Heart Service, Not Lip Service!
Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklitpower and Trench Classes United. I’m so glad you could join us today for a little break, a little something from my heart to yours! Let’s get back to Luke 10 and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
So we’ve been sitting in verses 33 and 34 for a few Mondays and have discovered five characteristics that model how to neighbor. Today, we will look at the sixth one. In verse 35, Jesus tells us that when the Samaritan departed the next day, “…he took out two denari, gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him”….
It’s interesting that Jesus uses the story of the good but despised Samaritan to make clear to us how we should neighbor who we neighbor. The more I read into this parable, the more I see that Jesus looks at the heart; it’s all about the attitude of the heart. Did you know that a denari was the equivalent of a day’s wage for the Samaritan? The Samaritan left the innkeeper with two days’ wages and didn’t even flinch! Jesus asks that whatever we do or give, to do and give freely. In other words, we need to check our attitudes which flow from the heart. Let’s look at the attitudes of the other people involved in this parable:
The lawyer actually treated the wounded man as a subject to discuss and debate, perhaps with the thought of even tricking Jesus. Now, let’s bring this closer to us: How many of us sit around talking about the needs of others without doing something about it? This is lip service, not heart service! Isaiah 29:13 talks about this: “Therefore the Lord said, ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men’”… The Lord has the video camera into every crevice of our heart!
The thieves harmed and wounded the man, treated him as someone to use and exploit. We should never use someone’s loss for our gain in any way; in other words, when someone is down, do we take advantage? Or when/if we help someone who is down, what is our motive? Another motive that can be kind of sticky is pity: When we help our less-fortunate neighbor, we need to do so with a sense of respect. Respect Jesus style isn’t earned: It’s letting someone be who they are right where they are! We need to remember to do a heart check! Philippians 2:3 reminds us of this very thing: “Let nothing be done of selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
The priest and the Levite, aka, the religious ones, treated him as if he weren’t even there, a potential problem that they didn’t want to involve themselves with or in. Oh, how true it is that the church is really a hospital and all of us its patients! Shouldn’t we be asking Jesus to help us see what He sees, how He sees when He sees? When we come upon our neighbor, if we don’t make the time to take the time to learn, to listen and to remember, have we really neighbored?
And then there is the innkeeper who gets to serve for a fee. Does it always have to be about payment? To do something without the expectation of payment is a dual blessing, and often it’s difficult to distinguish who gets blessed more, the giver or the receiver. Acts 20:35 reminds us of Jesus’ words; that it is more blessed than to receive.
Oh, how blessed I am to know that though I have demonstrated each and every one of these attitudes, I, just like these in the parable am not condemned but a work in progress as I strive to be a better neighbor, a better representative of Christ!
Happy neighboring, friend.
Evinda
No comments:
Post a Comment