FBC Morning Light – March 17, 2023

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading Numbers 31 and 32, Luke 10, and Psalm 54, scripture readings of the day. I want to focus on Luke 10. There's a lot in Luke 10 we could look at, but one, of course, I think is probably most challenging to us is one of the parables that Jesus told in response to the question, who's my neighbor?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Who's my neighbor? Jesus tells this story of the parable, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and you're very familiar with it, I'm sure. If not, then let me encourage you to go back to Luke 10, if you haven't already read it today, and read through that chapter.

But here's this parable of a story of a man who falls among thieves. He's beaten and he's left to die on the side of the road. A priest comes by, sees him lying there, doesn't want to be defiled with this pitiable creature, and passes off the other side.

Same with a couple of Levites. Finally, a Samaritan comes, and the Samaritan takes the guy up. He binds his wounds, he pours oil and ointment in him, and takes him to an inn until the guy can recover from his injuries, and offers to pay the expenses of the innkeeper to take care of this guy who's been so brutally treated.

Jesus, at the end of that parable, asks the question, who was the neighbor? Who was the neighbor? It was the one who cared for him, who showed compassion and mercy on the brutally beaten man. Go and do likewise.

Go and be that neighbor to somebody else. Every time I read that parable, I ask myself, where am I in that parable? Am I the Samaritan? Am I one of the Levites? Am I the priest? In my position as a pastor, a lot of times I'm here by myself most of the time, and oftentimes I'll get phone calls, people calling and asking for help.

Those are some of the most gut-wrenching things, decisions, and so forth I have to make, because I don't want to be that priest. I don't want to be that Levite. Yet, at the same time, how easily the church is scammed.

I don't want to be irresponsible either. We had a couple in our community, actually the region, that was making a practice of going to all the churches and hitting up the churches to get money from them.

They were getting very belligerent in the process. They were almost demanding that we help them. Fortunately, by the time they came to our church, the story had gotten around, their reputation had preceded them, and we were effective at just ushering them out.

When you don't know that kind of a background, and you get this couple come in, they've got this heart-wrenching story. I want to have a heart that wants to help. I don't want to be irresponsible, but I do want to help.

Sometimes I know I have helped people, and gotten taken. Give them gas in their car, or something like that, some cash to get something to eat, and gotten taken. I know that. But I appreciate a perspective that I got from the pastor who was a good mentor of mine many years ago.

I was an assistant under him. This is a larger church ministry. The church had a small bus ministry. There were three buses that the church operated. Because they did, they had a gas pump on the property, so they could fuel up the buses every week.

From time to time, people would come and want help with gas. If we were going to help them, we would just take them around to the gas pump around back by the bus garage, and fill up their tank with gas.

I had this opportunity one time. A guy came in, or a couple came in. They said they needed help with gas, help with fuel, or whatever. I talked to them. I got their story. They said they were from Ohio or somewhere, and they were just needing to get to Illinois, and so forth.

I figured out I should go ahead and give them gas. I took them out, took them to the gas pump, filled up their tank with gas. But while I was doing so, I noticed the license plate on the back of their van.

It wasn't an Ohio license plate, it was actually a California license plate. I thought, okay, this is interesting. Their story was that they were passing through, and they were out of gas, and they needed to get to Illinois to see a parent that was ailing, or something of that nature.

About a week and a half later, I was making some calls, and I was in this particular neighborhood about two miles from the church. Lo and behold, there's that van. It's sitting in the driveway of a house, and the license plate on the back of the van still said California on it.

I'm thinking, we got taken. I figured we got taken when I first saw that license plate, but then I knew it for sure. I went to the pastor after that encounter, and I said, hey, I feel really bad, this is what happened.

He said, look, Brian, I would much rather have a generous heart and a compassionate heart that gets taken advantage of from time to time, than to be a cold-hearted priest that walks by on the other side.

That stuck with me through the years. I wish I could have said that I've always been the kind-hearted, compassionate person toward those in need. Sometimes I've probably been too quick to say no, but nevertheless, it has given me a perspective to be willing to be taken advantage of, rather than to be hard and cold-hearted.

Let that challenge us today. Father, help us to be that good Samaritan, and this we pray in Jesus' name. All right, well, listen, have a good rest of your Thursday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it.