Luke 10.25-37 The Good Samaritan
We often say of someone “they are a good Samaritan.” We have ‘The Samaritans’ who help people in crisis find a listening ear. The term ‘good Samaritan’ has become part and parcel of our everyday vocabulary. No doubt we all know the parable but I am also quite certain that we see it as a lesson about ‘who is my neighbour?’ but this morning I want to help us all to gain a fresh understanding and perspective on this parable. Turn with me to Luke 10 verses 25-37.
The context is important as always. Luke sites the parable between Jesus sending out the 72 disciples and his visit to the home of Mary and Martha. The parable is an extension of the teaching about being a servant of Christ. We read in verse 25 that an ‘expert in the Law’ asks a question of Jesus. If you look at the text it tells us that he stood up to ask his question. Traditionally a Rabbi (or ‘Teacher’ as Luke refers to Christ), sat and his students stood round him to learn of him. We could believe that this expert in the Law was showing respect to Jesus by standing to ask his question but we would in fact be being deceived by him. Like a humble student he is standing, as if he wants to learn, but we know from Luke that he is in fact trying to ‘test’ Jesus. We should note also his question – ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The natural question of a religious lawyer would have been ‘what must I do to obey God?’ Let me pause there for a moment and ask you to consider this man’s question. What can any of do to inherit eternal life? An inheritance by its very nature is a gift. You do not earn an inheritance and it is not a payment for services rendered. The lawyer here would have known that perfectly well.
Verse 26 – Jesus does not directly answer the question but asks two questions of his own. What does the Law teach…how do you read it? The lawyer replies by summarising the Law – love God and love your neighbour. This summary comes from Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18. Jesus responds to his answer by telling him to live up to his own teaching. Show unqualified love to God and to your neighbour and you will inherit eternal life. The problem for this man is that the standard is ‘unqualified love’ of God and neighbour and as St Paul says in Romans 7.13-20 the problem is not the Law, the problem is we cannot keep it. This expert in the law knew he could never maintain the standard of unqualified love for God and for his neighbour.
Verse 29 but still this Lawyer is not finished. He now wants a definition of ‘neighbour.’ Look at what the text says ‘he wanted to justify himself.’ In the Bible the word to be ‘justified’ is to be saved and to be saved is to have eternal life. To be justified is to be granted acceptance before God by God. Yet this man seeks to justify himself – to save himself. He wants to achieve salvation, acceptance before God, by his own deeds – a futile pursuit. So he asks Jesus “who is my neighbour?” He, and those listening, are about to be rudely awakened by what Jesus says next.
When we look closely at the parable of the Good Samaritan we can see that there are 7 scenes within the story – 7 being the perfect number within Scripture.
Scene 1 The robbers steal and injure the man.
Scene 2 Priest sees and does nothing
Scene 3 a Levite sees and does nothing
Scene 4 The Samaritan sees and shows compassion
Scene 5 Treats the wounds (the Levites failure)
Scene 6 Transports the man (the Priests failure)
Scene 7 Spends money on him (compensating for the robbers)
The Temple in Jerusalem was served by three sets of people – the Priests, the Levites and the Laymen who helped in various aspects of Temple life. Each priest (and his attending Levite) would do two weeks in Jerusalem serving at the Temple each year. Many of the priests lived in Jericho and would make that journey to Jerusalem for their two week duty service in the Temple. So the priest travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho would have been a familiar sight to those listening to Christ. Priests were a hereditary guild and generally quite wealthy. It is doubtful if a priest would have been walking the 17 miles from Jerusalem to Jericho. Most likely he was riding on a donkey and he could quite easily have stopped and transported this injured man to a place of safety and healing. But you see he had a problem. The wounded man lying beside the road was stripped naked and was unconscious. He couldn’t tell if he was a fellow Jew or not. Under the Law if he was a Jew he was obliged to help but he couldn’t tell if he was a fellow Jew or not. If he was dead and he came near, or touched him, he would be unclean and would be required to go back to Jerusalem to go through a week of ceremonial cleansing rituals and rites. Meanwhile he would be unable to eat from the tithes or to even collect them. The poor priest was in a dilemma, so he passed on by.
Jesus then tells them that along comes a Levite, the next order down in the Temple. The Levites functioned as assistants to the priests in the Temple at Jerusalem. Since the priest had set a precedent the Levite could pass by the injured man with an easy conscience. After all how could he, a mere, Levite upstage a priest? Did he, a Levite, think he understood the Law better than the priest? Also he may have to serve the same priest later that evening in Jericho and what an awkward position that would place everyone.
Now the next person that those listening to Jesus would expect to come along the road would have been a Jewish layman but scene 4 explodes in the faces of those listening. A Samaritan! It would be like someone here telling a story about the church – bishop, presbyter and deacon would be the order – Priest, Levite and Layman would have been the expected order but not so – a Samaritan now appears on the scene. For those listening to Jesus it would have been far more acceptable to have a good Jew help a Samaritan on the road to Shechem than what they hear from the lips of Christ. We read, that unlike the priest and the Levite, the Samaritan is moved with compassion for the man. Verse 34 he uses all available resources and binds up the man’s wounds. He then puts he man on his donkey and takes him to Jericho to the nearest inn. You know we pass by that fact as if it was nothing. Yet everyone listening to Jesus would have known that for a Samaritan to enter a Jewish village was to risk his very life, even if he was helping an injured Jew. Yet this man risks his own life to aid that of someone who would be considered his enemy. He goes even further by paying for the man’s board and lodging at the inn. Two denarii would have been the cost of two weeks stay. But he goes further by promising to pay what ever other costs are incurred by the man. You see at the time of Christ, if you could not pay your bills the Law allowed you to be sold into slavery. This injured man had nothing and had no means of paying any bills and the innkeepers of the day were notorious for their uncompromising stance on such things. The Samaritan did far more than was expected.
Jesus concludes the dialogue between himself and the lawyer by asking who acted as a ‘neighbour’ in this story. Do you notice the lawyer cannot bring himself to say ‘the Samaritan?’ but simply replies “the one who had mercy on him.” Jesus then instructs him to go and do likewise. The lawyer had come asking “Who is my neighbour?” but Jesus has turned the question to “To whom must I become a neighbour?” The answer being ‘Anyone in need’ and ‘At great cost.’ The neighbour is the Samaritan and not the injured man.
Application
We often apply this parable as simply referring to helping those in need but it goes much further than that. The parable is told within the context of a question concerning ‘eternal life.’ The lawyer is given an impossible standard to meet in order to inherit eternal life. None of us can meet that standard, it is impossible as sinful men and women for us to justify ourselves, save ourselves, before God. Eternal life is a gracious gift of God at the great cost of His Son Jesus Christ.
This parable teaches us that the right question for us to ask is not ‘who is my neighbour?’ but ‘to whom must I become a neighbour?’ The demands of this parable stretch far beyond any religious law or practice. Your neighbour is anyone in need regardless of race, creed, ethnicity or political persuasion.
The Good Samaritan is an example of unexpected love which cost much. In that it is a reflection of the cross. The wounded man will never be the same again because of the actions of this Samaritan. Would those who listened to His teaching be the same again? Would this lawyer have his eyes opened concerning eternal life and neighbourliness?
In this parable Jesus is pulling back the curtain on his life and on the great cost that is to come for him. He shows compassion on those who are his enemies. He stoops down with compassion to heal the wounded. He pays the cost of the healing and restoration of those who have fallen, beaten, battered and robbed by sin. He is the good Samaritan.
Amen.
