Series:  Faith in Action, #1                                                                FEC MS 20090719   #1406

DIVINE DETOURS

Luke 10:25–37

Luke 10:25-37 NIV

             25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: "'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.'" 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

            29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins 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.'

            36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" 37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Hold up a Detour sign.      

          How do you feel when you see this sign? Turn to someone near you and tell them what your first reaction is when you see a Detour sign.

          Doesn’t your heart just sink sometimes?  It means going out of your way; it means a delay in your arrival; it means more gas and time; there’s the chance you’ll get lost on the detour.  We would much rather just stay on the main road. 

           When Callie Redfield and I were on our trip to the distant village of Akeh in Cameroon last May, we came to a junction in the road where there were a few homes.  We weren’t sure which direction to take, so we asked a lady which was the way to Akeh.  She pointed to the left, and said that was the shortcut.  As our vehicle bounced and jounced down that extremely rough road, the Americans in the jeep began making dark comments about the wisdom of taking the “shortcut”.  Eventually, though, we did join the “main” road, and continued on to Akeh without incident.  On the way back, when we got to the place where the roads diverged, we all agreed we would take the main road instead of the shortcut.   Eventually, it, too, came to a junction at a little collection of homes (a different place than before), where we inquired of the locals which way to go.  They told us that we had to go back down the road we had just come up, and take the “shortcut”, because the bridge was out between where we were and where we had taken the detour.  It turned out that the detour which was a shortcut was in fact the only way to get from one place to another in a vehicle.  God had led us right the first time, via the detour, and when we chose to take the road that seemed right to us, it was altogether wrong. 

          We usually don’t have a choice with detours, but what if you were driving and saw two road signs—one said “Detour Ahead”  and the other said, “Take Your Usual Route.” It was completely your choice. Which would you take?   

          Today we’re going to talk about detours in life. Some detours are just there, like a bridge that is out, and you can’t choose to take your normal route—an illness, a layoff from your job, a spouse who walks out of your marriage. But there are other times in your life when you have a choice to get off your normal path and take a detour—a detour that can help someone.   

          The good Samaritan was a man who was supposedly far from God, but he was willing to take the detour God put before him, and he has been famous for it for 2,000 years.  Let’s look at this parable Jesus told. 

I.        The Test  Luke 10:25-28

          Luke 10:25, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’”

          The expert in the law had years of theological training; he was recognized in the community as being the official interpreter of the Scripture.  When he asks Jesus this question, he doesn’t really want to know the answer; he is just testing Him.  He wants to see if he can expose this popular “teacher” as the fraud that he is sure Jesus is.  It’s really a way to show off his own expertise. 

          Jesus, though, refuses to be drawn into this game, and responds with a question of his own.  Luke 10:26 “‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’”  You’re a religious lawyer, you study the Scriptures; what do you think you have to do to live forever?  27 “He answered: ‘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.’ 

          The man’s answer actually shows a lot of insight.  The Pharisees would have said, “Keep the whole law; offer all the sacrifices; toe the line in every detail.”  But this man is basically right on—he has boiled the whole law down to the essentials: love God; love your neighbor.  So Jesus gives him a grade. 28 ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’” He says in effect, “You’re right. You get an A for that answer.”  Notice what has subtly happened here.  The man comes to test Jesus, but Jesus is the one giving the grade.   He has very subtly reversed their roles.

          “Do this and you will live.” This man was an expert in knowing, but not in doing. Jesus is saying that it’s not enough to know the right answer, you have to do it.  As we all know, that’s a lot harder.  Many people are good at talking the talk, but not walking the walk. In fact, this is the biggest complaint non-Christians have about Christians—we’re too often hypocrites.  We talk the talk, but our lives don’t reflect the One we say we’re following. 

II.       Looking for Loopholes   Luke 10:29

          That was this expert’s situation, too.  Luke 10:29, “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”   Just like a lawyer, he wants to defend himself by narrowly defining a word.  What is your definition of “neighbor?” he asks Jesus. The  standard interpretation of “neighbor” by the Jews at that time meant “one who is near,” meaning near in terms of race and religion. To the lawyer, “love your neighbor” meant love my fellow Jews. If the person doesn’t fit these qualifications, then they aren’t a neighbor, and the command to love your neighbor doesn’t apply. 

          There’s a story about W.C. Fields, who was a comedian and actor famous for his grouchy persona.  Someone supposedly found Fields reading the Bible on his deathbed.  Since Fields had never been a very religious person, the visitor asked why he was doing that.  “I’m looking for loopholes,” he said.  That’s what this expert in the law is doing. He’s hoping that the definition of “neighbor” is sufficiently narrow that it will get him off the hook.

          I wonder if we ever do that?  Have you ever found yourself looking really carefully at a passage of Scripture, hoping that there was some way to avoid the plain meaning of it, because you really didn’t want to do what it said; or you were trying to avoid feeling guilty because of what it said?

III.      Cast of Characters  Luke 10:30-33

          “Who is my neighbor?”  Luke 10:30, “In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.” 

          So here are the characters in the story.  We have a group of robbers. We have a man who gets robbed and beaten half to death. Then we have the three main characters. The first one is a priest. The office of priest in Israel was of supreme importance and very prestigious. The priests represented the people before God, and offered the various sacrifices prescribed in the law. The second character is a Levite. Levites weren’t quite as honored as the priests, but they were nonetheless a privileged group in society, and responsible for the liturgy and protecting the Temple.

          So far Jesus has mentioned a priest and a Levite. Who would you expect to be mentioned next? The original hearers would have expected Jesus to say that a regular Jew (a layman) came down the road. But the third character is a big surprise; it’s a Samaritan. It’s like saying, there’s Papa Bear, Mama Bear and a skunk!

          Samaritans were despised by Jews. Some 700 years earlier Israel had been invaded by Assyria. Assyria exiled tens of thousands of Israelite captives, and then resettled the area with people from other parts of the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 17). The Jews that remained and the foreigners that moved in lived together, had children and became a new people. Their descendents were the Samaritans of Jesus’ time.  Samaritans believed in the law (the Torah, the Pentateuch), but they worshipped at Mt. Gerizim rather than Jerusalem (John 4:20–22).  The Jews thought of them as half-breeds and heretics. The racial and religious contempt and prejudice between these two groups was intense and at times even violent. 

          So it was totally unexpected—a real shock—that the hero of the story would be a Samaritan.  By using a Samaritan as the hero, Jesus is re-defining the term “neighbor”.  No Jew would have thought of a Samaritan as his neighbor, but in the story, Jesus has the Samaritan treating the wounded Jew as his neighbor, thereby being more obedient to the second greatest commandment than the Jews were.  And he was certainly more obedient than the expert in the law, who was trying to get out of loving as many people as he could! 

IV.      A Divine Detour   Luke 10:33-37

          So the story continues.  Luke 10:33, “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins 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.'”

          The Good Samaritan was presented with a choice.  He was on his way somewhere, he had a destination he was trying to get to, but suddenly he comes across a  sign.  He had a choice, like the priest and the Levite did.  He could have crossed to the other side of the road, looked away, and kept on going.  Instead, he chose to get off his usual route and take a divine detour on his highway of life.  It was a detour that involved some risk.

          A.       A detour that took a risk (v. 30)

                    The town of Telluride is known for being a great resort and ski town, but it didn’t always have that reputation. One theory is that back in the wild west days, the road to Telluride was so full of robbers that the town got its name from the contraction of “To Hell You Ride.”[2]  The 17-mile road from Jerusalem to Jericho had the same kind of reputation and a similar kind of infamous name. Because of the number of robbers along this road, it was known as “The Way of Blood.” This road descends some 3,300 feet through desert and rocky country that could easily hide robbers. Even if a person didn’t have much money, they would rob him just for his clothing. That’s what happened to this man in the story that Jesus told. But they didn’t just rob him; they beat him, leaving him half dead.

          When the Samaritan stopped to help, he knew he was on a dangerous road. He may have even thought that the robbers might be near, or that they might be watching and get him next. But the Good Samaritan didn’t use risk as a justification not to act.

          Sometimes we justify ourselves for not helping someone in need because we are afraid of the risk to us. Now, I’ll admit there are times when taking a risk just may not be smart. For example, if you are driving through the desert and you see a sign that says, “Don’t Pick Up Hitchhikers,” then you see a man in an orange jumpsuit with his thumb out, stopping to pick him up isn’t just risky, it’s stupid.  But most of the time our problem isn’t that we take too many risks; it’s that we don’t take any risks at all.  Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The first question the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But ... the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”

          If we are going to love our neighbor, we can’t use risks as an excuse to hold back.

          B.       A detour that took personal involvement (v. 33–34a)

                    Luke 10:33, “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.”  When the Samaritan sees the wounded man, he doesn’t go over to the other side of the road. Instead, he has sincere compassion for him. He bandages up the man’s wounds, perhaps using his own headcovering or by tearing strips from his robe. He also pours oil and wine on the wounds. Olive oil was used to keep the cut skin soft, and the wine was used to help clean the wound and to keep it from getting infected. The traveling Samaritan wasn’t afraid to get personally involved.

          In June, 2001, Dennis DenBoer was pumping gas at the U-Pump It station on East Eisenhower, when he was approached by a young man speaking broken English who asked him to take him and his two companions to Estes Park.  They were Slovakian college students who had come to the U.S. to work for the summer.  They thought they had secured jobs in Estes Park, but when Dennis called the business to confirm it, the owner was expecting three different students, and would not take these.  So Dennis and Joan took these three young people into their home, and fed and housed them for a month.  Then Dennis helped get them a job at Ketterers’ landscaping, and the Ketterers put them up.  But after 6 weeks, the students were back at the DenBoers'.   They did find other work in Loveland, and saved their money, so Dennis helped them buy a house trailer, which they parked in his office lot for 3 months.  At the end of that time, they returned to Slovakia.[i]  The Reporter Herald articles and editorial about this story frequently referred to Dennis and Joan as Good Samaritans, and they certainly were.

          Some people use the excuse of not wanting to get personally involved in helping someone in need. But the Samaritan didn’t use that excuse, and neither did the DenBoers. They didn’t wait for someone else. They didn’t just call 911 or phone the pastor to get involved.  They didn’t just write a check.  They got involved. Their compassion led them to take the divine detour and do something to help.  

          C.      A detour that took time (v. 34b)

                    Luke 10:34, “Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.”  In the context of that culture, it is unlikely that time was as important to the people then as it is to us.  Most of us feel like we have more discretionary money than discretionary time.  So this point is probably more meaningful to us than it would have been to Jesus’ hearers.  But this may be our most common excuse for not helping people in need.

          In Malcolm Gladwell’s Book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference,  he tells of a fascinating experiment:

          “Some years ago two Princeton University psychologists[3]…, decided to conduct a study inspired by the biblical story of the Good Samaritan… [They] met with a group of seminarians, individually, and asked each one to prepare a short, extemporaneous talk on a given biblical theme, then walk over to a nearby building to present it. Along the way to the presentation, each student ran into a man slumped in an alley, head down, eyes closed, coughing and groaning.

          “The question was, who would stop and help? [The researchers]…varied the subject of the theme the students were asked to talk about. Some were asked to speak on the relevance of the professional clergy to the religious vocation. Others were given the parable of the Good Samaritan. …the instructions given by the experimenters to each student varied as well. In some of the cases, as he sent the students on their way, the experimenter would look at his watch and say, ‘Oh, you’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago. We’d better get moving.’ In other cases, he would say, ‘It will be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head over now.’

          “Which seminarians do you think acted like the Good Samaritan with this person who was obviously in dire need?  You might think it would be the ones who had just prepared a talk on this parable.  But it wasn’t.  The researchers wrote, ‘Indeed, on several occasions, a seminary student going to give his talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the victim as he hurried on his way.’ The only thing that really mattered was whether the student was in a rush…The words ‘Oh, you’re late’ had the effect of making someone who was ordinarily compassionate into someone who was indifferent to suffering” (pp. 163–166).

          When it comes to helping those in need and loving our neighbors, the greatest ability is availability! If you are going to love your neighbor, don’t use time as an excuse to hold back. If you are late to a church meeting and see someone in need, don’t just drive on by. 

          D.      A detour that cost money (v. 35)

                    Luke 10:35, “The next day he took out two silver coins 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.'”  I think this is the easiest point for us in this church to accept.  You folks are amazingly generous!  You support youth missions in a wonderful way; you give money anonymously for needs you are aware of.  I have been impressed recently that even with the recession still continuing, and with twelve people in our church out of work, and with the attendance up only 2% for the year, our General Fund giving is up 5% for the year.

          So when I say that following a divine detour to help someone may cost us some money, I know that you don’t flinch.  But I think that some of the other costs may be more difficult for us to pay—risk, personal involvement and time. 

V.       Do the Truth   Luke 10:36-37

          What do you think?  Did Jesus answer the question “Who is our neighbor?” Yes, he did. Your neighbor isn’t necessarily someone who lives next to you, or is just like you.  Your neighbor is anyone in need whom you can help.

          But notice that Jesus did more than answer that question. He asked the expert in the Old Testament, Luke 10:36, “‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ 37 The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”  In other words, Jesus changed the focus of the question from “Who is my neighbor?” to “What kind of neighbor am I?”

          Let me ask you, would you want yourself as a neighbor?  If you were in desperate need, would you want yourself to show up on the scene?  Would you take a divine detour because Jesus says that loving God and others is the path to eternal life?  Or would you just stay on your normal route?

          Jesus calls us to get beyond managing our to-do lists into a faith-in-action lifestyle that welcomes divine detours where we can demonstrate God’s love to people in need. This week I challenge you to get off your normal beaten path of life. It doesn’t have to even be anything big.  Visit someone in the hospital. Take a plate of spaghetti to a widow or widower in your neighborhood. Volunteer to baby-sit for a single mom. Write a letter to a soldier oversees.  Send a note of encouragement to someone.  Sponsor a child in an impoverished country. Decide to take a divine detour. Take action. Love your neighbor.

          Watch for the  signs this week, and next week, we’ll have some of you share your experiences. 

          Three weeks from today, we’ll all have an opportunity to take a divine detour on Sunday morning, because we are going to cancel church that morning in order to put our faith in action.  Faith in Action Sunday is a chance for every one of us to love our neighbors in concrete ways.  Our church is teaming up with Church of the Good Shepherd to deploy a thousand people all over Loveland to demonstrate the love of Christ in practical ways.  Chris Perciante and Rob Kuseski have been setting up the work sites and other projects for months, and now it’s our turn.  Honestly, this detour doesn’t take a lot of risk, or money.  All it will take is some personal involvement and a couple hours of your time on Sunday morning. 

          Some of you are already thinking, Oh yeah—I saw something about that on a postcard, or on a sign in the bathroom, but that’s for somebody else.  This person sitting next to me is just right for that, but I’m  ______________ (fill in the blank: too old, too sick, too tired, too young, too bored, not strong enough, too tall, too short, not interested, I just don’t care,  etc.).  Chris and Rob are going to come up here now and walk us through the sign-up form, and as you will see, there are projects that virtually anyone can do. There is something there you can do.  So let’s all be the church, folks.  The community of Loveland is waiting to see if we will walk the walk.  We have a great reputation among other Christians in our town; let’s start developing a great reputation among those who are not yet in the circle of God’s love.