Skip Ryan, June 7, 2020. Key text | Luke 10:25-37
SERMON OUTLINE & QUESTIONS
Opening thoughts—
Parables contain surprises. The meaning of a parable turns on the surprise. So, look for that which you don’t expect.
What are some surprises you’ve encountered before in parables? How did the surprise impact the meaning of the parable, or flip a truth “on its head”?
A prelude—
The lawyer who comes to Jesus is not a criminal or civil lawyer. He is a lawyer in the Jewish sense—an expert on the Torah.
He wants to put Jesus to the test. What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer. What does the law say? He’s not looking for
information, but he wants to hear the lawyer’s interpretation.
The lawyer answers astutely. He brings together two passages which Jewish leaders at the time did not associate.
Deuteronomy 6:5. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength.”
Leviticus 19:19. “...but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus commends the lawyer for his insight (You have answered correctly). The lawyer saw the importance of ‘loving your neighbor as yourself’ within broader Levitical regulations.
The lawyer inquires further. Who is my neighbor? He wants to know the categories of people he can exclude; a limit to his liability.
Jesus tells a story to answer the question. This might have surprised the lawyer. He would have expected the truth to be put in logical form.
Does anything about the encounter between Jesus and the lawyer strike you? Was there anything Skip pointed out that you hadn’t considered before?
Skip taught that, in Hebrew, the words for love and obey go hand-in-hand. How might this shape the way we view the lessons of this parable?