Introduction & ice breaker
If you could ask one question to God and know for sure you would get a true answer, what would you ask?
Themes to Consider
The man knows the answer to his question. His problem wasn’t the information he had. It was his heart.
Parables are:
Ways to show his hearers their hearts
Ways to say the offensive scandalous thing without just saying it
Ways to give them a story they can carry away and work with
Ways to show them the Kingdom of God defy the expectations that they can control
How can I make sure I end up in the right place?
Jesus directs the man to the reality that - the life you are looking for is found in relationships that you are already in or that you can begin now.
Eternal life: In the New Testament is a quality of life that can begin at any point in our life and will certainly continue forever. It is not simply something that will begin some day down the road after we die.
Jesus’ command after the parable: go and do likewise. But the nature of this parable shows that even if we have the right answers it’s not enough until we are living them and become participants with with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Eternal Life is Relationship - John 17
Who is my neighbor? Anyone in the human community you come across in need.
Discussion Questions
Can you remember a time when someone has shown you incredible kindness at their great personal cost?
Who is your neighbor who may be in need that you can help?
Caleb says: No matter who we are or where we begin we must become participants with the death and resurrection of Jesus. How do you think God is asking you to do this beginning even today?
Guided Prayer
Lord, you have said that to truly love you then I must also love my neighbor, which can be difficult when we disagree or lifestyles clash. Yet in overcoming those difficulties it is possible to see the miracle that you love someone like me. Teach us to love, Lord, as you have loved us that this world might be a better neighborhood in which to live and share.
May we look at others as if through your eyes, less judging, more loving, and seeing them, like us, as not perfect or finished but as a work in progress that will be completed in due time by your hands.
Bless the paths that cross today; the old friends and strangers with whom we might share a pleasant greeting, a smile or maybe something deeper. Grant us a word in season that might resonate within and bring a blessing to these, your precious children, Gracious God.
Lord, teach us to be good neighbors, not just to the folk who live nearby but to everyone that we meet, to see the best in, and want the best for all your precious children, who might one day return to their Father’s house and the warmth of your embrace.
Remind us often, Lord, of your words, when some would tell us otherwise, that we have neighbours in this world of ours who are your children, living in makeshift tents, refugee camps, prisons, subways, shop doorways - neighbours who are hungry, desperate, ignored, in need of the very basics of life, a new beginning, a chance of calling somewhere home.
We pray for our communities - that snapshot of humanity with all ages, backgrounds, education, employment status, politics and religious viewpoint who are our neighbours in the streets where we live.
We pray for all of them; not only those we know by name and chat to through the day, but also less familiar faces about whom we know so little and pass by with just a smile.
Bless their homes and families, and let your love and peace so shine within this community that smiles turn to conversations, and strangers become friends. We pray this through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
Supplemental Content
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” —Luke 10:25–37
Consider the picture: two official representatives of atonement as understood by the religious authorities of Jesus' day find themselves unable or unwilling to see a wounded loser as having any claim on their attention or any relevance to their work. —Robert Farrar Capon
Salvation is not some felicitous state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus' death and our resurrection in his. It comes not out of our own efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human effort whatsoever. —Robert Farrar Capon
