Who does Jesus use to teach the religious leaders of the exemplary subject of neighborly and God's love? It was their enemies. It was the Samaritans. See, the Samaritans were kind of a unique people. They were kind of cousins, I guess you could say to the, to the, to the Jewish folks at the time. And the Samaritans were a unique people because they believe that God had met them on one mountain and the people from Judaism believed that God had met them on another mountain. 

So they had a mountain con test and then this mountain contest the people with the most money and the most power and the most influence won.

So what'd they do? They destroyed the temple at the top of the mountain that wasn't theirs and they wiped out all the things that didn't. And then they said, look, you guys are the Samaritan. Y'all can just stay way over there and y'all can worship however you want and we're going to keep it going over here. So when Jesus goes and tries to explain to people how to interact and love one another, the two times that he's explaining to people he uses as an example, the Samaritans, the first one brother Glenn preached on a few weeks ago was the good Samaritan, right? It was the person who looked after another. It was a person who looked after someone who they thought needed their help. This was an example of how to love a neighbor to love one another.

The example was the Samaritans. Now there's something unique about the Samaritan because the Samaritans are the worst kinds of enemies. And I mean the worst kinds of enemies because they're the enemies you don't make up with easily. We would call those family, right? You're getting into a family dispute and what are the worst kinds of disputes you get into? Those are the ones that you get into with family that go not just one time that they go on for years and years and then there's conflict, right? Because if you get in conflict with somebody, you know you're getting a bad business deal, they can go their way and you can go your way. You don't have to see them again. But the worst kinds of enemies are the ones that [inaudible] no, that are just like you. The ones you have to have a relationship with. The ones you see over a long period of time. The ones that if you had to reconcile with, you'd have to admit to your own the false as much as you admitted to how the other person might have wronged you. It's isn't it?

The Samaritans weren't just a group of people that the traditional Jewish authority didn't like. It was the history. They had to chase their own ideals and they had to look at themselves in the mirror. Don't underestimate how this must have just ground the folks that heard this. You know who's the best person that loving other people? It ain't you. It's the Samaritans. What? What? The Samaritans. You know the people that looked after the guy in the ditch

Oh and 10 people got cured and only one thing to God. Guess which one thing to God, wait for the Samaritan. Don't underestimate how grinding this was.

the Samaritans