Josh: Hello. Hello. Hello. We’re just two normal dudes trying to live this Jesus’ life. My name’s Josh. 

Andrew: Hey, I’m Andrew. And we are this Jesus life podcast. Jesus was talking to a lawyer one day and the lawyer was kind of challenging him. He was saying, um, Jesus, uh, I know all the commandments of, of how to, how to live well, uh, love your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself. And she’s said, um, yeah, you should do those things. And, um, then the lawyer basically said, well, who is my neighbor? And Jesus, uh, replied not with the direct answer, but with a story, um, that really answered the heart of, of the lawyer’s question. He said, Hey, one day there was a man who was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho and he, he got raided by robbers.

They took everything he had, they beat him, um, and they stole all the stuff and left him for dead. Um, The guy was laying there. I’m half dead. And here comes a priest walking down the road, leaving Jerusalem ed into Jericho. And, uh, he comes by, he sees the man and he, he moves away from him. Uh, keeps going on his journey.

The next thing was that there was Levi, uh, who was coming, uh, from Jerusalem to Jericho. And, uh, and he saw the man too and thought to himself, well, somebody else can help him. And he kept going. Uh, then there was another man, the last one, um, a Samaritan, somebody who wasn’t really very high on the social hierarchy of the day.

And he came walking down and he saw the man and he had compassion on him. He didn’t leave the road, uh, to, to go away from him. He actually went out of his way to help the guy. Um, and he put him, he picked him up, put him on his own donkey, took him to an Inn, made sure that he was bandaged and fed and cared for.

And, uh, when it was time for the Samaritan to keep, keep going on his journey, he actually prepaid the medical costs and the care cost for this guy to get well. Um, and then he went on his way and said, Hey, if it costs any more than this, I’ll pay it on my way back, take care of him. Um, and he went on his way.

That was the story Jesus told. And he kinda answered the lawyer at the end and said, um, which of these men was the good neighbor. Uh, and the lawyer said it was that one who, uh, who took care of the guy. It was him. And he was kind of ashamed and, and that’s, that’s the parable of the good Samaritan. At least that’s my take on it.

Josh: That’s good. It sounded great to me. I don’t think you missed anything, but how, how are you like for us, for you listening? It’s only been a week for us. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve actually gotten together the record. Dude. Cause I don’t, I don’t know why exactly. Why is it been a few weeks? 

Andrew: Well, there’s been like, I mean, nothing going on, just a busy schedule.

No, I’m just kidding. Uh, and your wife had a parasite, 

Josh: right? She gets rid of it, right? Oh gosh. Don’t say that. Well, she pushed it out. She didn’t get rid of it. She kept it. She wants to hold on to the 

Andrew: parasite. So we, we welcomed a amazing little girl. To the world last Tuesday. So we became a family of four, uh, last week.

So, and that did happen early in the morning on the day we normally record. Uh, so we just went ahead and pushed pause for a week and here 

Josh: I am, Andrew did try to record to give him credit, but his wife was like, absolutely. And he’s like, honey, I have to, the people need the episode cheap. She was putting.

Yeah, she’s putting . 

Andrew: Oh man. No, but we’re dude. Good man. Um, Chana is recovering well. Uh, our little girl, um, is just like doing great. She, I mean, she’s a newborn, but she’s sleeping really well for being a little baby. Um, she’s really like, peaceful. Like, she’s cool. If you, if she’s awake or not, if you just sat her down, she’s like truly a peaceful little baby.

Who’s just like, yeah, I’m cool with like, Being sat down here. I’m cool with chilling. Cool with the 

Josh: dog. I see my sister. I see how she is. I’ll be the easy one. 

Andrew: Exactly. Dude. I feel it. God is answering like some serious breakers through her temperament. So no, we’re doing good. I am I’m off work for another, I don’t know, through like next Wednesday, so another five or so days.

And uh, and I’m enjoying that as much as possible, but dude, paternity leave with a. Amazing. And, uh, and busy two year old is very different than paternity leave with only one maybe, uh, around. So yeah, man getting 

Josh: used to it. You’re probably, yeah, you’re probably on two year old duty 

Andrew: majority. Totally, totally dude.

And, and on top of that, we got a blizzard a couple of days ago where we got. 30 inches of snow in 

Josh: like a day, like a lot of wet snow too. 

Andrew: Like it was heavy wet, like just today. This was like three days ago, just today. I went out and freed our mailbox and I only fried it enough so that the mailman could stop on the road, get out and walk down a path to the mailbox.

That’s still like waist tight with snow on both sides of the path. It’s insane. So yeah, we had a Southern picture. 

Josh: You posted a baby, you or your wife posted. On Instagram of your dog sitting on like two feet of snow, just hanging out on top. 

Andrew: That’s awesome. Yeah. How you doing, man? What’s going on? Have you had a blizzard or a baby in the last week or so?

Josh: Um, I don’t think so. Uh, I’d have to check my journal,

the journal. I don’t write that off into my journal only when things are hard and life’s good right now. Um, now nothing crazy is new over here. I’m trying to think if there’s anything new in the last two weeks. Nope. No, everything’s the same. I did start a discipleship group. Uh, we’re learning how to make disciples that make disciples.

Uh, and that’s going really well. We meet Thursday nights and had a great conversation last night. Yeah. Uh we’re this is a Friday that we’re recording this. Um, but yeah, other than that, no, I was just kind of normal. Uh, we’re just kinda going through it, but yeah, that’s what else to report 

Andrew: tight. Good man.

Well, it’s good to be with you. And, uh, thanks for making this happen. I know my schedule has been crazy, um, with good reason, but it’s been crazy. So thanks for, uh, being willing to move this around a couple of times. 

Josh: No, you’re good. You are good. And thanks for those li listen. We do really appreciate it. Um, you take the time and listening.

We appreciate it too. When you reach out to us, I had a couple people reach out this last week that found me on Instagram and, um, Yeah, it was nice to, uh, nice to know the impact that we made. So absolutely we do appreciate. Yeah. Um, Dude. So 

Andrew: we’re talking good Samaritan. Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to say, this is our, I think third episode in the parables and today this is the parables.

This is the good Samaritan, which is awesome. Um, 

Josh: why are we doing Parenthood’s famous. You 

Andrew: think? It’s dude, it’s gotta be up there. It’s gotta be up there is. Yeah. Like that’s the story that everybody knows. I think it’s probably the one I’ve heard like Todd on the most in, in the church, I think. Yeah. I think it’s probably good.

Like the 

Josh: prodigal son that we covered last week, um, are probably the two biggest parables that Jesus taught their heavy hitters, probably because we just don’t do either of them. Well, maybe that’s why they’re done at so much. 

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, but like I said, help each other, help each other. I’m going to teach it again, help each other.

Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Hey, remember when I told you the neighbors, everybody, and not just the ones who like, um, yeah, but. You know, we’re, we’re working through parables because what these are, these are the stories that Jesus taught. Um, they’re important enough for Jesus to share. And, um, because we think he shared them, we should share them and one dig into them to learn ourselves.

Um, not just learn from the perspective of more knowledge, information transfer, but learn from the perspective of just deeper relationship with Jesus and to understand who Jesus is better and how we fit into that picture. And then also the life that he’s called us to live. So. Just digging into those parables is as there’s a lot of them.

Um, we’re going to try to hit, I don’t know, somewhere in like the twenties probably, um, before let’s be honest, we get bored with it and move on to the next one. Not that Jesus is boring or a stories are boring. Uh, we just have short attention spans and we’ll probably find the next category of things to tackle.

But yeah, so, you know, first week, if you missed it, um, I don’t remember. It had been episode 36. I think if you’re going back and listen to it, it had been called the sower. Uh, and then last week we covered the last and this week have a good Samaritan. And thank you, Andrew, for your retelling of our story.

Uh, as we kind of dig through. Really the key highlights. So it’s kind of summarize those highlights again of there’s a dude got beat up he’s on the street or he’s on the side of the street and we could picture this, right? Like dirt road, probably like, um, probably not 

Andrew: that flat. It’s probably like, it’s like, like Jericho’s down, like kind of down a mountain from Jerusalem.

I read that. So it’s like down like winding mountainous, rough road. 

Josh: Yeah, I’m trying to remember Jerry or Jericho. I went to Israel back in like 2007, 2008. Um, I’m trying to remember Jericho was, 

Andrew: and apparently this road I’ve never been there. Uh, so you, you have that on me. I’ve only read about it. It could be all wrong, but.

They said that this road was nicknamed the road of blood, um, because it was like, it was a rough road where you could get hurt easily. And there were a lot of places for robbers to hide out. And like, so this was a pretty did in the story. Yeah. So it was like a realistic, like people could put themselves in the shoes of like, Oh yeah, go into Jericho’s dangerous.

Josh: Yeah. That’s good. Um, I dunno if it it’s all paved roads now. So we drove in a bus though, going into Bethlehem, uh, you know, Israeli security to get on our bus with their, you know, M force and, you know, look everybody up and down as we walked, you know, or as we, uh, drove into to Bethlehem. But yeah, it’s a crazy, crazy, crazy world.

They’re they’re in Israel. Um, But yeah, so dude gets beat up and there’s an empathy piece too. I think that Jesus was trying to get at and probably why he shared this story on this bloody road, um, to put people in the story as the Samaritan, um, And then three people, or sorry, as the guy that got robbed, three people come along a priest to Levi, then a it’s a bad joke.

Preseli vitam Samaritan. Um, and you know, two of them ignore him. One, uh, takes compassion and, um, takes care of the sky and gets them back on his feet. Um, and then Jesus asks the famous question, um, which of these, you know, back to the lawyer, um, which of these did, um, Which of these showed the compassion, which of these are right.

Um, Jesus answered them. I just realized I’m not looking at the same verses. I was looking up something, um, about some Samaritans in general. So I was looking, I was reading the Samaritan woman at the well, Josh is just 

Andrew: over here reading the book of Mormon. Uh, 

Josh: I am reading both, um, Well, I was looking for exactly what Jesus said when I was saying that to quote him.

And I was like, where the heck is it? I don’t see it anywhere. And then I realized, Oh, I’m still in. I’m still in John four. Um, it’s awesome. It’s fine. I got there. Uh, but yeah, so that’s kind of the gist of the story and. No, I think background is definitely helpful on the story. Yes. Um, and maybe you can jump in here, Andrew, just, um, you know, how did, how did the Jews feel about Samaritans in general?

Andrew: Yeah. Um, yeah, so like, Well, and I’m not like any expert on this, but there’s a lot of great resources out there around parables. Um, so, um, it’s been really nice to look things up and read into it. But if you think about it back in the day, like the kind of Jewish, like social, social structure, like priests would have been kind of at the top, like they’re like most respected, then you have Levi says kind of the second rank because the tribe of Levi Levi.

Was the priest class. They were the ones who like didn’t farm, um, and, and just tended to the temples. And they were respected. They were teachers. Um, but some of them were actually priests. So that’s why priest number one, then you have Levi Heights, then you have kind of like your general, just the rest of the Jewish population.

Um, After that you have people like the tax collectors, outcasts and centers like tax plus lectors prostitutes, um, and people, they labeled like centers in general that you Janelle’s and Jews, but yeah. Yeah. But like kinda on the outskirts or Jewish culture, for sure. Yeah. And then you have the Samaritans who are like, kind of the next.

Like the furthest out type of Jew. They’re like the lowest class of society in the day. Um, which makes it a cool paradox that Jesus made it the good Samaritan. Cause they were like the lowest. Jews on the totem pole in the culture. 

Josh: Yeah. They’re they’re half-breeds Oh, 

Andrew: that’s what it is. They’re not 

Josh: half.

Yeah. They’re half Jewish. Um, and that’s why the Jews were not a fan. Then there’s a, there’s a long history of hundreds of years of why Jews and Samaritans hate each other. But yeah. Hate is the proper term used in describing their, their 

relationship. 

Andrew: Yeah. And then like the last kind of level of Jewish social culture was like Gentiles.

So people like you and me who aren’t Jewish in blood or religion at all, um, who would be kind of like the lowest of the day rank? Um, you can say the Americans, you can say Europeans, whatever, but, but people who are non Jews who, uh, were certainly like. On the outside of the bubble, you know, so that’s hopefully helpful is like, you know, the cool thing about the story is Jesus intentionally picks the most respected second most respected, and then like, really the people, like you said, who are hated in Jewish culture.

And he kind of has those three people represent, um, in this, in this parable,

Josh: um, So if we put ourselves not in the story, but as a listener of the story, maybe someone’s standing next to Jesus’s, as he’s telling this, and he’s having this conversation with the, the, um, um, the law professor, for lack of a better term, um,

It’s a story that I think easily relates to those that are listening. You know, like we said that the blood road like that, like, Oh yeah, not a road you want to go down. It’s probably the dude’s fault. Let’s be honest. They got beat up. He shouldn’t have been on that road in the first place. It shouldn’t have been there.

Let’s blame him. And then you got the, um, The priest and the Levi’s it’s, um, you know, Levi it’s responsible for taking care of the temple. It’s also a group of, um, one of the tribes of Israel. Um, Walking down the road in, you know, the argument can be made. And I know I’m going to make this argument, uh, for the sake of setting Andrew up for his next thing.

Uh, but the argument can be made like, well, this dude is, is all beat up. Like this is Levi he’s, he’s kind of above the rest of us. He can’t come down to lower. Um, You know, um, uh, and touch you, unclean people and those types of things. Um, so there’s an argument there for the, you know, the Jewish person just sitting there listening, saying, Oh, like, of course the leave I couldn’t stop.

Like, he’s got more important things to do. He can’t lower himself and touch an unclean person. Now that he’d been beat up and thrown on the side of the road. Um, and then you have the Samaritan. Who probably just, even the term, when you said Samaritan, they’re probably like, Hmm. There’s probably like anger already brewing up.

Like there’s just hatred and resentment that they have just, just at the idea. 

Andrew: The mask, the anti-vaccine yeah. The, 

Josh: the, like, how dare you, how, I don’t even know. You don’t even care to know you, but I hate you already. Um, right. Like, so there’s that piece of like, um, and they’re listening to the story and I would assume.

Then, you know, as they’re listening to it, they’re like, well, I give, I give the priests and Levis, like I get it. That’s why they went on and the Samaritan comes along. They’re probably not thinking he’s going to be the hero of the story. No, no. They’re probably thinking he’s going to probably spit on him.

He’s probably going to do something and appropriate something wrong. And then, you know, the shift happens in Jesus, you know, starts as you know, um, Oh, sorry. I need to go back to the right versus I keep looking at ed. John for this 

Andrew: is not helpful. Jump in with that. Uh, if you want to follow along and we forgot to mention this, we don’t read the exact verses because we really want you the listener to go and read them and pray about them and spend time in them and interpret it and let us know your thoughts on it.

But we’re, this is mainly out of Luke 10. Um, Luke 10 verses 30 through 37 is where you can find a great, a reading of the good Samaritan, for sure. Yeah. 

Josh: Yeah. And I’ll say this to you. Like we don’t read scripture, uh, for more information and knowledge. Um, we read it in relationship with Jesus. Um, you know, the spiritual discipline of reading, um, God’s word and prayer.

Isn’t just so we looked good as Christians or that’s what good Christians do. It’s to foster relationship with Jesus. Um, and that’s why we do these things. So that’s why we don’t read them. As we want you to foster a relationship with Jesus. We want you to spend time with him, um, reading his word and spending time in prayer and having conversation, um, with Jesus.

And we don’t need to be a part of that equation. That’s really it. And we feel like if we were just read it to you. Um, you would think you’ve done your part and you don’t have to go back and read it. Cause you got the information you needed and it’s not about information. It’s about relationship. Um, so be sure to spend some time with Jesus as you do this.

That’s right. Um, but we get to the Samaritan and Jesus, you know, diving into the story, uh, and they hear the Samaritan. So Jesus is saying, but a Samaritan, as he traveled, came up to the man and all the Israel, Israel, or Jews sitting around or Israelites sitting around, we’re probably like, Oh, he’s probably going to do something bad, like a scumbag.

Like we know he’s a scumbag. He’s probably going to finish them off and steal the last, you know, his shoes off his feet. Um, and Jesus makes that, that last switch. And I’m not, I’m throwing the Jews under the bus here. Um, let’s be honest, we’d be in the same boat as well. Like that’s the point of that story?

Um, us listening wouldn’t have the same opinions and that’s what Jesus is trying to say. Don’t get on your high horse too quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re right there with them. Let’s be honest. Yeah. There’s people that you hate for whatever reason, and we don’t even need to get into the race argument.

It could be hate because they’re affiliated with this group or they’re this, like, we’ll just remove race totally, completely. Um, But Jesus gets to this, this line. And I think this is when everyone kind of perks up and they’re just like, wait, what? Um, but he says, and when he saw him, he took pity on him, which they’re probably like, whatever, like Samaritans don’t do that.

And then he really kind of laid out what pity looked like and not pity like, Oh, poor you. Good luck, buddy. We’ll see you next week. Yeah. Um, but it was Oh, poor. You. Let me get into the mess of your life and help. Uh, so you went to him, he bandaged him and he poured oils and wine on him because that was the thing to do.

And we still do it. I guess you got your, you know, um, essential oil people that probably do the same things, throw some peppermint oil on it or something and call them good. Um, I don’t get it essential oils that make no sense to me. I had a headache once someone tried to help me out with that headache, uh, gave me some peppermint oil that rub my neck.

Uh, I forgot about my headache because my neck was on fire. So I guess it works

not, not what I was looking for. I think it was hot enough to the point where it’s like, I’m wiping with soft. Like this is ridiculous. Um, but he, you know, he goes into the story of how exactly he took care of him and it wasn’t just, Hey, let me take care of you in this need. It was, let me get you back on your feet and sacrificed for you.

Like it was true love, like the dude sacrificed for someone that he never met before. And not only that, do you not met before, but they were essentially already deemed enemies before because of societal, you know, in the culture norms. But. Yeah. Um, I think there’s a lot we can pull from it. 

Andrew: Yeah. And okay.

The thing that you were setting me up for, so the priest and Levi, everybody was like, Oh yeah, they can’t, they can’t touch this guy because they probably assumed the guy was dead. And in, in Jewish culture, like if, uh, if you touch a dead body that you’re considered unclean, uh, so they wouldn’t have been able to enter the temple.

Either that day or that week, um, they would have had to do kind of like a ritual to be considered clean again. So everybody listening would be like, Oh yeah, priests, Levi. Like they couldn’t do their duty in the temple. They couldn’t serve God because if they touched a dead body that they’d be unclean and they couldn’t go in the temple.

But the cool little thing Jesus did there is, he said he made it clear. They were leaving Jerusalem and they were headed to Jericho. There was no temple in Jericho, like they would serve in Jerusalem. So these people were, were guys who essentially had already done their duty in the temple and they were going to Jericho for whatever reason.

Um, but they weren’t just going for like an afternoon. They were going to spend some time there. Um, so he, Jesus called out. Subtly, uh, but in a way that people listening would have understood like the hypocrisy of these people saying, Oh, I don’t want to be in clean. I can’t, I can’t touch a dead body. I can’t check to see if the guy’s alive.

Um, instead of just walking over him, they left the road, they were on. Hiked on the rough terrain around him and then got back to the road and kept going. So they like, yeah, in the name of God, we can’t help this dying man or maybe dead man, but we’re going to assume he’s dead and we’re going to call ourselves Holy by not helping him.

Um, so he was calling out, calling out the people at the top of the culture, uh, in that moment and in the parable. And I liked that because I love that about Jesus, that he just like. Fearlessly, uh, went at people that, uh, were on their high horse, you know? Um, not that all of them were bad, um, by any means there’s good stories of, of, of.

Priests in the Bible. Um, there’s all kinds of stuff that there are people, some are bad, some are good, but he was calling out the hypocrisy of them kind of using the law to their advantage and not actually changing their heart and how they love people. Yeah. Um, 

Josh: yeah. Which like, let’s be honest us as Christians still to do today.

Yeah. You know, we don’t hang out with certain people because you know, It goes against scripture and I can’t show support, um, by being in relationship with that person. Right. Um, like, you know, those types of things constantly happen. Um, you know, the F the interesting thing, like why Jesus told this parable, um, you know, this teacher of the law, um, asked, um, Like, how do I Hare eternal, eternal life.

Like that’s how the conversation started essentially. Um, and Jesus replied, you know, w what’s written in the law, like, how do you read it? His response was the great commission, the great commandments, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. And the second is like, it love your neighbor as yourself.

It’s not how that said it, but that’s essentially what was said. Um, And, um, Jesus’ response to him was, yeah, you’ve answered correctly. That, that isn’t, that’s the S that’s the summation of, of the great commandments, um, is love God and love people. Um, and he said, well, do this and you’ll live. And then, you know, but he didn’t 

Andrew: say you have a life.

And that’s what the dude was after. He’s like, how do I have eternal life? How do I live forever? Like, how do I secure my future Jesus? And. And Jesus just said yeah, live that way. Do that. Um, yeah. And then the lawyer, like I was reading this, that the word is not that the lawyer just like asked another question, but that he asked it in a way that was challenging to Jesus.

And basically it was trying to say like, um, do you really know what you’re talking about? You know, like use the lawyer, he’s like digging in, digging his heels in and trying to get to. Whatever he wanted to get to. Um, maybe it was self-righteous you know, of like, well, yeah, I’ve done these things forever.

I’m good. You know, I’m one of the special ones. 

Josh: Yeah. Well, and the other argument to it is, um, you know, because the, the guy’s response back to justify himself was, and who is my neighbor? Um, like if we can, and we do this too, if we can, um, Um, make smaller the scope of what we call our neighbor. That’s less people I have to love.

Right. Um, and old Testament, you know, we go back to this, these are, this isn’t the first time these commandments have been spoken, like, you know, to love your neighbor as yourself was it’s a Deuteronomy commandment. Um, and. In that commandment it’s defined as your neighbor, his fellow Jews. Um, so his response was what can I, can I get to fellow Jews?

And then also those that aren’t synergies and just good Jews. And those are the ones I have to love. Um, and Jesus essentially turns the argument all upside down and says, no, you’re your neighbors. Even those that you hate, uh, we have to love, you know, in terms of using the Samaritan as his example, because he could use anyone, right.

He could use a Gentile. Um, he could use spit. He chose to use a Samaritan, which, you know, they had bad beef with. Um, and I think it’s worth, so, you know, from a practical standpoint, I think it’s worth evaluating in our own lives. Like where, where am I narrowing the focus of neighbor so I can feel justified to not have to love, you know, all those that I come in contact with.

Um, well, And, you know, we covered, how do we love people? Well, and you know, the, the love of others series, um, and you can find them on our website, but the, I don’t know what it is. 21, I think, through 30 something. And we work through first Corinthians 13. Um, but how do we love people? Well, and you know, this is, this is it.

Like, we don’t get to pick and choose who we’re going to love. Jesus commands us as followers of him. We got to love them all. Yeah. Um, as hard as that is, and I get it, it’s hard. Like there’s plenty of people that man do. They require a lot of grace. Um, and a lot of me shutting my mouth because I want to say something.

Um, but you know, this is the life that Jesus called us to. And, you know, we believe this is the life that leads to full, um, experiences and joy in this life and, and, uh, foundational love that, that we all want. So this is why we do it. Um, But it’s not an easy life to live that’s for sure. 

Andrew: No, it’s not. And it’s not an easy life to live.

And it’s man, like you were saying, like, we got to view this as, as if we were one of the people in the crowd listening. Not like we can’t be too quick to put ourselves in. Oh, I’m the good Samaritan or I’m the, uh, I’m the priest or Levi or. Certainly not, um, Jesus, you know, if you’re going to put yourself somewhere, maybe put yourself in the lawyer’s shoes of like, kind of the self-righteous guy, who’s like, I’ve done all that.

Like, I know what I’m talking about. Who do you say our neighbor is? Jesus. Cause, um, cause I already know, you know, maybe put yourself there or, or just put yourself as one of the, like. General, uh, crowd and listening, but, um, man, it’s interesting. So I’ve thought about the good Samaritan more in the last year of, of my life than ever.

Um, and it’s not because I’m just like some super Holy person. Who’s always thinking about parables. Um, cause not, uh, but at work we we’ve been like, we have a new kind of head of. Marketing, uh, which is the area I work in and we’re at a large Christian nonprofit. Um, anyway, uh, we, he, this text has been very central to the culture that he’s trying to create.

Um, so talking about neighbor, like who, who is our neighbor? How do we serve our neighbor? How do we get to know our neighbors better? All of that. Like, those are. Those are something that’s something I hear like almost daily, uh, at compassion right now. And it’s kinda cool. Cause it’s like, you know, you look at it and it’s not, how do I get my neighbor to do something?

Um, because the guy in the story who’s taking the Samaritan, who’s taken care of this guy who’s hurt. This guy who was hurt, had nothing to give the Samaritan he’d been robbed, like money gone, animal gone clothes, probably gone, like just beat up left for dead, nothing left. You know, there was, there was no benefit.

Um, there’s only kind of a drain on the Samaritan, honestly, to, to help this guy. But he saw him and he had compassion. He had petty, like you said, pity, inaction. Um, you didn’t just walk past cause he’s like, no you’re made in the image of God. You’re a living, breathing person. Therefore you’re worthy of me loving.

Um, and like that’s a hard posture to take men. There’s a lot of problems we can see in this world. And there’s a lot of problems that are just really easy to say, like, Somebody else can worry about that. Somebody else can fix that. I’m done talking to that guy. I’m done pouring into this person, or like, I see how I could meet that need.

But dude, my schedule is busy. My life is my plate is full. Like, I don’t know we can use, or we can use our busy-ness and our, um, I don’t know, we can use the normal stuff in her life to make excuses for not loving our neighbors as well. Just like the Levi’s and the priest did of, Oh, well, I don’t want to be unclean, you know, it’s like, dude, you already did your shift at the tip.

It doesn’t matter if you’re unclean for a couple of days, you can get right before you go back to work. Um, they’re like, Oh, I couldn’t possibly, uh, I’m I’m one of the high class. Um, you know, we do that same thing and, uh, and it’s a heart check to be like, How would I actually go above and beyond and serve my neighbor, um, out of love, just cause they’re a person who needs to know the Lord.

Josh: Yeah. I just had a conversation with someone recently and we were talking about community in general. And how do you, how do you love those that are really difficult to love? Um, that, um, Maybe, you know, they turn everything in out about themselves when they’re a part of the community. Every conversation ends up turning to them and that they just cannibalize all of your community’s time.

Um, and he said, how do you love those individuals? Well, and, um, I think a big piece of it is there’s individual demands and then there’s corporate demands, right? Like. You know, here’s this one individual that may be difficult to love and, you know, I want to be gracious to them and I want to show them mercy and, and all those things, because that’s what I’d want in return.

Um, but there’s also this side of it, of, it’s not my job to provide all of their needs. Right. Um, it’s not my job to take on all of their burdens. Um, but it is our community’s job. To take on a lot of those burdens. Um, so when we start to spread that load around, you know, it’s not just me anymore, it’s 30 of us that are now going to invest in this individual.

Like that burden becomes less and less, or I should say that that broker burden becomes easier to handle as the individual. I can still do my part. I can still invest in how I’m gifted. Um, but when we spread it out among 30 people, and we’re all doing those things, we’re meeting needs that need to be met, having hard conversations that need to be had.

Um, but we’re doing it across to a community and this is why the church is so important, right? Like, um, you know, this story is of the individual, but, um, You know, it could easily have been handled by a group of people. You know, if that’s a marriage and was able to call his other Samaritan buddies and say, Hey, I got this guy that, that needs some help.

I think this is what we should do. Um, he needs a place to stay. Um, I can only afford one night, but I think we should, we should cover another, can you guys help? Yeah. Right. Like that’s, that’s the types of things that can happen inside a community that, that we miss out on. And, um, it. It lessens the load on each of us individually and one the stress, right?

Like if I feel I have to be the savior and fix everything well, that’s extremely stressful. Um, and Jesus had asking us to that one, he’s going to ask us to be the savior. No, it’s his job. Don’t take his job from him. Um, and to like, The church was designed with many body parts and many different roles and passions and gifts.

And when we all live inside of this things, we live in a healthy fashion. Um, when we embrace our gifts, uh, whether the great gifts, you know, in the eyes of man or lesser gifts in the eyes of man, they’re all extremely important in the eyes of God. Um, they all play a role. And I think that’s the hardest piece to help people understand is it’s not all up to you, but like if you don’t have community around you, it’s going to be all up to you.

So this is why community is important and your church family is important. Um, This is the type of thing and not church family in the sense of the organization of the church. And, well, it’s just the church’s job now to take care of all these people. I just let them know that this person needs them. Nope, not the organization’s job.

It’s the committee in these jobs. So you got to let the community know, uh, and get your people activated to help in some way. Um, rather than to, um, Um, take it all on yourself or say it’s too much. So you don’t take on any of it and just move on. And it being the Levi or the, the priest, um, like it’s easy to get to those places.

Like we look at it like, yeah, we’ve all been there. Um, I’m going to give this guy 20 bucks, cause it’s just easier than actually having to dive into his life. And I don’t 

Andrew: know. I want actually get to know him. I’m just going to give him some money and walk away. Yeah. 

Josh: That happens all the time. Yeah. And, uh, and then we come up with excuses right.

Of why we don’t get involved in people’s lives. Um, You know, it’s well, there’s other organizations out there that do a much better job. Um, so I’m just going to give to those organizations what, but that’s not Jesus. Didn’t ask you to give money. Like he doesn’t care. He asked you to get involved in people’s lives.

Like relationship is the, is the currency of the spiritual world. I’m like, this is what we’re trying to invest into. And if we’re not investing into relationship with him, People. And I’m not saying go find every homeless guy out there and become his best friends. Like that’s, that’s a burden that’s, you don’t need to be caring.

Um, but there’s gonna be people that you come across that come from different walks of life that look very differently from you and you don’t understand. Um, and you want to blame, um, that they’re in the positions that they’re in. Um, and that’s not the posture because the Samaritan could have looked at the guy and said, dude, Like, this is not the road you want to be going on by yourself.

Like, this is on you, you moron. I’m like you got what you deserve help you learn your lesson and you don’t do this again. Um, but no, he sh he saw compassion. He had compassion for the man and saw the man as who he is someone that should be valued. Um, someone that should be pursued, um, someone that, you know, Jesus cares deeply for.

Uh, and he got involved in his life relationally. Right. Like he took care of the dude for a day, um, before, you know, having to move on to his next thing. Um, and then made sure he was taken care of when he moved on to his next thing. Yeah. But like, that’s a lot of conversation at a day. I don’t know about you, but like sitting around with someone you don’t know, you’re like, Oh, that sounds like a lot of work, but it probably was.

And he got to know this guy and, um, you know, probably to some extent our relationship continued for 

Andrew: yeah, man, uh, two things, one. Like I said, my wife just had a baby last week and we’ve been blessed to be on the receiving end of community normally where like the doers, you know, but we’ve been receiving meals.

We, uh, my daughter had her first, overnight at my in-laws. She actually stayed two nights. Uh, like, like the people have been caring for us. Um, family members, friends, Like one person drove like 45 minutes made us hot dinner, drove at 45 minutes here, dropped it off, stayed a few minutes and then drove all the way back home on like a Tuesday or Wednesday night, you know, like, uh, a work night or whatever.

And we’ve been on the receiving end of like being loved, uh, by community. And it’s awesome. Like, it’s just, I dunno, it’s tumbling to say like, yeah, I needed that, but the reality is like, We have needed that we have needed help with meals. Um, we have needed help cause like there’s just so much going on that we needed a little extra care and you know, there’s like somebody could send a Uber eats gift card and that’s super cool.

But when somebody goes above and beyond and it’s like, Hey, I want to bring you dinner and then makes you an awesome homemade meal. Drives it an hour or close to it, just to drop it off at your door with no expection expectation of you other than like, Hey, love you guys. Here you go see you later. You know, let’s talk sometime.

That’s it like just feeling really loved and humbled by that. Like, It is humbling to say like, Hey, I need some help here, but when you’re on the receiving end of it, it’s also just a huge blessing. Um, and it’s not, I wouldn’t expect one person to just step up and say, I’m going to make every meal for you guys for a week.

I’m going to do all your laundry. I’m going to watch your two year old constantly. I’m going to, it’s going to be like a bed and breakfast. You know, I wouldn’t expect that. Um, But when it’s spread out across people, um, and it’s people choosing to intentionally say, I’m going to be, I’m going to try to love my neighbor well today.

Uh, and I’m going to do one thing towards that. Like it’s meaningful, man. It’s a, it’s not a small thing and it’s not a stall burden, but people have helped us shoulder it. And it’s just awesome. So it’s cool to be on the receiving end and then. Secondly, uh, I don’t know why, but, uh, like a month ago or so Jan and I started watching survivor, uh, from season one because we never really watched it.

And, uh, it’s all on Amazon or a lot of it’s on Amazon. Um, and we’re basically like five seasons in at this point, um, finishing up and we’re probably gonna immediately start season six, but I think that the more normal expectation in our culture is that we treat life kind of like survivor, um, and not like the good Samaritan that we kind of look around and say, well, Who do I need to like cozy up to, to get the next thing who do I need?

What’s my strategic play in this relationship to get them promotion. What’s my, um, what lever do I pull so that they can go in and do the hard thing. And I don’t have to, I can sit back and lay on the beach, you know, while somebody else does work. Like, I don’t know. I think it’s a decent analogy to kind of our cultural expectation of how to just treat other people.

It’s like, I’m just going to try to get things from them and kind of do as little as possible. And I think it was their culture too, which is why Jesus like totally flipped it. And he’s like, no, like. Uh, who was the neighbor? Like the good Samaritan now go and do the same. Yeah. That’s how he concludes his, his talk with the lawyer is not just like, that’s the story?

That’s your answer? No, it’s like now, you know, your answer go and do the same, you know, it’s, uh, it puts the responsibility right back on the listener, I guess, right back on us. Um, for sure. 

Josh: Yeah. Well, and this is like, ’cause I, I know the other side of the argument is like, well, then we’ll be in too involved in too many people’s lives.

Um, yeah, maybe it’s a possibility, but like, is that really like, that’s going to be the argument of why you don’t get involved in at all. Um, um, you know, you’re not able to get involved in everybody’s lives and this is why, you know, community matters is because hopefully your community can. Um, hopefully the, the load of, of carrying one another’s burdens is spread across a large community and it’s not all up to you and required for you to take care of it all.

Um, So you’ll, you’ll be okay. Uh, but oftentimes we’ll use that as our excuse and we don’t get involved at all. Um, and if it’s all about relationship and I’m trying to build relational collateral with people for the sake of them, knowing Jesus better, um, Then you have to get involved in the ugliness and the dirtiness of people’s lives, just like they got to do in your life.

That’s the only way relationship works. Um, and I think we easily find ourselves making more excuses than we should be in how we get involved in wife. You you’ll have a two year old at home. I, I can’t, you know, I can’t get involved with too much going on. Yeah. You’re like, Nope. Sorry. It’s not an excuse. I don’t have to tell you, um, like you’ve still got to get involved or, you know, I’m not in a healthy place myself.

I can’t get involved in other people’s lives. I disagree that you can’t. And not only that, I think it helped with some of your health. Um, yeah, yeah. And all about you. I think that’s one of the cycles with, with mental issues and I’m not saying mental, not disparaging. 

Andrew: Yeah. These ruts in her mind. Right.

Like she said, I’m not healthy, so I can’t help anybody. Like, yeah. 

Josh: Oh my God. I’m dealing with these other things. Yeah. Yeah. Because you made life all about you. Of course. You’re gonna keep dealing with these other things. Yeah. Um, like that’s the reality of it, you know? And when we start to take those excuses, um, On, you know, ourselves, like a lot of it is selfishness.

I’m sorry. I know that’s hard to hear, but it’s like, well, I can’t take on this. I’m just overwhelmed with life. Well, one life’s not about you. So let’s start there and deal with that. Um, too, life is about giving up of yourself. Um, Jesus said, you know, take up your cross daily, die to yourself and become more like me, right?

Like there’s, there’s a process in that others, you know, it’s Jesus too distant from me. I can’t get involved, uh, in somebody else’s life. I have to be well. Work on that. We’re kind of the relationship because you’re not spending time with Jesus. I don’t know why you’d think it’d be any closer or letting circumstance of your life dictate whether or not you feel close to Jesus or not.

That’s, that’s a slippery slope as well. I think there’s so many excuses that we use to not be who Jesus called us to be and to take on risk. Um, like Jesus is calling us to take on inside of community. Like, don’t do these things by yourself. That’s stupid. Um, That’s just going to burn you out, but, uh, insight community.

This is a great place to dig in and, and love your neighbor as Jesus commanded you to love your neighbor as yourself. And let’s be honest, we all love ourselves a lot. Um, we love our team more than we probably agree to, you know, Yeah. You also hate ourselves almost as much as we love ourselves, which is a weird dynamics.

It’s also the reality of it. So you got to deal with that stuff on top of it, but, um, 

Andrew: yeah. Alright. So dude, as you were talking a thought struck me, I don’t know if it was Holy spirit inspired or not. Um, but in our culture, as you know, and as every listener knows, um, like. We’re really, really quick to burn people based on like beliefs, like example, there’s this, um, there’s this really popular just a couple of weeks ago.

There’s this really popular lady on Instagram, huge social media influencer. And she basically helps parents. Like she has a whole methodology of how to like parent your child. Well, how to do discipline, how to do sleep. Like she tries to help people and there’s like, You know, hundreds of thousands of people who feel like her advice has been incredibly helpful in their lives and in their parenting.

And, um, it came out like two weeks ago that she had made a campaign donation to the Trump campaign. Um, and. Dude. She has been blacklisted, uh, like all these other, my wife follows some of the people who, you know, are like in that bubble and are in that sphere. And they, they were really quick to like, Turn on this lady and be like, well, I did announce her.

I can’t believe that like, there’s this article I read that I wasn’t even looking for it. It was just pop, like featured on my Apple news. Um, one of my headline articles and it was basically saying like all these quotes, like I can’t possibly listening to listen to parenting advice from someone who would support such an evil man and put kids in cages and all this stuff like.

Believe what you will about all of that, but we are really fast right now to just say, I can’t be associated with that person. Um, and we can read this story and think about Jewish culture and say like, Well, how dare they think about race so much? And they say you’re only a half, two, so you’re on the outskirts you Samaritan.

Like we can, we can look at that and be like, none of that’s wrong. Like you can’t do that based on race, but in America we’re really, really fast to say. Wait, you don’t believe the same politics I do. You’re evil. Wait, you, you believe in spanking your child, you don’t believe in spanking your child. You’re evil.

Um, you, I don’t know, a hundred other things like, Oh, you listened to that podcast or you’re evil you whatever. Like there are a hundred reasons and more why we’re really quick to say. That person’s just evil and I can associate with them. And even more than not associating with them, I can’t listen to them.

I can’t take any of their thoughts because they’re just evil because of politics, money, religion, whatever. Um, so I just, I think this problem, like this parable could be read through that lens and it’s just a shot in the arm of like, man, if you. Voted for Trump and you hate Biden supporters, but you have a distant acquaintance who, you know, his marriage has fallen apart.

Um, but he voted for Biden and you haven’t talked to him because of it. Pick up the phone and call the guy. Um, that really doesn’t matter who somebody voted for. Love people. Well, love your neighbor. Well, and you don’t have to go and fix their marriage. You don’t have to go and be Jesus because you can’t be Jesus.

You can’t be the, his savior, but you can do one thing. You can do two things. You going to help, like you said, Josh, you can call me. You can, uh, like you can make an effort to love somebody. Who’s the opposite side of you on some other belief, somebody who you’re quick to cut out of your life. Same thing. If they voted for Trump, doesn’t matter.

We’re not a Trump or Biden show where this Jesus life podcasts. So it’s just relevant. Examples. Why we’re talking politics often. Um, 

Josh: so we talked about supporting one of the two during the election, but we thought it’d be better if we just kept her mouth shut. Yeah. Our 

Andrew: producer was super big into one, but we were like, dude, we can’t do that.

I’m just kidding. That may be true. 

Josh: But, uh, we may have disagreed with our producer on that one. Right. 

Andrew: It’s all good. But anyway, man. I don’t know, I just, it just hit me are cancel culture and how it’s like, we could look at this Jewish culture and say like what you guys were, that was terrible view to like, say you’re a half to a Samaritan.

So you’re the bottom of the culture. We do the exact same thing. It’s just maybe not on race because times have changed a little bit. We have a cancel culture in the exact same way. Of saying you’re on the outskirts of society because you believe this thing, so we can all demonize you and you deserve it and you’re bad and evil and, uh, you can’t change.

That’s just who you are, you know? Yup. 

Josh: Yeah, no, that’s true. And that’s not, not a place you want to be that’s for sure. Um, But also we get how you easily get there. We gotta fight that stuff. Um, you know, going, especially with the election stuff, man, even now as you’re I read different things. Um, cause let’s be honest.

I went back to reading the news, um, because it’s too hard not to, uh, and there’s things that piss you off and things that frustrate you, you’re like, Oh, I’m going to say something. And then you’re like, Nope, that’s stupid. I’m not going to say a word. It doesn’t change. Doesn’t change my life that much. Yeah.

Uh, and in all reality, Jesus is still Jesus. He’s still on his throne and we’re still good. Um, so no matter what happens, it really doesn’t matter. Um, we’re not going to argue it. That’s right. But yeah, I think hopefully that was helpful as we kind of dig into dug into, you know, the good Samaritan story and, um, you know, we appreciate that you listen, um, we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to, um, you know, listen to maybe the things that we have to say, but, you know, like we said, You know, earlier we do this because we want to help you foster a relationship with Jesus.

Um, not because of any other reason than that. Um, we think Jesus is the solution to all world’s problems. We think Jesus solution to all our personal problems, we think Jesus, his way of life is the best way of life. Um, and if we choose to love him well and love others, well, um, we’re going to experience the full life that Jesus has, has promised us.

Um, so we. Uh, we encourage you to dig into that relationship. We encourage you to dig into a conversation with Jesus and don’t make it all formal to make it all weird. Just have a conversation with Jesus, told somebody last night. Um, there’s some times that all my prayer is, you know, to start the day is, Hey, Jesus, just wanna let you know.

I love you today. Um, and that’s how I start my day. Nice. Um, not in some long prayer list or, you know, some matrix I’ve created to make sure that I hit all the right, um, Yeah, prayers for the day and I’ve prayed for everyone. I’m supposed to pray for him. You know, those can be helpful, but those can also be a hindrance.

Um, cause conversation should be coming naturally and not necessarily structurally as you walk with Jesus more and more each day relationship is formed. So thanks for listening, Andrew.

Andrew: Thanks for listening to our show. It really means a lot to us. And we hope that it helps bring you closer in your relationship with Jesus and with other people. 

Josh: And it also helps us out. If you rate our podcast or leave us a review on whatever platform you’re listening on and also follow us on Instagram and the Facebook.

Now sharing this with your friends, isn’t just to get the word out of the podcast. We believe that we have the message of hope that’s found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and you sharing. This has the ability to transform the lives of the people around you. 

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