LEAWOOD - Luke 10 served as the inspiration for Pastor Rudy Rasmus’ final words to members of the 2010 Kansas East Annual Conference.
Before dissecting the parable of the Good Samaritan, Rasmus talked about Jesus’ teaching style.
“My father-in-law had a training method that drove my wife crazy when she was a child,” Rasmus said.
Her father would explain the task to her, and show her exactly how to do it. Then he would send her to do the task, and come check on her to ensure that the task had been performed properly. If needed, he would correct her, and have her do the task again. It drove Juanita crazy, but even she would admit that after this process was complete, she could go and do the same task over and over again in the same manner her father did it.
“Jesus did the same thing,” Rasmus said.
Over and over in the New Testament, Jesus would give his disciples a task, tell them a story to illustrate how to do it, and then test them with a real situation in which they could demonstrate how well they had learned their responsibilities.
“When we successfully accomplish a task for God, from God, every now and then we can get a big head,” Rasmus said. “But Jesus said, never-the-less, don’t get happy that the spirits are subject to you, but rather that your names are written in heaven because you did what I told you to do, and I am pleased.”
The Jewish scholar in Luke 10 asked Jesus to define who a neighbor was because he wanted Jesus to marginalize the Samaritan. He was hoping Jesus would depersonalize the term so it would be easier to reject and analyze other people.
But Jesus did not. Instead, Jesus told a story about a man who was beaten by robbers and left to die by the side of the road. Only the Samaritan stopped to help him, disinfect his wounds, take him to a safe place and see to his care. At the end of the story, Jesus asked the scholar, “Who is the neighbor?” The answer was obvious, the man who showed kindness. Then Jesus asked the scholar, “Will you go and do the same?”
“If I want to know who you are, all I have to do is look at your fruit,” Rasmus said. “Whenever we stand before God in equality, we become neighbors. When you go back through your Samaria, there’s going to be a person there waiting to see what your fruit looks like.
“Not only would Jesus show them how to love,” Rasmus said. “Not only would Jesus test them in how they were going to love, he would also correct them in love.”
He said when conference members go home, they can define love and talk about love all they want, but if they don’t put their time and energy and resources into loving others, their communities will continue to have the same poverty that’s present this year when they return to conference next year.
“Jesus said love is as love does,” Rasmus said. “He’s not only talked about love, he’s demonstrated love. Whenever he was confronted with someone’s need for love, no matter what, the Bible reminds us that he never criticized or ridiculed or shook his head. He just loved, and he told us to do the same.”
Just telling us to love wasn’t enough. He had to show us how to love.
“Jesus came for us as the physical manifestation of love, so that we would know that we were loved and we would be called to eradicate poverty in the same way that Jesus eradicated poverty,” he said. “Jesus was saying it was OK to be a copycat, you just have to be careful which cat to copy.”
Love came to us in human form, healed the sick and the lame, raised the dead, and visited the shut-in. Then love made sure we understood that love is as love does. Love gets rid of racism and classism. And then it was time for Love to test us. Love allowed himself to be sentenced to death, to take that slow march to Calvary and be nailed to a cross. Love tested our reaction, and we denied love. Then love died to test us just a little more. Love was buried and love stayed dead for three days.
“Love was testing you and testing me to see if we really understood what love means,” Rasmus said. “I tell you what, love did not stay dead. And I thank God for that today, because my Bible tells me after three days, love began to make his appearance again. Love told us what love meant. Showed us again what love was. Tested us by asking do we believe. And then today, love is still watching, observing, wondering if we really got it. And Jesus is going to ask us the question, and that question is, will you go and do the same?”
