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2. The Hope Killing Answer. Brought face to face with facts the situation is a hopeless one. No mere . man has, or ever can come up to this standard. No reader of these words has ever come up to it. There is no hope for any of us from the law, which we have broken and which condemns us. HI. The Awakened Conseience. 1. On the Defensive. The lawyer knew the Master was right. His conscience was aroused by the quiet answer that had pierced his self-righteousness. He tried to excuse himself for his conscious failure. That is just what men do today when con- science/ is awakened by the Spirit’s thrust. 2. Seeking Light. There could be no question as to who “ the Lord thy God’’ of the first com mandment was, but it might be ques tioned as to whom the law meant by “ neighbor” in the second. The Giver of1 the law was the very best person to ask for light on its meaning. Are you in doubt as to some important moral or It is only a sixteen mile* journey from Jerusalem to Jericho, and it was really down hill, Jericho in the Jordan Valley lying nearly 3000 feet below the capital. The unfortunate traveler was left desti- ' tute, naked, half dead, in a helpless plight,— a picture of you and me. • 2. The Heartless Formalists. There were two, a priest and a Levite, both “ religious” men, employed in the public worship of God. Their getting near to God’s altar had not drawn them near to God’s heart, and they passed the man in need, without even trying to help him. So today many “ religious” men do. 3. The Compassionate Stranger. He was. an alien, a man of a different race, a hated Samaritan. How this must have cut the lawyer! A Jew passed by two Jews, and helped by a Samaritan. spiritual matter? Ask Him. IV. The Neighbor Defined. 1. The Helpless Sufferer.
How like the Lord who had just been refused passage through Samaria, to make the compassionate traveler, a Samaritan. 4. The Personal Contact. The Samaritan was on business, but that had to wait until something more important was done. Money had to wait on mercy. The Samaritan gave not merely money, but his own time and effort; he walked_so that the sufferer might ride, he cared for him personally, not by proxy. It is far easier to get men to give money to pay some one else to do Christian work, than to get them to do the work themselves. This may be perfectly right sometimes, and doubtless it is. But should a Christian man ever be so busy making money as to have' no time to do something himself, now and again? The living, loving personality of the giver always outweighs the gift, and the latter without the former is comparatively worthless. When God gave, He gave Himself. Jesus gave Him self, not something hd possessed and could spare. 5. The Loving Provision. In addition to His own personal min istry, the Samaritan provided generously for the sufferer’s future, making himself responsible for-it. 6. The Self Answering Question.- The Master’s closing question admit ted of but one answer,— not the priest, nor the Levite, but the Samaritan was neighbor to the suffering Jew. The neighbor meant in the law then, is any man in need, and the neighbor obliga tion is made by any man who helps him. I wonder what some of our perfectly conscientious pacifist friends think the good Samaritan would have done had he come down the road while the rob bers were still beating the poor Jew. Can it be seriously doubted that he would have tried, at least, to drive them off and rescue the man? I, for one, cannot imagine, the good Samari tan standing by the side of the road
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