Luke 10:29 Self-Justify

Luke 10:29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

As human beings, we have the unfortunate ability to deceive ourselves. And we get pretty good at it over time. Some seem to make a career of it, deceiving themselves and those around them.

But self-deception isn’t a virtue. It isn’t something o be strived for, or celebrated. And yet, here in America, we turn a blind eye to those in leadership who think they are greater than they are. We elect them to the highest offices and give them power. And they take power everywhere they can get it, and all to the end of self-exaltation! We can do better than this!

Or can we? Maybe we get the kind of leaders that won’t ruffle our comfortable feathers too much. Our leaders match us. They are like us, and we are like them, self-deceiving.

We can see this in the global warming crowd who fly around the world in private jets, thinking they are saving the planet. We need to save the planet from them! From what I have read, and I could be wrong, even if we met the targets that these people have projected, there would be almost no difference made. All the hype with no results.

That is what self-deception does. It blinds us to the obvious, the obvious we can’t or won’t see. We get boxed into a way of thinking that blinds us to the truth.

A man came to Jesus hoping for a simple way to get approval from God. He seemingly did all he was supposed to do to get approval. He wanted Jesus to give him a stamp in his “I am good enough” passport.

But Jesus wanted to push him beyond his comfort. He was on the right track, seemingly. He did the right things. He was a good person by his own standards.

Jesus wanted him to know that God’s standard was much higher than his standard, so Jesus tells the story of a man who gets mugged. Two men, just like the man who came for the stamp, don’t help the mugged man. In their eyes, that man deserved what he got. Perhaps they had much more important business to attend to.

But these two men pointed directly at the self-deception in the questioner. Their denial to see the need and meet the need spoke volumes about what was in their hearts. And Jesus is all about the heart and what the heart drives us to do.

The hero of the story is the most unlikely candidate in the eyes of our inquirer. He is rejected because of his ethnic identity. He is one of a rejected people, not someone our guy would dare hang out with. He was unclean. He was rejected by God.

And yet this man, the rejected man, does exactly what is needed. His compassion for this mugged man leads him to do the righteous thing. This man rejects the stereotypes imposed on him. He sees the humanity in the mugged man and responds with love.

If only we could see the humanity in others who differ from us and respond in love! Human is human is human. Under the skin, we are all created in His image and have the same purpose, to glorify God while we are in this body. Some do a better job of this than others.

Our mission is to help ourselves and others to recognize this image-bearing identity and act accordingly. When we see a need and have the means to meet the need, meet it. When we see self-deception, we repent and correct our self-assessment. We don’t downgrade our image, but live up the the image we are. We are His representatives, and we act like it. That is an upgrade!