Watch our Livestream 10am Sundays at 10am on Sundays Give Online
“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Luke 10:25–37. “Thanks be to God.”
Sanctity of Life Sunday.
In 1973 a dark chapter in the United States began, as abortion was legalized across the country. Beginning in that year, about a million abortions a year occurred throughout the nation. The number peaked at just over 1.5 million abortions.
In June 2022 the Supreme Court passed “the Dobbs decision” (Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization), which put the issue back to the states. Now individual states can set laws for their own people.
Immediately, state laws went into effect or were passed according to the leaning of the state governments. Some states went radically pro-abortion. Many states like CA, NY, IL, MN, WA want to become what they call “sanctuary states,” which means a state where abortions have a sanctuary and it’s seen as a protected right. Many of those states have tried to pass laws to remove virtually any cost to the woman seeking an abortion.
A dozen states have outright bans on abortion (TX, IN, KY, others).
North Carolina is among 6 states with a ban past 6–12 weeks gestation (SC, GA, FL, NE, IA).
Unfortunately, abortions are actually increasing in North Carolina since the 2022 Dobbs decision. This is because of (1) the rise in abortions by the abortion pill Mifepristone and (2) the increase of people coming to North Carolina from other states to get abortions.
Our state bans abortions after 12 weeks, but over 90% of abortions happen by the 12th week.
The status of abortion in most states is dynamic. The battles are continual, and the issue continues to be debated in state legislatures and among federal judges throughout the country.
The NC Right to Life website listed 7 bills in 2024 alone in the state house and state senate put forward by Democrats to expand abortion in our state and hinder the work of crisis pregnancy centers.
All of this is to say, there’s work to be done.
This morning on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, we want to think about the cause of abortion through the lens of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.
This teaching by Jesus has great relevance to us this morning. It calls us to compassion in action. Compassion or “mercy” (Luke 10:37) is a virtue. But it is a virtue that is to be expressed. It doesn’t stop with a deep feeling of someone’s pain. It acts.
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is about both, compassion and action.
Where are we in Luke?
“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)
For the next ten chapters, he will be “journeying toward Jerusalem” (Luke 13:22; see Luke 17:11; 18:31; 19:11).
In these chapters, we have a lot of Jesus’s teaching—parables like the lost coin, lost sheep, prodigal son; the rich man and Lazarus.
And in chapter 10 we have one of the most famous parables in all of his teaching, the Good Samaritan.
We’ll work through the narrative by looking at (1) the question, (2) the parable, and (3) the call.
Prayer
“A lawyer stood up to put him to the test” (Luke 10:25).
“Lawyer” in this passage means someone who specializes in the Mosaic law.
He’s not here to ask a question, because he’s concerned about his soul. He’s here to test Jesus, because he’s an expert and he’s not so sure about Rabbi Jesus.
Jesus isn’t taking his bait. He’s playing chess, and he’s about a dozen moves ahead of this self-righteous lawyer.
His question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). Already he’s backwards, isn’t he? You don’t DO something if you’re talking about an INHERITANCE. An inheritance is a gift you receive because of the kindness of someone else.
The lawyer is confident he can DO whatever it is he’s supposed to do to receive “eternal life.” Actually, he’s confident he’s already done it.
Jesus answers by pointing to “what is written in the Law” (Luke 10:26). He directs this lawyer to the Law.
We shouldn’t miss that. For Jesus, the authoritative guide for our behavior is “what is written in the Law.” He can direct our behavior also. But he also sees what is written in the Law of Moses as an authoritative guide for our behavior.
The Lawyer gave a good answer. He cites two commandments. The first is from Deuteronomy 6:5. It’s from one of the most important passages in all the Law of Moses:
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut 6:4-5)
It is often called the Shemah. It gets its name from the opening, “Hear!”, which in Hebrew is shemah. Sometimes the prayer is referred to as shemah Yisrael after the first two words.
According to Josphus the Jewish historian writing a little than the time of Christ, the Shemah was to be prayed twice daily.
Later in Jesus’s ministry he will refer to this as the first great commandment.
But the lawyer mentioned a second commandment as well— “and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
That commandment comes from Leviticus 19:18:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Lev 19:18)
Jesus will refer to these as the two great commandments in the entire Old Testament. And further he will say,
“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:40)
In other words, if you want to summarize all that God requires in the Old Testament laws, you can look at these two commandments.
To love God and to love your neighbor are the summation of God’s moral law. Every other law “hands” on these. These are the great organizing principles to govern our behavior.
These aren’t just the two laws that organize the Old Testament. They organize the New Testament commandments as well. All that God asks of us can be summarized by the commands to love him and love our neighbor as ourselves.
That’s why when we wanted to capture what God asks of us in a vision statement for the church, we said that we are creating a church filled with people who love God, love one another, and love their neighbors as themselves.
Application: True compassion starts with the Word of God—a knowledge of the two great commandments. And with abortion, it includes a deep awareness of God’s continual stand against murder: Gen 9:5–6; Exod 20:13. His command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:28; 8:17; 9:1, 7). Without a knowledge of these commands, our compassion will be skewed.
Now when the lawyer gives this answer, Jesus approves of it. It’s likely the lawyer had heard Jesus himself say something similar.
Jesus says takes the lawyer’s word and then turns it back on him: “Do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:28). In the Greek there’s a subtle change. The lawyer asked, “what must I do?” with an aorist verb, almost implying something he would do and then check a box. “Did it. Done. I’m in.”
Jesus uses a different verb form, a present active imperative verb. “Keep doing this, and you will live.” Loving God and loving your neighbor aren’t things you do and then rest in the fact you finished the job—like cleaning out your garage. “Did it. Done.” They are things we do and continue to do...forever.
Well, the lawyer can’t handle that. It implies he maybe isn’t so right with God. But he doesn’t care about that. What he cares about is his reputation. He wants everyone around him to be impressed with just how religious and obedient he is. But the idea of having to love God and love his neighbor continually and forever means he isn’t finished. He has more to do.
Luke tells us he “desired to justify himself” (Luke 10:29). His standing before God isn’t his concern. It’s his standing in the eyes of men and of himself that he really cares about.
The lawyer keeps diminishing in our eyes. He came to test Jesus—that was bad. He thought he could DO something to INHERIT eternal life—that was bad. And now, he wants to “justify himself”.
So, he asks, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). The question implies there are people I should help and people I don’t need to help. I need to help my neighbor, but not everyone is my neighbor. So, who can I exclude from my list of people to help?
Once again, Jesus is playing chess and is a dozen moves ahead of the lawyer. The lawyer is not testing Jesus. Jesus is testing the lawyer.
To answer the lawyer’s question, Jesus tells perhaps his most famous parable.
In the story is a man “going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:30). That literally is a downhill journey of about 17 miles. But if he’s going down from Jerusalem, there’s a good chance he had been in Jerusalem for religious purposes.
On the way he’s robbed, something very common on that road, even into the 20th century.[1]
Then, three people come across this man: a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. The priest was the most elite of these three, someone entrusted with making sacrifices in the temple. He sees the man and “he passed by on the other side” (Luke 10:31).
It’s possible he assumed the man was dead. Touching a dead body would make the priest unclean for 7 days (Num 19:11–19). It’s also possible he bought into a Jewish principle of behavior that you should help good people but not evil people. To help evil people is to share in their evil (see Sirach 12:1–7). That’s not in the Old Testament but came from Jewish writings between the testaments.
Either way the result is the same: he did nothing to help.
The second man was a Levite, not quite as elite as the priest, but still a person entrusted with handling sacred things and helping with the affairs of the temple. He also “passed by on the other side” (Luke 10:32). He did nothing to help.
Now, Jesus’s audience were used to a pattern in teaching of the day, where the teacher would speak of “a priest, a Levite, and an Israelite.” Since Jesus had worked through the priest and the Levite, they were ready to hear what the “Israelite” would do. Clearly, the Israelite was going to be the hero in the story.
Not this time.
Jesus’s hero is “a Samaritan” (Luke 10:33). The third person to come across the man robbed was “a Samaritan.”
Samaritans and Jews at this time were not on friendly terms. They hadn’t been for almost a thousand years. Jews assumed Samaritans were racially mixed and religious compromisers. Samaritans assumed they had the more original claim to the place where God’s people should worship. Samaritans rejected most of the Old Testament but kept to the books of Moses.
In other words, they would have kept to the two great commandments, both of which were in the books of Moses (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18).
For the lawyer, though, a Samaritan hero was truly offensive.
Back to the parable. The Samaritan sees the same man. But now for the first time there is an actual response in the person seeing the man robbed: “when he saw him, he had compassion.”
The first two men “saw” the man—and adjusted their path so they wouldn’t touch the man or get close to him.
The Samaritan “saw him” but “had compassion.” “Have compassion” is a vivid word. It’s related to the noun for “compassion.” That noun can also refer to our internal organs, our guts.
The word captures what happens when we feel deep “compassion” for someone. There is a kind of gutteral response. When we encounter their pain it’s as if we got punched in the stomach.
This Samaritan felt something deeply when he saw the wounded man.
But he didn’t just feel compassion. His compassion was proven by action.
He took care of the man as well as he knew how. He got involved. He stepped into the messiness of this stranger’s life. Read Luke 10:34–35.
He invested effort, time, money, intentionality.
Now, he was also practical. He didn’t bring the man back to his own house and adopt him as a son. We don’t read that he changed career paths and started a non-profit for victims of violent crime.
But he did offer true and timely help to a person with a true need. He “had compassion,” and that compassion motivated him to action.
J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) gives a good summary of what Jesus is calling us to:
Now, if these words mean anything, a Christian ought to be ready to show kindness and brotherly love to every one that is in need. Our kindness must not merely extend to our families, and friends, and relations. We must love all men, and be kind to all, whenever occasion requires. We must beware of an excessive strictness in scrutinizing the past lives of those who need our aid. Are they in real trouble? Are they in real distress? Do they really want help? Then, according to the teaching of this parable, we ought to be ready to assist them. We should regard the whole world as our parish, and the whole race of mankind as our neighbors. We should seek to be the friend of every one who is oppressed, or neglected, or afflicted, or sick, or in prison, or poor, or an orphan, or a heathen, or a slave,...or starving, or dying. We should exhibit such world-wide friendship, no doubt, wisely, discreetly, and with good sense. The ungodly may sneer at it as extravagance and fanatacism. But we neeed not mind that. To be friendly to all men in this way, is to show something of the mind that was in Christ.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke[2]
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
The Samaritan “saw” and “had compassion.” One of the reasons we continue to do Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is to help us “see” some of the realities of abortion in America.
In a typical day or week or even year, we might not be confronted by the realities of it at all. This Sunday we remind ourselves of something happening almost a million times a year in the US.
Read Luke 10:36–37.
Now we get to the punchline. Here Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer and asks him a question: “Which one proved to be a neighbor to the man in need?”
The lawyer can’t even bring himself to say the word, “Samaritan.” He calls him “the one who showed him mercy.”
Jesus tells him to model his life after this good Samaritan. “Do likewise.” The Samaritan models what it looks like to love God and your neighbor.
If the lawyer was humble at this point, he’d realize something. He’d realize, “My problem is not what I’m doing or not doing. My problem is what I am. What I am is not good and needs to be changed. If I change, what I do will also change. What I do simply reveals what I am.”
The lawyer needed what we all need: conversion. Conversion changes us to become the type of people we need to be in order to do good to others.
In our Romans series we’ve been thinking about what we are APART FROM CHRIST. Apart from Christ, “no one does good, not even one” (Rom 3:12).
But when I am converted by Christ and become a new person in Christ, then I can do good works. I will do the good works prepared for me by Christ.
The good Samaritan story speaks to us at two levels:
Dave and Donna are members of our church who have been involved with Gateway Women’s Care in Raleigh.
It’s a crisis pregnancy center. Recently I asked them about their work, and Donna wrote me this:
The service we provide overall relates to the Good Samaritan story very well. Each client who comes to Gateway Women's Care has their own unique story; however, how we seek to help each one follows a similar pattern. In our training we are taught to think of ourselves as first responders. We are often one of the first, if not the first person the client talks to about her unplanned pregnancy. We first seek to carefully listen to them to learn how we can best help them with their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We then offer them information and referrals and ultrasounds according to their needs and wishes. The different ways we can offer help is a long list. We seek to care for them with the sincere love of Jesus while not pushing an agenda. As we talk a client through her options and the many kinds of support that are available to her, she often feels calmer, encouraged and hopeful. We believe that being pro life means that we not only care about the unborn, but also the women who find themselves in hard places. Often when we are done meeting with a client they ask if they can hug us! Like the Good Samaritan we see the hurt these women are experiencing, nurse their particular needs, and direct them to continued care. I believe the service offered at Gateway Women's Care is one example of how to love our neighbor.
Donna (email Jan 17, 2025)
Donna is doing good work in Raleigh for couples in difficult situations. She’s not doing it to “inherit eternal life.” She’s doing it because she’s converted. She’s not what she was. God has changed her and has compelled her to love her neighbor where she can.
The good Samaritan parable calls us to compassion. It calls us to be involved with those in need that God places in our lives.
We do this because of the two great commandments to love God and love our neighbor.
And on this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, the parable calls us to consider how we might be involved in this battle against abortion in the US.
There is Gateway Women’s Care in Raleigh.
In a couple weeks a dozen of us will be at the North Carolina Right to Life prayer breakfast. Our church supports NCRTL, so giving to Cornerstone does contribute something to that cause.
For many of us, the cause of abortion is a key part of what informs how we vote for state and national elections. Elections now matter more because of the Dobbs decision, not less.
There are many ways to “show mercy” to the mothers and fathers and babies connected to crisis pregnancies.
These acts of mercy, though, are small ones compared to the greatest act of mercy.
We know God, because a merciful God came to us. Our problem wasn’t that we got attacked by others. Our problem was even greater.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were running from God. We were an enemy of God, and we wanted to be.
But God didn’t “pass by on the other side of the road and leave us in our sinfulness.” He is Immanuel, God with us. He came to us.
Listen to how Ephesians 2 describes God’s mercy to us:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Eph 2:1-5)
Prayer and closing song (“Thy Mercy, My God”).
[1] Historical perspectives on the parable come from David Garland, Luke, ECNT (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011).
[2] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, I:377–378.
Here are some other recent messages.
We are a church built on the Bible, guided and empowered by the Spirit, striving to make disciples, and pursuing holiness in the context of robust biblical relationships.
© 2025 Cornerstone Fellowship Church of Apex
