Podcasts about good samaritan

────────────────────────────────────────[00:02:12]Trump Blocks Foreign Grid Components — Knight: Is He Declaring an Emergency or Creating One?He's blocking transformers we don't make domestically; specialized ones from Germany take years to replace; sabotaging the very infrastructure a real EMP would destroy.────────────────────────────────────────[00:12:08]Trump Threatens to Demolish the Kennedy Center After a Judge Blocked Him From Putting His Name on ItOnly Congress can rename it; spent $256 million reshaping it; wants to tear it down because he can't put his name above Kennedy's.────────────────────────────────────────[00:15:18]Mike Johnson: "It's All for Israel — They're Fighting for Their Very Existence"Knight: show me that in the Bible; dispensationalist Zionists are doing to Christ what Piss Christ did to the crucifix, except in the name of Christianity.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:33]Trump Posts "Mission Accomplished" Meme for Iran War — Supporter Can't Name One War He StoppedAsked to name just one; she said, "If he says it, it's got to be true."; same pattern as Bush in 2003. ── Interview 1: Lawrence Reed — FEE / Born of Ideas ──────────────────────────────────────────[00:53:20]Nobody Spends Somebody Else's Money as Carefully as His Own — 40 Trillion Reasons It's TrueIf it's yours, you take care of it; nobody washes the rental car; government spending is the ultimate rental car economy; 40 trillion is the evidence.────────────────────────────────────────[00:55:03]Reed: The Debt Is No Longer a Future Problem — Interest Is Crowding Out AmmunitionA trillion a year in interest; if we're running out of ammunition in Iran, ask where the money went; past debt crowding out present security.────────────────────────────────────────[00:59:03]Was Jesus a Socialist? Reed: No Passage in the New Testament Endorses Government RedistributionIn Luke 12 he said, "Who made me a judge or divider over you?"; the Good Samaritan acted from his own free will — not by voting for a politician. ── Interview 2: James Walton — Prepper Broadcasting Network ──────────────────────────────────────────[01:24:22]The 100-Year Amnesia — Convenience Wiped Thousands of Years of Self-Reliance in One GenerationHerbal remedies, foraging, food preservation — common knowledge 100 years ago, gone by the 1980s; we traded thousands of years of ingenuity for Campbell's canned soup.────────────────────────────────────────[01:26:57]AI and GPS Are Doing to the Brain What Convenience Did to Self-Reliance SkillsLondon cabbies had a larger brain region from memorizing streets; it shrank when GPS replaced it; AI is running the same play, faster.────────────────────────────────────────[01:27:23]Modern Self-Reliance Starts Small — Chickens in the Backyard Changed EverythingProducing renewable protein in a city backyard; add one thing to two and you've increased by 50%; small steps are transformative because the bar is so low. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

────────────────────────────────────────[00:02:12]Trump Blocks Foreign Grid Components — Knight: Is He Declaring an Emergency or Creating One?He's blocking transformers we don't make domestically; specialized ones from Germany take years to replace; sabotaging the very infrastructure a real EMP would destroy.────────────────────────────────────────[00:12:08]Trump Threatens to Demolish the Kennedy Center After a Judge Blocked Him From Putting His Name on ItOnly Congress can rename it; spent $256 million reshaping it; wants to tear it down because he can't put his name above Kennedy's.────────────────────────────────────────[00:15:18]Mike Johnson: "It's All for Israel — They're Fighting for Their Very Existence"Knight: show me that in the Bible; dispensationalist Zionists are doing to Christ what Piss Christ did to the crucifix, except in the name of Christianity.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:33]Trump Posts "Mission Accomplished" Meme for Iran War — Supporter Can't Name One War He StoppedAsked to name just one; she said, "If he says it, it's got to be true."; same pattern as Bush in 2003. ── Interview 1: Lawrence Reed — FEE / Born of Ideas ──────────────────────────────────────────[00:53:20]Nobody Spends Somebody Else's Money as Carefully as His Own — 40 Trillion Reasons It's TrueIf it's yours, you take care of it; nobody washes the rental car; government spending is the ultimate rental car economy; 40 trillion is the evidence.────────────────────────────────────────[00:55:03]Reed: The Debt Is No Longer a Future Problem — Interest Is Crowding Out AmmunitionA trillion a year in interest; if we're running out of ammunition in Iran, ask where the money went; past debt crowding out present security.────────────────────────────────────────[00:59:03]Was Jesus a Socialist? Reed: No Passage in the New Testament Endorses Government RedistributionIn Luke 12 he said, "Who made me a judge or divider over you?"; the Good Samaritan acted from his own free will — not by voting for a politician. ── Interview 2: James Walton — Prepper Broadcasting Network ──────────────────────────────────────────[01:24:22]The 100-Year Amnesia — Convenience Wiped Thousands of Years of Self-Reliance in One GenerationHerbal remedies, foraging, food preservation — common knowledge 100 years ago, gone by the 1980s; we traded thousands of years of ingenuity for Campbell's canned soup.────────────────────────────────────────[01:26:57]AI and GPS Are Doing to the Brain What Convenience Did to Self-Reliance SkillsLondon cabbies had a larger brain region from memorizing streets; it shrank when GPS replaced it; AI is running the same play, faster.────────────────────────────────────────[01:27:23]Modern Self-Reliance Starts Small — Chickens in the Backyard Changed EverythingProducing renewable protein in a city backyard; add one thing to two and you've increased by 50%; small steps are transformative because the bar is so low. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

In episode 503 of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb conclude their deep dive into Luke 10:25–37 — the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Far from a simple morality tale about helping strangers, this episode unpacks the parable's confrontational legal context, its reversal of expectation, and its profound Christological undertones. Tony and Jesse examine why the lawyer's question about self-justification was always destined to be unanswerable on his own terms, how the priest and Levite serve as a damning mirror for religious professionals, and why the Samaritan's lavish, costly mercy points beyond mere ethics to the gospel itself. The episode also explores the Mary and Martha account that immediately follows, arguing it cannot be read in isolation. Closing with Matthew Henry, the hosts land the discussion squarely on gratitude for Christ, the supreme Good Neighbor. Key Takeaways The parable is fundamentally about self-justification, not mercy ministry. The lawyer's question — "Who is my neighbor?" — is a legal maneuver, and Jesus' answer exposes the impossibility of fulfilling the law through self-effort rather than merely defining the scope of neighborly obligation. Jesus reverses the expected identification of "the neighbor." The listener naturally assumes the beaten man is the neighbor to be loved, but the punchline identifies the Samaritan — the one who showed mercy — as the neighbor, redirecting the question from who must I love to what does love actually look like. The Samaritan's mercy is deliberately, impossibly lavish. His actions — binding wounds, providing transport, paying an open-ended debt for a stranger and likely an enemy — exceed anything a reasonable person would do, pointing to a mercy that transcends mere human virtue. The priest and Levite indict religious professionalism. Their failure is not incidental; it demonstrates that meticulous law observance and ceremonial religiosity can actually obstruct the very love the law commands, hollowing out its spirit while preserving its form. The parable functions under all three uses of the law. For the unregenerate, it terrifies and condemns. For the regenerate, it is a third-use call to Spirit-empowered, grateful obedience. As civil law, it commends a society of compassion over indifference. Christ is the typological Good Neighbor. The Samaritan's actions — pouring oil and wine, bearing the cost, promising to return and settle all debts — carry genuine Christological resonance without requiring a full allegorical reading of every detail. The immediately following Mary and Martha account is thematically inseparable. Luke's editorial placement of that narrative directly after the parable creates a deliberate counterpoint: the one thing necessary is not anxious service but sitting at the feet of Jesus. Key Concepts The Lawyer's Question Was Never Going to Work The lawyer who approaches Jesus in Luke 10 is not a neutral inquirer — he is, as Luke tells us, seeking to justify himself. Tony and Jesse explore what this means with precision: the desire to be justified is not inherently wrong, but the mechanism the lawyer employs — the law — is catastrophically insufficient for the task. When Jesus responds with the parable, he does not sidestep the legal framework; he weaponizes it. The Samaritan's mercy is so extravagant, so far beyond ordinary moral expectation, that it functions not as an achievable standard but as a devastating exposure of how far short every human attempt at law-keeping falls. The command "go and do likewise" is not an encouraging send-off — it is, for the self-justifying lawyer, a door slamming shut. The Samaritan's Mercy Is Intentionally Beyond Reach One of the most important contributions this episode makes is resisting the domestication of the Samaritan's actions into a feel-good story about helping those in need. Tony reframes the scenario in contemporary terms: finding a gravely injured stranger from a hostile ethnic group, providing emergency first aid, transporting them to care, and writing a blank check for all future medical expenses — with no personal obligation to do so. No reasonable person would do this, and that is exactly the point. The mercy described is not aspirationally difficult; it is humanly inconceivable at scale. This is what Christ-like love looks like, and it is precisely what the law demands. The gap between the demand and human capacity is the gospel's entry point. The Mary and Martha Account Cannot Be Separated from the Parable Tony raises a hermeneutical observation that deserves more attention than it typically receives: Luke chose to place the Mary and Martha account immediately after the Good Samaritan parable, and that editorial decision is not accidental. Martha — busy with hospitality and service — looks, on the surface, like the practical application of everything the Samaritan modeled. Yet she is gently rebuked, and Mary, who sits at Jesus' feet, is commended for choosing "the one thing necessary." This creates a stunning theological counterweight: the parable exposes the impossibility of self-justifying law-keeping, and the very next story shows that even well-intentioned merciful activity, when it crowds out receiving from Christ, misses the point. The one thing necessary is always Christ himself. Memorable Quotes If you think you're the good Samaritan, if you think you're the one that's gonna come and rescue people — you're much more likely to see this as a sort of law beat-down. Where those of us who are regenerated and in Christ, this is third-use law. This is us seeing what it means to be holy, and going and doing likewise, trying in our power, recognizing that we can't, and trusting the Lord to accept our feeble attempts. - Tony Arsenal This text is not really to be preached or applied as some kind of bare moral exhortation. It's not 'try harder to be like the Samaritan.' That's totally disconnected from the gospel. It should be preached in a manner that exposes the impossibility of self-justification... and then of course it does point us to Christ as the one whose perfect, costly, self-giving mercy alone satisfies the law's demand on our behalf. - Jesse Schwamb If this parable and our conversation about it does nothing except stirring you to gratitude for the fact that our supreme good neighbor threw us on his donkey and carried us to the public house, and bound up our wounds, and paid for our debt — if it does nothing but drive you to gratitude and thankfulness and wonder, then we've succeeded in our task and we've left you with the Gospel. - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript Jesse Schwamb: Welcome to episode 503 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.  Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brother.  Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. Well, at this point, there's one thing that we know for certain, and that is if you're gonna come at the law giver, the one who's composed and written the law, with a legal question to try to entrap the one who has given you the law, you better not miss. And it turns out, in Luke 10 where we've been hanging out, the lawyer who poses Jesus with the question of, "Who is my neighbor?" is a big swing and a miss. Yeah. And we're finally gonna get to all the characters that are part of this amazing parable in this conversation. But of course, there's something we gotta do first. Affirmations And Denials Jesse Schwamb: It, it's everybody's, what I'm led to believe everybody's favorite segment of this entire show. I mean, the crowds out there say, "Why even have a full podcast? Just do affirmations and denials for the entire time." And we, we hear you, because we're borrowing from that beautiful confessional format of the dead reformers to settle all the much not confessional [00:02:00] disputes. So in the great tradition of the Westminster Divines, who of course cannot just simply say, "We like grace," without also clarifying 17 things that grace is not- ... we're now again going to bring you our own binding, authoritative, and entirely unneeded but very official statement of affirmations and denials. It's affirming the things we love and denying things we don't. So Tony, as is our own custom, are you affirming with something or are you denying against something on this episode?  Tony Arsenal: Um, I'm denying something. Uh, it's a sort of a weird situation that has cropped up, uh, online. And I, I try not to use this segment too often to sort of wade into, um, I don't know, the, like, latest social controversy in the Reformed world. But every once in a while I come across something that I feel like you just need to sort of talk about. And, um, many of our listeners are probably already [00:03:00] aware of the situation that I'm gonna talk about, and it's very well-publicized and, and very public. Um, but I'm denying the sort of weirdness that has happened with the G3 Conference. Um, I'm not sure how familiar with G3 you are, Jesse, but for the, the listener who may not be, G3 is a conference, um, primarily run by Baptists, and is, in my understanding, is primarily attended by sort of Reformed-ish Baptists. And I don't, I don't say Reformed-ish to be pejorative necessarily. Um, but it, it's sort of like predominantly, um Non-confessional but not anti-confessional Calvinistic Baptists, sort of think more like covenant framework MacArthur-style Baptists maybe is, is a way to look at it. Um, and a few years ago, one of their main figures, I don't remember exactly what position he held, but it was a relatively high position in, in [00:04:00] the conference. Uh, his name was Josh Boyce. He, uh, w- was caught/confessed to maintaining, like, multiple anonymous or pseudonymous, uh, Twitter accounts and publishing several s- like pseudonym-based Substacks, um, that he used to basically attack the character of not only anyone online that seemed to cross him, but, like, people that he shared an office with. Like, anyone and everyone was targeted by him. And at the time it was a big hullabaloo. He, uh, he resigned. As far as I can tell, he's faded into obscurity and has not sought to come back, although that's always, you know, yet to be seen. But at the time there was very firm statements by the r- remaining sort of board members, leadership of G3, at how inappropriate this was, and how acting anonymously requi- you know, sort of evacuates accountability and, [00:05:00]and all these different things. And it's come out recently, um, just over the last week, that four of the members of the G3 board, um, who are all elders at the same church, had assembled a sort of anonymous dossier of accusations against, um, a- another pastor, uh, that he had been sort of serially plagiarizing sermons. Um, and when nothing really happened when they sent their anonymous dossier, they started distributing this to other, other, like, platforms and other church and m- parachurch ministries, kind of encouraging people to do their own investigation. Um, one such, uh, outlet was ... It's a, it's a, I don't know, sort of a news discernment blogger kind of a thing, um, has done some pretty decent reporting work I think in, in the recent past, although it has sort of a s- storied beginning, um, called Protestia They did just [00:06:00] that. They did an investigation, and in the course of their investigation, they identified who these anonymous, uh, the anonymous reporters were, and it was the same, the very same people who a few years ago, uh, pontificated, uh, at, at length about the importance of accountability and how anonymity has, uh, taken that away. Uh, people that accepted Josh Boyce's resi- resignation for acting anonymously have now done the same thing. They have since, uh, resigned from their church eldership, um, which is gonna be awkward because they haven't resigned from the board of G3, which, uh, the offices of G3 are in the same building as the church that they've now resigned at. Uh, and I guess where, where my denial comes in and the reason that I feel like it, it might be worthwhile for us just to Even reflect on it a little bit is there is an element in the Reformed world that seeks a platform and seeks an audience and seeks notoriety, and I, I was musing [00:07:00] today a little bit on my own Twitter that th- there was a time in my life where that was very much what I wanted. I wanted to be a, a very public, well-known theological voice, and, um, a- and I just have sort of like drifted away from that. And the, the reason I think it's worth mentioning on our show is that we do have an audience. We have a, a modest audience. It's not huge. It's not nothing. Um, but th- there is a real temptation to seek fame and notoriety that is absolutely destructive and really antithetical to, uh, to Christian principles of what it means to serve those around you, to serve with humility, to r- you know, redound any glory that might come to you for your actions to, to the fact that it is Christ who empowers all things and brings all good blessings. So I don't know that I have much more commentary on it. It's just a weird... It's a very weird situation, but it, it seems like it very much has come from a [00:08:00] place of feeling as though minor slights by people you associate with warrant sort of a, a nuclear option like this because, uh... and I don't wanna read too much into motives, but, but it seems like because your reputation and your notoriety is so great that any offense to it needs to be responded to in kind, and that's just not, that's just not the Christian way. So again, I don't know that I have any more commentary or thoughts on it. It just was a weird situation that I'm, I'm like, "Why do we gotta do this to each other, folks?" Like, why are we, why are we biting at each other all the time? Why are we doing these things except from a place of sinful pride? So I'm denying that. I'm denying sinful pride. I'm denying my own tendencies to seek glory in a spotlight. Um, I'm very thankful that God did not, uh, see fit to grant me that desire 'cause it probably would've been even more destructive for me than it has been for these guys. So I'm very happy to live in obscurity, [00:09:00] to serve the local church, to share our voices in this very modest, tiny platform that we have, and perhaps the Lord will see fit to change that one direction or the other, and I'll, I'll be happy to serve at His, uh, at His will. But I'm glad for now that, uh, the, the temptation of international fame has not been something that I even have the opportunity to lay hold of. Um, I'm very thankful for that, that, uh, grace from the Lord.  Jesse Schwamb: I had that light, sarcastic, some might say somewhat humorous opening and affirmations and denials, and you, you just brought the heaviness, which is okay. Sometimes that's, sometimes that's what happens.  Lament Devotional Spotlight Jesse Schwamb: And- Yeah ... I- fortunately, I have an affirmation, but it's, uh, of, like, a weird, heavy kind now that I think about it. So, um, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get everybody on the cusp of good books that I think are coming out. And so here's another one where it's not even gonna be released until September 30th, and so you have plenty of time to go out and find this thing. So P&R Publishing, many may be [00:10:00] familiar, does this whole series, topical series, which are called 31-Day Devotionals for Life, and there's a new one being released by Christine Chappell. It's called Lament: Crying Out in Faith. So I'm affirming with this piece because I've had the joy of been working through some of this stuff, and I think this is some of the best treatment I've ever read, been able to practice, been coached into for lamenting. We've talked before at length about how Christians, especially in the West, often because we just have great lives, we aren't familiar with lament. We don't practice it well. We hardly sing any songs of lament. We're unfamiliar with it. It's like a foreign land to us. And then sometimes when we're, we get convicted we should lament, we kind of interpret that as, "Well, yeah, I, I know I can blow up at God. I can get angry with him and, and that's okay." David does it too, and it's okay to express all your feelings with God. What I like about this work is it cultivates more of a prayer language. It gives voice to pain and grief so that there can be a real healing. It's not just a complaining. It's not just [00:11:00] throwing your voice out into the ether to, you know, wildly pontificate or self-aggrandize about how hurt or upset you are. It enables us to cry out to God in such a way that it promotes emotional authenticity, but at the same time maintains reverence. I think that is, uh, at least what I need. The beauty of this book is somebody you know or yourself need to lament something. Actually, I think we all have something to lament, even as it's getting older or things changing in our lives. So I highly, highly, highly affirm with this book. It's Lament: Crying Out in Faith. P&R does a lot of great publishing in this way. It's just the year of the devotionals, Tony. I don't know why. Yeah. I mean, I even hate to use devotional. It's the year of good resources for daily praise and worship- Yeah ... and lament should be part of our praise and worship. Yeah. So, but doing it in the right way is something I'm learning. I had mixed understanding of it. So this will clarify, encourage, edify in all the ways that I think we need.  Tony Arsenal: That sounds great. I, I do agree with you. I think, um- [00:12:00] Although I think it may be a little bit less so in, in the sort of confessional Reformed tradition just because the Psalms in general play such a prominent role in Reformed worship. Um, I do agree with you that broadly, like, we, we in the Western evangelical w- world don't, we don't know how to do laments. Um, I'm not one of those people that would say im- imprecatory prayers are inappropriate. I know there are some even within the Reformed world that would say im- imprecatory prayers are not appropriate for God's people in, in the new covenant. Um, I don't know that I agree with that, but, but that's another example of, like, that's in the prayer and hymnbook of our people- Right ... and we don't really know how to do it. Yes. So, and, and imprecation and lament are very closely related to each other. They're, they're very similar, um, ways of thinking and they're, they're both kind of modes of prayer that, uh, we don't, we don't really engage in. And so when we do have- when the occasion arises, we're, like, out of practice. So that's a great, uh, a great [00:13:00]affirmation and yeah, a little, a little weirdly heavy. Maybe this is gonna be a, a weirdly heavy episode. Who knows?  Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, it very well could be.  Good Samaritan Deep Dive Jesse Schwamb: I mean, listen, it was no doubt heavy for the lawyer who stood up- True who was  Tony Arsenal: like- Nicely done ...  Jesse Schwamb: I'd like to justify myself, so Jesus, let me ask you, we took our question, "Who is my neighbor?" I do all these things. I'm down with the law. Yeah. I know all this stuff. And I think we had some really great conversation last time. I'm biased, but I think we had some really fantastic unpacking of the first part of this, and if you haven't heard that yet, you should go back and listen to episode 502. But in this episode, we're really getting into all of these wonderful and somewhat colorful characters. So I'm gonna pick us back up in Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25. So I'm going back a little bit just to set that proper context for this amazing parable that Jesus tells us. So he says, "And behold, a scholar of the law stood up and was putting him," that is Jesus, "to the test, saying, 'Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And he said to him, 'What is written in the law? How do you [00:14:00] read it?' And he answered and said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' And he said to him, 'You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.' But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?' And Jesus replied and said, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And a priest happened to be going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion.'" And he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put them on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the [00:15:00] next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you." Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands? And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, this is one of those parables we, we mentioned, uh, I guess we've invented a new classification of parables called the Big Daddy parables. That's right. Um, uh, this is one of those parables that is so ubiquitous and well-known, uh, that word there, choice there was a little hat tip to my Lutheran friends. Um, so ubiquitous and well-known that I think we actually can, can rush into a common understanding and not, not be right at all about it. And I think the, the way this, uh, uh, the way I've seen this commonly done in, in circles I've run in in the past is this [00:16:00] becomes a parable about mercy ministry. Um, and, and the primary point is about how we serve our neighbors. And I think there certainly is, um, there certainly is an element of that that we can glean from this, that Christ is making a commentary on the fact that, um, the, the, the right way to not only serve your neighbor but to even identify your neighbor, uh, and it's funny because I think this is, this is where I think people go wrong. The, the Samar- or the, um, the, the lawyer is asking, "Who is my neighbor?" Right. And I think we commonly read this, and we read it to say, well, the Samaritan, uh, or the, the guy who got beat up is the neighbor. Right. And so we have to serve our neighbor like the Samaritan did. But the, the, the punchline, whatever, of the story is that the Samaritan is the g- is the neighbor, right? We, we call this the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but we might wanna call it the [00:17:00] Parable of the Good Neighbor. And so it says more about what it means to be a good neighbor than it does to, um, to say about who, who our neighbor necessarily is, right? The, the s- uh, the lawyer was asking, "Who's my neighbor?" And the answer was the one who shows mercy. And there's kind of a weird, there's kind of a weird paradox there, and this is something Jesus commonly does, where, like, He doesn't really answer the question. Um, the, the lawyer is like, "Well, who is it that I have to love," right? "The, I have to love my neighbor as myself, and who is it that I have to love?" And Jesus' answer basically is like, "Well, the good neighbor is the one who showed mercy." Well, that doesn't answer- Right ... His question. So I think we have to be careful when we, uh, we work through this not to just sort of default and jump to what might be called, like, the lowest common denominator interpretation, right? These are things that, yes, um, there is something to say about, uh, mercy ministry and how important it is to serve the, [00:18:00] serve those around us who are in need, right? That's, that's the command that comes out of this or the outcome that comes out of this is Christ is commanding this, um, this lawyer to go and be merciful to others. Um- But if we, if we move too quickly to that, we miss a lot of what this has to say about the nature of justification- Right ... the nature of Christ as, as the capital T good neighbor, right? The, the good neighbor who, who takes care of our sin and pays the debt for us to be restored, right? I don't, like I said last week, I don't think that that is too on the nose. Um, I think we miss the fact that the question, uh, the question is coming from a place, and we talked about this a little bit last week, but and maybe we'll get into it a little more. The question is coming from a place, um, whether you view this negatively, like I think most do, and there's warrant for that, or whether you view it a, a little bit more neutrally or maybe even positively, which is where I land, the desire to justify or to be [00:19:00] justified is not a bad desire. And the, the text doesn't seem to offer a lot of commentary on the fact that the, the, um, lawyer is desiring to justify himself, other than the implied commentary o- of what the parable says about salvation in that someone else needs to save you, so you can't do it yourself in the first place. So I'm excited to get through this. Um, I, I think we're probably gonna be here, we're gonna camp out here for at least another week after this, 'cause there's just so much to this parable. Who knows? Maybe we'll fly through it and it'll be a quick conversation, but I, I don't... That's not really our jam. Um- That's not really what we do But yeah, it, it's, it's a big daddy parable. There's a lot here to unpack.  Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. You're right about that. Interestingly, as always, Jesus flips the law, but here the law flipping, like, ends up smacking you in the face because it does start with this inquiry about just identify for me who my neighbors are. If you give me these discrete instructions like the law has given me to do all these things, which by the way, I mean, even that when we have this lawyer saying, [00:20:00] "I've done all these things. I've identified just for instance that the law includes loving the Lord God with everything, every part of who I am." He says like, "Yeah, I've done all these things." This is, I've already accomplished that. So now let me get, become self-justified in confirming I've done all these things. If you just tell me who the neighbors are, I'll be able to say to you, "Yep, I've already done that." Instead, what happens is Christ says, "Here's what neighborly love looks like. And what it's gonna look like is so dramatic and so shocking that you ought to take pity and have concern and show compassion for those not just who are unlike you, but are, like, abhorrent, those who you would even never identify with in the parable of the story I'm about to tell you." So I think there's all of that, like you said, to move away from just kind of categorizing this as a nice homily about how we ought to behave. However, there might be, like, some kind of moralistic theme in this that directs us toward actions of love and generosity, which by the way, could just be common grace. Those exist outside of strict belief and adherence to the gospel, and certainly can be far afield from actually loving Christ. [00:21:00] The other thing that I think sometimes happens with this, and I'm gonna be unpopular on this one, I'm afraid, but is that I think there is often a lot of allegorical excess. And certainly there are people more intelligent than I who really embrace that. So I'm looking at you, Patristic Fathers. Like, you know, if you wanna read some interesting stuff, everybody can go look up Origen or Augustine on this. Yeah. And they allegorize this parable in New England what we would call wicked fine detail. I mean, down, down to everything. So the oil and the- Yeah ... wine, the soil, each of the persons here representing something that in itself, like, everything. And I think that that is okay. What I struggle with on that is, and this is where I'm unpopular, I think, is that- There are a lot of other exegetes, I don't think I'm alone, that would look at this and say, "Yes, there is something about this that draws us into, like, just general typological resonance. I'm not gonna reject that." There are these, like, broader canonical themes of, like, helpless [00:22:00] humanity, like you said, and undeserved mercy. Those all legitimately, I think, echo the gospel truths. But I'm kind of resisting, or I'm prone to resist, treating every narrative detail in this as some kind of, like, independent cipher. Yeah. And so I think I want to come a little bit in criticizing, like, the allegorical method here, that instead what happens when we do that is we're, we're... I think we're obscuring a little bit Christ's actual didactic purpose, which is fundamentally ethical and legal, 'cause that's the question he's answering. He's trying to answer this question, "Who's my neighbor?" And he's gonna do it- Right ... with this definition-shattering example. And so I think, like, the most responsible hermeneutic here affirms that, like we said before, a parable should have a single main point, and it's determined in this context by that punchline, like you said. Um, at the same time, I think we can legitimately, like, permit some restrained theological reflection on, like, that broader resonance with the gospel. I'm not denying that. But without multiplying, like, allegorical [00:23:00] correspondences like the text itself doesn't even make. Even, even coming down to, like, who we see as Christ in the story, while that can be useful and helpful, it's not the same identification that we've seen in other parables. Yeah. So that's what makes this, like you're right, Tony, like, really unique and very interesting because we can draw lots and lots of parallels, and perhaps we should. But at the same time, it's always good to remember what is it that Jesus is on about here? What is it that the hearers were really being prone to understand and mull over and meditate on? And that's, like, this first principle of neighborly love, like you already called out.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and I, I agree with you, too, is I, I think, um- We can sort of fall into a trap or a pit of assuming that all of the parables are meant to explain the same thing. Sure. And I think, like, within Matthew maybe that's a little bit more, uh, accurate because m- I think all, if not [00:24:00] most of, of the Matthean parables, you know, the Kingdom of God is like, the Kingdom of God is like. So th- like, that repeated f- refrain of, like, the Kingdom of God is... In, in Matthew, Christ is using parables to teach about the mysterious hidden reality of the kingdom in a way that people can understand. Um, this is different, right? This is not a Kingdom of God is like. There is no, um, clear this is like that, uh, introduction to this parable. Right. I, I've actually even read some commentaries that would question the assignment of the title parable to this, because they want to restrict what a parable is to those sort of kingdom, like, explicit simile- Good point ... things. Yeah. So- Right ... but I, I do think, um, w- we, we have to be careful not to run down that road, because this parable is not really... Again, like, it's not explaining what the Kingdom of God is like. This is trying to, um, not trying to, Christ is [00:25:00]articulating a reality that is baked into the law, um, and he's flipping the question on its head, and this is what I think is so, um, so wrong about the allegorical approach, right? Is that the allegorical approach seeks to find symbolism in every discrete character or element of the, of the parable, or of the, the allegory if you wanna, we wanna distinguish it. This really is, is trying to just get at that one point. And what- Mm-hmm ... I think is so, what must have been really just infuriating for this lawyer, um, regardless of what happened after this, right? We don't, we don't get commentary like we do with the rich, young ruler, and the stories are in many ways are very much the same. Like, it's the same basic setup. But we don't get commentary that, like, he went away sad, like we do with the rich, young ruler. We don't know what happened with this guy. We don't know what his reaction... But I, I'm sitting there putting myself in his place, and I'm, I'm thinking through this, and this is one of those things that it's actually hard even to mentally get yourself there. The, [00:26:00] the, each character that is introduced here, um, is a candidate for the neighbor. Right. But the most obvious candidate based on, um, the way we commonly interpret this, is that the dude who gets beat up and left stripped naked is, is the neighbor that we're supposed to love Right? So the lawyer, as he's hearing this parable, as it's being told, and the, the people who are there listening, right, the, the other people that are around, there's this character introduced, "Who is my neighbor? Well, a man was going down to Jerusalem. He fell among roggers, Roger, robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead." Like, the obvious answer is that Christ is introducing this poor, destitute, beat-up, naked dude, uh, as the neighbor that needs to be loved. And so he goes through the whole parable, and you're like, oh, well, like, the, you know, the, the priest and the Levite, they didn't love this guy. Uh, the Samaritan, you know, I think an audience of Jews probably would've been thinking like, "Well, the Samaritan can't be..." You know, the Samaritan [00:27:00] is just a dude. Like, none of these people are loving the, the, the beat-up dude like a neighbor should. Right. And then all of a sudden, Christ flips the script, and the neighbor is not the dude who's laying there naked, half dead, who's been rescued and, and, you know, restored and is being healed. It's actually the Samaritan. And so there's this... We have to... Part of the reason, I think, I mean, I, I, I guess I don't know for sure, but part of the reason I think s- that parables have this, like, reversal of expectation baked into many of them is that it is there to challenge our assumptions, and th- that sort of whiplash effect when you get to the end of it, you're like, "Whoa, that was like he was talking about totally, something totally different than what it seemed like he was talking about." I think that's actually a teaching tool here as well. Right. That the, the whole time you're thinking like, "Oh, this dude is the neighbor, and I've gotta figure out how to love him best," and that's what plays into these mercy ministry interpretations, is thinking that the, the point of the parable is to show us how to take [00:28:00] care of the, the people who need help, when really the point of the parable is the good neighbor. And, uh, we might butt heads a little bit on this, 'cause I think I take probably more of a Christological, uh, topological, typological interpretation than you do. I, I think that the point of the parable is that you can't justify yourself, and the only one who can justify you is the one who's kept the law perfectly. And what does it mean to keep the law perfectly? Well, love the Lord your God, but also love your neighbor as yourself. Well, who's the only person in the story who's loved the neighbor as himself? The one who s- rescues and heals and pays for this poor man who's been, you know, waylaid by robbers. He's the good neighbor who fulfills the law. He's the one who's justified himself. Now, yes, "Go do likewise," there's some echoes there of, of the go and sin no more language that we see in other places, too. So I, I think this parable is more, is more about- A, and this is where it shares some affinity with the rich young ruler, [00:29:00] right? The rich young ruler is told to go and to, to sell everything he has and donate it to the poor and to come and follow Christ. And he says, you know, he, he can't do that. He walks away sad. In this instance, it's the same kind of situation. It's an, a question about how do I fulfill the law? What do I need to do to be saved, to inherit eternal life, to obtain eternal life, whatever the phrasing is. And the answer is, "Obey the law perfectly." And the guy goes, "Well, hey, I did that." And he said, "Well, let me show you how much you didn't do that." And the reality is the only one who did that is Christ, the good teacher, right? I mean, there, there's so many parallels between these two accounts. It, it's almost the same, it's almost the same story. This one just in sort of parable answer form versus a more direct form, which we see with the rich young ruler. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, what I find really fascinating about these is that whereas, like you said, the, some of the other parables, they come under the volitional teaching of Christ. That is, He is presenting forward the topic at hand. So usually it's in the context of conversation, but He essentially makes [00:30:00] the segue. He presents and opens up this new kind of vista to explore. In this case, or in both those cases you talked about, the confrontation really comes from the outside. Of course, God, through Christ, predestined all of these things to pass, so I'm not saying that Christ was caught off guard, of course, by this line of questioning. And presumably He understands that when the lawyer asks this question, He knows that it's from a position of self-justification. So I don't disagree that that might be there, some of that at play, and that really the ultimate end of this would bring, to bring one's self to the realization that you can't do this. At the same time, though, I think almost, especially in this one, I think, uh, it's not that Jesus withholds that, but I read that do, go and do likewise is this is what you said you wanted. You asked me for an answer, and I gave you the answer. You asked for the law- Yeah ... I will give you the law. So I actually don't know how this ended. It doesn't strike me that it ended well, and I think, I don't know if there was some kind of massive realization there, but it's almost as if there is some [00:31:00] obscuring of this. This is like typical parable, parable language where I think if you're there and you're listening, and you're trying to just track with the question and track how that compounds and corresponds with the law, that you would leave more destitute, more confused, and perhaps more angry than before, and certainly not in a position of understanding, "Well, th- this one before me is the Christ." But that's exactly what parables do. So again, I, I think to me- Right ... I see this more as certainly, again, there are these wonderful themes These kind of overtures of the gospel within, but they are dark and very obscured because the man asks a question about the law, and Jesus comes with a message about the law. And like you said, that law is- Yeah ... like, there's almost no grace in his tone as I read it because, not that he is not graceful or full of grace and gracious, but this guy asks for justification under the law. And so it ends with saying, it ends with this really phenomenal phrase, of course, of the lawyer realizing he's got himself [00:32:00] caught in having to respond truthfully in answering the question of who is the neighbor, but of course doesn't identify the neighbor except to say, "Oh, the one who has compassion," as if like he himself couldn't bring himself- Right to say these words. And then for Jesus to say, "Yeah, go do it," is, is kind of like the ultimate nail in the coffin.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and to tell a first century Jew to go and do, to be- Yes ... like a Samaritan is- Yes ... you know, e- even, even though that's not, like, highlighted in the text, you're right. Like, the, the lawyer probably couldn't bring himself to say the Samaritan was, right? And I, I think, um, you know, whether you take, uh, and maybe I'm novel on this. I guess I haven't really read, read a lot of people that take a, a more optimistic approach of this. But whether you take a more optimistic outcome approach or a more pessimistic or neutral, whatever, the, the actual outcome is the same, right? The, the lawyer is asking about self-justification under the law, like you said. Right. And Christ gives him [00:33:00] that. He tells him exactly what that means and what that looks like. And I think the, the impossibility of being the good neighbor as is described in the parable is exactly the sort of beat down of the law that, that, you know, we've talked about in the past is it's not as though, um, the, the, the actions of the Samaritan are not, uh, outwardly impossible, right? We- Right ... it's not unreasonable to think that someone could rescue someone from the side of the road and bring them to ... And like, the scenario itself is not that crazy. But the, the overall complex of the scenario, right? The fact that this man, um, was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, right? The, the ... All of this points to sort of like an impossible circumstance, an impossible situation. And, and the idea that even [00:34:00] within that impossible situation you're still expected to take care of the person who is your enemy, right? The Samaritan seeing a Jewish man beaten by the side of the road- That's right ... and although the parable doesn't specifically call out that he's Jewish, if he's going from Jerusalem to Jericho, there's an implication that he may actually also have been a priest. Um, we, we don't need to get into all the details on that, but there's, there's some good, uh, some good research out there that would point to the fact that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is, uh, was actually a very common pathway traveled by either priests or Levites. And further evidence is that a priest and a Levite are also on this same road. And so the idea that the Samaritan would, um, would- Sacrifice of himself to take care of someone who very likely considers him to be an enemy, and sacrifices in a pretty significant way. Um, I, I'll, I'll pause and now as you're [00:35:00]talking I'll do all the, the background scrambling to make it look like I know exactly how much- a denari is supposed to, to be, and I know we've talked about it before, it's just not there.  Lavish Impossible Mercy Tony Arsenal: But, but it's not a- Yeah ... it's not a trivial amount of money. That's right. We're not talking about checking this guy into, like, a Motel 6 and, and dropping a couple hundred dollars. We're, we're talking about a substantial amount of money and, and we're talking about a commitment to pay whatever is required. Okay. An unknown amount of money for this man who has been left for dead. We're not talking about a minor injury. The, the robbers beat him up, they took his clothes, and they expected him to die in the desert. He needed to be carried on a donkey. He needed to have immediate first aid attention. We're talking about a, a relatively long-term recovery. So the scenario would be more like, we think of it like, "Oh yeah, I dropped him off at the local hotel for him to sleep it off." The scenario would be more like, "I found a guy on the side of the road. I didn't know who he was. He's, he's of a group of people that would consider me to be their enemy, and he's been shot 100 times, and I'm gonna patch up his [00:36:00] wounds. I'm gonna take him to the hospital. I'm gonna not only pay and say, 'Here, I, I've already used some supplies. Let me pay for that,' but I'm gonna pay for all of his medical bills until he's healed." Like, that's the scenario we're talking about. So it's not, it's not just, like, a good deed that has been done that is maybe, like, a really, really good deed, like it's a really nice thing to do. It's a, it's an outlandishly almost impossible to conceive of doing good deed. N- I don't know anyone, um, who would... And, and I know a lot of really great people. This is not a slam. I don't know anyone who would find a stranger on the road and who is, who's gravely injured and commit to pay for all of their medical care until they're healed. I just don't know anybody who would do that. Right. Um, some might say there's actually some wisdom in that, and, uh, we've talked about how sometimes the parables present a situation where maybe, like, this isn't actually the best practical knowledge. It's there to prove a point. Right. But I don't know anybody who, I don't know anybody who would do that, who, who would even think about doing that. Um, so the, the scenario here is one [00:37:00] of impossible lavish goodness being extended to those who you have no reason to be good to, and probably have reason to not be good to. That's what we're talking about. And so the, when the, the lawyer is told to go and do likewise, he's being told to do something that is impossible to fulfill, or even to conceive of fulfilling. And so there is this element of, like, "You think you can obey the law? Well, let me tell you how much you can't  Jesse Schwamb: obey  Tony Arsenal: the law."  Jesse Schwamb: Right. By the way, this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Like a good Samaritan, State Farm is there. Every time we've been saying good neighbor, I've been just been trying to avoid thinking about- Yeah Jake from State Farm. That's what I've been doing most of this time.  Tony Arsenal: Jake from State Farm?  Jesse Schwamb: Um, I totally agree, of course.  Priest Levite And The Law Jesse Schwamb: Like, what strikes me here is that it's, like you said, there is all this emphasis on what it means to show neighborly love, but the setup is also in those who basically should be showing it but aren't, and that's where we get, can get into this lovely... It's, [00:38:00] it's okay to kinda think through some of these characters. You know, for this priest and the Levite here, and what we know about them is that they, at first it sounds like there, there's almost this sense in the language like the priest falls ab- upon this, this, you know, bloodied man by chance, and that kinda heightens the drama, I think. The priest's confrontation is a little bit unplanned, but it's immediate and unavoidable, and he chooses to cross on the other side of the road, which is of course a deliberate act of avoidance. It's not mere obliviousness. And then the Levi almost goes further, or he came to the place, he saw him closer inspection, you know, greater culpability, and yet he still passes by. I really do wish I could hear this, like, in real time, like be among, because I have to- Yeah ... wonder that there'd be this kind of sense of building in the story. And the people might be kind of getting the sense that the characters that they know and love or should love as the heroes are not gonna be performing that way. And so I think even they're curious. They might be hoping against hope that it's gonna turn out well, but knowing the question and maybe something about Jesus, [00:39:00] they might anticipate that he's gonna go in a different direction. And so again, I think we have to stick with the text here. Like, Jesus doesn't explicitly state the motives of these gentlemen, but it's truthful. What's true- Right ... is that, like, these boys should have known better. You know, a lot of people have speculated that it was for ritual purity concerns or the, another ambush or social distance or just callousness. And I think that ambiguity might be deliberate because, again, what cuts against the lawyer here is whatever the specific excuse, the point is that these, like this kind of professional religiosity and even, like, meticulous law observance are of course not identical with, and probably can even distract or obstruct the love of neighbor that the law itself commands, which is wild, right? Because we talked about how, again, this just shows the law doesn't empower you to do the thing, and in fact, here- Right ... you could essentially abuse the law so that you suck the spirit right out of it and therefore do not do the very thing that it was intended to accomplish. So even this by itself, you just stop the parable here, it's kind of condemning because it's really this [00:40:00] potent warning against some kind of merely external ceremonial, professionalized religiosity that fails to produce, I guess, what Matthew calls, like, the weightier matters of law, like justice and mercy and faithfulness. And, you know, we should understand this because I think those that are from tradition have a certain affinity for the third use of the law as a guide for the grateful Christian living, and that's, you know, kind of what we're talking about here. But it insists that true law keeping is never merely ritual or notional, but it must issue in love, like costly love. Love outside of being inconvenienced is not genuine. I, I guess we'll get there. But, you know, I don't wanna harp on the characters as some are prone to do, but that is, I think, why the characters are here. It's both to set up and show, like, you're about to see that you really do not wanna identify by your own persuasion, by your own presuppositions with the one who's gonna be the hero, that is the, the one that shows neighborly love. At the same time, I'm gonna show you by way of condemnation that those who should exercise the greater love, [00:41:00] that do know better, that should know better, that should emblem- be emblematic of the spirit of the law, have done the exact same thing. Which I can only, uh, hope but believe is what this lawyer heard as well was that he was hearing that he was being stuck into this place before he was even given the question, well, who was the neighbor here? Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and I, I think, um- There is a real sense in some of the parables that are sort of spoken against people. Um, this one doesn't specifically use that language, but it, it is a targeted, kind of a targeted response. There is a sense that throughout the course of the parable being told, they start to recognize midway through that they're like- Right you are the man. Like, this is one- Right, right ... of those Nathan and David kind of parables where, like, at some point the realization must have dawned on this guy that, like, "I've gotta be somebody in this parable." And I think that's where, where the, the challenging part is, is it's not clear, um, [00:42:00] it's not really clear even at the end of the parable who Christ is intending this guy to be, right? Right. Is he the lawyer or is he the, uh, is he the, the dead man on the side of the road, right? Is he... Or the dying man. Is, is he the l- the priest and Levite who pass by? Is he supposed to be the Samaritan, which would just be wildly offensive. Um, he's not necessarily, like, supposed to be anyone except for the fact that now at th- the punchline of the, the encounter here, Christ says, "Go and be like the Samaritan." And it's kind of like y- you know, if you were really following God's law, you would be the Samaritan in this one- Yeah, that's right ... but you're not. That's right. You're not and you can't be. Um, and so go, go ahead and do likewise.  Christ As True Neighbor Tony Arsenal: Um, I, I do think, too, there is some elements here where, um, I- Again, I, I think I take a little bit more of a typological, Christological-centered approach on this, but I, I don't think they're incompatible. But I do think there's an element here where Christ is also [00:43:00] unveiling, uh, sort of what he would do, like what, what his own plan of salvation is as the good, as the capital G, capital N good neighbor. Um, he is the one who does pour oil and wine on our wounds, right? A- and I don't wanna ... I don't think we need to fly off the allegorical deep end of reading oil and wine to be a reference to the Holy Spirit and t- Right but sometimes those things are evocative, indirect things that should, we should call our mind to those things. Like, I think, um, you know, when Melchizedek comes to bless Abraham and he, he presents him with bread and wine, right? I, I think, like, it's okay for us to go, "Wow, the Holy Spirit really made a point there that's subtle." And I think those little things within this parable drive me to look at this a little bit more along the lines of not only is there this sort of, like, law beat down, you [00:44:00] know, John Bunyan or not, um, Bunyan style, like the, "Moses just beat the crap out of me," kind of a- Right ... kind of a thing from Pilgrim's Progress. There's that, and I think it's really there. But it's also, uh, it's also sort of like this, uh, you know, "Blessed is the one who has ears to hear" side of it of, like, for those who are regenerated and can see the parable, can see the figures in the parable, it is now this beautiful picture of what it is that Christ does for those who cannot do it for themselves, right? And it's almost like the parable becomes a litmus test. If you look at the parable, and as you're reading through it, you sit there and you go, "Yeah, man, I'm like that guy who got beat up and left for dead. That, that really describes me," um, you're gonna get to the end of this and you're gonna be sort of, like, sitting in awe of, like, "Man, I have such a great savior who threw me on his donkey and, and promised to take care of all of my, all of my wounds, and promised to pay whatever it, whatever it cost." Um, y- you know, and all of these elements of, [00:45:00] like, oil and wine and, and all of these things be- kind of become alive to you in a way that someone who sees themselves as the, the good Samaritan, who thinks they're the one who's gonna come and rescue people, or I think increasingly in our day, and it's, it's weird to even say this, I think there are people who would look at this and resonate with the priest and lawyer and actually say, like, "Yeah, they shoulda, they shoulda crossed to the other side of the room." Mm-hmm. I've heard defenses of that in trying to argue that- The priest and the Levite, if they had, if this person was dead, they had touched the dead body, then, you know, they would've been ceremonially unclean. Uh, all of that is, I think, worth speculating about. But the reality is, um, who you see yourself in the parable actually says a lot, I think, about how you see Christ in light of either our ability to fulfill the law or our inability to fulfill the law, and therefore have our need for Christ. If you think you're the good Samaritan, if you think you're the one that's gonna come and [00:46:00] rescue people, that you're gonna be, you're gonna be the good neighbor, you're much more likely to see, uh, to, to be needing this as a sort of a law beat-down. Where those of us who, maybe this is the way you wanna parse it out, right? There's those of us who are, uh, regenerated and in Christ, and this is third-use law, right? This is, this is us- Right ... seeing what it means to be holy, and going and doing likewise, trying in our power, in our, our best to go and do likewise, empowered by the Holy Spirit, recognizing that we can't, and trusting the Lord to accept our feeble attempts- Right and be pleased by them. Right. Um, or maybe if you're not regenerated, this is f- this is first use, right? Right. And, and, and this is actually there to terrify you and to show you your condemnation and to serve as your condemnation. And, and there's even, and I didn't really intend to go all the way with this, but there's, there is also an element in here, and this is where, like, the mercy ministry interpretation comes in, where this is civil, this is civil law, where this is the, the, the, um, you know, the civil use of the law [00:47:00] to restrain evil, to show society what it is to be good, to, to restrain sin. Right. Yes, we want to be, uh, we, I would rather live in a society where people stop and help someone who's stranded or injured on the side of the road than, than a society where people pass by. Um, so I, I think all of those elements are in play here, and we do have to be careful not to take the full-on, like, never go full allegory approach to this, 'cause y- you can really... That's just a good general wisdom for all of, all of the Bible, but especially the parables and other figurative stuff. You can really just go totally far afield of what actually the point of the parable is- Right ... if you're not grounding it in the purpose that Christ is teaching it for, and, and the stated outcome of the parable, right? No one in the Bible makes c- I don't know that anyone in the Bible makes specific commentary on this within scripture, but the, the idea that, like, there's all these hidden meanings, well, if those are the hidden meanings, then why doesn't Christ talk about it? Why doesn't he come back- Right ... and [00:48:00] interpret those symbols later on like he does, like the Parable of the Sower or the Parable of the Seeds or Soils. Um, that one is much more directly allegorical in that the different seeds, the different soils represent specific people with specific s- scenarios. Christ comes and, and does that allegorical interpretation later on in the passage. There's nothing like that here. So I think we have to be really careful not to slip down that road. Jesse Schwamb: I think that it could be all those things. I, I totally agree with you on that. I think it could be all the use cases of the law. I think what makes this so wonderfully complex and a little bit tricky is that when I read this, I actually don't necessarily find myself gravitating toward putting myself in one place or the other. It almost depends on where I am or what's going on in my life. So for example, I think any time that any one of us, and we've all done this as Christians, have quenched the spirit, especially with respect to helping, serving, or loving others as my, our neighbor, then we're firmly in this parable in the place [00:49:00] of the priest and the Levite. Sometimes I think we are the one on the side of the road. We look to the church, to our brothers and sisters to help us, and what do they help us with? Like you were saying, Tony, they help us with that blood and oil. They help us with this, the power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to each one to help and to serve, to identify, to comfort with the comfort we ourselves have been received. And then I do think, and this might be unpopular, that, that sometimes by the grace of God, He empowers us to be the Samaritan, but only through His empowerment. Not, of course, because we're trying to just self-justify or because we're overtly generous in our own merit, but in fact, this is the way we ought to live, and that we ought to commend that kind of behavior to, again, acknowledge it as God-given and to promulgate it, especially among the body of believers. So I do think all three forms of the law are present there, but I do think I tend to, for whatever reason, right or wrong, I tend to tilt a little bit toward that third use here, just to see this as it's not wrong to, of course, to, I think, uh, lay over all of this, all these delightful variables and [00:50:00] details. Again, this idea of blood and oil, n- normative things, normal things, standard things that are being used to address- Yeah ... wounds. They're, they're... Of course, that would've been the practical way which you would've provided some kind of medicinal care to somebody in both that extreme circumstance, but also generally, because nobody's, like, keeping gauze or popping Advil to help this, this poor guy. And so it is- Right ... like this beautiful complexion of, I think, everything that we just talked about, that there is the law present, and depending on where you are, both in terms of your ingrafting into eternity, into the Kingdom of God, and then where you are in life, you- we should read ourselves probably, or l- let me say it this way, not so it's like eisegesis, but, like, that we should see ourselves often at different pli- times maybe playing or being tempted to play the parts of these different characters. And in that we find, I think, ultimately, of course, as you're saying, that Christ is over all, and that He is the one that, of course, perfectly emphasizes all of what it means to be the Savior, the [00:51:00] true loving neighbor who cares and binds and heals completely full stop. And yet there is something instructive here, I think, as well about going and bringing that compassion. I was just thinking, like, as we were talking, that there's such a difference, isn't there, like, in our world between these days, like, pity and compassion? Like, pity often is like, "Yeah, I feel sorry for you," but it strikes me as kind of like the James, is it James 1 or James 2, where it's kind of like, "Oh, you're... I, I'm so sorry that, like, you're, you're hungry and cold. You know what? Go, be warm, and be well-fed." You know, that's like pity. Like, "Yeah, I just- Yeah ... I feel a little bad. I identified with your emotions." Sending  Tony Arsenal: good vibes.  Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. I've got- Yeah. Yeah. That's right, right? Sending good thoughts and good vibes your way. I wanna say, like, keep those to yourself 'cause they're probably not all that- Yeah ... good. Um- I  Tony Arsenal: don't want your vibes.  Jesse Schwamb: I don't want your vibes. Get your vibes out of here. What I need is that power of God himself, uh, to bring compassion, and compassion is always wrapped in action. It identifies- Right ... and then goes. It, it's, it [00:52:00] is not self-promoting, it's self-sacrificing. And so that rule of law, which is like the good rule of law, the good teaching, the kind that brings life because it's the Decalogue wrapped in skin perfectly performed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the one who is perfect again in his passive obedience and active obedience. Yes, yes, we need, we need all of that. It's modeled here, I think, to a certain extent, but I think the go and do likewise is actually for all of us, but it's not the kind like we would say, "Well, like, good luck." It's more the- Yeah ... you know the one from whose side the blood flowed. You know the one who is pressed in the garden as if olives under the press leaking oil. You know who that one was, and that one is His spirit resides in you. So now go and do these acts- Yeah ... of mercy. Again, not s- for some kind of meritorious reward, but because you were made for good works, which were set apart for you to do, and part of those good works are [00:53:00] just always being a good neighbor. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, and, and maybe to, to close out, I, I, I think maybe we actually did it. I don't know that we're gonna have to do another episode on this. I guess we'll see after we do- Who would've guessed? ... our postmortem here.  Mary Martha And Final Charge Tony Arsenal: But I, I think part, part of, um, part of what we need to at least acknowledge is that what, what follows this parable, right? This, this goes from a parable of a lawyer seeking to justify himself to now the account of Mary and Martha, and the fact that, uh, that, um, M- Martha, you know, is busy with much work, and Mary is sitting and listening to, to Jesus and is said to have chosen the better part. And I think, like- Mm ... this is something that I think because of the way, like, Bibles are formatted, the way that certain things are sort of, like, extracted out as discrete teaching units, this parable is pulled out and separated from this next part. And I, I think we can [00:54:00] really run into problems when we do that because- You know, even if we, even if we were to sort of treat the scripture as, like, a purely human book, right? Luke chose to put this account of Mary and Martha after this, right? And, and- Right ... probably not just because, like, it happened chronologically. There's no real, um, there's no real necessity that this account of Mary and Martha in this particular story had to happen immediately afterwards. Like, there's no organic link in, in the chronology of the story to drive that, right? And the two aren't related in terms of, like, historical cause and effect or, uh, proximity. There's none of those things. So the only answer as to why this was selected to follow the parable of the Good Samaritan is that there's some thematic connection that drove Luke as an author to put this, put this right following that. And so I think even that should drive us to thinking about, all [00:55:00] right, we've got this statement of go and do likewise, show mercy. Now there's almost this foil that the, the, the person in, in the account in the, the narrative here, and a, a true narrative, right? We're not in parable land anymore, but the person in the narrative that seems to be showing mercy, seems to be taking care of people the most, is actually the one who's chastised a little bit for, for being- Right overly zealous about m- mercy ministry, hospitality ministry- Right ... is what you might call it. She's the one who's like, "Tell my sister to help me with this." And she said, like, "You know, you're always gonna have time to do this, but, like, I'

The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us a dual lesson. First, the imagery of Christ's compassion. The second, of mankind being graciously wounded since the Fall. Yet the Good Samaritan is a symbol of Our Lord to provide the man afflicted on the side of the road with the greatness of grace.

Remembering country music icon Dolly Parton, details on her death, a look back at her career, and her impact on country music. Also, the U.S.-Canada trade war ramps up, with Canada announcing counter-tariffs. Plus, Darline Graham defeats Ralph Norman in the South Carolina GOP Senate primary runoff election. And, the man who survived a Florida shark attack this weekend thanks to the help of good Samaritan nurses speaks out. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen into, “Who Is My Neighbor?”, as Brothers Dylan Hutchinson and Caileb Dover challenge us to see the people God places directly in front of us as opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ through action, sacrifice, and responsibility. Drawing from Matthew 25, Judges 5, and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the message calls us to stop looking for reasons to pass by and instead become neighbors to those in need. Ultimately, we are reminded that loving Jesus means showing up for our brothers, reaching the stranger, and faithfully acting on the opportunities God has already placed before us.

In episode 502 of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony and Jesse begin what promises to be a multi-part deep dive into the Parable of the Good Samaritan — one of the most culturally embedded and theologically rich stories Jesus ever told. But before a single character hits the Jericho road, the hosts ground listeners in something easily overlooked: the charged context in which this parable is told. A lawyer — trained, confident, adversarial — steps forward not to learn but to test. What follows is a masterclass in how Jesus turns the law back on those who wield it as a weapon. This episode covers Luke 10:21–36, explores the covenant of works and covenant of grace, the noetic effects of sin, and why the Good Samaritan is far more than a lesson in being a helpful neighbor. Buckle up. Key Takeaways The lawyer's question is self-contradictory from the start. Asking "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" smuggles a works-righteousness assumption into the very grammar of the question. Inheritance by definition is received, not earned. Jesus does not give the lawyer a new paradigm — He reorients him to the true one. The covenant of grace is not a New Testament innovation. It runs through every Old Testament covenant administration. The lawyer should have already known this. "Do this and you will live" is not a Pelagian concession. Christ is holding out the law's own terms — perfect, total, unrelenting obedience — not to suggest it is achievable, but to expose its impossibility and drive the lawyer (and us) to the only alternative: mercy. "Desiring to justify himself" is more complex than it first appears. Tony argues that the desire to fulfill the covenant of works is not inherently wicked — it is the misguided belief that one can which is the problem. This distinction creates room for reading Christ's response as genuinely merciful instruction, not merely rebuke. The noetic effects of sin mean accurate theology can be deployed in service of self. The lawyer knows the right answers and still uses them to avoid repentance. Correct doctrine alone does not save. The fundamental human problem is not ignorance — it is the will's bondage and the heart's self-love. The parable is primarily Christological, not merely ethical. Jesus is the Good Samaritan. The story is not first about mercy ministry; it is about who binds up our wounds when we are left for dead on the road, unable to save ourselves. The priest and the Levite are not exonerated by their ritual obligations. Considerable ink has been spilled trying to justify their passing by on grounds of Levitical purity concerns. The parable refuses that exit. Everyone in the story — and everyone listening — already knows what the right thing to do was. Key Concepts The Covenant of Works Is Not a Black Box One of the more quietly important arguments Tony makes in this episode is that the covenant of works was never meant to be mysterious or inaccessible. When Jesus responds to the lawyer's question by asking, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" — He does so with a visible assumption: there is a clear, knowable answer, and the lawyer should be able to give it. And he does. Love God completely, love your neighbor as yourself. The covenant of works was always coherent and comprehensible. The problem has never been that its demands were obscure. The problem is that no one — save the Mediator — has ever kept them. Jesus is not introducing a new ethical framework. He is forcing the lawyer to confront a standard he has always known and has never met. The Lawyer as a Warning to Reformed Christians Jesse closes the episode's first movement with a pointed and personal application that cuts across theological self-satisfaction. The lawyer is not a caricature of ignorance — he is a portrait of someone with accurate, affirmed theological knowledge who instinctively deploys it in the service of self-justification the moment he senses conviction. Jesse names this directly as a danger particularly acute in Reformed circles, where doctrinal precision can become a subtle mechanism of self-defense rather than an occasion for repentance. The Reformation's great recovery of grace must not become a new form of the very disease it diagnosed. Knowing the right words about total depravity, the covenant of grace, and the mediator does not exempt anyone from the need to actually be humbled by them. Theology is not armor against repentance — it is, rightly received, the road toward it. Context Is Not Just Setup — It Is Part of the Lesson Tony and Jesse both emphasize that Luke 10:21–24 is not merely throat-clearing before the real content begins. The theological statement embedded there — that the Father has hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children, that no one knows the Son except the Father or the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him — is the hermeneutical key to everything that follows. The lawyer approaches Jesus as one rabbi testing another. But Luke has already told his readers that this is not a conversation between equals debating interpretive options. It is the Lawgiver being questioned by someone who does not recognize Him. The parable that follows is not just an answer to a legal question. It is a revelation — the kind that only happens when the Son chooses to give it. Memorable Quotes You do not want to pit the law against the one who has given the law, the one whose character is represented in the law — because you're always going to get owned, and you'll get owned before you realize you've just gotten owned on multiple levels. - Jesse Schwamb Jesus is trying to sort of reorient them back to the true paradigm of grace that is present under all of the Old Covenant administrations. It's not so much a matter of developing a new framework and imposing it on this guy. It's really trying to say, 'Listen — think about this for a second. Think about the fact that, yes, you know you have to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, your whole mind, and you have to love your neighbor as yourself. You've answered correctly. If you can do those things, you will live.' — with the subtext: and of course you cannot possibly do those things. - Tony Arsenal The fundamental human problem is not primarily ignorance, but the will's bondage and the heart's self-love. It's a problem no amount of correct discipline or doctrine alone can fix apart from some kind of regenerating grace — which is exactly what Jesus is going to illustrate for us in the mercy he's about to display in this parable. - Jesse Schwamb Full Transcript Tony Arsenal: [00:00:00] This parable is not primarily about us figuring out how to do mercy ministry. Like, that's important. It's probably an outcome of this. It's probably something for us to think about. But really, this is actually Christ saying, like, "Hold on a second here, dude." Like, "Let's just think about this." Do you need someone who is going to tell you to pick yourself up off your bootstraps and cross to the other side of the street and leave you to your own devices? Or do you need someone who's gonna throw you on their donkey, who's gonna bind up your wounds, who's gonna pay the innkeeper, and is gonna pledge to pay everything that is owed for your salvation? Right? That's not too on the nose here, I think. Welcome to episode 502 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm [00:01:00] Jesse  And I'm Tony, and this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey, brother.  Jesse Schwamb: Hey, brother. Well, we've got a big one to talk about on this episode. We're marching further and further into all of the glorious parables Jesus told as part of His teaching. And as you and I kind of joked before we began, I mean, what did you call it? Did you say this is, uh, the big daddy?  Tony Arsenal: It's the big daddy, one of the big daddy parables.  Jesse Schwamb: It's one of the big daddy parables. Now, this one is probably second maybe only to the prodigal son. Yeah But in terms of its ubiquity and its kind of just common knowledge in culture, this one ranks right up there. And before I reveal what it is, which you may already know, I was thinking how so many times we look at the Beatitudes as expression of a master class in Jesus teaching the law, and I think that's true. But as I was reading and thinking about this particular parable, I thought, "I don't know. I think this one is, uh, right up there," because [00:02:00] this is like law on law. It's double law. Yeah It's law coming back at the law giver who's trying to use the law to test Jesus, and then Jesus tests him with the law that He himself gave His people. It's... I'm already getting too excited- ... and we've got something to do before we get there. But we're talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan. And so I can't imagine, can I just make a prediction up front? I, you know where I'm going with this, and probably everybody else does. Uh, this is gonna be like two conversations-  Tony Arsenal: At least ...  Jesse Schwamb: probably.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, at least two.  Jesse Schwamb: Is that fair? Because I realize we, of course, wanna get to the parable itself, and oh, my goodness, how much ink has been spilled. Even going back to, like, if you read, like, Augustine or, like, the early church, like the Patristics, the Church Fathers, there are so much that could be said, and maybe some stuff that just shouldn't be said about all the allegorical potential intent here about these characters. But [00:03:00] there's so much amazing stuff that happens in the opening of this, that's not just the setup, but it is its own lesson, and I'm real excited actually to talk about that with you before we even get into, like, all the good stuff that everybody expects that you wanna talk about. So we're gonna do it all. Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: We're gonna do it all, but it'll take time.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. I'm interested to see if we're even on the same page about where to start reading, 'cause I, I think we might not be, and that's gonna be fun. So we'll, we'll let it fly and see what happens. It'll be our own little, uh, podcast game.  Jesse Schwamb: But, uh, I think- Well, I mean, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 10, but I guess to your point, we should be starting in Luke chapter one to get to this. Yeah.  Tony Arsenal: Exactly. But  Jesse Schwamb: we, we do have to back up quite a bit, and I was gonna ask you about that. Yeah. But I, apparently we're just gonna play that on the fly and see where we go.  Affirmations Denials Segment Jesse Schwamb: But of course, the Reformers had their five solos. Chalcedon had its, what, seven withouts. We've got opinions, and we're just as confident about ours, so of course it's time for affirmations, denials, where we affirm something that we think is good or awesome or [00:04:00] we wanna recommend, and we deny, again, something that is not so great or maybe just plain annoying. So before we talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Tony, what do you got for us on this episode? Are you affirming with something, or are you gonna come in with a denial?  Tony Arsenal: Well, I've got two affirmations. That's fine. One is just- I will allow it ... a declaration of joy, and one is, like, a real affirmation. I, I just can't... It would be remiss of me not to share with our podcasting family that my son August and my daughter Adeline, uh, joined the visible church today as- Hear, hear ... uh, non-communicant members. Uh, Augie and Addie were baptized on the 16th of August of 2026, uh, into the visible church, into the name of Jesus Christ. Uh, was, it was just a great service. Um, it's funny because I've been- been talking with Augie. One of the thing with toddlers when you're doing something big like this is you kinda have to talk about it and practice and rehearse, rehearse it and, and get them ready for it. And up until maybe, like, I don't know, three days [00:05:00] ago, every time it would come up he would be saying, "I don't wanna be baptized. I don't wanna be baptized." And, um, you know, I, I, I, you know, I don't wanna force him to do something, but also, like, I make him eat vegetables. But, um- ... he, I, I think it was nerves, and I think something clicked in his head and all of a sudden he was very excited to be baptized. So, um, it was great. We've been talking about, you know, what baptism is, God's promise to you that if you trust him he'll save you. And so today he- Right ... he was like, "God's gonna make a promise to me to save me." So he was very excited. Nice. And he did a great job just standing quietly and listening to the pastor talk. Uh, and Addie was, was, was just a beautiful little girl, and she, um, she loved it as well. So that's just a bonus affirmation. I don't know that I could get through a podcast without gushing over that.  Glorify App and Devotionals Tony Arsenal: Uh, but the, the affirmation I have, uh, this is an, an app that I think some of our listeners may have heard of. Um, some may roll their eyes at it, to be honest with you. Um, I stumbled on this because, uh, you have an Oura Ring, don't you, Jesse? Jesse Schwamb: I do.  Tony Arsenal: You [00:06:00] do, yeah. So for those who don't know, an Oura Ring is like a little wearable ring that's like a, almost like a fitness tracker, but it tracks biometrics, pulse rate, temperature, all these different things, sleep. Um, there's a startup, uh, that has been doing a GoFundMe or a funding kind of thing for, uh, what they're calling like a Christian version of an Oura Ring. So it does a lot of the same things, sleep tracking, basic biometric tracking. Hmm. But it also has like alerts built in, and it's tied into an app that they use for devotionals. So it'll, it'll remind you to pray. It'll remind you, you know, bring you to an app to do a devotion. But the app it uses is a standalone app that I looked up, and it's called Glorify. Have you ever heard of this app before this evening? I have heard of  Jesse Schwamb: this, yeah.  Tony Arsenal: So Glorify is just a small devotional app. Uh, it's not much different than you would expect based on the name. It is connected to this, uh, to this Glorify ring, which again is, is sort of like an Oura Ring tied into this app. But this app basically is, is [00:07:00] designed to help you complete short daily devotional exercises, and they're usually very brief. They're based on a very brief, um, a very brief passage of scripture. Today's passage, uh, c- there's a quote. So today's quote is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It says, "True love does not consist in finding the perfect person, but in faithfully loving an imperfect one." Not sure why this devotional app is using a romance, uh, quote from Bonhoeffer of all people. But that was today's. Um, and the passage is Proverbs 5:15-17. So it's a, it's a devotional based on two verses, which is fine. So you read the passage. There's a very brief devotional on that passage, and then sort of a guided prayer, and they have both premium and free models. The premium model includes like you can listen to the devotional, you can listen to the prayer. Um, but just for example, today's prayer, it, it's very simple. "Loving Father, thank you for, uh, thank you because you're faithful and unchanging. In a world [00:08:00] marked by broken promises, disposable relationships, you remain the same. Teach me to reflect that faithfulness in my relationships. Help me to love with perseverance, grace, and commitment following the example of Christ. Protect marriages, strengthen families, restore what needs healing. May every relationship be marked by respect, truth, and genuine love. Shape in me a heart of integrity that honors you in both the small and significant choices of life. In Jesus' name, amen." So I think what I love about this, and this, I mentioned last week that there was, this is kind of like, sort of like the fluffy evangelical devotions. Like- Right ... there's not a ton of like solid doctrinal meat- But like, it's still nourishing. And sometimes we need a little bit of help. Sometimes we don't know what to pray, we don't know what to read, we're not sure. Sometimes in, I think in our Reformed circles, we feel like if we're not reading large portions of scripture and reading deep theological treaties or long, complex devotionals, that we're really not doing anything, and that's just not the [00:09:00] truth. So I've been using this in addition to other devotional studies I'm doing. I don't do it every day. I mean, there's some like streak functionality, kinda like habit tracking type stuff that's built into it. Um, but it's nice. It's nice to be able to pick it up, read a very short scripture, a brief devotional thought, and then have some guided prayer. I know one of the reasons I don't pray as often as I ought to is because I struggle to know what and how to pray. So even having some written prayers, I mean, this is why the Psalms are good, things like the Valley of Visions are good. Um, having some pre-written prayers that you genuinely pray but you're not having to come up with in the moment can really help. Right. So the app is called Glorify. I know it's available on iPhone. I'm not sure about Android. I'm sure it probably is. I'm sure they wanna have a pretty broad ecosystem. Um, and, and it's good. Again, it's, it's not anything fancy. It's not anything like super technical. Uh, and as I kind of alluded, like some of it's a little weird. Um, I, I didn't read the proverb. I think maybe the proverb is about romantic relationships, why they're, why they're tying in that, um, Bonhoeffer quote in, in the prayer. [00:10:00] But, um, even that, like it's pretty innocuous. And the quotes, like you don't have to read the quotes. It's not like you have to have to do that. Um, you could jump in, just read the scripture or just read the devotion and just do the prayer and you would be fine. So check it out. It's called Glorify, available on iPhone for sure. I'm pretty sure it's on, on Android. And maybe it's something you add daily, you know, this kinda thing like you do when you're on the bus or you're waiting at the grocery store, something quick you can do when you might be wasting that time just sorta sitting around or scrolling Twitter. Again, Twitter's fine. You can use your leisure time as you see fit. But if you wanna fill it with something like this, something that is more spiritual, then this would be a good option to just add a little bit of, uh, a little bit of nourishment to your diet where you might not otherwise be getting it  Jesse Schwamb: I have no proof of this, but I just keep saying it anyway. It might be that we're living in the golden age of really great- ... daily worship resources. Like, something to actually cultivate, not just, like, a devotional nugget, but something that actually leads you into a pattern and a habit of [00:11:00]worship, giving your attentive focus on Jesus. And I love that. So, uh, uh, 'cause I was just thinking, like, I was trying to look back on some of our past affirmations here. We've talked about the book Walking in Faith. I just gave everybody Awake My Soul last week. You're coming in with the Glorify app. I- we've talked about Dwell, if not recently, we've talked about that for some time. It's like a great Bible reading app, and there's lots and lots of new features, by the way, coming out on that- Yeah that are fantastic. And then, yes, all these other great prayers. I, I see, like, these books on prayer, like, actually, I'm sorry, like, prayer books, I guess, as, like, a great way to kinda... It's like a jumper for your car. You know what I mean? Like, just gets you started. What a, what a lovely thing to come into a place and have a launching pad. And I've been using a lot of Into His Presence, which is a collection of Puritan prayers, sometimes because, for instance, this just happened, where I wanted to pray for someone who was just going through a rough time, a good friend of mine. And I went to that place to kinda start and frame, knowing that I was gonna sit down with him and pray, how I might be able to do that well and [00:12:00] effectively. And these things are just, like, really phenomenal resources. It's just an amazing time to have all these things at our disposal. So that's another great option. It's, it's really more about, like you and I have talked about, Tony, like, whatever gets us into that pattern, whatever gets us, like, authentically experiencing under our own volition, coming in the discipline of sitting before God in daily worship with that expression being pretty broad in its representation- Yeah is to really include something of devotional time in the scriptures, memorization, metabolation, metabolizing. Metabolation, I'm just gonna make that up as, like- ... what happens when you, when you take the scripture and metabolize it into your own life. Meditating on it and, you know, again, maybe looking through the confessions and creeds that have shaped our distilled understanding of what the scripture teaches so that we're enhancing and edifying our mind. We're also engaging the heart, and then we're engaging God and ourselves in communication with Him through prayer. I'm all for anything [00:13:00] that gets us into those rhythms, reminds us of the importance of them, and like we talked about last week, makes it so that when we think about what it means to be married to Christ, so to speak, it's not just about whipping out some kind of marriage certificate to prove that, but that we actually have a frame and a behavioral pattern that fits a married person, that- Yeah how they act, how they think, how they behave, how they communicate, they're never too far away from their lovely spouse in some way or another. And so I think that these tools are great ways to get us exactly into that kind of mindset and practice.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, like, I think- In our Reformed circles, we can, you know, we, we tend to be maybe a little eggheaded, and we, we tend to be a little more intellectual and, and a little more, I don't know, studious. And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, but I think sometimes it can breed a sort of, uh, elitism and arrogance. Sure. Uh, this is a perfectly valid devotional tool. Yes. Mm-hmm. And, and I think, [00:14:00] you know, kinda like the old adage, like, well, what's the best translation of scripture? Well, whichever one you're gonna read. Exactly. Like, what's the best devotional tool? Whichever one you're gonna use, whichever one's actually gonna bring you into the Word, uh, on a, on a regular basis. Um, and again, like, two verses of the scripture is two verses of the scripture that you might- Right ... not have other spent time, otherwise spent time reading. And it really is short enough, and it saves your progress. Like, you can do, you can do the quote in the morning, and then you can check the scripture on the way to the, you know, the word work, on a stoplight or whatever. Um, if you have the, the paid subscription, you can listen to this stuff, you know, on the, the bus or whatever. Um, so check it out. Glorify app, they have a ring they're making. It's in funding, I guess, if you wanna check it out, you can check that out too. I am neither affirming nor denying whatever this Glory ring is, Glorify ring. But, um, but yeah, the app is great. The, the app is free, and it's, it's worth even just checking out and adding once in a while to your day  Jesse Schwamb: The glory ring or the glorify ring sounds like almost too Tolkien, even for me  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. It's the one ring to rule all of your devotions. [00:15:00] Uh, and in the, and in the morning bind them. Jesse, save me from the trail I was about to go on, and, and I was gonna speak in the language of Mordor, I think, on accident. Uh, save us from this. What are you affirming or denying?  Jesse Schwamb: That's  Tony Arsenal: beautiful. Please tell me it's the language of Mordor. Elvish AI and Music Pick Jesse Schwamb: Uh, no, but can I just say at the risk of really taking us really far afield so early on, which is not necessarily off-brand for us, I have done this... I, I don't know if I should be ashamed by this or I should be excited by this. But- ... um, the Elvish tongue in the Tolkien universe-  Tony Arsenal: Oh, no. ...  Jesse Schwamb: is like, there's several... If you're super nerdy, you'll know there's like several different kind of iterations or formulas of it, and there's no, like, official language like Klingon, but there ha- it has been studied, and basically, like, it's kind of like the Eugene Peterson of the language. Like, there's, like, just kind of a dynamic equivalent or an expression of words. Anyway, all that to say- ... there's several languages that, uh, Microsoft Copilot will just not [00:16:00] translate because it says, like, "This one, this language doesn't actually exist. There's not enough for me to do anything." Let me tell you something. Tolkien Elvish is not one of those languages, and I actually built an agent, because I have a coworker who can, uh, who can appreciate all this stuff, that takes a text, translates it into this kind of academic high-level Elvish from Tolkien, and then translates it back to English. That makes anything you're saying way better and far more poetic and just absolutely amazing. So if you wanna have some fun, go and do that with whatever your favorite AI model is. Anyway, that's free of charge. Real quick, my affirmation is more music. It just turns out I've found this band, and I've been listening to them a lot. The band's name is Thronebreaker, which is just a phenomenal name, I think, for any group. Uh, it's amazing. Uh, th- this is... I'm gonna read you their description from Spotify. It just says, "Thronebreaker is Christian metalcore built for the bruised, the doubting, and the ones still fighting their way home." And what I've really been [00:17:00] loving about them is it is kind of like Wolves at the Gate adjacent. It's really lovely music. It is melodic, so it's, there's not just that there's that kind of hard edge, but that is present in it. But, uh, the music is really lovely and beautiful, and in part that's because they're going through this, like, drip of releasing music where they're taking, like, old hymns or maybe songs if you're of a certain age like I am of kind of childhood Sunday school- And they're taking the lyrics, not the melody, and they're reimagining them. So they have two versions of Jesus Loves Me that they just released. They have the old We're Gonna Cross, a song called Glory to the King Most High. These songs are just saturated with gospel. Like, they're just all power, all encouragement, and all authority represented in Jesus Christ. They're incredible, and I've j- where I've, what I've been really blessed by is these two versions of Jesus Love Me are just fantastic. Like, they're orchestral. There is a children's kind of chorus at one point, and it got me [00:18:00] singing that song again, and really, maybe to what you were saying before, Tony, like sitting in those three words, which are really phenomenal words to hear. And so I have been surprised at how moved I've been by what really I, I first understood, of course, as a children's song with simple truth that seems, you know, depending on how long you've known some part of the gospel, obvious. And yet I found them all new again, and a, a really lovely way of just sitting in the truth of God in music that I didn't expect to find. So if you're interested in any of that or maybe just curious of what it would sound like if a Christian metalcore band took Jesus Loves Me and turned it into their genre, then honestly you should just go check out Throne Breaker. I mean, you pretty much have to at this point.  Tony Arsenal: I, I don't ever have anything to add to your musical affirmations or denials, 'cause I, I just don't. What I do have to add is that Throne Breaker actually sounds like some sort of really [00:19:00] amazing, like, mace-type weapon in Lord of the Rings. Yes.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes,  Tony Arsenal: it does. Or like a big hammer that a dwarf carries. And I would also like to say that if you ask Google Gemini to translate something into Tolkien English, it not only will do it, it will tell you how to pronounce it.  Google Elf: A ava aini Ilai amel i trona se.  Tony Arsenal: What do you think that was, Jesse?  Jesse Schwamb: No idea.  Tony Arsenal: First of all, that was elevated Quenya, a Quenya. Yes.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes, that's  Tony Arsenal: the one. Classic Quenya.  Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  Google Elf: A leta Ilai amel aima.  Tony Arsenal: I would be willing to bet... Actually, let's do this.  Jesse Schwamb: Ugh.  Tony Arsenal: Uh, we don't give out prizes very often. Uh, I will say to anyone who can tell me what that is, the first person that emails, uh, or, or goes into the Telegram chat, we'll do this. We'll be professional podcasters and drive people to one of our channels. Here we  Jesse Schwamb: go.  Tony Arsenal: The first person who goes to our telephone, our Telegram chat and tells me what that [00:20:00] means, what that, uh, Elvish means, will get a Reformed Brotherhood T-shirt.  Jesse Schwamb: Oh, that is big.  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: That-  Tony Arsenal: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna play it one more time.  Jesse Schwamb: Okay, here we go. Everybody listen. Every- All right, pull over. Stop your vehicles. Here we go.  Google Elf: A leta Ilai amel aima.  Tony Arsenal: There it is, everybody.  Jesse Schwamb: I'm not being a cry- I have a guess, but I, I, I wanna try to win the T-shirt, so I'm gonna- Yes ... wi- withhold. All right. Uh, yeah, that's, that's super fun. Did it, um... Did you also translate it back into English from that  Tony Arsenal: just to see- No, I'll do that later, 'cause that would give away the, that would  Jesse Schwamb: give away the prize. Yeah, it's, it's... We'll have to save that for next week, because that, that is the fun. It creates, like, what I was doing to, to have fun with this coworker is take very technical, like, work-related emails, and I would send it through. It would go through that iterative process, and I actually loved how it, it was talking. Like, it wa- this was an email about risk, and it, it gave, like, these beautiful grand metaphors that didn't sound corny or cheesy. That's the beautiful thing. That's amazing. It [00:21:00] was like true Elvish. Like, you were just like, "I wish I spoke that way all the time about, about risk." And it, like I said, it wasn't just like... You could, you could obviously throw something in and be like, "Make this Shakespearean," or, you know, "Make this, you know, sound like, you know, Milton." This is way better. This is way better, because it's not, like, actually trying to manipulate what you're saying. It's takes, like, the dynamic equivalent of what you said, then translates it back with way more kind of poetic infrastructure while maintaining, like, the essential meaning that you have. I'm, I'm selling this too hard. Everybody just has to go out and try it. So, all right, you know what's at stake here, but here's how you have to win this. If you want a chance, if you want a chance at winning this, you gotta go to t.me/reformedbrotherhood, t.me/reformedbrotherhood, and that link will take you to the Telegram app and our little corner of it, and you're gonna find there's a bunch of chats there. You gotta go to the affirmations or denials chat, and then you gotta put in what is the translation of what Tony just played.[00:22:00] I just love... Isn't it amazing, though, that, like, y- as you discovered, there's more than one version of Elvish available? Yeah. And they do differentiate between the various kinds. This is a big deal. I learned there are actually scholars who have, like, again, filled in kind of like the details of the language- Oh, yeah taking as a basis what Tolkien had there. Yeah. So I think that this is the best. We couldn't have conceived of this if we'd actually tried and planned for it, so-  Tony Arsenal: It's true ...  Jesse Schwamb: it's just better that it all happened in, in real time. It's true. And, and speaking of which, I think now we get to have the fun of figuring out, uh, where in Luke chapter 10 are we gonna begin? Or should we just start in Luke 1 and just let's see how far we can get reading  Tony Arsenal: in this- I could have, I could have Google Gemini read it in elevated Kenya, Quenya I did try to get it to put it in Sindarin, and it wouldn't do it for some reason. I'm not sure. Maybe this anti-Sindarin bias in Gemini,  Jesse Schwamb: man. Disappointing.  Tony Arsenal: It's disappointing.  Jesse Schwamb: Dis- disappointing. So let's kick off some Good Samaritan talk, which again, I think is gonna take us [00:23:00] through maybe in the next couple of conversations, in part because, like I said, we're not even gonna start at, uh, verse 25 because there is so much more that needs to be said, I think, before that. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think actually the proper place to start this, and I, I'm guessing Jesse probably, whether he was there or not, he probably figured out where I was going, uh, over the course of the last 20 minutes or whatever. Um, I actually think the proper place to start, at least one of the proper places to start, is in verse 21. Yeah. Um, and I- we'll talk about why that is. And I'll... I'm gonna read here, um, 21, uh, through the end of the parable. Uh, and this is Jesus talking. He says in this, uh... Well, it, this is, um... Yes, uh, I'll just read it here. "In the same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, 'I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one who knows who the Son is except... No, no one knows who the Son is [00:24:00] except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Himself.'" Then turning to the disciples, he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it, and hear what you hear and did not hear it." And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live." But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and he saw him and passed on the other side. So likewise a Levite, [00:25:00] when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. Whatever you, whatever more you spend I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" And he said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "You go and do likewise."  Jesse Schwamb: I think you're right, of course, to back us up into verse 21 because I don't want to keep saying it's always a setup, but Jesus is certainly giving us like the right context in which... Well, Luke of course is the author here and as he's explaining the teaching of Jesus, he does so well to start out with some irony that we don't realize is gonna be ironic until we get to the, to verse 25 [00:26:00] when we realize who's testing Jesus, who's setting this all up. So this idea that the Holy Spirit, everybody rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and the knowledge and the wisdom, the intelligence that's revealed through the Holy Spirit to all of these lesser people and in particular here emblematic the infants That here we have kings and rulers, and in this case, this beloved scholar of the law, who all have this adventure in missing the point. They think, in fact, they're looking for the one who is to set them free, and they can't even see that it's Him who is before him. And yet, incidentally, God has already revealed all these things to the lowest, to the ones who are the most humble, the meek, the mild, the down and outs, the ones who are weak by the view of everybody else. And so it's amazing that if we just kinda, again, like blow past it into, like, just all the characters, we don't see that the teaching starts actually well above this, that even everything we're about to understand, that unfolds in our lives, ev- every spiritual incarnation and insight that we have [00:27:00] first starts with God himself in his revealing it to us both in his general revelation, but of course, in the specific revelation of his teaching. So I like that you started us there, because I, I'm with you. That's where this whole thing launches off, right?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Parables Reveal and Conceal Tony Arsenal: Yeah, and as we come into when we very, like very start of this, uh, series, the, the parable series, Jesus sort of embeds a theology of parables into this introduction, right? Or I should say Luke does. But this, uh, this is written a- as though all of this is occurring as sort of one event. Right. And likely it was, right? So sometimes, uh, in the Gospels, events are kind of, like, moved next to each other for thematic reasons. It's possible that that's the case. It seems like this may have actually just been one, one teaching, and I'll, I'll talk about why that is in a second here. Um, but at the very least, this is placed next to each other in the Gospel almost as, like a, "Here's the theology of parables. Now, here's actually that happening in real [00:28:00] time."  Jesse Schwamb: Yes.  Tony Arsenal: And then also, like, a parable kinda demonstrating it, right? So the theology of the parable here is that there are many prophets, kings who desire to see what it is that, that, uh, uh, the disciples are seeing, right? And all things have been handed over to the Father or to, to the Son, by the Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father. No one who knows who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal, right? So the, the theology of parables here presented in Luke is that the parable itself is being used as a way to reveal the Father and the Son to those whom the Son chooses to reveal it to. The Lawyer as the Fool Tony Arsenal: And that leaves us with this lawyer, um, sort of playing, playing the fool in almost like a dramatic sense, right? In a lot of drama, there's kind of like the fool character who's sort of like the foil or the idiot of the thing who's, who's unaware and is almost like made an example of, right? Um, I, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but there's often a character in a play who's like, uh, it's [00:29:00] almost like the opposite of the everyman, right? The everyman in a, in a play- Right ... or in a movie is sort of like the outsider who things gets explained to, and he's sort of the proxy for, for the audience. Um, I think like, um, Hawkeye in Avengers is kind of the everyman. He's sort of just like this regular dude swept up in this thing, and oftentimes he's the one that, uh, the big characters are explaining things to. And really what that is is the big characters are explaining that to the audience through this proxy. There's also this concept of the fool in a lot of these plays or movies who's sort of like the dummy, the idiot of the play, who things are explained to, and it's still a way to explain it to the audience, but the character doesn't get it. And so that's kind of, kind of the role that this lawyer is playing in this, this narrative here. He, he steps forward. He's like, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answers his question, and then in this like sort of like stunning moment of, like unawareness, he's trying to justify himself. He says, "Well, who is my neighbor?"[00:30:00] As though that's a question that needed to be asked, right? I think, like, we sort of think of it as like, "Oh, yeah, that's a valid question." I actually don't think it is. Like, it's pretty obvious, in the Old Testament at least, who your neighbor is. It's the people who live immediately with you. It's the other people of Israel. It's the people in your immediate concentric circles, the people you have direct access to. Um, and so then Jesus explains it through this parable, and whether or not he gets it at the end, I guess is maybe a little bit unclear. We can talk about that as we get there. But at least in the beginning, he's portrayed as this sort of, like, fool who doesn't understand what Jesus is saying, and then this parable is taught. So it's this theology of, um, revelation to those whom it is intended to, and further obscuring from those it's intended not to, not to illuminate, which is identical. Uh, maybe it's a different flavor of the same thing, but it's the same thing as what Matthew had and what Jesus taught- Right ... in Matthew with the parables. Jesse Schwamb: Right. It definitely is, again, illustrating, again, God's divine prerogative. I think you really have to do a lot of theological gymnastics [00:31:00] to try to work yourself out of a place here that says, like, "Well, this, this knowledge is accessible to all people."  Tony Arsenal: Right.  Jesse Schwamb: That if somehow we just work hard enough, study hard enough, come even before God with the right attitude or do the right things, that somehow all this will be made plain to us, and that's certainly not the truth here. In fact, again, the ironic setup is you have this lawyer asking this question, which creates this strange contrast because here's a man trained in the law, and he approaches the very wisdom of God to test him while the little children already perceive what this fool cannot. So it's irony upon irony, and then I, I like what you're saying. I think, and we'll get to this to anticipate a bit, I'm reading this as he's hoping that the answer to whom is my neighbor, just like he- he's received the affirmative from Jesus saying, "Yes, you understand. Go and do these things. This is life," and we'll get to all of what that means, I think, as well in terms of the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. But I think he's hoping that the definition of neighbor is gonna mean that he has [00:32:00] already accomplished the thing then, so that if there's somehow- Yeah ... he could just set the right boundaries. He could say, "Ah, yeah, I'm already good then, Jesus. I already, already did all that stuff." So- It's wild to me that it, it all starts with, of course, like some kind of scribal specialist in the Torah, of course, likely some kind of Pharisee by theological alignment. And as I'm looking at the notes here, what I find particularly stunning as we start this out is that Luke, of course, is able to speak several times in this parable to the intent. And so he says right away with great kind of fanfare and description that the intent here from this scribal Torah person was to test or to tempt, which is the same verb used of Satan's temptation of Christ and of Israel's testing of God in Deuteronomy 6, which of course Jesus is gonna quote here later on. So it's not, of course, like sincere inquiry, like you're saying. It, it is like adversarial probing. It is like really profound setup. It is dripping with like [00:33:00] ulterior motive. It's seeking to expose Jesus as either like heterodox or as diminishing the law's demands. And I think we've talked about this before, so Tony, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure in one of the previous parables we talked about sometimes how these get set up with this kind of weird like oxymoronic setting. Inherit Eternal Life Debate Jesse Schwamb: So like this question of se- uh, uh, itself, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah.  Jesse Schwamb: It's like more than just theologically revealing. Biblically it's self-contradictory, 'cause of course like we talked about inheritance, I think actually when we went through the, the parable of the prodigal. By definition, that's received, of course, on the ba- basis of relationship or promise. It's not earned by performance. And if the inheritance comes by a law, it no longer comes by promise, right? I think that's like Galatians. So the lawyer's question already portray- portrays like some kind of weird works righteous paradigm. E- even if you think he's really after trying to understand the true intent of God's heart [00:34:00] behind the law, he is assuming at least in this question that eternal life is some kind of wage that he can earn rather than a gift to be received by grace through faith. And that's a fundamental error that the entire subsequent exchange, including the parable, is designed to expose. It's both, like you're saying, Tony, he has not learned yet what it means to be in the kingdom of God. He's outside of that, and so he's trying... Now Jesus is bringing in this corrective action, as it were, set up in a story, but he's gonna turn the law on him, which, which I don't wanna get too excited about that yet. But he's... But essentially, here we have somebody who's the expert in the law trying to leverage the law by way of force against the one who he does not understand has all leverage and authority over him, and is in fact the law giver himself So he's gonna, Jesus is gonna drive him to see his own ability to keep the law that he claims to honor, and that's more than just brilliant. This is what the law does. You do not wanna pit the law against the one who has given the law, the [00:35:00] one whose character is represented in the law, because you're always going to get owned, and you'll get owned before you realize you've just gotten owned on multiple levels, and I think that's what basically unfolds here. Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I, I have a little bit of a different take on the, the word inherit here. Um, I don't think what you're saying is wrong, um, but I think there's a little different flavor here, and actually, I, I think it, it still sort of propels us forward to the conversation we have to have, um, about the law and the gospel and the covenant of works, the covenant of grace. The, the Greek that lays under this word is, uh, it's a compound word of the word for, like, lot or portion and the word for law. And so, so the, this force of the word is more along the lines of, like, what shall I do to have a legal right to eternal life? Like- Right ... inherit, I think we hear inherit, and we think of, like, um, like what you get when someone dies, and so, like, obviously there's nothing you do to earn it, and that's certainly an element of the way this [00:36:00] word is used in some instances. I think reading this and kind of how, how the rest of the text plays out, this lawyer is coming forward and he's like, "What do I need to do to have a rightful legal claim to eternal life?" Right? We might even be able, and this is where it comes into the covenant of grace, covenant of works k- kind of paradigm. We might even be able to say that what this lawyer or this person comes forward to ask Jesus is, how do I gain, how do I gain the benefits of the covenant of works, right?  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: Yep. That's language that was developed later that's not, not, like, biblical language in terms of, like, the actual language within the text, but that's the force of what he's saying. What must I do to be a rightful legal... Uh, what must I do to have a rightful legal claim on all of the blessings of the covenant of works, is really the question that's here. And so Jesus' answer is so instructive- Right ... 'cause what he says is, "Well, what's written in the law?" Like, he, he basically says, like, "Well, you should be able to tell me, teacher- Exactly of [00:37:00] the law, like, what, what needs to happen there." And there's an assumption on Christ's part that, like, there is an answer. I think sometimes, sometimes we, we, uh, we make an error in thinking that the covenant of works was never attainable, that it's somehow this, like, um, it's almost like a black box. Like, nobody could know what we have to do to, like, obtain eternal life. That's absolutely not the assumption Jesus makes. Jesus not only knows that there's an answer, it's such a straightforward answer that he expects this scribe to be able to answer it, right? And the scribe can, right? The scribe says, "Well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, and your neighbor as yourself," right? The summary of the law. Just good old classic Westminster larger, shorter catechism. Where's the law summarily comprehended? Summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. And then, then again, I don't know the questions exactly, but then it also, like, says, like, "Where does Christ summarize this?" Well, you should love the Lord your God, and you should love your [00:38:00] neighbor as yourself, right? Covenant Works and Grace Tony Arsenal: So the, the lawyer comes forward and says, "What do I need to do to have a legal right to all of the blessings of the covenant of works?" Christ says, "Well, what do you think?" He says, "Well, you obey the entirety of the law." And he says, "You've answered correctly. Do this. Obey the entirety of the law and you will live." So the parable itself doesn't necessarily speak to this law, gospel, covenant of works, covenant of grace paradigm. The, the parable is used to show that not only does this lawyer know what is required of him, but that he won't do it.  Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: And I think that's really key, because even in the parable, within the parable itself, there are these figures that know what they should do, right? I, I think, um, we'll get into it, but there's a lot of ink spilled on almost like, um, explaining [00:39:00] why the priest and the Phar- phar- and the, the Levite almost like did the right thing by going to the other side of the room, and it points to like, well, their priestly and Levitical responsibilities, if they touch a dead body, like they can't do those things, and those things are so important. Like, there's a lot of ink spilled trying to almost explain why what they did is right, when the point of the parable is that actually we all know what the right thing to do in that sense was. And even the most righteous people in the mind of the hearers, the Levites and the priests, the most righteous people, even they don't do what they're supposed to do. Jesse Schwamb: Right.  Tony Arsenal: This, this paradigm, this gospel law paradigm, law gospel paradigm, this covenant of works, covenant of grace paradigm, is so baked into the very like fabric of, of human thought that it's just there. And Christ takes this time to point out to this lawyer, like, "You know what's expected of you." And so that's why the phrase desiring to justify himself is so key [00:40:00] here. I actually think that the, the, the I don't wanna go so far as to say, like, that this person was regenerated in the midst of this conversation, 'cause I don't know that. But I actually think that there's a forward movement of this lawyer as he interacts with Christ that is optimistic. I'm optimistic about it, right? Right. He starts out trying to test Jesus, then he star- then he moves to having a desire to justify himself. I think we hear that, we read that, desiring to justify himself, we automatically think that that's a negative thing. But if we think about justifying himself in terms of what he's talking about, how do I fulfill the obligations of the covenant of works, that's not a bad thing to wanna do. Right. It's not bad to wanna obey God's law and to lay claim to His promises. It's a misguided notion of something we can't accomplish, but in itself, desiring to justify himself is to desire to fulfill the obligations of the covenant of works. That's not necessarily a bad thing. And so I think this is a merciful, a merciful [00:41:00] teaching on Christ's part. He's trying to instruct this guy to say, "Look, you can't do it. And even if you could do it, you wouldn't do it. So let's, let's talk about mercy instead and what that looks like." And that's where we get to kind of the end of the, uh, the end of the parable.  Jesse Schwamb: And again, we have to remember that we know that the intent here is actually to test or try Jesus, so He's certainly being merciful by using this opportunity not to just put him on blast, but to actually provide true instruction. And of course, like, that was, to some degree, this turning the question back would've been, like, a rabbinic pedagogical technique, but theologically, this is what floors me, is from the jump, Jesus refuses to let this man treat Him merely as one more voice among competing rabbis. Yeah. Instead, He holds that lawyer to the standard of God's own revealed word by, like you said, asking not just what does it say, but how do you read it? Mm-hmm. He's pressing not just for, like, some kind of recitation, but for the lawyer's own understanding and application, and Jesus is gonna hold him [00:42:00] accountable to his own hermeneutic. So by, by the time we get the answer, we know as readers, and all those present would've understood, he already knows the right answer, and he's not ignorant to God's requirements. He already summarizes the whole moral law correctly, encompassing both tables of the Decalogue. And so I think that does lead us then to this statement that we probably should spend a little time on, like, do this and you will live, like you introduced for us. Like, what does that even mean? Because i- it's not, like, in my view It's not like a Pelagian or Arminian concession that law keeping actually saves. I mean, it is the covenant of works principle stated truly inexorably that the law as law does promise life to perfect obedience. But that's the exact problem. I, I like what you said that it's not as if we can't understand what it would be to comprehend or contemplate this perfect law and what it means to fall under the covenant of works. It's just that he also presents for us at the same time this covenant of grace in which life is [00:43:00] granted freely through faith in the mediator who alone fulfills all of these laws' demands. So it's wild in this back and forth that's happening here where it's... I don't even know if it's fair to say this is like the most incredible subtext ever. I'm imagining trying to process this in real time and realizing everything that's being said, not just listening to what's being said and like the technical answers going back and forth. But I think like you said, that the Spirit even here is at work, I would like to believe, in the life and at the heart and the mind of this lawyer who's bringing forward this question with nefarious intent first to test and to undermine, and then is being drawn in almost inexorably into this debate to more profound understanding about a covenant based on works that cannot be accomplished, uh, in perfect obedience except through the mediator who organizes and distributes liberally this covenant of grace to his children for whom he has accomplished at least passively and then actively in his obedience in life and death. And so Jesus' reply is, I [00:44:00] think, thus a very genuine like if that functions to expose an impossibility. I, I don't think he's teaching salvation by works here, of course. He is holding out the law's own terms so that the lawyer and everybody else listening, and even us as well, can discover through this narrative which is about to happen the impossibility of self-produced righteousness, which again is what this gentleman is theologically all about. He's trying to justify himself. And that is precisely the pedagogical strategy like Paul uses later when he systemizes all of this by saying that the law was our guardian or school master until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. I think- Yeah ... and it's only because God is good to us and we might sit in some of this teaching, I think this is all in play. So, so I ask you, like, have I gone too far with all this? Like, how much do you think in the real time was being processed? And maybe that's a horrible question to ask because we know the Spirit does this work of illumination and enlightenment, and we're on the other [00:45:00] side of this and have this time to sit and to kind of parse and to really kind of just be pickled in all of this. But there's so much happening here, right?  Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, maybe I'll answer the question a, a little bit of a different way. I think, um- We often can think about Old Testament religion, if we wanna kinda call it that. We think about Old Testament religion as though it was totally uniform and, um, entirely legalistic. Right. Uh, my- the, the listener is gonna panic a little bit when I say this, so please don't freak out, but I, I think N.T. Wright, uh, and some of the new perspective on Paul stuff is a, a little bit helpful in this, in that it gives us a foil to sorta push against. Yes. The new perspective on Paul is this idea that, um- Paul was not saying that Judaism was legalistic and Christianity is a grace-based religion, right? He, m- [00:46:00] um, N- NPP is not, is saying, um, Paul was not correcting New or Old Testament religion. And where they go wrong is that they say that Paul actually retains this concept of covenantal faithfulness, covenantal nomism fidelity. Uh, where I think, where I think they're right is that this idea that, like, the Old Testament religion is entirely legalistic and Paul was just sort of correcting that, I think that's way too simplistic. And the reason I say that is that the Mosaic Covenant for, you know, w- and predominantly this podcast is coming from a sort of Westminster Confession of Faith Presbyterian perspective, give or take, right? The, the broad Reformed tradition would say that the, the Mosaic, uh, covenant, the Davidic Covenant, all of the covenants of the Old Testament, and we can break them up in all sorts of different ways, but all of the covenants of the Old Testament, [00:47:00] um, with maybe the exception of the Noahic Covenant, and there's some debate about that, all of those are They're not just, like, supporting structures for the covenant of grace, but they actually are the covenant of grace in various administrations. If that's true, and of course we believe that it is, if that's true, then the people of those covenants understood that on some level. Right. Right? So to think that, like, people under the administration of the covenant of grace somehow thought that they were operating under a legalistic framework doesn't make any sense. Jesse Schwamb: Yeah,  Tony Arsenal: that's true. So, so where I think that applies here is I think this person coming forward, it's not as though the concept of the covenant of grace... Again, that's language that we would develop later, but the concept that God graciously saves His people by the counsel of His own will, apart from their works of righteousness, apart from their meritorious effort, that God [00:48:00] simply extends His grace and conveys the cov- the blessings of the covenant of works to those who trust in the mediator, those who trust in the one to come, the, the forthcoming serpent-crushing seed, right, if you wanna use- Right language from Genesis 3. The, the idea that God simply graciously conveys the blessings of the covenant of works to those people Um, that's not something that's alien to the Old Testament, right? It's not alien to the, even to the Mosaic economy. The most law-based of all of the Old Testament, um, covenants, even that starts with the concept that these people are God's people who he redeemed out of Egypt, right? Right. The redemption out of Egypt comes before the giving of the law, and the giving of the law is a result of the redemption out of Egypt. So to think that this lawyer comes forward, and again, this had been sort of corrupted and distorted and had become a very works-based, uh, [00:49:00] meritorious-based understanding. But the idea that this framework of a covenant of grace is totally alien to this guy just doesn't, it just doesn't, I think it doesn't play. And so I think rather than us read this as I think sometimes we do, of Christ as kind of like giving this guy, trying to give this guy an entirely new paradigm, or like the rich young ruler is very much a parallel kind of situation. We read this, this guy comes forward, he's like, "What do I gotta do to earn eternal life?" Christ is like, kinda basically says like, "Well, you dum-dum, you can't. And I'm gonna demonstrate for you that you can't by- Right ... taking sort of like this situation that you can't possibly believe that you fulfilled and telling you to fulfill it." That's the outcome of this. We'll get to that when we get to the end of the parable. Um, he's not trying to give them a new paradigm. He's trying, in my opinion, he's trying to sort of reorient them back to the true paradigm of grace that is present under all of the Old Covenant administrations. So it's not so much a matter of like [00:50:00] developing a new framework and impli- like imposing this new framework on this guy. It's really trying to say like, "Listen- Think about this for a second, dude. Think about this, right? Think about the fact that, yes, you know you have to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole strength, your whole mind, and you have to love your neighbor as yourself, right? You've answered correctly. If you can do those things, you will live. With the subtext, which I think is what you're getting at, the subtext of, like, and of course you cannot possibly do those things. Right. Right. So what's the alternative, my friend? The alternative is not justifying yourself by somehow identifying who the person is that you have to love the most. The, the, the, um, the... Well, we'll get this when we get to the parable itself, but the, the alternative is... This will be interesting, 'cause I'm not sure that we... I don't know where you are on this, but, um, the alternative is that there's someone out there who shows us mercy. [00:51:00] Right. There's someone out there who takes care of our need despite our total inability to do so. Jesse Schwamb: That's right.  Tony Arsenal: That's the alternative to the covenant of works, is the covenant of grace. I m- maybe I'm, like, hinting at it too much, so I'll just say it. Like, Jesus is the Good Samaritan, right? Like, there's something for us to learn about our own justification here and our own- Right ... like, um, our own need to be merciful, to treat people as our neighbors. But just like we talked about when we talked about, like, what does the least of these mean, this parable, uh, I'm totally, like, burying the lede for next, next week, but that's fine. This parable is not primarily about us figuring out how to do mercy ministry. Right. Like, that's important. It's probably an outcome of this. It's probably something for us to think about. But really, this is actually Christ saying, like, "Hold on a second here, dude." Like, "Let's just think about this." Do you need someone who is going to tell you to pick yourself up off your bootstraps and cross to the other side of the street and leave you to [00:52:00] your own devices? Or do you need someone who's gonna throw you on their donkey, who's gonna bind up your wounds, who's gonna pay the innkeeper, and is gonna pledge to play- pay everything that is owed for your salvation? Right? That's not too on the nose here, I think. Right. And, and I really look forward to, like, unpacking that, although maybe we don't need to now, but I think, like, this parable is so much more about how salvation works than it is about, like, what it means to have a good neighbor and to be a good neighbor. I think we get bogged down in that, and I just am really excited to talk more about, like, what I think this parable actually gets at.  Jesse Schwamb: I agree, and it's happening in the contex

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//The Wire//2300Z August 17, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: WAR IN MIDDLE EAST REMAINS STAGNANT. WHITE HOUSE SIGNALS SHIFT AWAY FROM PACOM AS PRESIDENT TRUMP ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH NORTH KOREA. TONGAN CRIP GANG SHOOTING REPORTED AT FUNERAL IN SALT LAKE CITY.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Middle East: The situation remains much the same, no major changes over the weekend. Iran did not conduct any major strikes over the past few days, and the Houthis have also not engaged any Saudi oil refineries since last week. Otherwise the situation remains as before.South Korea: Over the weekend President Trump announced a significant change to the American diplomatic position regarding the Korean Peninsula. Due to South Korea not participating in hostilities during the Gulf War, President Trump has ordered the United States to reduce American participation in ROK military exercises.Analyst Comment: This is a big deal, but one that has been boiling since the Gulf War began. Pinning American diplomatic efforts to whether or not nations supported us during the war highlights the priority the White House is placing on the conflict. Supplies and missile defenses have been taken from PACOM for months now, and this halting of joint exercises with South Korea is the latest development in the de-prioritization of all operational theaters in order to support the war. Similarly, the other effect of de-prioritizing South Korea, is to improve relations with North Korea, which in turn might lead to another round of diplomatic talks soon.-HomeFront-Michigan: More details have come to light regarding a series of small arms attacks carried out a few days ago. On Friday, authorities responded to a private residence in Missaukee County, where a mass shooting had occurred. 3x deceased victims and 1x severely wounded victim were located at the residence, with the suspect having fled the scene. At the scene, the immediate investigation resulted in the discovery of another fatality located at a different residence adjacent to the initial shooting site. The suspect was identified as Chad Hickman, and a large-scale manhunt was conducted throughout the area. Some time later, Hickman's vehicle was located near Whitlock Lake, where the remains of one additional victim and the deceased suspect were discovered.Analyst Comment: So far, no motive has been disclosed for this attack, but right now this looks like a domestic incident. The suspect's sister is reportedly among the casualties, and Hickman had also recently been involved in a messy divorce.Utah: This morning a riot and subsequent mass shooting was reported at an LDS Ward in Salt Lake City. Local authorities initially responded to the 13th Ward in Kearns, after a street fight involving 80+ people broke out during a Tongan cultural event and funeral. At some point during the fray, several people were shot as a state of mutual combat broke out between suspected members of the Tongan Crip Gang, and local rivals.After the initial shooting at the funeral, the wounded suspected gang members were transported to Intermountain Medical Center, where another skirmish possibly broke out in the parking area. Several reports of shots-fired were issued, and the hospital was locked down throughout the afternoon. No details have been provided on this second incident, or the status of the reported shootings at the hospital. However, ambulances are being diverted away from Intermountain Health, and armored police vehicles are reportedly parked at the facility providing security.Analyst Comment: These shootings are directly linked to a different shooting. This was the funeral for Ofa'tangikivaha Angilau, a Tongan man who was neutralized by Good Samaritans two weeks ago. On August 7th, Angilau attempted to purchase alcohol without showing ID at the Holiday Oil gas station in Riverton. After the clerk denied his purchase, he left the store and returned with a shotgun, and attempted to murder the clerk. Before Angilau could bring the shotgun to bear, he was promptly shot dead by two different bystanders in the store. His funeral was this morning, and due to the shooting breaking out during the funeral, this retroactively indicates that Angilau was probably affiliated with the Tongan Crip Gang.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: For wider context, the Tongan community has a major foothold in Salt Lake County, and have been running operations inside LDS Wards throughout the city for some time. The LDS Church has organized several different Tongan Stakes (districts) which serve as the administrative hierarchy solely for immigrants from the Pacific island of Tonga. Around 13,000 Tongans live throughout the Salt Lake County area, which is roughly a quarter of the entire Tongan population in the United States, and as a result the LDS Church has provided substantial resources for this community, including a few dozen cultural centers and dedicated Wards just for Tongans. At these facilities, no English is spoken and even the websites are in the Tongan language. Over time, the Tongan Crip Gang has emerged as a major threat to the local area. In many cases, the Tongan Wards within Salt Lake City are not really houses of worship, but actually safehouses for the Tongan Crip Gang, as demonstrated by gang colors being placed all around these structures, only gang members attending these wards, and the frequent shootings at these facilities. Due to the gang seeking refuge within LDS churches...in the heartland of where the LDS Church was founded...this rarely gets mentioned by local mainstream media sources, which in many cases have either been financially motivated (or even outright ordered) to ignore this major gang threat. Most outsiders are rather shocked to learn that a violent gang can not just occupy houses of worship, but be invited in to use the facilities to continue their criminal enterprises. But that's what's been happening in Salt Lake City for a long time, and as unpleasant as it is, this must be acknowledged as the body count keeps rising.The Tongan Crip problem has become so bad that local police pre-stage at Tongan funerals, because they assess with a high degree of certainty that there is going to be a shootout at some point. This morning's shooting is the second shooting this year involving a funeral for a Tongan Crip Gang member; back in January, nearly the exact same event took place. Tongan Crips were having a funeral for one of their leaders, and a rival gang showed up to conduct a shooting in the parking lot. This morning's shooting occurred under nearly identical circumstances. Also during both shootings, upwards of a dozen officers were already staged at these Wards with rifles, prepared for the active shooting, knowing that a small arms engagement would be occurring at some point.Nevertheless, nobody wants to ruffle any feathers when a faith-based organization is involved, even if that organization is knowingly and deliberately allowing a gang to operate within their facilities, so these shootings (but especially the Tongan Crip angle) will continue to be ignored by local media, politicians, and Church leadership alike. However, both today's shooting, and the prior one in January took place in close proximity to schools, where children could have been wounded or killed by the gunfights in the parking lots, so this is not merely an internal Church problem. Further investigation will be needed to truly determine how widespread the problem is, but this is probably more significant than most people realize, and pretending everything is fine is resulting in clear and present dangers being allowed to threaten innocent citizens.Analyst: S2A1 Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269 Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//

It is easy to say we love people until love becomes inconvenient. What happens when the person in front of us thinks differently, comes from a different culture, has hurt us, or gives us nothing in return? In this message, Pastor Tim Dilena challenges us to take Jesus seriously when He says to love our enemies, pray for those who mistreat us, and become a neighbor to anyone in need. Through the story of Ruby Bridges and Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, we see that real love moves beyond feelings and becomes action. This is an invitation to live with our eyes open. Love may cost us time, comfort, money, and pride, but Jesus shows us a love with no boundaries. Before asking God to change the world, we may need to ask Him to change the way we see the person standing right in front of us. KEY TAKEAWAYS Jesus calls us to love beyond culture, politics, ethnicity, and personal preference. Real love is revealed in how we respond to people who are difficult to love. The Good Samaritan shows that compassion is not only something we feel, it is something we do. Loving our neighbor will often cost us time, comfort, money, and personal involvement. Jesus is the ultimate picture of love without boundaries, coming to rescue us while we were still far from Him. ABOUT TIMES SQUARE CHURCH NYC Times Square Church is a welcoming, multicultural church in the heart of New York City, founded by David Wilkerson. If you're looking for a church, you'll find a place centered on the Gospel of Jesus, passionate worship, and a real sense of community where you can grow in faith, find purpose, and belong. FOLLOW Instagram: @timessquarechurch If you've just made a decision to be born again, please respond here: https://bit.ly/ConnectwithTSC GIVE https://tsc.nyc/give/ Ask God today to show you one person you can love in a practical way, then go and do the same.

What does it really mean to love your neighbor?   In this message from Pastor John Lindell, discover how the story of the Good Samaritan shows that loving your neighbor means seeing the need, embracing the cost, and responding with mercy. Our prayer is that this message inspires you to recognize the people God has placed around you and love them with the compassion and generosity of Jesus.

In this message from our series The Gospels, we journey through the Book of Luke and discover a Savior whose heart is full of compassion, grace, and hope. Luke gives us some of the most beautiful pictures of Jesus in Scripture—a Savior who welcomes the outsider, seeks the lost, heals the broken, forgives the sinner, and brings good news to those who desperately need it. From the Good Samaritan to the Prodigal Son, Luke reminds us that no one is too far away to experience the love and grace of God. Wherever you find yourself today, Jesus sees you, Jesus welcomes you, and Jesus is still calling you closer. The Gospels See Jesus. Know Jesus. Follow Jesus.

Luke 10:25-37

The Parable of the Good Samaritan 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" 27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

The Parable of the Good Samaritan 25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" 27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

The Good Samaritan

A late-night drive home took a terrifying turn when a car with no headlights came over a hill and slammed into her mother's vehicle, sending it spinning into a ditch.Shaken, alone, and without a cell phone, she had no idea how she was going to get help. Then an older man appeared out of the darkness.He somehow knew her name, checked to make sure she wasn't seriously hurt, placed emergency flares along the road, and told her to stay where she was while he went for help.Moments later, he was gone.Emergency crews arrived soon after, but no one ever figured out who the man was—or who had called 911. Was he simply a Good Samaritan... or something far more mysterious?#RealGhostStories #GhostStories #GuardianAngel #MiracleStory #Paranormal #TrueGhostStories #Unexplained #Supernatural #GuardianAngelStory #AngelsAmongUsLove real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

The phrase “Good Samaritan” is familiar to both the church and the broader culture. It usually evokes the image of someone stopping to help a stranger in need. But it wasn't until I was asked to teach on this passage that I realized how much more there was beneath the surface.In Luke 10, Jesus is confronted by an expert in the Jewish law who isn't seeking truth but trying to trap Him. Rather than playing the man's game, Jesus responds with a parable that cuts straight to the heart. In just a few sentences, He dismantles assumptions about righteousness, exposes pride, and challenges deeply held prejudices—likely leaving both the lawyer and His own disciples unsettled.As we explore this passage, we'll discover that Jesus isn't simply teaching us to be kind. He radically redefines who our neighbors are, confronts the way we view our enemies, and calls His followers to a costly, compassion-filled discipleship that is as challenging today as it was then.Memorable Quotes:“Jesus was much more than a rabbi, but he was certainly no less than an excellent teacher.”“Are there places in our lives where we are asking questions, deceiving ourselves, trying to escape obedience to God, when He's already made it clear?”“Where am I asking a question in an attempt to get myself off the hook?”“Jesus' implied definition of our neighbor is not based on similarity or affinity, but on need and proximity. In other words, Jesus implies that our neighbor is anyone we cross paths with who has a need.”“Friends, Jesus conquered our most real enemies so that you and I don't have to make that our life work. Jesus defeats our true enemies, which frees us up to be a neighbor.”“Faith and obedience go hand in hand. Being a Christlike neighbor to those in need proves you are in fact a disciple of Christ.”Show Notes:Luke 10:25-37Deuteronomy 6:4-5Leviticus 19:18Genesis 3:1Luke 9:51-56Acts 9:10-19Video: Alistair Begg on the Good Samaritan Book: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship

A late-night drive home took a terrifying turn when a car with no headlights came over a hill and slammed into her mother's vehicle, sending it spinning into a ditch.Shaken, alone, and without a cell phone, she had no idea how she was going to get help. Then an older man appeared out of the darkness.He somehow knew her name, checked to make sure she wasn't seriously hurt, placed emergency flares along the road, and told her to stay where she was while he went for help.Moments later, he was gone.Emergency crews arrived soon after, but no one ever figured out who the man was—or who had called 911. Was he simply a Good Samaritan... or something far more mysterious?#RealGhostStories #GhostStories #GuardianAngel #MiracleStory #Paranormal #TrueGhostStories #Unexplained #Supernatural #GuardianAngelStory #AngelsAmongUsLove real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

Welcome to Day 2924 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom. Day 2924– “Exchanging What's Good for What's Best.” – Luke 10:38-42 Putnam Church Message – 08/02/2026 The Good News According to Luke: “Exchanging What's Good for What's Best.”   Last week, our message was “What About My Neighbor's Neighbor?” and we learned that we need to become the neighbor and get back to the basics: Love God, Love Neighbor, Show Mercy. Today, we continue with our thirtieth-second message from Luke's narrative of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today's message is: “Exchanging What's Good for What's Best.” Our core passage today is Luke 10:38-42, on page 1613 of your pew Bibles. At the Home of Martha and Mary 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Opening Prayer Father, we come before You today with grateful hearts, but also with honest hearts. We confess that we are often busy, distracted, worried, and upset about many things. We serve, but sometimes we serve with anxious hearts. We work, but sometimes our work pulls us away from the One we are working for. Lord Jesus, invite us again to sit at Your feet. Teach us that good things must never replace the best thing. Help us learn the difference between faithful service and frantic busyness, between loving hospitality and anxious striving, between doing for You and being with You. Holy Spirit, quiet our minds, soften our hearts, and help us hear the voice of Christ today. Amen. Introduction: Real People in Real Homes One of the endearing qualities of the Bible is its down-to-earth approach to life. The people in Scripture are not presented as plaster saints, polished statues, or untouchable heroes who never lose patience, never misunderstand, never get tired, and never say the wrong thing. They are real people. They have real homes, real families, real personalities, real frustrations, and real disagreements. Abraham gets afraid. Moses gets overwhelmed. David falls terribly. Elijah gets discouraged. Peter speaks too quickly. Thomas doubts. James and John want to call down fire. And Martha gets irritated with her sister in the kitchen. That is one reason the Bible speaks so deeply to us. It does not pretend life is neater than it is. I sometimes wonder if the people in the Bible knew their family moments would be preserved for centuries of readers around the world. If Martha and Mary had known that one brief household squabble would become one of the most famous family scenes in Christian history, they might have said, “Luke, could you please leave that part out?” But the Holy Spirit preserved this moment not to embarrass Martha or elevate Mary as though one sister is good, and the other is bad. This story is much wiser and much more gracious than that. Luke places this scene immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan. Last week, in “What About My Neighbor's Neighbor?” we heard Jesus say, “Go and do the same.” We were reminded that mercy crosses the road. / Love sees need. / Mercy moves. / Grace sends. / That is important because we might now think, “Then Christianity is all about doing, serving, helping, feeding, bandaging, paying, visiting, giving, and going.” And yes, those things matter. / But now Luke gives us a balancing scene. /After showing us mercy in motion, Luke shows us worshipful attention. / After showing us the Samaritan crossing the road, Luke shows us Mary sitting at Jesus' feet. / After showing us love in action, Luke reminds us that action must flow from relationship. / The point of this passage is not that serving is bad and listening is good. The point is that even good service becomes disordered when it pulls us away from Jesus. Today's message title is: “Exchanging What's Good for What's Best.” And the central truth is this: Jesus does not call us away from service; He calls us to serve from the strength of being with Him. Our passage is Luke 10:38–42 in the New Living Translation. Jesus and His disciples enter a village, and Martha welcomes Him into her home. Her sister Mary sits at the Lord's feet, listening to what He teaches. Martha becomes distracted by the preparations and asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her. But Jesus answers with compassion, saying, “My Dear Martha,” and then tells her that she is worried and upset over many things, but only one thing is truly necessary. Mary has chosen what is best, and it will not be taken from her. We have four truths in our bulletin insert today to illustrate this lesson. Main Point 1: Martha Welcomed Jesus, But Busyness Pulled Her Away From Him Luke tells us that as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way, they came to a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. John's Gospel tells us that Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus lived in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Bethany was close enough for Jesus to travel into Jerusalem, yet far enough away to provide rest from the pressure of the city. This little home appears to have become a place of refuge for Jesus. In Luke 9, He set His face toward Jerusalem. He is moving toward the cross. Opposition is increasing. The road is heavy. And here, in Bethany, He is welcomed into a home. Do not miss the beauty of Martha's action. / Martha welcomed Jesus. / That was not a small thing. In the ancient Near East, hospitality was sacred. Travelers depended on the kindness of households. There were no modern hotels on every corner, no drive-through restaurants, no refrigerators full of leftovers, no grocery delivery service. To welcome guests meant real labor. Water had to be brought. Bread had to be prepared. Food had to be gathered, cooked, and served. Space had to be made. Hospitality was not merely social courtesy. It was a moral responsibility. / And Martha does it. She opens her home. She takes responsibility. She sees what needs to be done. Many of us should be thankful for Marthas. Every church needs people who notice what needs doing. Every family needs people who remember the details. Every ministry needs people who prepare, plan, cook, clean, organize, schedule, unlock doors, make coffee, set tables, print bulletins, and quietly keep things moving. Without Martha-like people, many good things would collapse. So, Martha's problem is not that she served. Her problem is that her service became a distraction. Luke says she was “distracted” by all the preparations. The word carries the idea of being pulled away, dragged in different directions. Martha is not simply busy. She is divided. Her attention is stretched thin. She is working for Jesus, but she is being pulled away from Jesus. / That can happen to us too. We can serve the Lord and slowly lose sight of the Lord. / We can work in the church and become irritated with the people in the church. / We can prepare meals, teach lessons, lead committees, visit the sick, give generously, and still grow resentful because the work has become disconnected from worship. Object Lesson: The Full Tray Imagine carrying a tray filled with cups of water. At first,...

Tuesday - We talk about the downside of being a Good Samaritan, no cake in the pizzeria, and Brad Pitt announced he is drinking again. We review culture differences between Colombians and Americans for WYDTN. Amy Sweezey comes in to discuss the Florida Weather Authority. It's Only Money with Scott Brown with Edgewater Family Wealth on financial situational awareness and streaky forks. Plus, JCS News, JCS Trivia & You Heard it Here First.

Send us a message!We celebrate the 500th episode by reading a curated run of Jesus' most remembered teachings, parables, and closing words, letting them land with fresh weight. • gratitude for long-term Bible reading and growing in context • why elevating Jesus' words above other Scripture distorts interpretation • secret generosity, prayer, fasting, and the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6 • treasures in heaven, the danger of serving money, and Jesus' approach to worry • the Good Samaritan and mercy as neighbor-love • the Prodigal Son and the older brother's warning • the Sower and what blocks the word from bearing fruit • rest for the weary, taking up the cross, and the Great Commission  At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you're there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event. If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.Support the showCheck out outloudbible.com for helpful study resources, and to discover how to bring the public reading of God's word to your church, conference, retreat, or other event.

In this eye-opening episode, Scott MacLeod explores the parable of the Good Samaritan through a prophetic and biblical lens, revealing deeper truths about God's heart for compassion, restoration, and redemption. As he unpacks the layers of Luke 10, Scott highlights how this familiar story points beyond kindness alone to the mission of Jesus and our call to carry His love to the broken and overlooked. With fresh insight and practical application, this episode will challenge you to see Scripture with renewed wonder and inspire you to become a vessel of God's mercy in a world that desperately needs His hope.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus challenges us to stop asking who qualifies as our neighbor and instead become a neighbor to anyone who needs mercy. While a priest and Levite saw a wounded man and continued walking, a Samaritan allowed compassion to interrupt his journey, used what he had, paid the cost, and cared for someone who could give him nothing in return. This message reminds us that biblical love gets involved, love costs something, and love has the power to change lives.

What does biblical generosity really look like? In this message from Luke 10:25–37, Pastor Matt Looloian explores the parable of the Good Samaritan, revealing that true generosity is more than giving—it is a costly, committed response that flows from first receiving God's mercy. As followers of Christ, our generosity becomes a powerful testimony to the surpassing worth of Jesus. Listen to the full sermon and discover how God calls us to love Him wholeheartedly and love our neighbors with open hands. Speaker: Pastor Matt Looloian

Archives August--Jesus is the ultimate "Good Samaritan," the unlikely Rescuer who binds our wounds, carries us to safety, and pays the price through His cross.

Alan Morales - Guest Preacher Sunday, August 9th 2026

Kingdom Parables: A Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37, Pastor Kyle Fellows

Alain Emerson shares about the Good Samaritan

It sounds cliché, but every day we need to act the same as the Good Samaritan explained in the famous parable that Jesus tells in the Bible. Something to remember today. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.     Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org   Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Pastor Craig explores the challenging lesson behind the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. While a religious expert seeks to limit his duty by asking "Who is my neighbor?", Jesus redefines the boundaries of love. True faith requires more than biblical knowledge or public praise. It demands active, limitless compassion that reflects the heart of the King.Are you setting limits on who deserves your care and kindness? Watch this video to discover how to break down your boundaries and love like Jesus.

In this episode, Bruce reflects on Luke 10:25–37 and the parable of the Good Samaritan.Jesus brings love down from an idea and places it on the road before us. The Samaritan did not ask whether the wounded man belonged to his group, shared his beliefs, or deserved help. He saw a person in need and allowed that need to interrupt his journey.Bruce reminds us that the ministry God gives us is often found in the ordinary moment: a conversation, a phone call, a practical act of care, a word of encouragement, or simply noticing someone who is hurting.This devotional invites you to become attentive to the person God places before you today, and to ask for the courage to show mercy.

This week, Jesus' disciples will return from their missionary journey with great joy. But Jesus will remind us that no matter how joyful ministry is, our greatest joy comes from knowing that God has written our name in His book of life! We'll end by examining the story of The Good Samaritan to learn how God defines the word neighbor.

The news to know for Monday, August 03, 2026! What to know about fresh uncertainty in the Middle East as the Iran war once again shifts from the battlefield to the negotiating table. Also, why thousands of migrant children could soon have to face a complicated legal system without lawyers. And where wildfires are now driving thousands of Americans from their homes. Plus, new controversies over the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, growing costs for parents this back-to-school season, and a historic weekend at both the box office and the baseball diamond.   Those stories and even more news to know in about 15 minutes!    Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!  See sources: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/shownotes Become an INSIDER to get AD-FREE episodes here: https://www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider Get The NewsWorthy MERCH here: https://thenewsworthy.dashery.com/ Sponsors: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code NEWSWORTHY at www.oneskin.co/NEWSWORTHY #oneskinpod Upgrade your everyday. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to Quince.com/newsworthy. To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ad-sales@libsyn.com    

Welcome to the Saltbox Church Podcast. We desire to lead people to become fully surrendered disciples of Jesus. On our channel, you'll learn how to read and understand the truths of the Bible from Pastor Michael Mattis and other members of our teaching team. You can expect to walk away with a deeper understanding of the things of God, but challenged to live a surrendered life. We cover topics such as the will of God, mental health, women in leadership, Christianity vs. other faith traditions and many other in-depth studies of scripture. -------------------------------- -------------------------------- CONNECT: LinkTree ► https://linktr.ee/saltboxchurch Website ► http://www.SaltboxChurch.com Podcast ► https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/saltboxchurch/ Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/saltboxchurch/ Yellow Truck Coffee Co. ► https://www.yellowtruckcoffeeco.com/ --------------------------------

This sermon explores the transformative power of faith, contrasting it with misguided beliefs. It emphasizes that true Christian life requires a profound inner change, not just outward observance. The message draws on biblical narratives from Daniel and the parable of the Good Samaritan to illustrate how a transformed heart leads to compassion and a deeper connection with God.

What does it mean to be a good neighbor? Find out in today's episode! Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, let's find out what that even means!GOOD SAMARITANHey parents! Use these questions as a guide to talk over this week's lesson, Good Samaritan, with your child after they've listened to the story!Jesus told a story. Who was today's Bible story about?A Samaritan man.A Jewish man was hurt – he had lots of owies. A Samaritan man came. He helped the Jewish man. Let's say, Hooray for the Samaritan man. It is good to help people when they are hurt.God made people because he loves everyone. Can you point to someone God made?Help your child point to you and to themselves!Jesus is happy when we help someone and we can be happy, too. Show me your happiest happy face.Take some time to pray with your toddler. Encourage them to sit with you and fold their hands, saying something like:“God, thank you for making us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for wanting to be our friend. Help us to help people just like the Good Samaritan. We love you! Amen.”Parent Encouragement - The Good SamaritanHey Parents! Here's something for you to be encouraged by and get ideas from this week to make the Good Samaritan lesson part of your everyday conversation with your toddler at home!DownloadToddler Coloring Page - The Good SamaritanAs your child colors this coloring page, they will be reminded of today's Bible story and that God made them! There are additional coloring pages with familiar faces from today's lesson, too.DownloadToddler Craft – The Good Samaritan BadgesThis week, your child will create a Good Samaritan badge to remind them they can help people just like the Good Samaritan helped in the Bible story.DownloadToddler Activity – Find the Hurt ManIn this activity, your child will find the hurt man hiding under a cup. They will remember they can be like the Good Samaritan. When they see someone who is hurt, they can help.DownloadNavigating Parenthood Hey parents! Saddleback Parents has great training, tips, and tools to help you win. Check out this Two-Minute Tip, How to Help Your Children See Themselves Through God's Eyes Pt.1, all about solidifying the basis of your child's identity through three words.Download

Pastor Judy Dawson shares the last part of the Witness series, highlighting on helping people take one step closer to Jesus, no matter where they find themselves on their journey. Also, carry extra oil and wine like the Good Samaritan to help people on the side walks of our lives.

I would love to hear from you! Send me a message if you would be interested in me speaking at your church!Welcome to Carlton Brethren Church!Today's message is from Luke 15.11-32 The Lost Son“The Practice of Pivoting”Where do you need to pivot?Carlton Brethren Church1096 270th StGarwin, IA 50632Listen to last week's message:Practicing Kingdom Principles The Principle of ProvisionLuke 10:30-37“The Good Samaritan”http://joshmiller.buzzsprout.comWe now have over 300 episodes!Listen and be blessed by studying God's word!#grateful #praise #worship #christiantiktoc #Jesus #God #church #sermon #preaching #church #safe #secure #love #respect #hope #compassion #healing #refugepastorjosh Support the showThank you for joining me!  I pray these message enhance your walk with the Lord. 

By Matthew Fenchel - We are familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. How much, though, have we considered the full setting and context of the story? Especially, why did Christ pick those characters? Why did He tell this story in the first place? Is it just a nice story about doing good to others? What questions

In this episode with Matthew Soerens and Issam Smeir, we touch on something that has shaped my faith - sitting across a table from refugees until a statistic became a person with a name. A decade after the first edition of Seeking Refuge, the number of forcibly displaced people has doubled to roughly 120 million, yet care for the vulnerable has become one of the most politicized issues in American culture and the American church. We work to untangle fear and misinformation from biblical conviction, dig into the parable of the Good Samaritan, and ask what it looks like to stop, come closer, and respond.Matthew Soerens is the Vice President of Advocacy and Policy for World Relief. Dr. Issam Smeir is a psychologist focused on trauma treatment for victims of persecution and torture who also works at World Relief. They're coauthors, along with Stephan Bauman, of the newly updated book Seeking Refuge: The Human Face of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2026).Matthew and Issam's Book:Seeking RefugeMatthew's Recommendation:The Faithful InnkeeperConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeSupport the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

I got blocked and removed from a neighborhood Facebook group — and before the hurt even landed, I'd already decided to build my own. It felt like initiative. It was avoidance. This episode is the conviction I didn't see coming: the difference between building community and building a bypass around the people who hurt you.This week I'm getting specific and getting convicted in real time. I'm walking you through the neighborhood group situation that felt small on the surface and turned into a direct confrontation with the Good Samaritan — a story I've heard a hundred times, until it stopped letting me off the hook.We're talking about the lawyer's real question in Luke 10, the actual cost of that Jericho road, and why the priest and Levite weren't just cold — they were protecting their own clean hands. And then we're talking about what it looked like for me to do the harder thing: go back, address it, reconcile, and shut down what I'd built to avoid it.If you've ever built a new job, a new friend group, a new venture — quietly, as a way to avoid a conversation you didn't want to have — this one's for you.Scripture referenced: Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 5:43-45About the host: Whitney Kay is a content & sales strategist in brand partnerships with 15+ years as an entrepreneur and 6+ years leading discipleship and small group ministry. Called + Convicted is her show on discerning calling and defending conviction — for anyone caught between what culture's selling and what God's asking.Listen and follow: Instagram @‌heywhitneykay | TikTok @‌calledandconvicted

Who is my neighbor?It's one of the most famous questions ever asked Jesus. But instead of giving a definition, Jesus told a story that has challenged hearts for over 2,000 years.In Week 5 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Chris Hoyt unpacks the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and reveals that this story isn't just about helping strangers. It's about learning to see people the way Jesus sees them.Love doesn't stop at compassion.Love crosses the road.But the greatest surprise comes at the end of the story.Before we could ever become the Good Samaritan... we were the wounded traveler. Broken, helpless, and in desperate need of mercy. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus crossed the greatest road imaginable to rescue us.When you've experienced that kind of love, you can't help but share it with others.Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

It's On Me! Good Samaritan Digs Into His Own Pockets During Power Failure full 45 Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:30:03 +0000 MQgsQ2noxMqeUfSikPbXHT7Z2F1LZSPh news Chicago All Local news It's On Me! Good Samaritan Digs Into His Own Pockets During Power Failure A dive into the top headlines in Chicago, delivering the news you need in 10 minutes or less multiple times a day from WBBM Newsradio. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News https://player.amperw

Happy Hump Day rockaholics. We chat with a man who let countless strangers shelter in his apartment during the chaos of the Bite of Seattle shooting.

Kenny and Mike discuss and spot faith elements in Christopher Nolan's latest epic film, The Odyssey. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland lead a strong cast that also includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and John Leguizamo. Both Kenny and Mike think John Leguizamo's performance may result in an Academy Award Nomination for Supporting Actor.  Both the film and Christopher Nolan are most likely to be nominated as well.  Filmed with IMAX 70mm cameras and shown in a variety of formats including IMAX, which have sold out for a year, the The Odyssey fits the epic nature and scope of Homer's foundational literary work. Though not an IMAX screening Mike and Kenny shared their experience seeing the film in 70mm film rather than digital screening. Mike shared his appreciation for the rich contrast presented in the low light photography the IMAX film stock allows. Other technical aspects included the use of practical effects including forced perspective.  Kenny questioned why Nolan did not choose more accurate costumes and other production design elements as well as some more modern words and phrase that took him out of the film briefly. Faith Elements Reflected: Among the many elements of faith spotted in the story, Kenny discusses the very nature of faith from a Christian perspective is as an odyssey as one journeys through seasons of struggle and joy as we travel toward our spiritual home, the Kingdom of God. Calypso's instruction to Odysseus to surrender to and trust the ocean waves and tides rather than struggle against them is akin to surrendering to God's faithfulness, grace, and power rather than reliance of one's own abilities and power against the ooverwhelming power of sin and evil. Athena's care, presence, and guidance to Odysseus reflects God's presence and involvement through the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals as well as the work of God in transforming the broken world into the Kingdom of God. Zeus's Law of Hospitality echoes the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament teachings on hospitality, especially the welcoming and caring for strangers and even enemies, Abram's hosting of Angels, Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan. The need for humility in living a faithful life. Echoing the teaching of Paul in Philippians 2 to imitate the humility of Jesus. Odysseus's boasting set the stage for many of the struggles in his journey home.     

Good Samaritan not Samari-tandem.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Blessed Life According to the Son | Part 4Blessed are the Merciful and PureMatthew 4:17, 23-25, 5:1-8 | King's Chapel Live StreamWhat does a life transformed by the Gospel actually look like?As Jesus continues the Beatitudes, He reminds us that the blessed life is not something we earn. It is the life that grows in those who have already been made citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven through Christ.Because we have received God's mercy, we become people who show mercy. Because Christ has given us a new heart, we begin to live with an undivided devotion to Him.In this message, we explore what it means to be merciful toward those who are hurting, broken, and in need. Just as the Good Samaritan showed compassion to a stranger, Christians are called to reflect the mercy of Jesus by restoring dignity, extending kindness, and pointing others to the hope found in Christ.We also consider what Jesus means when He says, "Blessed are the pure in heart." A pure heart is not a perfect heart. It is a heart that has been made new by God's grace and is wholly devoted to Him. Through Christ, God replaces our hearts of stone with hearts that desire Him above everything else.The Beatitudes are not a list of qualifications for entering God's Kingdom. They are the beautiful evidence of what God is doing in the lives of those He has already redeemed.If you long to become more like Christ and to reflect His mercy in a divided world, this message points us back to the transforming power of the Gospel.Connect with King's Chapel in Longwood, FL - ▶️ www.kingschapelfl.com▶️ https://www.facebook.com/KingsChapelfl▶️ https://www.instagram.com/kingschapelfl/For the GLORY of our Great GodFor the GOOD of our NeighborMatthew 5:7-8 sermon, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes explained, mercy in the Bible, pure in heart meaning, Good Samaritan sermon, Christian discipleship, King's Chapel Longwood FL

July 26, 2026 Morning Service. Part of the Secrets of the Kingdom series. (Luke 10:25-37)

It's Wednesday, July 22nd, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark and Adam McManus Christian convert in Somaliland, Africa poisoned to death by Muslim family Morning Star News reports a Christian convert was poisoned to death in Somaliland earlier this month. Somaliland is a partially recognized state in the Horn of Africa. Islam is the official religion of the state. Converting to another religion is punishable by death.  Back in April, Sharif Ali came to Christ secretly. However, his Muslim relatives suspected his conversion and eventually poisoned him. His own family poisoned him! Before his death, he told a visiting underground church leader, “If I die, I rejoice because I have believed in [Jesus].” Psalm 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Amnesty withdraws report that Christian pro-life groups are a threat Amnesty International withdrew a recent report that labeled Christian and pro-life groups as a threat. The British organization claims to support humans rights. However, the group's July report smeared Christian organizations as “anti-rights.”  One of those organizations was Christian Concern. Tim Dieppe is the head of public policy at Christian Concern. He said, “The multiple successes in our cases relating to Christian freedoms and right to life show that Christian Concern, far from being ‘anti-rights' is actually very much on the right side of rights. Truth is on our side. It is Amnesty that is now anti-rights.” French legislature legalized assisted suicide France's National Assembly passed a bill to legalize assisted suicide last week.  The measure now awaits approval by France's Constitutional Council before it can become law.  The National Council of Evangelicals of France lamented the passing of the bill. A spokesman said, “[We call] on the evangelical Protestant churches of France to redouble their efforts in providing support, visiting and offering comfort. Today more than ever, our local communities are called upon to be witnesses of hope, presence and practical solidarity amongst the most vulnerable.” Proverbs 24:11 says, “Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.” Arkansas gave $1.7 million to pro-life pregnancy centers In the United States, Arkansas awarded $1.7 million to pro-life pregnancy resource centers over the last year, reports LifeNews.  The state's legislature also voted to increase this funding to $3.5 million over the next year.  Arkansas is among 19 states that provide some form of alternatives to abortion funding for life-affirming pregnancy help organizations. States with the biggest programs include Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Trump pauses billion dollars in Medicaid to CA and MN over fraud The Trump administration is pausing over one billion dollars in Medicaid funding to California and Minnesota.  U.S. Health Secretary ‌Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the reason is suspected fraud and noncompliance.  Listen to his comments.  KENNEDY: “If your state wants Medicaid funding, it must meet basic documentation requirements. If we suspect fraud, you will not receive taxpayer dollars until you prove that those payments are legitimate. “That's how we make America healthy again. That's how we restore the integrity of our democracy. And that's how we make America great again!” Trump imposes 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods U.S. President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on Canadian goods on Monday.  The 50 percent tariff will affect a wide range of products from wine to hockey sticks and cement.  The White House stated, “President Trump is taking action to hold Canada accountable for its continued discrimination against and unreasonable and unequal treatment of U.S. commerce that has burdened and disadvantaged hardworking Americans.” Wooden beams from Solomon's Temple discovered Archaeologists recently unearthed wooden beams from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.  King Solomon built this temple, known as the First Temple, in the 10th century B.C. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed this temple later in 586 B.C. The Israel Antiquities Authority is now unearthing the charred remains of the structure.  Dr. Johanna Regev is studying the charred beams. She told The Jerusalem Post, “It is very rare in Israel to find wood with such a large number of growth rings. Here in the City of David, we found thick beams with many rings. ... Until now, we could date finds within a range of hundreds of years. Now, we can attain much greater precision, narrowing the dating range down to as little as 10 years.” McVeda kids in Great Falls, Montana raised $347 for The Worldview Melissa McVeda in Great Falls, Montana wrote, “My family listens to The Worldview several days every week. Being a busy mom and in a rural area, I am not able to catch other news sources very often. We really appreciate the convenience of being able to listen to The Worldview when it works with our schedule -- usually lunchtime -- rather than trying to get our radio to the right spot at the right minute to catch radio news. “We also appreciate that The Worldview team has done the legwork of bringing the news stories to us rather than us surfing the internet to find them. “We especially perk up when there is world event news, Good Samaritan stories, stories having to do with children, other Christians, and historical stories like the one you wrote and voiced on the anniversary of Perpetua's martyrdom. “My older children, Anna, age 10 and Eppie, almost 9, have organized a fundraiser for The Worldview, aided by their younger siblings Claire, age 7, and Caleb, age 5. They sold homemade items at our farm on Monday, with plans to continue fundraising one to two times per week. That first day, combined with their own contributions, brought in $205. Attached is a photo of Eppie with the fundraiser table and her older cousin, Grace, who joined in the fun. May Christ be glorified by what you and the team do with this program.” Well, let me tell you. Last night, I surprised the McVeda family in Great Falls, Montana with a phone call.  I called them and got a chance to talk to the whole family on speaker phone.  There were lots of giggles in between their answers. Since they have regular customers who buy fresh milk from them, they decided to set up a table and sell their homemade goodies which included chocolate chip cookies, meringue cookies, iced tea, and crocheted hand puppets. You heard me correctly. Hand puppets including a boar, a rabbit, and a Welsh Corgi. Anna and Eppie McVeda spent three to four hours each crocheting the puppets which they sold for approximately $20 each. Can you believe that? They spent hours of their time crocheting hand puppets to raise money for the six-member Worldview newscast team. It's incredible!  And Claire and Caleb helped make the tea and the cookies. Last night, Caleb confessed to me that he ate a couple of the cookies as well. I don't blame him. The McVeda kids in Great Falls, Montana said they were inspired by a boy who sold lemonade last year in our listenership to help fund this important cause.  If you are a kid, do you want to help raise money for The Worldview as well? Every dollar counts. Now, if you're not old enough to have email yet, make sure to have your parents email me to let me know how you are raising the money for this Christian newscast. 7 Worldview listeners gave $1,517 And finally, by Tuesday night at 7:45pm Central, 7 Worldview listeners stepped up to the plate and invested their treasure to fund the six-member team behind The Worldview for another year. We were touched by the generosity of Jeff in Boise, Idaho who gave $75 and the McVeda family in Great Falls, Montana who raised $142. And we're grateful to God for Dawn in Estero, Florida who gave $200, Loren in Brighton, Colorado who gave $300, Carlee in Keswick Ridge, New Brunswick, Canada who pledged $25/month for 12 months for a gift of $300, and Krystoffer in Fullerton, California who gave $500. Those 7 gifts add up to $1,517. Ready for our new grand total? Drum roll please. (drum roll sound effect) $43,755 (sound effect of people cheering) That means, in just three days, we need to raise $37,471.50 to hit our $81,226.50 goal by this Friday, July 24th! The finish line is $123,500 by Friday, July 31st to be fully funded for another year. Listen, if four kids under the age of 11 in Great Falls, Montana can raise $347 in a matter of two weeks with an initial donation of $205 and the one last night for $142, what could you give? If you were touched by their generosity of time and treasure, I wonder whether you might consider making a one-time donation of $347 yourself. If 108 Worldview listeners gave $347 – just like the McVeda kids did – today, on Wednesday, July 22nd by 8:00pm central, we will have hit our July 24th goal one day early.  Listen, you are one of tens of thousands of people listening to the sound of my voice at this moment.  Will you be one of 108 people to give $347 right now? Please, go to TheWorldview.com, click on Give, select the dollar amount, and make sure to click on the “recurring” button if that's your wish.  And remember, if you want to continue your monthly pledge to The Worldview that you started in a previous year, please let me know so we can count your generous ongoing gift toward our total. Let's see what the Lord will do on this Wednesday. I have a sneaking suspicion that at least 108 of you will rise to the occasion and make that $347 one-time donation. Just go to TheWorldview.com and click on Give. Close And that's The Worldview on this Wednesday, July 22nd, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.