in our nation called Good Samaritan laws. A lot of people, when they hear a reference to the Good Samaritan, don't even realize that it is found in the Scriptures. They may not know that it comes from a story that Jesus told, but they have heard the words "the Good Samaritan" before. They might even wonder, "What's that all about? Where did that come from?"

Well, it comes from right here in this passage where Jesus, on a certain day in His ministry, was confronted by a lawyer who stood up and tested Him. This was the norm for Jesus; just about everywhere He went during His three to three and a half year ministry, He was met by multitudes of people. They came for different reasons. Some people, at a certain point in His life and ministry, came to be fed by Him because Jesus fed multitudes on two different occasions. Others came to hear Him, while some came just to see Him and witness something spectacular. They were looking for a sign to be done by Him. Some came to touch Him, expecting that by doing so, they would receive power from Him and be healed or delivered from some sort of infirmity.

There were also those who came to Him because they had family members who were sick or demon-possessed. Some came because they had family members who were near death or had died. Then there were those who came to Him because they wanted to test Him, just like this lawyer. Many among the ruling religious class of the day—the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, and the lawyers—came to challenge Jesus. Sometimes, political leaders called the Herodians would also come to challenge Him.

The challenge to Jesus is most clearly seen in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22, when just about every single one of these groups came and asked various questions of Him. They would come to test and challenge Him. The lawyer who approached Jesus may have been sincere; he may have been a genuine seeker wanting an answer to an important question. However, most of the time, when people from these groups spoke to Jesus, it was to try to trip Him up. The lawyers of the day were often referred to as the scribes. The scribes were the copyists of the law, which refers here to the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, the law of Moses. These individuals—scribes and lawyers—were experts in the law.

In the law, they oftentimes had much of that section of Scripture memorized completely; they could quote it verbatim. If any of you have ever taken on the task of reading through the Bible in a year, a lot of times people get tripped up by even the book of Leviticus, just trying to read it. But these individuals sometimes memorized the entire book. Not only did they commit large sections of Scripture to memory, but they also knew the interpretation of the law, the meaning of the law, and they debated endlessly about these interpretations.

So, here comes this scribe, this lawyer, to Jesus with a question. It was a question that seemed rather simple: "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" There are at least two people in the Gospels who asked that same question, which indicates that people understood and recognized that Jesus was speaking about the topic of eternal, everlasting life. In fact, the topic itself, those very words "eternal life," come up a number of times throughout the Gospel of John, especially, but in other places as well. It is very clear that Jesus, during his ministry, was speaking about this important truth of eternal life.

At a certain point in his ministry, two individuals come to him and ask, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" One of them was this lawyer, and the other is a person we refer to as the rich young ruler. He is seen in all three of the first three Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He comes running to Jesus, bows down before him, and says, "Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Not only does he say "Rabbi," but he also says, "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus, like he almost always did when people asked him questions, responds with a question. There are more than one hundred and eighty times in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John where individuals asked Jesus questions, and in all but three instances, he always answers a question with a question. Only three times in the Gospels does Jesus directly answer a question that was asked of him. Moreover, in the Gospels, Jesus asks questions more than three hundred times.

What this means is that for every time Jesus answered a question directly, there were a hundred questions that he asked. This was his method; this was his way of engaging with people—answering questions with questions.

The method can sometimes be frustrating for people. I was a junior high pastor early on in my ministry, and this would happen a lot with junior hires. We would be at camp, and some junior hire would come up, kind of dancing, and ask, "Can I go to the bathroom?" I would respond, "I don't know, can you?" They would get this look on their face, as if to say, "What do I do?"

Jesus often answered questions with questions. For example, a certain lawyer came to Him and asked, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" The rich young ruler who approached Jesus said, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus responded with a question, asking, "Why do you call me good?" This is a fascinating response.

If someone came to you—a family member or a co-worker—and explicitly asked what they must do to get eternal life, I think we, as well-meaning Christians, might immediately say something like, "Confess your sins, believe in Jesus, pray this prayer with me." We might have an answer ready. In fact, maybe you've hoped that a certain family member or friend would ask that question. You've dropped a few hints along the way, talking about church and the Bible, and you really want them to put their faith in Jesus and become a follower. You would love the opportunity for them to say, "What shall I do to get eternal life?"

Now, if you're anything like me, you've never had someone ask that question. Jesus had that question posed to Him twice. You would think that if anyone would jump on that question with a gospel presentation, it would be Jesus. But instead, He says to the rich young ruler, "Why do you call me good?" To the lawyer who came to Him, He doesn't answer the question explicitly but responds with another question: "What is written in the law? What's your reading? What's your interpretation of it?"

Jesus knew that the scribes and lawyers had their own interpretations and views on these matters. By answering the question with a question, He wasn't trying to be evasive; it's not that He didn't have a good answer—He certainly did. If you read through the Gospels, you know that Jesus had incredible logic that often deflated those who came to Him trying to trap Him with their questions. In one situation, a group came to Him and asked, "Shall we pay taxes to Caesar?"

They were trying to trip Him up because this group knew that if He said, "No, don't pay taxes to Caesar," then Rome would come in and destroy Him. They also knew that if He said, "Do pay taxes to Caesar," then the people wouldn't like Him because they didn't like to pay taxes, just like you don't like to today. They thought, "We got Him; we tripped Him."

Then He said, "Well, show me some of your money." They showed Him some money, and He asked, "Whose inscription is this?" They replied, "Caesar's." He then said, "Well, I guess render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is God's." They walked away, wondering how He got out of that. His logic was awesome.

It's not that He doesn't have a watertight answer for these things. So why would Jesus answer a question with a question nearly every time someone brought Him a question? I suggest to you that it has to do with the fact that Jesus was seeking to aim at the heart and not the head of those individuals who came to talk to Him. He was aiming for the heart, which teaches us a very important point.

Point number one on your outline, your sermon guide, is that we also should aim for the heart in evangelism. Aim for the heart in your evangelism. Now, I'll be very honest with you: this is difficult in our culture because we live in a culture that is very into the God of reason. We really like answers to questions, and we love to be able to give an airtight, watertight answer to a question.

We appreciate verses like Peter's exhortation in one of his letters, where he says, "Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within you with meekness and fear." The whole apologetics movement really grew out of the 1970s and early 1980s, with names like Francis Schaeffer. Some of you may remember that name. There was a big push in the 80s and 90s within Christianity in America to have a solid and tight apologetic.

We had apologetics courses and all kinds of resources where you needed to know how to give an answer and how to give a defense. But the reality is that for most Christians, myself included, even as a pastor, when we're presented with a question, a lot of times there's more fear than anything. We start to go through our minds, thinking, "How do we answer this question? Oh, I don't know. Oh my goodness!"

So I would encourage you to follow the pattern of Jesus. When someone brings a question, maybe just fire back another question.

When someone comes to you and asks, "Do you really believe that sincere followers of other religions are going to go to hell when they die?" instead of trying to come up with the theologically and politically correct answer, simply ask the question, "So, do you believe in hell?"

Similarly, when someone asks, "Do you really believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven?" you should recognize that this is one of the biggest problems people have with Christianity today: the exclusivity claims of Jesus. In John chapter 14, He states, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." It can be difficult to navigate this topic, but if someone asks you if you believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, you might respond by asking, "Do you believe in heaven? What way do you think it is to get there?"

When someone challenges you with, "Can you prove that there is a God?" instead of rushing home to send an email asking for apologetics resources or how to explain the teleological or cosmological arguments for God, consider asking them, "Can you prove to me that there isn't?" This shifts the entire dynamic of the conversation.

This approach mirrors what Jesus did, as He was not aiming at the head but at the heart. Truly, that is the heart of the matter: the heart of man. This is what we need to address. Jesus asked the lawyer, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? What is your interpretation?"

The lawyer responded in verse 27, "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." This is also recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22, where another lawyer, an expert in the law, came to Jesus and asked, "Master, what is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied, "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 you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

On these two commandments, as stated in Matthew 22, verse 40, "hang all the law and the prophets." You see, in Jesus's day, and even today, this principle remains true for many people.

Who are devout followers of Judaism? They know this answer because this is the first passage of scripture that a young Jewish child in the first century would learn. They would learn what is referred to as the Shema. That word "Shema" means "the hearing," and every child in Judaism would memorize this important passage. It is recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9.

It says this: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk in the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

If you've ever seen the home of a Jewish individual, a follower of Judaism, you may have noticed a little compartment on the door, screwed into the doorpost. It's called a mezuzah, and inside of that is a scroll of this text from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. They literally take this passage where it says to bind it on the doorposts of your house seriously.

If you have ever seen pictures of devout followers of Judaism at the temple, the Western Wall, or the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you will often see them wearing a little box on their head and a strap of leather wrapped around their hand. These are called phylacteries, and they fulfill the command to bind it upon your hand and upon the frontlets of your eyes.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Every child in Israel during the time of Christ knew this answer. Every law scholar, every legal expert, and every scribe understood that this was the answer to the question, "What is the greatest commandment of the law?" They would also refer to Leviticus, which states, "You shall love the Lord; love your neighbor as yourself."

They understood this reality. Point number two: Love is the focus of God's law. Jesus said that on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Hang all the law and the prophets. The Apostle Paul, in Galatians, said the entire summary of the law is in one word: love. Love is the focus of God's law. This lawyer knew how to read and interpret the law, but remember, Jesus is wanting to move from the head to the heart.

In verse 28, Jesus said to him, "You have answered rightly. Do this and you shall live." Now, we all recognize it's one thing to know the right answer; it's an entirely different thing to do the right thing. This lawyer knew the right answer: "You shall love the Lord your God and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus said, "Go and do this."

Then we read in verse 29 that the lawyer, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Understand that this was the question. This is where the lawyers and the scribes of Jesus's day would debate the intricacies of the interpretations of the law. That's what they did constantly.

When the law said, as Moses wrote, that a man could give his wife a certificate of divorce because he found some uncleanness in her, there was an entire spectrum among the legal scholars of what uncleanness meant. Literally, for some of them, they said an uncleanness could mean that your wife cooked your eggs wrong, and now she had become unclean to you. I'm not kidding; that's how far they would split hairs over these things.

They would debate constantly: What exactly is uncleanness? How exactly should the Sabbath be interpreted? What is a Sabbath day's journey? When we were with our group in Israel just a few weeks ago, I pointed out to a few of us as we were passing by a Jewish village. There were these 18-foot galvanized poles with a little wire connected to the top of them. I said, "You guys see those poles?" They said, "Yeah, what is that?"

I explained that is the demarcation for that village of a Sabbath day's journey, so that you don't go too far and break the law. You don't want to pass that wire on a Sabbath day. They would argue over these things: What is the distance? What is uncleanness? Who exactly is my neighbor? I don't know about you.

Every time I hear the question, "Who is my neighbor?" for some reason, Mr. Rogers pops into my mind. He says to Jesus, "Well, who is my neighbor?" This question is asked in an attempt to justify himself. This is what religious legalists do; they aim to justify themselves, often at the expense of others. We look down upon others because of their failures. We point out the inconsistencies of others and highlight the ways in which people do not live up to our standards. Why do we do this? So that we can justify ourselves. We point down at other people.

I find, sadly, in my own fallen nature, this desire for self-justification. There is a desire to try and find loopholes when we come to passages of Scripture that challenge us at the core. We start to think, "Well, maybe if we look at the Greek, it's not so sharp and cutting." But Jesus has an amazing way of cutting through our self-justifications, doesn't He? He dissolves our loopholes, cutting through them like a razor through silk.

So, this man says to Jesus, "Well, who is my neighbor?" Jesus often answers questions with questions, but He also teaches through parables, stories. He gives us a story. Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance, a certain priest came down the road, and when the priest saw the fallen man, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and he passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where this man was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him."

When we read in verse 30 that there was a certain man who went from Jerusalem to Jericho, it is no doubt that this certain man was a Jewish man. He was on a well-traveled path. If you lived in Israel during the first century and you didn't live in Jerusalem but were going there, it was a legal requirement for all Jewish men to go three times a year to Jerusalem to the temple to worship. However, if you didn't live in Jerusalem or in the surrounding area of Judea, such as Bethlehem or Bethany, and instead lived in Samaria, then...

If you lived in Galilee, you would travel down to Jericho and then turn to go up into Jerusalem. It literally wasn't up into Jerusalem because Jericho was 800 feet below sea level, while Jerusalem was about 2,500 feet above sea level. Therefore, you would travel 3,300 feet up to Jerusalem on a path that was about 20 miles long. Generally, coming down from Jerusalem was about a day's journey. You would leave Jerusalem and come to Jericho, where you would stay as you were on your way back to Galilee or wherever it was that you lived.

It was a well-traveled but treacherous journey. Most of the time, people would travel in groups because historians tell us that this area was a place where many people in the wilderness would hide to rob those traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerome, who was the translator of the Latin Bible, noted that his father, Eusebius, a great church historian, referred to this path as the "way of blood" because so many people fell victim along the way.

What Jesus speaks to is a common theme on this path between Jerusalem and Jericho. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves. Unfortunately, this was not a rare occurrence. He was stripped, wounded, and left half dead. This highlights the reality that this fallen world is full of trouble. We are confronted with it every single day—on the radio, on TV, on the internet, and in the news. This world is full of constant trouble all the time.

This man was stripped, robbed, and left for dead. By chance, a certain priest came down that road. No doubt, you would assume this would be just the kind of person that a fallen individual like this man, taken by thieves, would want to encounter in his suffering. As he lay there, bloodied, beaten, and left for dead, this would be the very kind of person you might hope would come—a representative of God. The priest was coming from Jerusalem down to Jericho, no doubt on his way home after his service.

At the temple, the priests served in rotation, with each rotation lasting a month. This particular priest had just spent a month at the temple and was now journeying from Jerusalem down to Jericho. As he traveled, he came upon a tragic situation: a man left for dead. We read that it was by chance, but I don't believe in coincidence; this was by divine providence. The priest came upon this suffering man, and we would expect that, of all people, this priest would be the one to stop and relieve the suffering of the man who had been beaten and left for dead. However, when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Apparently, the priest had fulfilled his service to God, and so he continued on his way.

Next, we read about a Levite. The Levites were members of the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. They were given the priesthood, so the priest we just read about came from the tribe of Levi. However, this Levite was not part of the priesthood but was still involved in temple business. If the priest would not help, surely the Levite would. When he arrived at that place, he looked. The word for "look" here means he examined and beheld the man, perhaps even noticing the slow rising and falling of the man's chest. He saw it, acknowledged it, and then passed by on the other side.

Charles Spurgeon, speaking on this, said that if anywhere there should be compassion towards men, it should be in the heart of the priest who has chosen to speak for God to men and for men to God. Unfortunately, in the story of Jesus, that was not the case. Both the priest and the Levite beheld the man and passed by on the other side. No doubt, they had reasonable excuses: "I'm in a hurry," "I've already performed my service to God in Jerusalem," "I've been away from my family for a month," "I've got to get back to my family," or "It's getting late; I don't want to be on this path at night because there are robbers." They might have thought, "I could fall victim to them as well." They should have known that you don't travel alone on this path; many have traveled it before.

Of course, you don't want to be out here by yourself. It's his own fault for putting himself in that terrible situation. Plus, he's already nearly dead. What good could I do? I'm just one person. I can't tend to him; I can't carry him along. I can't even touch this fallen man because I'm a priest. I'll become unclean; I'll soil my linen garments. I can't possibly do this. Maybe this is a trap. Those robbers are not too far from this man, no doubt. If I start to help him, they'll come upon me again.

Charles Spurgeon said they had been near to God, but they were not like Him. Dear people, you may spend Sabbath after Sabbath in worship of God, or you may think to be so. You may behold Christ Jesus set forth visibly, crucified among you, and themes which ought to turn a heart from stone to flesh may pass before your minds. Nevertheless, you may return to the world and be as miserly as ever.

Point number four on your outline: piety without pity is of little value. Piety without pity is of little value. What do we mean by religious piety without compassionate pity? It is of little value.

You know, it's interesting. Social scientists and psychologists have identified a condition that most of us suffer from, which they refer to as moral licensing. Moral licensing is an interesting phenomenon that we can all be confronted with. Let me just read to you from one psychologist's document on what moral licensing is.

Moral licensing is a particularly interesting mental glitch. Apparently, doing something that helps to strengthen our positive self-image also makes us less worried about the consequences of immoral behavior and, therefore, more likely to make immoral choices. What does that mean? It means that sometimes, by doing religious service—coming to church, giving a tithe, serving in children's ministry, or engaging in some sort of religious activity—our religious observance can callous us. We may feel that since we have done our religious service, we don't have to get involved with other issues. This mindset makes us more susceptible to overlooking our moral responsibility because we did our religious duty.

Our religious service poses a true danger. Religious piety that does not move us to righteous compassion is of little value. It is one thing to know the right thing; it is an entirely different thing to do the right thing. We are all challenged by this in our fallen nature.

Jesus tells the story of a certain Samaritan who, as he journeyed, came to where a man was. When he saw him, he had compassion. The Samaritans lived among the boundaries of the nation of Israel, but they were an ethnic minority that was looked down upon by the children of Israel. The nation of Israel was divided into three sections: the Sea of Galilee region in the north, Jerusalem and Judea in the south, and in between was the region called Samaria, where the Samaritans lived.

The Jews hated the Samaritans so much that the word "Samaritan" was used as a racial slur, an insult. In fact, a group of people insulted Jesus one day by calling him a Samaritan, as recorded in John 8:48. They said, "He is a Samaritan, and he has a demon." The Jews treated the Samaritans horribly, and this ethnic minority was not expected to help a suffering man.

However, the priest and the Levite, who you might expect to be the helpers, passed by. The one who you might think, upon seeing this Jewish man, would have thought, "He got what he deserved. The guy's been such a jerk to me; I want nothing to do with him," was the one who had every reason to pass by. Instead, he was moved with compassion and came to this man.

What did he do? We read in verse 34 that he went and bandaged up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own donkey, brought him to the inn, and took care of him. The next day, as he was departing, he took two denarii—two days' wages—and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come back, I will repay you." He gave all the money he had left, indicating that he had nothing more to give. He promised that when he returned, he would pay back any additional expenses incurred for the man's care. He tended to him, took care of him, and provided for him.

Compassion cares beyond creed and cultural lines. Religion often creates boundaries and walls; we divide ourselves and separate ourselves into "us" and "them." We see the followers of God, the righteous, and those wicked people, those wicked pagans. We feel the need to close the doors and keep them out because we fear they will wreck us or ruin us. We must stay far away from them.

However, love, which is the focus of God's law, breaks those boundaries down. Jesus says to the lawyer who asked Him, "Who is my neighbor?" He poses the question, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" The answer is, of course, obvious. Which of these three—the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan—was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves? The lawyer answered, "He who showed mercy on him." Jesus then said, "Go and do likewise." This is a command from Jesus: go and do likewise.

Point number six: true religion compels us to show mercy to others. Therein lies a blessing. We began our time together looking at Acts 20:35, where we read the words of Jesus: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." True religion compels us to show mercy to others, even those outside of our cultural group or creedal group. It moves beyond those lines because it understands that our religious piety needs to move us to compassionate pity, or our religion is of little value.

James, the apostle, tells us the very same thing in the last two verses of James chapter one. You can look at it later. True religion is this, says James: to take care of the needs of those who cannot take care of themselves. This is essentially the principle he speaks of, and in this is a blessing. What blessing? Well, you're in the Gospel of Luke; just turn briefly a couple of books over to the left.

The Gospel of Matthew, specifically Matthew chapter 5, contains a section of scripture known as the Sermon on the Mount. We will look at one small verse there: Matthew 5, verse 7. It states, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Not only are we to be those who give thanks, but we are also called to give mercy. Like the Samaritan, we must see beyond culture, creed, and racial or ethnic divides. He ministered to the need of a man who was left for dead. Those who were religious, those who should have been expected to reach out and help, passed by. As James says in James 1, their religion is worthless before God; it has no value. True religion compels us to show mercy. It sees beyond creed and culture and reaches out to fulfill the focus of God's law, which is love.

This is a challenge to me, and I think it is probably a challenge to all of us. During this season, where we are reminded of giving, let us remember that the Lord calls us to be merciful. When He introduced Himself to Moses and the children of Israel, the very first word He chose to describe Himself was "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful." If we are to be children of our Father in heaven, it should be evident in us that we, too, are merciful.

Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father, I thank You that we, like the man taken by thieves, were left for dead in our trespasses and sins. But You, who are rich in mercy because of Your great love for us, even while we were in that pitiful state...

Suffering is a condition we all face. You came and gave us grace; by grace, we are saved. Lord, though we are not saved by our good works of mercy, grace, compassion, and love, You have no doubt saved us for good works of mercy, grace, compassion, and love.

God, I pray for myself and for my brothers and sisters here as we stand together today. As we prepare to leave this place to go to work, to school, or wherever we will be this week, I pray that You would help us to see beyond racial lines, cultural lines, and creedal lines. Help us to see those who are in need and to be stirred by Your compassion, grace, and love. May we be compelled to reach out with mercy and compassionate love.

Help us to give mercy, God. It is not in our nature; our nature wants vindication, justice, and justification. But God, help us to live according to Your nature so that we may represent You well in the world in which we live, especially as we celebrate in this season Your coming into the world. Shine Your light in and through our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.