Luke 10: Stop Walking Past Your Neighbor

Introduction

“I don't believe in throwaway Sundays.” Kev, who brings the Word this Sunday at Kingdom Faith Church in the United Kingdom, says it more than once. For him, every service, every gathering and every prayer meeting is a stone laid on the road where God is leading his Church, because God fully intends to build his Church.

The message is part of a series on what it means to “be the Church.” In the previous weeks, the focus was on God's heart for all nations and on loving the people around us. This time, Kev speaks about the Church's calling to mission, starting from a story many of us know by heart: the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10.

His question is simple and unsettling: how many people do you pass without even seeing them, on your way to something else, maybe even on your way to church?

Outline of the Message

1. Crying Out Like Bartimaeus: Jesus or Nothing

Before opening Luke 10, Kev recalls the story of Bartimaeus, the blind man who hears that Jesus is passing by and starts to cry out: “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47).
Everyone tells him to be quiet and not to bother the teacher. He cries out even louder. Jesus stops, calls him and asks: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). Bartimaeus wants to see again, and the miracle happens.
What Kev loves about this story is that Bartimaeus knew nothing else could save him: “It was Jesus or nothing.”
He speaks to those who came needing a breakthrough, in their family, their work or their situation, and even to the one who does not believe yet but says: “Jesus, if you are real, show yourself.” The congregation then prays for them, declaring that Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save (Isaiah 59:1).

2. A Church Called to Mission

The Church is called to grow in three ways: spiritually, relationally and in mission. Learning to be the Church means learning to become a missionary people.
Kev reads Jesus' commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Among other things, the parable of the good Samaritan is about personal evangelism. In it, Jesus has a one-on-one conversation with a man who is questioning him.

3. The Priest and the Levite: Good Reasons to Walk Past

A lawyer wants to test Jesus: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). He is not a lawyer in the modern sense but an expert in religious law, and his intentions are not good. Jesus still seizes the opportunity to teach.
The answer is well known: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). But the man wants to justify himself: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).
Jesus tells the story of a man attacked by robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, stripped, beaten and left half dead. He cannot save himself in any way.
The priest and the Levite were, in everyone's eyes, the most likely to stop. They knew the law, which speaks of helping those in need. Yet they pass by on the other side.
We could plead their case: alone, what could they do? The road was known for its violence, they were risking their lives, and touching a man who might be dead would have made them unclean. Or perhaps: “Someone else will take care of it, I have other places to be.”
The text does not say why they did not stop. What matters is that they did not, when they should have. And if we are not careful, we become like them: we see the broken person, and we find a reasonable excuse to walk past.

4. The Samaritan: Whose Neighbor Have You Been?

The one who stops is the Samaritan, the one from whom nobody expected anything good. Jews and Samaritans had a long history of rejection: Samaritans were despised by the Jews.
The lawyer was not asking how to love better. He was asking where the limits of his responsibility ended. Jesus turns the question around: whose neighbor have you been? To whom can you show a love that goes beyond, a love that sacrifices?
Kev examines himself: “Where do I subtly draw lines around those who deserve my love?” He quotes the sentences we tell ourselves: “They should know better,” “It's not my responsibility,” “They hurt me.” It is easy to love only the people who are easy to love.
A few chapters earlier, Jesus had already said: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). From the beginning, he redefines the boundaries of love.

5. Noticing, Being Moved, Acting

The Samaritan sees. He notices the man. The priest and the Levite had seen him too, on that narrow road where it was impossible not to notice him. But the Samaritan goes further: he is “moved with compassion.”
“It's one thing to notice something. It's another to let it affect you.” Kev quotes the dictionary definition: compassion is a deep feeling for someone who is suffering, together with a strong urge to act to help. It is compassion that sets the Samaritan in motion.
He bandages the wounds, pouring on oil and wine: he gives what he has, the best remedy he knows. He puts the man on his own animal, which means he finishes the journey on foot. “Comfort goes out the window.”
At the inn, he gives two denarii to the innkeeper. Kev points out that he has not checked this himself, but he has read that this sum could cover about two months of lodging. The Samaritan does not pay for one night: he provides for everything needed until full recovery.
The result: this decision cost him time, his belongings, his comfort and his money. He even risked becoming the robbers' next victim, for a stranger who was most likely Jewish, and therefore an enemy.

6. Jesus, the True Good Samaritan, and the Church as an Inn

You and I were also hopeless and unable to save ourselves. The one who embodied this love and gave his life so that we might live is Jesus. He healed our wounds, lifted us up and brought us to the inn.
Kev reads Charles Spurgeon on this parable: in his infinite love, the Savior did not abandon us. He brought us into the Church, where we rest as in an inn, fed with what his goodness has prepared. He bent down to us in our misery to lift us out of it, knowing that we were his enemies.
It is Jesus who saves, by his Spirit. Then he entrusts to his Church those who are wounded and recovering. The Church can then look like the innkeeper in the story.
“We are not converts, we are not churchgoers, we are not just religious people. We are called to be disciples.” A disciple models his life on the one who trains him, and Jesus gave his life.
Like Pastor Clive, Kev says he is challenged himself as he writes this message, and he asks: “How many people do I walk past without batting an eye, without asking the Holy Spirit what is going on around me?” And he adds: “Let's not let the Great Commission become the Great Omission.”

7. Counting the Cost, Receiving Grace

Kev introduces a simple tool the Church uses to share the Gospel, an illustrated card called the “Jesus Door.” The leaders go first: he himself has spent the last few weeks approaching people with this card.
Out in the field, the story of the good Samaritan becomes very concrete. You may not meet a man left half dead by the roadside, but many have been beaten up by life. As you listen to them, something starts to move inside: “This is not the end. It is the beginning of a turnaround.”
It is not only about the street: friends, colleagues, neighbors, cashiers, the people at the gym. It all begins with a simple conversation, “but before the conversation, there has to be a transformation of the heart.”
The priest and the Levite had been close to God without being like him. You can come every week, pray, read the Bible, and never carry his heart. Mission has a cost, and the answer may be: “Lord, whatever the cost, I am ready.” Jesus came to seek and save what was lost (Luke 19:10).
The good news: “God always gives us the grace for what he asks of us.” The Spirit leads, goes ahead, prepares the way and equips. Grace is not only for forgiveness, it propels us into God's purposes.
Kev quotes the evangelist Reinhard Bonnke: “Plunder hell to populate heaven, for the sake of Calvary.” Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (Acts 1:8) begin right outside the church door, and the people waiting there need Jesus, and someone to tell them about him.
In the closing prayer, he refuses to let love stay abstract: it is not enough to say “I love my nation.” Do you love your neighbor who never parks properly? The one who rejected you last week when you talked to him about Jesus? He also invites anyone who does not know Jesus to join him after the service, because Jesus is knocking at the door of their heart (Revelation 3:20).

Key Takeaways

The priest and the Levite knew the law and had good reasons to walk past. We can become like them without realizing it.
Jesus does not answer the question “who is my neighbor?” He asks: whose neighbor have you been? Love reaches all the way to our enemies.
Noticing is not enough. Compassion means letting yourself be moved to the point of acting, and it costs time, comfort and money.
Jesus is the true good Samaritan. He lifted us up when we could not save ourselves, and he entrusts to his Church those he lifts up.
Every conversation begins with a transformation of the heart, and God gives the grace for what he asks.

Personal Application

What “reasonable excuses” have made you walk past someone who needed help?
Around whom do you draw lines, telling yourself it is not your responsibility or that they hurt you?
Whom have you noticed recently without letting yourself be moved: a colleague, a neighbor, a friend from ten years ago you could call?
What could mission cost you this week: an hour, half an hour, your comfort, your schedule?
Will you dare to pray: “Lord, show me those who are hurting and help me to help them”?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do the priest and the Levite pass by the wounded man?

The text does not say. Kev suggests possible reasons: fear of an ambush on a dangerous road, ritual purity rules, lack of time, or the thought that someone else would take care of it. What matters is that they did not stop even though they knew the law and should have.

Who is my neighbor according to the parable of the good Samaritan?

The lawyer was looking for the limits of his responsibility. Jesus turns the question around: it is no longer about who deserves your love, but about whose neighbor you have been. By choosing a Samaritan, despised by the Jews, he extends love all the way to enemies, as in Luke 6.

Can we love our neighbor this way in our own strength?

No. For Kev, God always gives the grace for what he asks. The Holy Spirit, who is a Spirit of love, leads, prepares the way and equips. Grace is not only for forgiveness: it gives the strength to move forward in God's purposes.