5-5-2014

Good Morning All,

        Luke 10:30; “Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” 

     This is the start of one of the most famous parables, “The Good Samaritan.” This is a very common story but it may go a little different than you think.  We often hear this and think that this guy had some really bad luck. He went to Jericho and was robbed.  Yet didn’t he know that this was a dangerous route?  He should have; he should have known that it was a bad idea to go down that path by himself.  It was dangerous but he went anyway.  After he was robbed and beat up, two people who he should have been able to count on, a Levite and a priest, walked by not even stopping.  His help came from a completely unexpected source. He was only helped by a Samaritan.

    Sometimes, we just make a wrong decision like the man in our story.  We take a course of action that is inadvisable.  We can call that “temptation.”  We know better, we know it will only end badly but we do it anyway.  Once we give into temptation, the devil and his demons fall upon us like thieves in the dark.  He will beat you up, steal all you have and leave for dead.  But you won’t be dead, not yet; he will leave you there to suffer some more.  That is what sin really does to us, it beats us up and leaves us destroyed.

    Now we may think that we can handle it, or at least deal with it.  We may even have a couple of ideas of how to deal with the destruction.  We may think we can just handle it, we may think we can lie our way through it, we may think someone (parents or spouse or friend) will just bail us out, we may think that no one will ever know.  Yet when sin hits us with the guilt and the accusations.  We cannot hide from what we did, we know and deep down it hurts us, deeply hurts.  It paralyzes us; it leaves us suffering almost dead.

    It leaves us to where we cannot do anything to help our self.  There is only one way for us to be saved from the ravages of sin, God himself had to step in and save us.  In our life, Jesus is the only answer.  He is our only hope.  He picks us up, pays for our recovery and will pay for future “expenses” (sins).  This is our only hope all others will fail.  So the great news is that we can trust in that hope with the certainty of God’s promised mercy and saving grace in our lives.  Even when we make really bad choices, he comes to save us and to rescue us from sin.

Father, in your mercy, you have sent Jesus to rescue us form sin.  You have rescued us from the devil and his torments.  Keep us safe on our travels.  Keep us free from temptation.  Guard us by your Spirit.  Be with those who are especially hurting at this time.  Be with those who are beaten and left along the side of the road.  Use us as your hands and feet to deliver them by your grace.  Bring them safely home.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret