Gospel: -
BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
Lessons from the story of Good Samaritan
Bro. Ger de Koning, Netherlands
Human beings are creatures who live through relationships. God has placed this within us. At the very beginning of the Bible, on the first pages of the book of Genesis, God Himself said: “It is not good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). That is exactly what Ecclesiastes observed: “Two are better than one” (Proverbs 4:9).
When God had created Adam and Eve, He came to them in the cool of the evening in the garden, paradise, to interact with them (Genesis 3:8-9). Here you can clearly see that God wants to have an intimate relationship with man.
The Reason
If you read Genesis 3 from the beginning, you can also see that this relationship is radically broken because man valued the words of the devil more than the words of God.
Man - not God—is therefore responsible for breaking the relationship that existed between God and man through disobedience. Genesis 3 describes how God went in search of man after their fall. It does not say that God hid Himself from man, but that man hid himself from God.
Just as God went in search of Adam, He is still searching for people who hide themselves from Him. He is looking for you. He wants to connect with you.
The Result
As you continue reading Genesis 4, you meet Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve. He turns his back on God and becomes the murderer of his brother. Suddenly, you see the cause of all misery, all loneliness, all broken relationships: man has no relationship with God.
One of the most important things we as humans must learn is that we can only treat each other well if we have a relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we can only function properly and treat each other well if our relationship with God is in order.
The Helper
We read in the book of Ecclesiastes about "the one" who helps his companion stand upright (Pr 4:10). That One is first and foremost God, who wants to help us and is able to help us. He wants to help us in our relationships with others, but we must be willing to be helped.
That is what we see in the story of the Good Samaritan we read in Luke 10: 29 - 37.
There you learn that if you do not first recognize yourself in the man who fell into the hands of robbers, you will never be able to fulfill the command of the Lord Jesus: “Go and do likewise” (Lk 10:37). What the Lord Jesus means by this is that He commands you to be a neighbor to others. What can you do for others?
Man has turned his back on God
Before I answer that question, something else must first be made clear. We must recognize ourselves in the man about whom the Lord Jesus tells us. What happened to that man? He was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem was the place of blessing, the place where God dwelt. If we think back to paradise, that is the place where God had placed man in a blessed position. Now man has left that place and turned his back on God. Man has run away from God.
Recognize yourself
The story that the Lord Jesus tells is also called "the parable of the Good Samaritan." The story has an important message for everyone who reads it, whether you are a Christian or not. That message is that each of us must recognize ourselves in the man who fell into the hands of robbers.
Perhaps, even though you call yourself a Christian, you have never truly come to Him. Perhaps you sit obediently in church on Sundays or attend a congregation where you feel at home and where you feel a sense of security. You can sing along and pray along, but at the same time you may be far from God in your heart. There may be an enormous distance between you and God. Then you are away from the place of blessing and on your way to the place of curse: Jericho. Everyone who turns their back on God is on their way to the place of curse, whether you are a Christian or not.
Robbers on the way
On your way to Jericho, you are guaranteed to fall into the hands of robbers. These robbers represent evil forces, demonic forces. These forces can express themselves through other people. In any case, they are spiritual forces that will rule your life. The robbers are out to control your thinking so that you are drawn away from God. The question is whether you will allow this to happen.
One of the ways you can allow this to happen and let the robbers do their work is by seeking happiness in the nightlife of the world. You can party with other young people until the early hours of the morning. Perhaps you do things that cannot bear the light of day. What you don't realize, however, is that you are being drawn further and further away from God.
Other sources of bad influences are the media. Movies and TV shows can mess with your mind and pollute it. Again, the choice is yours: will you let this happen?
And then there's the internet. With Wi-Fi available everywhere and anytime on your phone, the internet offers you the opportunity to visit websites, incognito or otherwise, that also negatively influence and pollute your mind. People share videos via WhatsApp that are not suitable for public viewing. Apart from all this, you may ask yourself how much time you spend online each day—smartphone addiction has become a socially recognized problem.
As you can see, thieves operate in different ways. The end result, after a shorter or longer period of time, is that they rob and strip you, beat you up, and leave you half dead on the side of the road. They certainly don't give you what you were looking for. You are on the wrong path; you have turned your back on God.
Why don't you allow God into your life?
There could be several reasons why you don't allow God into your life. I will mention just one: perhaps you have turned your back on God as a result of a broken relationship, for example in your family. Many young people go out into the world and seek entertainment there because they don't find security or authenticity with their parents. As a result of their parents' broken relationship, many young people get stuck in the world.
The robbers are tough
This man falls into the hands of robbers. It is necessary that you recognize yourself in that man. You will have to admit that the world has given you nothing but hard knocks, merciless treatment.
Don't be fooled; the world is harsh and knows no mercy. When people of the world have used or even abused you, they leave you by the wayside. With what prospect? Only death. When you are half dead and have no strength left, you have nothing to expect but death. You are in a hopeless situation. What now? You are alone and there is no one around to help you.
Help arrives
But wait, someone is coming! In the parable, the Lord Jesus has a priest come by. He also happens to be on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. A priest belongs in the temple. There is no mention of a command from God to go to Jericho. He just happens to be passing by. The man who has fallen into the hands of the robbers hears footsteps. Could salvation be coming? With great effort, he lifts his head and sees the priest. He must have breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that it was a priest. Fortunately, it was not the robbers again.
A priest, surely, he could expect something from him. But what does the priest do? The man can't believe his eyes. The priest sees him and crosses the street to the other side. You can hear the priest thinking: "This man is a hopeless case; you don't want anything to do with someone like that. Besides, he shouldn't have been so stupid. What's more, I might become unclean if I touch him." The priest disappears from the half-dead man's sight. With that, his hope also vanishes. He had thought that a servant of God would certainly help him. But how ashamed he is now.
Help arrives once again
But listen, footsteps are approaching again! This time, a Levite appears. New hope dawns. The Levite is a servant of the priest. He is also someone who knows the will of God. He had to teach this to the people of God. He knows God's will to show mercy. But just like the priest, the Levite has no desire to encounter such a filthy man. He turns his head and also gives him a wide berth. Once again, the half-dead man's expectations are dashed. After all the misery he has suffered, he has to swallow yet another disappointment.
Disappointed in the assistance
Perhaps there are also people in your environment from whom you might expect help. If they are people who know a lot about God and perhaps have also completed training in social work, then you might indeed expect something from them. However, if your expectations of people are based purely on the fact that they have completed a certain training program, you will be disappointed. It is not about someone's background or high social or church position. To be truly helped, more is needed.
The Good Samaritan
What really matters is genuine compassion, genuine concern for the misery you are experiencing. The only thing that really helps is that you recognize yourself in the man who has fallen into the hands of robbers.
You can then be brought into a direct, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. The man who comes to the unfortunate man after the priest and the Levite is the Good Samaritan. In him you recognize the Person of the Lord Jesus. G&P
