Extravagance
Sometimes, it is important to know what comes before, before you can fully understand what comes afterward. This week we look at the well known story of the "Good Samaritan." But to fully catch what is happening here, you need to read what comes just before. Take a moment to notice what comes before in the earlier verses of chapter 10:
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road . . .
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
22 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
Notice that Jesus says there is something important, unexpected, amazing that is happening here! A glimpse into reality that many miss. Something that prophets and kings longed to understand, and it was now being made plain to them. And now, Jesus tells the story.
The expert in the law is shown what the law is really all about. Jesus turns the world of this expert upside down as he helps him to see what children more easily grasp. The way that God loves. The way that God invites us to live and love. A way of life that is not all about who is in or who is out - who is orthodox or who is unorthodox - but who it is that embodies what the law is really all about. "Go and be like that!" Jesus says!
But what is "that"? It's not just about being nice to people in need. It is about living at a level of extravagant generosity and grace on the inside that results in seeing people and relating to them in an entirely different way. Once we realize the extent to which we have been embraces with extravagant grace, the more we will see others differently, and find that we are living differently as well. This is not about doing the right thing even when it's hard, it's about hardly being able to do anything else because we understand the extravagant grace of God, extended to all of us.
Luke 10:25-37 (TNIV)
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 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’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 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. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] 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.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Footnotes:
Luke 10:27 Deut. 6:5
Luke 10:27 Lev. 19:18
Luke 10:35 A denarius was the daily wage of a day laborer (see Matt. 20:2).
A Story of Extravagance
Notice the place where images of God's extravagant love and grace is reflected in the imagery of the story of the Good Samaritan that Jesus tells.
. . . in looking beyond racial and religious labels
. . . in caring enough to pause, bind up, and bring relief to the wounds of another
. . . in offering both time and resources to those in need
. . . in caring about the persons future
Reflect on each of the above as an outgrowth of a live that has been touched by, immersed in, and motivated by grace, perhaps even extravagant grace . . . that thing that the wise often seek after and miss, and which children more readily understand!
Take a moment to dream about how things might be this coming week if you were to more fully grasp the extent and extravagance of the grace that has been extended to you . . .
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