The Good Samaritan Kathryn Kuhlman Luke 10:25-37

If we knew the cares and the trials, knew the efforts all in vain and the bitter disappointment, understood the loss and gain, would the grim eternal roughness seem, I wonder, just the same? Should we help where now we hinder? Should we... pity where we blame? Or we judge each other harshly, knowing not life's hidden force, knowing not the fount of action is less turbid at its source. See not amid the evil all the golden grains of good. We'd love each other better if we only understood. Could we judge all deeds by motives that surround each other's lives? See the naked heart and spirit and know what spur the action gives. Often we should find it better, purer than we judge we should. We would love each other better if we only understood. A question is asked in the 10th chapter of Luke. Who is my neighbor? Here we have one human example in the Bible which Jesus asks us to imitate. One of whom he says, go and Do thou likewise. This is vitally important. It is important to you. It is important to me. Because Jesus makes a very definite statement. Go and do thou likewise. Now this sentence is found in the final statement of the parable of the Good Samaritan. and is found in Luke's Gospel, the 10th chapter. Read it. Read it often. Sometimes I think it would be well if we read it daily. For surely we shall do well to ponder often the words of Jesus. And with all faithfulness, the parable of the Good Samaritan in which Jesus said, to the lawyer. Go and do thou likewise. And the master was referring to a man who gave his time, gave his money, his sympathy, his service, himself. He'd given all of these things to help his fellow men. Sure, he was not speaking to one. who had not given of his money. He was not speaking to one who had not given his service. The man to whom he said these words had given his sympathy. He'd given his help to his fellow man. Oh, look at this wonderful parable. We would do well to ponder upon this parable. This parable will continue to challenge even... startle us by its lesson as to the noble and the unselfish behavior as man to man. Indeed, the story of the Good Samaritan is one of the most instructive. It's one of the most challenging to be found in the entire Bible. It's so simple that a little child can readily understand it. And at the same time, its message is so profound. that the great ones of the earth often stumble over it. It is so profound that the message of this parable is needed in the hour in which you and I live. It is the answer to the condition of the world today. Now pause just a moment. Consider the occasion of the parable. It's quite familiar to all of us. We see a lawyer who's listening to Jesus and said to him, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus replied to him, What is written in the law? What readest thou? And the lawyer said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself. Thou hast answered right, Jesus said. This do, and thou shalt live. But the lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said, And who is my neighbor? And then it was that Jesus gave us this parable of the Good Samaritan in which he evidently meant to teach us several things, important things. He meant to teach all of us that our neighbors are all those who need us and the help that we can give them, no matter who they are or where they live, any man, any woman, Any person who needs my help is my neighbor. Any person who needs your help, any person that you can help is your neighbor. Now that teaching pushes back the horizons of our personal responsibility to the limits of humanity. Oh, it's easy to help our family. We feel morally obligated to do so. But when it comes beyond our family, you know, our eyes are blinded. We kind of feel like our responsibility is lifted. Maybe we will go a little further and feel our responsibility to the one who lives just in the same block that we do, or just several hundred feet from our back door. And we classify that one as our neighbor. And our help never goes beyond that. Our responsibility never goes beyond that. And sometimes I think few people even feel the responsibility that far. If we are to obey the teachings of Jesus and follow his example, then there can be no room for petty... differences. There can be no room for racial prejudices. There can be no room for caste systems which erect barriers between us and between those who need us and the services that we can render them. And then Jesus meant also to give that lawyer and to give all of us for all time an example of True benevolence in this parable of the Good Samaritan. First of all, you have the picture of a man in suffering, a man afflicted. A very common thing. The world is filled with such. The world is filled with trouble. The world is filled with suffering and afflicted people. Oh, look around you. Look around you and see the suffering. And we're told that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, down which the unfortunate man of the parable traveled, has long been a perilous road, a bloody road. Formerly, it was infested with robbers. And he was on this road when something happened. Now then, in this parable, two other men appear in the story. Down that road from Jerusalem to Jericho came a priest who saw the beaten, bruised, suffering, half -dead man lying beside the road. But the priest passed by on the other side. A Levite who also saw the wounded man and also passed by on the other side. How wretched, how contemptible, how wicked the behavior of these two men. I'm giving you the word of God. Their conduct was without excuse. Both of them came face to face with a case of desperate need. Both saw the man in need. Both saw the man in deep and dire despair. Both of them claimed to be religious men. Both were religious men. They both had an opportunity and a corresponding obligation to help a desperately needy human being. By their conduct, they rejected the opportunity and denied the obligation. Mm -hmm. Now, there was another man of another spirit who came down this same road, saw the same victim of the robber, saw the same man in his awful plight. He was moved with compassion. Oh, I believe that one of the greatest needs in the world today is compassion. Really, there's so little of compassion left in the world today that we have forgotten that there is such a thing as compassion. And when compassion is manifested, the world looks upon that one as being a little weak. A little overwrought. Or perhaps a little too emotional. He was moved with compassion. And he went to the victim. He bound up his wounds, poured in oil to heal and to soothe. He lifted the man to his breast and went along helping him. Supporting him with his own strength. He took him to an inn down the road. He cared for him through the night. And when the morning came, he paid the innkeeper the bill and said, Keep him here as long as he ought to be kept. Don't let him get out too soon. Take good care of him. Look after him. I'll be back and pay the bill, whatever it is. And then Jesus said, Which now of these three thinkest thou was a neighbor to him that fell among thieves? Or the man that helped him, of course. Very well, said Jesus. Go and do thou likewise. What was the difference in these men? It was a difference in spirit. A man is to build his life not on petty rules, but on great principles. As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also to them likewise. Beloved, here is a great principle, and sometimes I think humanity has forgotten what principle really is. We have forgotten so many vitally important things. We have forgotten compassion. We have forgotten principle. How would you like for the other man to treat you if you were... beaten and bruised and mangled on the roadside. How would you like for him to treat you? What would you like for him to do for you? That great principle will guide you in determining who is your neighbor and what your duties are in regard to him. This principle has been called the Golden Rule. Perhaps it was... Better to call it the golden principle. Jesus did not give us a set of rules. Rather, he gave us great universal principles which we are to apply to our individual problems. Take another of the great Christian principles. Take this one for instance. as we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men or another for instance whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the glory of god you still another seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you The Christian life is based on great principles. Wonderful principles. And when you forget those principles, you get into trouble. And the world has forgotten certain Christian principles, and we're in a mess. Years ago, I heard someone tell, of an incident in the life of Dwight Lyman Moody. It was during the time of a great influenza epidemic in Chicago. They were dying. Thousands died. During this time of this great epidemic, Mr. Moody had worked for days and days, caring for the sick, conducting funeral services, burying the dead. And he came home one night just exhausted. He said, I can't do more. I'm so exhausted myself. And then came the call that a little girl had just died. The parents were frantic. It was their only child. Willie said, I'll go. And his little daughter, Emma, said, Daddy, can I go along with you? He said, All right, honey. They came to the humble dwelling and Mr. Moody tired in body prayed a few minutes and then left the home. And he and his little girl walked in silence down the street. Finally, she broke the silence by saying, Daddy, I was just thinking if that would have been me instead of that little girl, would you have felt bad? He was so startled. He would have felt as though the bottom of the world had dropped out. Had that been his little girl? What if it had been his little girl? He clasped her hand and then he picked her up and hugged her and carried her home the rest of the way. Put her down inside of his home. Kissed her. And said, honey, your mother will put you to bed. I'm going back to the home where the little girl died. And they stayed in that home all that night, sympathizing with the father, with the mother, arranging for the funeral service. Did everything in the world humanly possible. gave of his love, gave everything that a human being could give to another, even though they were perfect strangers to him. The whole time hearing the voice of his own little girl, I was just thinking if that had been me instead of that. Would you have felt bad? Yes. Put yourself in the place of another. Put yourself in the other man's shoes. We should love each other better if we only... Understood.