The Message of the Jericho Road
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. THE MAN WHO MADE HIS BOAST OF THE LAW
A certain lawyer tempted Christ, asking Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. The Lord knew that the lawyer boasted himself concerning the Law, therefore, He asked him, "What is written in the Law? how readest thou?" The lawyer quickly replied; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy hearts and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself."
The Lord Jesus accepted the lawyer's response and said; "This do, and thou shalt live."
The lawyer was not satisfied, however, and wanted to justify himself; therefore, he asked Christ; "Who is my neighbour?"
In answer to this question, Jesus gave the story of the stripped and wounded Jew who was left half dead on the Jericho road.
2. THE MAN WHO LEARNED A NEW MEANING GIVEN TO THE LAW
Christ had told the story of the stricken Jew, and of the priest and Levite, who had passed by, while the Good Samaritan rescued him and carried him to the inn. Then He asked the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?"
The lawyer replied, "He that shewed mercy on him." Then said Jesus unto him, "Go, and do thou likewise."
The lawyer had no more to say. He doubtless realized a new depth, and a new meaning to the second great commandment.
1. Christ was not teaching that to love our neighbor was to show toward him more than kindly and humanitarian deeds. It is all right to give money, food, and clothing to the poor; it is all right to build hospitals, and schools, and public libraries for the needy; but that was not what the Lord desired pressed. It is all right to teach the fallen good morals, and to seek to create and enforce good laws in behalf of the downtrodden. All of these things and many more are right, in their place, and belong under the sphere of human betterment agencies.
2. Christ, however, had a far deeper meaning in. His conception of loving our neighbor. The Lord Jesus was not speaking along humanitarian lines at all. He was teaching us that, to love our neighbor was to go to the one who was left stripped, bruised and half dead on the roadside, and bind up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. In this, would be fulfilling just what is written of Christ in Luke 4:18 : "He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind." Isaiah adds, "To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."
I. WHERE OUR NEIGHBORS MAY BE FOUND (Luke 10:30)
The lawyer asked Christ, saying, "Who is my neighbour?" The Lord gave the parable we are now about to consider, as His response. The opening verse, which we have just read, suggests three things about where we may search for our neighbor:
1. He may be found on the road that goeth down. Whatever we may think, the man who is in need of the Saviour is not on the way that leadeth up to life and Heaven and Home.
Hell is down in more ways than one; and the sinner is on the downward way, the hell-bound road.
2. He may be found, stripped, wounded, and half dead. Not ail men who are traveling the way to death are in so evident a plight; but sooner or later the tragedy of a sinful life will tell the same tale of sorrow and of shame. Sin robs men. It steals away all that is high and holy. It strips one of the garments of righteousness; it wounds, and then leaves the wounded on the roadside, half dead and deserted.
Where is he who can describe the wreckage of sin-driven men? The earth is a graveyard of blighted hopes, crushed hearts, and spoiled prospects.
3. He may be found deserted and alone. The prodigal boy was feasted and feted when he first arrived in the far country; but as soon as he had been sapped of his money, he was sent to the swine-herd. Then it was that he must have said, "No man careth for my soul."
The South American bat will hang over its sleeping victim, fanning him with his wings until he sees his victim is in soundest slumber. Then he will enter his beak, and, as he fans, he will suck away the lifeblood of his victim.
Satan and sin have no more heart toward the victims which they plunder. They will first destroy every prospect and every hope, and then leave their victim half dead without any ray of possible redemption.
II. THE HELPLESSNESS OF HUMAN RELIGION (Luke 10:32)
The priest who passed by was the representative of Judaistic theology. What did he do? He came down by chance. He saw the stricken man, and he passed by on the other side.
1. A religion that does not seek for sinners is foreign to Christ. Churches are not established for mutual admiration. They are not meant to be a finely equipped pullman train, or a wonderfully prepared ocean liner, where people may lounge in all comfort on their Heavenly way.
The Church was commissioned to go into all the world, and to preach the Gospel to every creature. Out into the byways and hedges; out into the lanes of the city, she was to seek the lost.
A church that is not a soul-saving institution should write "Ichabod" over its door, and own itself forsaken.
2. A religion without solicitude for the smitten, is foreign to Christianity. When Christ saw the hungry multitude, He was moved with compassion, and He commanded His disciples, saying; "Give ye them to eat." When Christ saw the crowd at the last day of the feast, He cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."
We imagine that we now hear the Lord saying, "Mark every one that sighs and cries for the lost."
3. A religion without succor for the half dead is a useless formality. The priest did not seek the sinner. He only found him by chance. He had no solicitude; for he passed by on the other side. He offered no succor, and gave none; for he went on his way.
There is a verse in the Epistle of John which says, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
May we not apply this also toward the lost sinner. The church that refuses to provide every possible aid to lost and dying men, knows nothing of the heart of their Lord, and is disobedient to His command.
III. THE HOPELESSNESS OF LEGALIZED REDEMPTION (Luke 10:32)
We do not know that our caption says just what we want it to say. What we want to express is the utter failure of the Levite, and the Law which he represents, to meet the sinner's need.
1. The province of the law. We do not contend that there is no place for the government and for Law. The Spirit teaches that the Law is a terror to evil workers, and that rulers are the avengers of God; however, the province of the Law is not the seeking, nor the saving of the lost. The Law speaks wrath and judgment, and vengeance. It has no place for mercy and peace and grace. The Law is loveless, joyless, hopeless, to those who are offended.
We do not wonder that the Levite passed by on the other side.
2. The failure of the law. The Law must always fail, so far as its power to redeem is concerned; because as we have just said, there is nothing in it that shows mercy. The Law is just, but not gracious. It is even good, if a man uses it lawfully. It protects the righteous, but it condemns the guilty.
There is, however, another and deeper reason why the Law must fail, in seeking to rescue the man who is stricken on the roadside. It is impossible for the Law to redeem the sinner, because it is impossible for the sinner to keep the Law. The Law's reason for failure lies in the fact that all men are sinners, and have broken the Law. There is not a just man on the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
3. The failure of the Law drives the sinner to Christ. The Law can reveal the fact of sin; it can deepen the sense of sin, and cause the sinner to see the depths of his depravity. All of this would leave the Law-breaker in utter distress, were it not for the fact that Christ, who alone perfectly kept the Law, was seen coming down the Jericho road in the form of the Good Samaritan. Upon this Christ the Law, unconsciously, casts the sinner.
IV. THE MISSION OF CHRIST (Luke 10:33-34)
1. Christ came to seek the sinner. The priest and the Levite came by chance, or happened to pass by the place where the assaulted Jew lay half dead. The Samaritan, as he journeyed, came purposely to where he was.
The Lord Jesus did not accidentally come to earth. His coming was promised, announced, ordained. He came, sent by the Father. He came, seeking to save.
2. Christ came to save the sinner. When the Samaritan saw the smitten Jew, he had compassion upon him and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. This is just what our Lord is doing, even unto this very hour. He is the Saviour of all who believe. He came to undo the works of the devil; He came to break the power of bonded sin; He came to preach deliverance to captives; the recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that were bruised.
The Lord Jesus has come to redeem the sinner from Satan's snare.
3. Christ came to succor the sinner. The Good Samaritan did more than to come to where the Jew lay bruised and half dead. He did more than to bind up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. He also set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Our Saviour, when He begins a good work, completes it. He who saves, also keeps. Christ is not satisfied with having the sinner saved; the child born. He wants the one who has been saved and begotten to be child-trained. He wants him to grow in the nurture of the Lord.
V. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH (Luke 10:35)
1. The Church is the inn, the refuge for saved sinners. We suppose that this thought had already come to your mind as you just heard of how the Good Samaritan took the stricken Jew to an inn. Even so, the Lord ordained that scattered here and there over the world, there should be inns erected, churches formed, where those who were saved from the Jericho road, might find a refuge, and a place for restoration, and for growth.
The Church has never fulfilled its God-given task until it goes out to bring in the lost.
The Church should not feel that it has fulfilled its task, however, when the lost have merely received an initiative church rite. The mother does not feel her duty done, her work completed, when a little one is born into the world; she feels that the child must be fed, and clothed, and trained. So, also, the Church should mother her children. New converts need to be taught the deeper things of God.
2. The Church is the inn, panoplied of God to care for saved sinners. The Good Samaritan gave the innkeeper two pence with which to care for the stricken Jew. The innkeeper was not to house the needy one upon his own resources; but upon the resources of the Samaritan.
The Church cannot undertake, in her own strength, to do for saved sinners that which needs to be done. Before the Lord Jesus went away, He told His Church that He would be with them. He also said: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." He likewise committed His precious Word unto their trust Thus it is, that until this hour we are serving the lost, and those saved from Satan's domain, through the Holy Ghost, an imparted power; and through the Word of God, an entrusted gift.
VI. THE FINAL RECKONING (Luke 10:35)
1. We have here suggested the age service of the Church. The innkeeper was to take care of the smitten Jew from the time of the Samaritan's departure, and until He had come again. The Church is to occupy from the time that the Lord Jesus left from the Mount of Olives until the time of the rapture of the saints.
This thought is expressed to us in every remembrance of the Lord's Supper. The Word says: "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come."
2. We have here suggested the rewards of the Church. "When I come again, I will repay thee." This is what the Good Samaritan said to the host at the inn. This is also what Christ has said unto us.
To the pastor Peter says; "Feed the flock of God * *. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory."
To saints as a whole Paul has said: "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward His Name, in that ye have ministered to the saints."
Behold, He will come, and come quickly. Then shall everyone receive according as his work shall have been.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Recently two strangers visited a noted Chicago church. As they entered, they sensed not only a spiritual atmosphere, but a friendly spirit that seemed to reach out and draw them within its circle. As they took their seats, they felt at home; though far from familiar faces and scenes, they were among God's children. They lifted up their hearts in worship and gratitude, and went out better men because of the sweet fellowship they had experienced there.
How different is this kind of church from the one which the writer attended for two years in a certain college town. Students entered the church, were chilled by its unresponsive atmosphere, and went home again feeling a peculiar sense of loss. No one shook hands with them, invited them to come again, or seemed to care whether they existed. Yet, Sunday after Sunday, they sought this sanctum, longing for some spiritual contact. Is it a wonder that these same young people came to regard church-going as an irksome duty? It may take a little time, it may require a little energy, it may even involve going out of one's way to give that smile and to clasp the hand of the stranger. But those people who have tried it know the warm glow that floods the heart of the stranger and his own heart as well. Our Lord Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.