July 15, 2007 Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “It’s All About Love”
Series: None
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on July 15, 2007
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 10:25
It’s All About Love
You’ve probably never heard of a man named Charles Proteus Steinmetz, but you and I benefit from his amazing intelligence every day of our lives. Steinmetz was the inventor of alternating current. Alternating Current, or “AC,” is what makes it possible for you and me to have electricity in our homes. Steinmetz was an electrical genius and was personally responsible for over 200 patents. He hung out with guys named Edison, Marconi, and Einstein. He was also one of the founding fathers of a little old company known as General Electric. There’s a supposedly true story that one day, many years after he retired from GE, Steinmetz was called out of retirement to help them locate a problem in an intricate system of complex machines. Having spent some time tinkering with, and testing, various parts of the system, he finally placed a tiny chalk-marked 'X' on a small component in one machine. GE's engineers promptly examined the component, and were amazed to find the defect in the precise location of Steinmetz's mark. A few days later, GE received an invoice from the wily engineer - for $10,000 (an enormous sum in that day). Incredulous, they protested the bill and challenged him to itemize it. And so he did, as follows: Item 1: "One chalk mark: cost: $1.” Item 2: “Knowing where to place said chalk mark: cost: $9,999.”
That story reminds me of the MasterCard ads, you know the ones, the “Priceless" commercials. Each ad begins with a list of stuff along with a matching set of prices. Things like, “Canoe rental: $15, ice cream cone: $2.50, Sunglasses: $5.” Then comes a phrase identifying some intangible that can't be purchased: “Day at the park with your daughter.” And then they say the single word, “Priceless.” As MasterCard goes on to say in that commercial, “There are some things money can't buy.”
Well this
morning, I’m glad you are here because today, I’m going to tell you exactly
where to place the “X” mark in your life. I’m going to give you the “priceless”
answer you’ve been looking for all your life—it’s something that money can’t
buy, it’s too valuable. Do you know what I’m going to give you? I’m going to
give you the answer to a question – to “THE” question, the most important
question in life. And that question is, “What’s it all about?” “What is the answer to life?”
It’s the question a whippersnapper lawyer stood up and asked Jesus one day as he was teaching. Oh, the lawyer used “code” to ask it – he used the symbolic language of religion. He asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And that
question stimulated more questions—back and forth between the lawyer and
Jesus. In response to the lawyer’s
question, Jesus asked him a question: “What
is written in the law? What do you read there?” And the lawyer responded
wisely and then followed that up with another question: “And who is my neighbor?” To which Jesus responded by telling the
parable of the Good Samaritan. And then as he wrapped up his parable, Jesus
asked the lawyer another question, “Which
of these was a neighbor to the injured man?”
In other words, our text today is full of questions—I count five questions in all. But questions aren’t bad. Questions are good! We learn by asking questions. Charles Steinmetz, the electrical engineer I mentioned as I began my remarks, got as smart as he was by asking questions and seeking answers. In fact, he was once quoted as saying, “There are no foolish questions and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.” So questions can help us, especially questions of the magnitude that were being asked in this passage.
Well, thankfully the passage we read also gives us answers. Or perhaps I should restate that, it gives us “THE” answer. The chalk-mark, the “$9,999” answer, better yet, the “priceless” answer.
What’s it all about? What is life all about? What’s the “secret of life?” What’s the answer to the question? Jesus tells us in this passage—are you ready? It’s all About Love. Love is the “chalk-mark” of Christianity. Love is the chalk-mark of life. Take all of life…all the “stuff” of life…your relationships, your work life, your recreation, your possessions—take it all and throw it in a pot and boil it all down to what’s left in the bottom of the pot and you’ll find there, behind it all, lies love. Love is the answer.
Jesus taught this truth over and over again in his preaching and teaching. By the time Jesus arrived on the scene the religious leaders of his day had taken God’s 10 Commandments and inflated them to 613 rules and regulations about how to conduct your life. These religious leaders had made an art form of classifying all the various laws and giving them varying degrees of importance. Once when asked by these leaders to sum up all the “Law and the Prophets” Jesus condensed them all to just two things: “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself” (See Matt. 22:36-40). “The answer to your question,” Jesus said, “is love.” In fact, the lawyer questioning Jesus in today’s passage must’ve been present that day because he quoted Jesus (who was quoting the OT) when Jesus asked him a question. Again, God originally gave 10, we pumped it up to 613, then Jesus reduced it to two—actually to one—one word….love. It’s all about love.
The Apostle Paul agreed that it’s all about love. Turn over to Galatians 5:14, there Paul says, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (RSV). Paul repeats this several more times, Romans 13:9 says, “For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (RSV). Last night I officiated at a wedding and I read more of Paul’s words, remember those famous words read so frequently at weddings? “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). I can also give you passages in James, in 1 Peter, in 1 John, and elsewhere that affirm this “chalk-mark truth.” The Bible states it very clearly and over and over again so there can be no possible misunderstanding: it’s all about love.
But if it’s all about love, what is love all about? What does that mean to love God and your neighbor as yourself? It would take a year of sermons to scratch the surface of what it means to do that. But what we can do this morning is look at this particular passage to see what the kind of love Jesus taught about looks like. Let’s look at what love looks like in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
LOVE SERVES
First of all LOVE SERVES. Love DOES SOMETHING. Love is about doing something for someone other than yourself, serving them. Notice in the parable Jesus says, “Do this and you will live (10:28).” He specifically does not say, “Believe this and you will live.” In that sense, love is not primarily about believing something, it’s about doing something. The first two guys who happened by the injured man were religious men who believed: a priest and a Levite are both religious officials. They believed and yet they crossed the road and passed by on the other side. The third man to encounter the beaten man was a Samaritan, not a “believer.” Look at what he did: He went to him and bandaged his wounds, he put him on his own animal, he brought him to an inn, and took care of him, then as he left him, he took care of the man’s future needs. That’s a whole lot of sacrificial serving: It took his time (out of the way), it took his money (he gave two denarii to the innkeeper), it took risk (the injured man could’ve been a robber), and it took follow-up; the Samaritan said he’d be back to repay the innkeeper whatever more it cost to care for the injured man.
Here’s another way to think about this: religion is about belief, intellectual assent. True faith, the kind God rewards is about love—it’s about relationship. Love serves, love acts.
In the spring of
1883 two young men graduated from medical school. The two differed from one
another in both appearance and ambition. Ben was short and stocky. Will was
tall and thin. Ben dreamed of practicing medicine on the East Coast. Will
wanted to work in a rural community. Ben begged his friend to go to
LOVE IS SURPRISING
Notice, second
of all in this story, that LOVE IS SURPRISING.
The kind of love Jesus describes in the parable of the Good Samaritan serves
those outside your comfort zone. Let’s face it, everybody should love those in their own “circle,” that’s
not difficult, and it’s expected. But God’s kind of love reaches beyond the
lovable to the unlovable. It moves beyond “your group” to “them.” The kind of
love Jesus describes he describes elsewhere as “loving your enemies” In Matt.
5:43-44 Jesus says, “You have heard that
it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell
you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The guy in
this story was a Samaritan taking care of a Jew. The modern day equivalent of
this in the middle east would be a Palestinian saving the life of a Jew. In
This facet takes the kind of love Jesus describes
in this story from the earthly and plausible to the supernatural and
implausible.
I read a story about a pastor in
That’s the surprising kind of love called for in
the parable of the Good Samaritan.
LOVE IS SELFLESS
The love that is the answer serves and is surprising, but there’s also a third thing I want you to notice about the kind of love Jesus describes in this story. This kind of love is totally SELFLESS. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that selflessness is the key to understanding the kind of love Jesus describes here and elsewhere in Scripture.
I’ve heard Jesus’ summation of the law to “love God and love others as yourself” preached basically as a sermon on self-esteem. People go on and on about how you’ve got to love yourself first before you can love others. I agree with that premise, but all too often that message gets garbled in translation to mean, “It’s all about me.” And you know what? It’s not – it’s not about you or me, it’s all about love, and that love must be selfless love, the kind that puts others ahead of yourself. That’s really the whole message of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The guy put the interest of someone else ahead of his own interests. And let’s be honest, that’s not easy, is it?
The kind of “priceless,” “chalk-mark love” described in the parable of the Good Samaritan, the kind of love that is “the” answer to the question, manifests itself through serving others, it’s surprising, and it’s selfless. This kind of love is, of course, best exemplified through the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ himself. But is such a love a possibility for you and me? How do we get that kind of love? It seems impossible. Did Jesus just describe it and dangle it before us as some sort of unattainable goal in life to make us miserable?
The answer to that question (remember, there are no foolish questions and you only become foolish when you stop asking questions)…the answer to that question is that such love is unattainable – by that I mean you can’t attain it, but you can receive it from Christ. It’s a gift of God. In our own flawed human nature, it’s impossible to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, mainly because we can’t get ourselves and our own interests out of the way long enough to love God and others. We’re wired that way. Oh sure, a few people may come close every once and a while (Mother Teresa comes to mind), but most people can’t even come close. But when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, he sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within you, transforming your flawed nature inch by inch into a more Christ-like, loving nature. Only then are we able to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We can’t attain it, it’s a gift freely given that must be received.
Let me ask you this morning. Do you have the kind of serving, surprising, selfless love described in the Parable of the Good Samaritan? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Do you realize that “love is the answer?” The kind of love I’ve described to you this morning?
There is nothing on earth more important or valuable than this kind of love. This love that comes as a gift of salvation is “THE” answer; it’s the “chalk-mark,” it’s “priceless.” Do me a favor, ask yourself, “What is the best thing that ever happened to me?” If you’re like me I’m sure you can think of many wonderful things: your spouse, your children, your job, winning the lottery, etc. But what are all these worth, compared to receiving the gift of salvation. The gift that includes the kind of love I’ve been describing this morning? What are all the riches of this world in comparison with that?
The story is
told of a rich tycoon who wanted to "take it with him" when he died.
After the rich man’s high-powered lawyers negotiated with God, permission was
finally given and a bargain reached: The man was allowed to bring one suitcase
only of his earthly wealth. He filled his one large suitcase with ingots of
gold, those bars of gold like they have at
Nothing on this earth is worth trading for eternal life. It’s the “chalk-line,” it’s “priceless!” The dust of heaven is more valuable than the finest gold of earth. Believers are heirs of riches beyond comprehension. That is your heritage if you’ve made Him your Savior and Lord.
And so this morning I ask again. Have you trusted Jesus Christ with your life? Are you daily becoming more loving in the serving, surprising, selfless love of Jesus Christ? If not, then make today the day you change course in life. Receive him as Lord or rededicate your life to Him now… Will you do that? Let’s Pray.