Faith in Action: Week 1
LOVE TAKES A DETOUR
By Mother Ellen
I. Detours
So here we are at the beginning of FAITH IN ACTION. It’s all about putting feet to our faith, about learning to act in our everyday lives what we say on Sunday we believe, it’s about walking the talk, about expressing our faith in the God of love by doing loving actions for others. So during the next few weeks we’re going to be looking at what the Bible says about the relationship between what we believe and what we do. Let’s start here:
Video: Detour
So how do YOU feel when you have to take a detour? see this sign? “Oh goodie, I get to take a detour?” I don’t think so. How about *&^%$#$%^&* I’m in a hurry!” Today we’re going to talk about detours, not the detours you encounter while driving, but detours along the highway of life. Now sometimes life detours just happen, and you don’t have a choice—an illness, a layoff from your job, a spouse who walks out of your marriage. But there are other times when you do have a choice - to stay on your normal route or to take a detour—a detour that could help someone else.
So let’s look at someone in the Bible who decided to take a detour on the road of life – he’s known as the “Good Samaritan.” So please open your black pew Bible to Luke 10:25. Who’s got a page number? As we read verses 25–28, I want you to notice the motive behind the question that is asked of Jesus.
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.”
In this encounter between Jesus and the lawyer, the Bible says that the lawyer had an underlying motive. What was it?.....Right, he wanted to TEST Jesus, hoping to trip Him up with a trick theological question. Jesus, though, gave the test right back to the expert. “What is written in the law?” Jesus asks him. And in reply the lawyer quotes the Old Testament - “Love the Lord your God …..and love your neighbor as yourself.” “Good answer,” Jesus replies, but to get an A on the test you have to actually DO what it says.” It’s not enough just to know the truth, you must actually do it. Loving God and loving your neighbor isn’t just having warm, fuzzy feelings. The kind of love Jesus is talking about it love expressed in concrete actions, actions of obedience to God and actions to help your neighbor.
Now let’s read verse 29. Again, I want you again to notice the motive behind the question. This is key to unlocking the meaning of the rest of this passage.
29 But [the lawyer] wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The lawyer was trying to excuse himself from following the command to love his neighbor by narrowly defining “neighbor.” To him, a neighbor is someone of your own race and religion. Anyone who doesn’t fit these qualifications isn’t a neighbor, and the law doesn’t apply. The lawyer was looking for a loophole. He wanted to know how little he could love and still get credit for obeying the law.
You see, the parable of the Good Samaritan isn’t just about how we should help people in need; it’s also about the excuses we make for not helping people. What are some typical excuses we might give for not helping others?............ Right – I’m too busy; it might be dangerous; I might get too involved; it might cost me money. We, too, may be looking for the loopholes. Listen to how Jesus responds (verse 30):
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.
Before we keep reading the rest of the story, I want you to notice the cast of characters. There’s a group of robbers; there’s a man who gets robbed and beaten so badly that he is half dead. Then we have the three main characters. The first one is a priest, the most important and respected people in Israelite society. The second one is a Levite, who were assistants to the priests and also highly respected. But the third character is a big surprise. The third character is a Samaritan. It’s like saying, there’s Papa Bear, Mama Bear and a skunk. Samaritans were racially mixed people who were despised by the Jews as half-breeds and religious heretics. By using a Samaritan as the hero, Jesus is pointing out that it doesn’t matter what your background
is; it’s what you DO that counts.
Let’s continue reading, starting again at Luke 10:33:
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.’
Jesus uses the example of the “Good Samaritan” to show us a person who looked past excuses to stop and help a person in need. The Samaritan chose to take a divine detour on his highway of life. In that way he is just like Jesus Himself, who took every detour God put in His path in order to love His neighbors by serving their needs.
Song: “What would He do?”
II. The cost
The Good Samaritan responded to God’s interruption by taking a detour to help the injured man, but the detour came with a price: it was risky, he had to become personally involved, and it took time and money – the very things that we sometimes use as an excuse – a loophole - not to help people in need. Why did he do it?
The 17-mile road from Jerusalem to Jericho was known as “The Way of Blood” because of the many robberies that occurred on it. The man in the story had been stripped of his money and his clothes, beaten, and left half dead. When the Samaritan stopped to help, he knew the robbers might be near and that they might attack him next. But he didn’t use the risk as an excuse not to act. Martin Luther King Jr. commented, “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?’” The Good Samaritan’s motive was love of neighbor, and that made him willing to take a risk.
Notice also that the Good Samaritan didn’t just feel sorry for the victim and leave it at that. He didn’t wait for someone else to come along; he didn’t just call 911 or phone his pastor; he didn’t just write a check. He got involved. He got down in the ditch with the man. He bandaged up the man’s wounds, perhaps tearing strips from his own garment. He poured oil and wine from his own supplies on the wounds, standard first-aid at the time. The Good Samaritan wasn’t afraid to get personally involved.
Some people use the excuse of not wanting to get personally involved to avoid helping someone in need. But the only way to DO love of neighbor, to put your faith in action by doing loving actions, IS to get personally involved. You can’t get there by thinking loving thoughts, and you can’t pay someone else to do it for you. If you are going to love your neighbor, the only way to do it is to get personally involved.
The Good Samaritan also didn’t use his schedule as an excuse not to help. He took the time to stop, and then he slowed his progress further by putting the man on his donkey and taking him to a hotel, where he cared for the man himself that night. Would you or I have done that? Listen to this: Some years ago two Princeton University psychologists conducted a study inspired by the story of the Good Samaritan. They met individually with a group of students at Princeton Theological Seminary, and asked each one to prepare a short, talk on a given biblical theme, then walk over to a nearby building to present it. Along the way to the presentation, each student would encounter a man slumped in an alley, coughing and groaning. The question was, would they stop and help?
The psychologists also introduced three variables into the experiment. First, they gave the students a questionnaire about why they had chosen to study theology. Did they see religion as a means for spiritual fulfillment, or were they looking for a practical tool for helping people? Second, they varied the subject the students were asked to talk about. Some were assigned theories of Biblical interpretation; others were given the parable of the Good Samaritan. Finally, the experimenters varied their instructions to each student. To some the experimenter would look at his watch and say, ‘Uh-oh, you’re late. You’d better get moving.’ To others, he would say, ‘They won’t be ready for you for a while, but you might as well head over now.’
Now which students do you think stopped to help the man in the alley? You might guess that the students who entered the ministry to help people and those reminded of the importance of compassion by having just read the parable of the Good Samaritan would be the most likely to stop and help. In fact, neither of those factors made any difference. The only thing that really mattered was whether or not the student was in a rush. Of the group that thought they were running late, 10 percent stopped to help. Of the group who knew they had a few minutes to spare, 63 percent stopped.
What this study suggests, in other words, is that your schedule – how pressed you are for time in your daily life – has a huge impact on how willing you are to go out of your way to help other people. When it comes to loving our neighbors by helping those in need, the greatest ability is availability! And for most of us, disrupting our schedule by taking a detour is a big challenge.
Finally, the Good Samaritan was willing to use his own money to help a stranger. He gave the innkeeper money to take care of the man – 2 silver coins that represented 2 days’ wages - and promised that he would reimburse him for any additional costs when he returned from his trip. Contrast that with an employee in a fast-food restaurant that will remain nameless. A teen named John Michael Jasset staggered into the restaurant after being hit by a car. He had been thrown from his bike and badly scraped and bruised. But when he asked for some ice to put on his wounds, he was told he had to pay for it. The charge: 99 cents, plus five cents tax, the price of a small soda. Sometimes we justify not helping those in need because we’re afraid it’s going to hit our pocketbook. But the Good Samaritan didn’t use this as an excuse. He made financial sacrifices to help the man in need. Now that is faith in action!
III. Love takes a detour
Finally, let’s look at the end of the passage – verses 36-37.
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.”
Did Jesus answer the question “Who is my neighbor?” In a way He did. Your neighbor isn’t necessarily someone who lives next door to you or looks like you or dresses like you. Your neighbor is anyone in need, anyone who needs help. But notice that Jesus changed the focus of the question from “Who is my neighbor?” to “What kind of neighbor are you?” Now that’s a challenging question: what kind of neighbor am I? Would you want yourself as a neighbor? Would you want yourself to be the one to show up at the scene of an accident? Would you stay on your normal route or would you take a divine detour because Jesus says that loving God and others is the most important thing we can do?
The Good Samaritan was willing to take a detour – to go out of his way – to help someone else, even at the cost of risk, personal involvement, time, and money. As Christians, we have the privilege and the obligation of doing likewise. Our spiritual journey calls us beyond managing our to-do lists and into a FAITH IN ACTION lifestyle that welcomes divine detours—opportunities to demonstrate God’s love to people in need.
So this week I want to encourage you to get off your normal beaten path of life. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Look around your everyday life and ask yourself “what would Jesus do?” Maybe it’s visiting someone in the hospital or a nursing home. Maybe it’s making an extra casserole and taking it to a widow or widower in your neighborhood. Maybe it’s volunteering to baby-sit for a single mom. Maybe it’s sitting down and writing a letter to a soldier oversees. Maybe it’s making a phone call to a lonely friend. It’s all about love. And love takes detours.