This evening’s message will examine what is called the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.” So, what is a Good Samaritan? When we hear the term “Good Samaritan,” we might envision someone who, while driving down the road, spots a wrecked car and pulls over and rescues the person trapped in the flaming wreckage. Perhaps we might picture the fireman of days long ago who would rescue a cat that got stuck in a tree. A Good Samaritan is defined as, “one ready and generous in helping those in distress.”(1)
Many of us are ready and generous to help others. It’s how some of us have been raised; and how some of us are wired. But notice how people are sometimes very particular about who they’re willing to help. It seems common for people to help those who are dressed nicely; they will help their friends; they will help those in high places; they will assist those who might one day return the favor; and they will readily help someone whom they are attracted to of the opposite sex.
But how willing is a person to help someone who smells bad, is dressed in old clothes, or has disgusting habits? Do people readily help their enemies? Do they jump at the chance to help someone with a different skin color? Some people will, but many others won’t. As we are going to see from our parable tonight, the Good Samaritan was someone who helped even those people who hated him. So, let’s begin looking at this great lesson shared by Jesus Christ.
Who Is My Neighbor? (vv. 25-29)
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” 27 So he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
This man who wanted to justify himself (v. 29), was a lawyer according to verse 25. A lawyer in Jesus’ day and time was not the same as a lawyer today. According to the New Bible Dictionary, in the New Testament the “title nomikos [which today is translated “lawyer”] is used . . . synonymously with grammateus (scribe) and nomodidaskalos (teacher of the law).” The New Bible Dictionary continues to state, “All scribes were originally students of Scripture, but by the second century B.C. lay scribes had begun to expound the . . . law without direct reference to Scripture.”(2)
What we have here is a scribe who had copied the Torah, or the law, so many times that he had it memorized. It was memorized so well that he didn’t feel the need to double-check it, to see if he was correct in his interpretation. We just heard that by the second century B.C., the scribes had begun to expound the law without direct reference to the Scripture. What this says is that the lawyers, or scribes, were arrogant and felt they knew it all; and therefore, they didn’t feel the need to read the Scripture for their own spiritual growth.
In Luke 11:52, Jesus said, “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” The lawyers, or scribes, had access to the knowledge of Scripture; however, others would never know the Scripture because they couldn’t read or write. The common person was at a spiritual disadvantage. The lawyers, however, had a huge advantage, but they never used it. As Jesus said, “You yourselves did not enter in.”
The Scripture was at their fingertips to use for spiritual growth, but they didn’t care enough to understand it on a deeper level. We see from verse 27, that this lawyer certainly knew the law intellectually, but what about spiritually? There is a difference between knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and knowledge for personal application. There is a huge difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge.
In verse 29, when the Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor,” he was speaking in defense of his own prejudices, and misinterpretation of the Scripture. This lawyer, and many other Jewish people, considered their neighbor to be the people surrounding them in their own neighborhood, and in their own faith and community.
In Luke chapter 6, verses 32-35, Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”
This passage from Luke could be applied to the lawyer’s misunderstanding of a neighbor: “If you love those who love you, or the people of your own neighborhood, city, or country, what credit is that to you?” The term “neighbor” doesn’t just refer to those of our own interests, our own religion, or our own nationality or ethnic background. The word “neighbor” refers to all human beings on the face of the earth.
Two Geographical Neighbors (vv. 30-32)
30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.”
These verses are pretty shocking. Here we have a man who was beaten and left for dead. A priest came along, and the prospect of hope entered the picture. The hope was shattered, however, when this priest, a person whom you would expect to have compassion, just left the man and passed on by. Unfortunately many of the priests were just like the lawyer. They knew the law, but they didn’t always practice it; the priests weren’t always spiritual. Remember that it was the priests, along with the Pharisees and scribes, who followed Jesus from town to town and antagonized Him.
Next, a Levite came along. In the Old Testament the Levites were the people whom God set apart to serve in the tabernacle and later in temple. They were known to be people of God who were able to perform priestly duties. So, once again we are confronted with people who knew the law very well, but didn’t uphold it. What is the point of knowing something if it is of no benefit? There are people who attend church their entire life. They sit and listen to thousands of sermons, and Bible studies. They have the knowledge to lead others to faith in Christ, but they have never tried. Why do we attend church if we are never going to share what we have learned?
Also, what is even worse is that in some churches people know the Scripture so well that they’ll debate the pastor or their Sunday school teacher concerning the interpretation of the Scripture, and maybe even prove them wrong, but what does this accomplish? Are we learning Scripture in order to argue amongst ourselves about what is right and wrong? There is a world that is starving for the bread of the Word of God, and we are just having food fights with it.
A Geographical Foreigner (vv. 33-35)
33 “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you’.”
So, what is a Samaritan in the original sense of the word? During the Babylonian captivity, many people from Judah, or southern Israel, were taken into Babylon while some of them were left behind in the devastated city of Jerusalem. The ones who were taken into Babylon became citizens of that country. Jeremiah encouraged the people to take up residence there and to live as normally as possible (cf. Jeremiah 29). Some of the exiles also intermarried with the people of Babylon.
When the Persian king Cyrus ended the exile, some of the people from Judah returned home. There was great tension between the returning exiles and the people who stayed in Jerusalem. The Lord sent the people into exile to purify them of their false religious practices. The exile was indeed a success in purifying the people, because the returning exiles demonstrated themselves to be devout monotheists, while the people who remained in Jerusalem still worshipped idols.
The people who stayed in Jerusalem believed the city was rightfully theirs since they endured the hardship of a devastated land, while the exiles had settled in the fertile and luscious land of Babylon. There was great animosity between the ones who stayed in Jerusalem and the returning exiles.
When the temple was being rebuilt under Ezra, the people who had intermarried while in Babylon were not allowed to help rebuild the temple. These racially mixed families moved to Samaria and set up their own temple on Mount Gerazim.(3) Hatred and racism would be directed toward the Samaritans from that time onward. The Samaritans also despised the Jews of Jerusalem in return because they had mistreated them.
The Samaritan man in our parable was a geographical and racial foreigner. He was by no means a neighbor in the sense of being a pure blooded Jew. However, the Samaritan here demonstrated that he understood the law better than those who claimed to be God’s chosen people. The Samaritan stopped to help someone who more than likely hated him. As we see from verse 30, the man whom the Samaritan helped was from Jerusalem, meaning that He was a Judean. However, the Samaritan did just as Jesus commanded in Luke 6:35; he loved his enemy.
This Samaritan made an attempt to uphold the law, and he apparently took every word of the Scripture to heart. When it all boils down, God is concerned about a man’s heart, not his skin color or ethnic background. This is the same reason why we, as Gentiles, will be made part of the house of Israel when we believe in Christ. God doesn’t care whether or not we went to church all our life, or were on the Bible drill team when we were young. What the Lord is concerned with is whether or not we have taken His Word to heart.
Who Was The True Neighbor? (vv. 36-37)
36 “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
It’s easy to see what is right and wrong when you view something from a distance, and take time to contemplate it. This lawyer had been used to not being neighborly with those who weren’t like himself. He reacted without thinking; but how could he even think properly, and in a God-honoring manner, when he didn’t cherish God’s Word enough to hide it in his heart?
If we do not have the Scripture abiding in our heart, then we are going to react without contemplating what the Lord would have us to do. This lawyer knew the Scripture, but it wasn’t in his heart, and it was not his heart’s desire to consult it. He wanted to live by his own rules and standards. He wanted to be free to make his own choices. However, his own decisions could have been very destructive.
If we fail to submit ourselves to Christ, and fail to study His Word, then we will make destructive choices in life. We may desire the freedom to make our own decisions, but there’s something we need to stop and consider, and that’s the paradox of freedom in Christ. When we submit to Christ, we are giving control of our lives over to Him; but there is freedom in giving Jesus control. When we give our control to Christ, He takes our burdens; and, therefore we find freedom.
In verse 6, we learn who the true neighbor really is. The neighbor is the one who loved someone unconditionally. In verse 7, Jesus commanded the Lawyer (and us) to do likewise. In other words, let us consume and be consumed by the Scripture, that the Words of our Lord may guide us through life. Let’s put our knowledge into action, instead of keeping it all to ourselves.
Time of Reflection
If you are a Christian and you have the words of the Lord abiding in your heart, but have never used them to help others, then ask the Lord’s forgiveness; and ask Him to give you a spirit of boldness to proclaim His Word. If you know about the Lord, and have accepted Jesus as your Savior, but you think that this is all you have to do and need to know; you need to realize that there is so much more to a relationship with the Lord. Ask the Lord to give you a desire to study His Word. As Paul said, “Desire the sincere milk of the Word.” The words of our Lord are beautiful and wonderful words of life.
The Lord is concerned about whether or not we have taken His Word to heart; the very Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. If you don’t have Jesus in your heart, then your knowledge about the Scripture and your church attendance won’t do you a bit of good. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” The only thing that will get you into heaven is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; and this comes by way of confessing Him as Savior and Lord.
NOTES
(1) “Good Samaritan,” Simon and Schuster Collegiate Dictionary, taken from the Handbook for Writers, 1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
(2) The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
(3) Walter A. Elwell, and Robert W. Yarbrough, Encountering the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 61.
