Luke 10:25-37 | The Poor

Luke 10:25-37 | The Poor

The poor (Luke 10:25f the story of the good samaritan) - here Jesus unpacks the social obligations God requires in a healthy society. In Jesus teaching he points out that how we treat the poor and defenceless is a measure of how we value ourselves as well as God.

v 25 - A teacher of the law comes to Jesus and asks him a question. In Jesus’ time, this man would be student of the laws of God as recorded in the Old Testament in the Bible. What is the legal expert’s purpose in asking the question?

What is the question?

Examine the question closely. What kind of world view does the question assume?

What do you think eternal life means?

What did the lawyer assume about how a person receives eternal life?

Is this question important to you?

 

v 26 - Where does Jesus assume the answer to this question can be found?

What are the scriptures (or the law, depending on your translation)?

v 27 - What is the answer to the question as found in the scriptures?

v 28 - What is Jesus’ opinion of this answer?

According to this verse, what is most important to Jesus - what a person knows, what a person does, how a person relates to other people?

 

v 29 - The teacher asks Jesus a second question, “Who is my neighbour?” What is his motive for asking the question?

Why do you think he feels the need to justify himself?

How is this question going to help him justify himself?

What thoughts are going on in his mind?

What do you think he expects Jesus’ answer to be?

 

v 30-35 - How does Jesus answer the lawyer’s second question?

What is the big surprise in the story?

Why might we have expected the priest or the Levite to help?

What reasons do you think they might have had for walking by on the other side?

What reasons might the Samaritan have had for going on by like the others?

Why did he stop to help?

What is Jesus’ point in having the Samaritan exemplify brotherly love toward one’s neighbour?

In the past, which of these men have you acted like?

 

v 36-37

What final test does Jesus leave for the lawyer?

Do you think he passed the test?

 

 

What kind of person needs to hear the story that Jesus told to the lawyer?

What are people like who love God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind?

How do they relate to other people?

How would you apply this story to your own life?

How does Jesus want us to live?

Which of these three do you think was a neighbour 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 10:36-37