Upside-Down Christmas: Luke 10

Luke 10

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Hey, hey! And welcome back to our podcast called “Upside Down Christmas” where we’re tracing the theme of the kind of upside down nature of the kingdom of God. And we’re doing that by just going chapter by chapter through the book of Luke. Today we’re in chapter 10. And I urge you just to follow along, not just by listening; but go and read the chapter for yourself, because we’re really just scratching the surface of what’s there.

Today we’re looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan, one of the most famous of Jesus’ parables. And what you have to know is that the Samaritans were not people well-liked by the Jews, even though they were part-Jewish themselves. You see, they had intermarried with an occupying force centuries before and had some practices and beliefs that didn’t line up with orthodox Jewish customs. That’s why it’s kind of an upside down idea that a Samaritan would be the hero of the story. To the Jews, the priest should have been the hero, or at least the Levite—a kind of sub-priestly class. They were the ones who followed the torah, who were close with God.

But Jesus shows that they aren’t as close to God they imagine themselves to be because they don’t follow God’s moral law to love their neighbor as themselves. they’d very much like to be selective in who they love, discriminating in how they dole out their charity. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. (Luke 10:33)

We have this idea that right beliefs are the essence of what it means to be close to God. But what we tend to miss is that if we don’t act on those beliefs, the truth is we don’t really believe them. We may assent to them as propositional truths; but we live our lives by a different set of beliefs when we don’t live out their consequences. Nothing demonstrates that more clearly than when we see our enemies acting as the heroes we’re supposed to be. Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37)

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, forgive us for not loving others the way that we’re supposed to—the way that you’ve loved us in Christ! Teach us to renounce these ways of living that are out of step with what we believe, what you’ve commanded. Shape our hearts by your Spirit so that we would better reflect the heart of Christ. Have mercy. Amen.

Family Devotion:

Read Luke 10:25-37 or retell the story of the Good Samaritan.

Why do you thing the Levite and the Priest kept walking? Why didn’t they help?

Why do you think the Samaritan stopped?

So, according to Jesus, who is your neighbor? How can you be a good neighbor?