make HIM famous at work

If you have spent any time at all in any worship barns throughout the land, you have probably heard a preacher, sunday school teacher or someone refer to the good samaritan. It’s a story we can find inLuke 10:25 The scene is one we see quite a bit in Jesus’ earthly journey. the boys that “had it figured out, who had all the answers” (religious leaders, pharisees etc) were busy lobbing questions over to Jesus. Questions that were not offered with a motive for them to better understand, but with a motive to try and “prove” something, and yet even with their squed motives, the questions did prove that Jesus is exactly who He said He is and that is the Messiah. 

The religious leader asked Jesus “what is the greatest commandment?” But instead of answering the question directly, Jesus answers with His own question, what does the law of Moses say? Kuddos to the ol boy Jesus was chatting with as he belted this one out of the park (knowledge without heart attachment). yet something was missing and Jesus knew it. Jesus said (bivo paraphase) RIGHT ON, wowzie, now do this, meaning love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” and live! But you see the religious scholar motive shows loud and clear when, in what i believe to be a school yard voice asks….”who is my neighbor”? and Jesus tells the story that most are familiar where the man is left for dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest passes by doesn’t stop, a temple assistant passes by doesn’t stop and then the samaritan stops and helps….remember (read Luke 10:25-37)

uh ok bivo so what does this have to do with making Jesus famous at work?

for just a moment….

look at the relationship between the samaritan and the inn keeper….they had to have a neat relationship, they had to know each other.

 Look at v35 if the cost is more ill pay you when i return.. so there was frequency here, a pattern, a rythm to how the samaritan was traveling….I’ll pay you when I return, the innkeeper knew and trusted this statement from the samaritan……I believe their relationship and how is started is not that much different than our daily travels…

The relationship between the innkeeper and samaritan may have started out like ours when we stop at the same places in our daily, weekly, monthly travels… the folks recognize us, we recognize them, few cordial have a great day’s then after weeks, days, months, the conversation starts to turn into asking questions about each other, few more visits, missed you last week statements along with are you and the family ok or few breaks at the water cooler (do companies even have these anymore?)that shed light underneath the surface of our “everything is fine mask”

or moms/dads that are home schoolers or stay home parents that are circling with some of the same faces, the discussion of kids slowly starts to turn to what and how you believe is the best way to live life as you listen to how one another navigate through decisions and circumstances in life..discussions of marraige and dreams pop into the conversation. Slowly as we have these surface conversations, we do provide others glimpses of who we underneath these now partial well it’s not always good masks….

Wouldn’t that make sense? I mean look at the friendship between the samaritan and the innkeeper it was a friendship that had enough cultivated in each other that when it was time to go. The innkeeper shows no resistance to carry on what the samaritan started…it was the next day, the samaritan leaves him what in our day is 2 days worth of wages to continue to the care, and let’s him know if he is still here and more is needed, just let me know…..how would the samaritan know or feel safe enough to even ask? 

he is leaving someone that has been left for dead on a road that others take a peek and say no thanks i’ll “pretend” not to have seen this and move on

the inn keeper showed compassion and mercy to the Samaritan first….didnt he?…

Beause don’t you think the samaritan had to know the inn keeper was SAFE. That the inkeeper’s inn was A REFUGE.

dont you think that a person like the samaritan, who was labeled as despised by the world that he traveled in. A person who could sniff out hate, deceit, racism from a mile away would know if this guy, the innkeeper, was safe? YOU BET HE COULD. The samaritan understood what if felt like not to receive compassion (suffer with)…and Don’t we? We too understand on both sides. The feeling of ignoring and being ignored.  So the one “despised” had to have experienced compassion and mercy from this inn keeper, or that deal NEVER goes down

Remember this is a story Jesus used to illustrate who had mercy, and yet i know that much is not written about the samaritan and innkeeper’s relationship and for most, the relationship between these two hasn’t been the central piece and that’s cool. But how funny would it have been, just if, just if….knowing that in the days of Jesus the number of inns on any given stretch of road between cities was minimal. I mean Holiday Inn Expresses were not on every exit. What if the priest and the temple assistant had stopped to stay at the same inn and maybe if we are going to go there, they stayed in their secrets until the doors flew open and in came the samaritan with the man that not too long ago they passed by. HAHAHAHa…. man o man wouldn’t that not be hilarious? HAHAHAHa….wonder how fast they would have fled or maybe before they fled in their secrets. They witnessed not only the love of the samaritan for this man left for dead on the road, but they witnessed the love between the innkeeper and samaritan as they served together to care for this man. It was if they innkeeper and samaritan were brothers. 

the innkeeper was making HIM famous at his inn!

I believe understood everyone was made in the image and deserved to be loved. I also believed that he knew He was loved by someone WAY bigger than himself, his and our creator, so he could love dig himself and pour out to others. I believe he answered the question of what is the greatest commandment a whole lot better with his life than the religious boy did with his words. 

love em up!