Episode 8) Jesus’s Parables: The Good Samaritan

Let Us Pray

Our dear heavenly Father, thank you for giving us ears to hear your Holy Word.  We pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit to make these ancient words of Scripture relevant and near to each of us this day.  Shine your light in our hearts so we may share it with others.

In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

From the Gospel of Luke 10:25-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.^[a] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ 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 Jesus said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” ²⁹ But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, 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 while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

One of the central themes of Luke's Gospel is that God's hospitality is extended to all people.

But how would Jesus's original audience have heard this parable?

The message about being charitable and helping others was not new to Jesus's contemporaries. The Jews were commanded in the Law to care for the widow and the orphan, so the command to "love your neighbor," which the expert in the law quotes at the beginning of the passage, was already well known.

The expert in the law sets out to test Jesus by asking how to inherit eternal life.

His view seems to be that eternal life is something to be earned—another action to check off a spiritual to-do list.

He is looking for justification because he believes he has already been doing what he should. Then he asks the question, "Who is my neighbor?"

Perhaps this is another way of asking, Who do I not have to love? Or, Whom can I exclude?

In New Testament times, Jews and Samaritans were enemies. They wanted nothing to do with one another and often went out of their way to avoid traveling through each other's territories. It is therefore highly unexpected that the Samaritan would be the one to stop and care for the wounded man lying on the side of the road.

So let's consider the priest and the Levite. What is happening here?

Traditional interpretations suggest they may have feared becoming ceremonially unclean by approaching or touching what they assumed could be a dead body. Yet Jewish Law also commanded God's people to love both neighbor and stranger, and the dead were to be treated with the utmost respect.

Perhaps the priest and the Levite were simply afraid that the same thing might happen to them if they stopped. Traveling by foot along isolated roads could be dangerous. We don't know their motives with certainty, but we do know that they passed by.

Now we come to the Samaritan.

This parable is about extending love and dignity to our neighbor, no matter who that person is. It reminds us that our care for others is an extension of our acceptance of the extravagant grace God has first extended to us.

What if we see the Samaritan as a picture of Jesus—the One who turned expectations upside down by associating with those on the fringes of society, extending healing to the marginalized, and dining with sinners?

The Outsider who humbled Himself to stop and minister to the wounded traveler lying in the ditch after everyone else had passed him by.

Not only did He stop, but He bandaged the traveler's wounds, took him to an inn, and authorized the innkeeper to charge His account for anything the wounded man needed. Extravagant generosity. Undeserved grace.

Can we allow ourselves to be loved by a God who offers us an abundance of all that we need, if only we are willing to receive what He is giving?

The divine is manifested through action. Jesus tells the expert in the law, "Go and do likewise."

We cannot truly love others until God reveals to us, through Jesus Christ, how He first loved us.

Only then can we reach out and care for our neighbors as God calls us to love.