Luke 10:35

Luke 10:35

I. All Christians should regard each himself as the host, to whom the good Samaritan brought the poor man, and should order his way to his poor brethren accordingly. We shall do so if we will but trust in our Lord, the great King of heaven and earth, as we trust in one another on common occasions. You know what credit means, when people are transacting business. A man who is known, or believed, to have plenty of money takes out goods, or uses a man's work, to a certain amount, and the workman, or owner of the goods, allows him to do so without making him pay for it at the time. Why? Because he has credit in him; he believes that the other has wherewithal to pay, and thinks himself quite certain to have his money after a time. Now, this credit which we give one another in trade and bargains is really a kind of faith, a type and shadow of the faith which pleases God and brings Christians to heaven. The faith which pleases God is when we have such entire trust in what He tells us, that we act as if we saw and felt it; though it is out of sight and beyond experience. Thus the good Samaritan required the master of the inn to have faith in him, to wait on the sick man, and to lay out money on him, fully expecting to be paid by-and-bye.

II. Our good Lord might have required of us to wait upon our brother out of mere gratitude, without promising any reward to us, but it hath pleased Him to promise a reward. Suppose that host in the parable had himself been a traveller before, and had been robbed and wounded and relieved and cared for by the very same Samaritan, he would hardly have needed the encouragement of a promise, "I will repay thee," to make him kind to this new traveller; and so much the more bountiful would he think it, when his gracious Lord vouchsafed to encourage him. Now this is just our case.

III. Mark another instance of overflowing bounty. He accompanies his aid with a gift. The Samaritan took out two pence and gave to the host, saying, "Take care of him." Ancient writers say that these two pence mean the two great laws of charity; to love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. They are God's treasures with which He furnishes us, pouring the true love of Him and of our neighbour into our hearts by His Holy Spirit. Let us, then, grudge nothing that we can do or suffer, either for our Saviour or for His members. He that shall walk most courageously by this rule will surely find at the last that he has been most of all bountiful to himself.

J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity,part ii., p. 21.

Reference: Luke 10:35. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 255.