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From the Pastor...
February, 2000
NEED-ORIENTED EVANGELISM
Luke 10: 25 - 37
As Jesus was going to Jerusalem, an expert in the law asked Him: "What must I do to
inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25). Jesus asked the man for his own opinion, and he
replied, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength; and love your neighbour as yourself," quoting the two great commandments of
Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Jesus told him that if he did those things, he would
live.
The Jews knew no one could live up to these laws, and so the lawyer sought to get out
from under the burden of them, "Who is my neighbour?" He asked. Jesus answered with the
parable of the Good Samaritan. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attached by
robbers and let half dead. A priest happened by, but failed to help him. A Levite also
passed by, and failed to help. It was a Samaritan, a despised half-breed, who finally
saved the man.
The Jewish oral law tradition, which Jesus battled so often, said the neighbour in
Leviticus 19:18 was one's fellow Jew. Jesus restored the true meaning of the law by
saying the neighbour is any person near us who needs help.
When the Samaritan saw the man, "he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged
his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to
an inn and took care of him" (vv. 33-34). The next day he instructed the innkeeper to
care for the man, and to charge the Samaritan for expenses. The compassion of the
Samaritan lay not in the fact that he felt bad about the situation, but in that he gave
of his own substance to help the wounded man. Compassion meant action.
Then Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to
the m an who fell into the hands of robbers?" (V. 36). Now the lawyer had to decide
between the true meaning of the law and the oral tradition. "The expert in law replied,
‘The one who had mercy on me him.' Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise'" (v. 37).
In this new millennium, as the Church seeks to obey Christ's command, to
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations," the Gospel will be have to be seen
as well as heard. Only as we care for those in need, will we be listened. Only as we
give a cup of water to the thirsty, will they also heard Jesus say "If anyone thirst,
let him come to Me and drink."
In Christ,
Floyd McPhee 
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