Getting Love Right

Sunday Morning Podcast | The Moody Church

]One of the hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry is His use of parables, short and powerful stories jam-packed with spiritual insights and timeless lessons. 2,000 years later, we’re still unpacking these brilliant tales. Today we get the privilege of diving into one of the most famous of all Jesus’ parables: The Good Samaritan. Like many of Jesus’ stories... this Parable of the Good Samaritan is given in a very specific setting. Jesus isn’t telling a random story; it’s a story with intent. Jesus is speaking into real life with these parables. In the case of The Good Samaritan, this story is purposefully sandwiched between two events: A Lawyer’s Question and Two Sisters at Odds. The Good Samaritan is the link that connects everything. The Lawyer An expert in the Old Testament Law has come to test Jesus. He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer is to love God and love your neighbor. Keep Love Before You God desires, deserves, and demands our loving allegiance—heart, soul, body, and mind. Our love for our neighbor should be radical, boundless, holistic and demanding. The Neighbor In response to the lawyer’s question, Jesus tells a story to illustrate exactly who a neighbor is. What kind of love does God require? To do what that Good Samaritan did. When he found a person in need, a person who could have been anyone, of any nationality, any race, any socio-economic background, any political class, any moral condition, he poured himself out in self-sacrificing compassion, care, and self-giving love. Be a loving neighbor of all. Don’t do what the Priest and Levite did. They divorced their Love of God from their Love of Neighbor. They made it their careers to be all about the Love of God, but when they met a man in desperate need, they failed to love their neighbor as themselves. And in doing so, they failed to Love God as well, for it is He who made that man in His own image. Jesus is teaching us to: Keep Love Together We cannot separate these commandments: To Love our God Love our Neighbor We cannot delude ourselves into thinking we love our God while we neglect the love of our neighbor. Here’s the real litmus test of my love for God: How am being a loving neighbor to those around me? Not just the people in my tribe, my group, my family, or my allies. But how am I loving those people? The Love of God and the Love of Neighbor always go together. They are inseparable because they are one: the Vertical and the Horizonal, it is a cross-shaped love. For upon the cross we behold the Love of God and the Love of Neighbor united in perfect fullness and harmony, and that is our pattern. The Sisters The scene shifts to the house of Mary and Martha, where Martha is hustling and bustling about, taking care of everyone, pulling together a huge meal, and making sure everyone’s glasses are filled. Meanwhile, her sister Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, drinking in His every word. Martha gets annoyed at Mary who is doing nothing when Martha’s so obviously frazzled. Do you see why this story comes on the heels of the previous accounts? Remember, all of this began with a question about what God requires of us in the Law of Love? He requires us to Love our God and Love our Neighbor. If the Priest and the Levite show us what it looks like when we try to Love God while failing to Love our Neighbor, Martha shows us what it looks like when we try to Love our Neighbor and end up failing to Love our God. Martha was so distracted with serving others, even doing things on behalf of Jesus, that she forgot to cultivate Love for Jesus. On the other hand, Mary chose the good portion. Mary chose Jesus. Mary put the Love of God first. Keep Love in Order: We will never love our neighbor sufficiently, unless we love our God supremely. We love, because He first loved us. His love is bestowed upon us freely by grace. His love then summons our love in response. His love then compels our love for others. His love supplies and sustains our love for others Takeaway: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”