Luke 10.25-37 The Good Samaritan “Somebody To Love”

Queen – Somebody To Love (Official Video)

Can anybody find me; Somebody to love?

Ooh, each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet
Take a look at yourself in the mirror and cry
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord, what you’re doing to me? (Yeah, yeah)
I have spent all my years in believing you
But I just can’t get no relief, Lord

Somebody (Somebody)
Ooh, somebody (Somebody)
Can anybody find me, Somebody to love? Yeah

I work hard (He works hard) every day of my life
I work ’til I ache my bones
At the end (At the end of the day) I take home (takes home)
My hard-earned pay all on my own
(Goes home, goes home on his own)

I go down (down) on my knees (knees)
And I start to pray (praise the Lord)
‘Til the tears run down from my eyes
Lord, somebody (somebody), somebody (please)
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

(he works hard) everyday (everyday)
I try, and I try, and I try

But everybody wants to put me down
They say I’m going crazy
They say I got a lot of water in my brain
I got no common sense (he’s got)
I got nobody left to believe in
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, Lord
Somebody (somebody), somebody (somebody)
Can anybody find me somebody to love?
(Can anybody find me someone to love)

Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat (you just keep losing and losing)
I’m OK, I’m alright (he’s alright, he’s alright)
I ain’t gonna face no defeat (Yeah, yeah)
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
One day (someday) I’m gonna be free, Lord!

(Find me somebody to love)

Anybody else like a little Queen now and then?

There is a multitude of rabbit holes I could have dived down to preach about in this passage. I know because I tried a bunch of them this week and every time I tried to pursue an avenue for a sermon, the hole was a lot shallower than I thought it was going to be and my writing went nowhere.

But then, Saturday morning, my husband is laying on the couch singing this song to our dog Bayley and I smiled. There it is.

Bayley you see is my dog. Anyone else here have dogs and multiple people in the household? If you do, there is one of you that the dog belongs to. Dogs you see are not ashamed of the fact that they love one of you more than the other. Doesn’t bother them at all to show favoritism. The other of you well… when their favorite person isn’t available, anyone to love will do.

The expert in the law, is well, as is stated quite clearly, an expert in the law. The expert in the law knows what they are supposed to do. They know the law and that if they don’t follow it, their place in heaven is at stake. But Jesus, as I spoke about last week, fulfilled the law and now everything is confusing.

The expert in the law quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 “”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” but knows Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law and so he adds on to it a little flare of his own “and with all your mind” and a little Leviticus 19:18 “and your neighbor as yourself.” Taken from “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus fulfilled the law, brought everything to fruition and jumbled everything together. But… “who is my neighbor?”

Often called the parable of the “good” Samaritan, now referred to as the merciful Samaritan. Why? Because he was a Samaritan. The Jewish people have had a Hatfield’s and McCoy’s relationship with the Samaritans since their Babylonian captivity. They were, in their minds, the root of all evil. To call the story, the parable of the “good” Samaritan makes a lot of likely invalid assumptions about them as a human being that they were a “good” person when the point of this story is not that they are a good person but that they did something good. To do something good doesn’t make you a good person per say, it just means you are did one thing, one day that was good. Two very different concepts.

The expert in the law, has asked a question, which he already knows the answer to but doesn’t like.

Like the lyrics to Queen’s “Somebody to love,” he wants an easy answer. Just tell me who it is I’m supposed to love so I can get it over with and solidify my place in heaven. Who is it I’m supposed to help? Just tell me so I can do it. The expert in the law wants a target, Jesus is telling him that’s not the way this works. People aren’t object, they’re not checklists, you can’t just say I helped. I’m done now. Back to being an ass to everyone else I meet.

Loving one person isn’t going to fix all your problems. One good deed isn’t going to buy your way into heaven no matter how good it is. What’s worse, I Jesus is telling you even if you devote your entirely life to serving God, become a priest, or a leader of the church, that one time, that one person you saw that needed help and instead you were busy so you crossed over to the other side of the road, that action, that inaction, that lack of mercy, is what seals your fate.

The expert in the law is just like the rich man who is told to give away all his wealth to go to heaven. The expert in the law must follow the law, always, to the letter.

 “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.” Every time God gives them somebody, they are to love them. Every time. No substitutions exchanges or refunds. Every time.

Loving someone is not work. It is what we are designed to do. It is what makes us in the image of God. The infinite capacity to love is a gift from our divine creator. The ability to love more than one person. To love not just romantically but to be able to love spiritually.

Love is what we crave whether life is going well, life is falling apart, even when our life is in complete shambles. It doesn’t matter how rich, how poor, how intelligent, or how foolish, we are all seeking somebody to love. And, much to the chagrin of the expert of the Law, it is a search that must continue through our entire lifespan. It doesn’t stop once we have found one person, we keep going.

The parable of the merciful Samaritan is a reminder that love comes at the most inconvenient of times. When you are on your way home from work and just want to have a dinner and plop down on the couch, God sends someone to love. It doesn’t matter if you are just enjoying a day of freedom away from the hustle and bustle and stress of life, God may send you somebody to love that you just don’t feel like dealing with that day.

It doesn’t even matter if you are an inherently selfish, egotistical, rude, nuisance to society. God is going to send you somebody to love to give you a chance at redemption.

Doing good, being kind, and developing relationships with no gain is what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. Because each person you show love to, every human being you bring into your neighbor circle impacts your soul. Every loving relationship you create no matter how or when it ends, shapes you into becoming a follower of Christ who has no worries or doubts about their own salvation.

We save ourselves by saving others, by being a good neighbor, by developing relationships when God gives us somebody to love. You want out of that prison cell of your mind? Start seeing those who have been robbed, stripped of their dignity, and left half dead by society. Whether their wounds are internal or external that’s all of us wretches in this world. We are broken people who need somebody to love.

One of the things I love about this Queen song is that it is sung from the perspective of the victim on the side of the road. Freddy Mercury could have written from the perspective of the priest, the Levite, even the expert of the Law who were all “supposed” to be seeking somebody to love but nope. He wrote “Somebody to Love” from the perspective of the victim who had been beaten, stripped, and left for dead.

He wrote from the perspective of someone who had nothing to give to anyone and what did he ask for? Somebody to love. Somebody to give to. This piece that sounds like a massive choir singing? 3 voices. Freddy Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor. Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, Christ is there. Whether Priest, Levite, or Samaritan, Christ is there.

No matter how much or how little you have. No matter how down-trodden or blessed you are. God’s going to send you somebody to love. God is going to send you the answer to the question you don’t want to ask. “Who is my neighbor?” and your answer better be “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.”