The Good Samaritan

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

Text : Luke 10:25-37

There is the story of a fellow on his way to a job interview. He had been out of work for many months. On his way to what seemed like a promising interview, he encounters a woman on the side of the road who has just had a flat tire. DILEMMA: If he stops to help out, he is going to be late to his interview. As a Christian, he feels compelled to stop to help so he stops and helps the woman change her tire. Stopping might mean that her would be late. In the meantime, he goes on to the interview. Little did he know that he had helped out the very person who was interviewing him for his job. This fact was not evident until it came time for him to go to the office of the personnel director. (Bruce Larson. The Presence. New York: Harper and Row, 1988, p. 42).

We usually call someone who is a stranger that helps us out a Good Samaritan after the example in the story that Jesus told. Indirectly, Jesus was making the point that our worship carries over into our works. Our love and adoration for God is something that we are supposed to exemplify in our worship.

THE QUESTIONS

The expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Two possible motives: One way to look at the question is to suspect that the expert in the law was trying to trick Jesus and make him look foolish because he desired to “test” him. Another way to look at this question that was posed to Jesus is to see it as a sincere quest for an answer. It is more than likely that the so called test was the real motive because headdresses Jesus respectfully as he calls Him “Teacher”.

Jesus answers his question with a question. “Strict orthodox Jews wore round their wrists little leather boxes called “phylacteries” which contained certain passages of scripture”. (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Luke. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975, p. 140). So when Jesus was asking him how he read it he was asking him to refer to the text in his phylactery to answer his own question.

The lawyer’s answer to Jesus’ question was a good one: “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 love your neighbor as you love yourself”.

Jesus commended him on his answer. Jesus then told him if he was to put those things into practice he would live. In other words, there is more to life than just having the right answer by way of words because actions are required to match the answer that is described in words.

JUSTIFICATION

Since he was a scribe or expert in the law, he had only one way of looking at things which was from the legal standpoint. The Jews had narrowed the understanding of the term neighbor to mean fellow Jews. Jews had nothing to do with Gentiles and vice versa. It was a cultural thing. To the Hebrews or Jews a Gentile was considered to be unclean. It is also true that Gentiles such as the Romans thought of the Jews as be filthy; they considered Judaism as a barbarous superstition; they spoke of the Jews as being hateful of mankind (Barclay, p. 85).

He sought to justify himself by asking “Who is my neighbor?” His attitude was “what is mine is mine” I’ll keep it. In other words, he did not want to have to change his way of living. He seeking for a way to maintain his current code of ethics which to love only those just like himself. Jesus gave him a story---a parable by which he explained who our neighbor is.

Bruce Larson makes the comment that if you’re in trouble, you don’t stop to wonder if you are worth being helped. When you’re in line for a movie or a ball game, you would not stop to think about giving your place to someone else. No, you get in line early so that you feel entitled to be there. So when Jesus is addressing this expert in the law, He is shattering his world view. No more rules and regulations apply because we are required by God to love others as He loves us. (Lloyd J. Ogilvie. General Ed. The Communicator’s Commentary: Luke. Bruce Larson. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1983, p. 184).

Sometimes we are like the scribe in that we might try to find ourselves justifying ourselves for not wanting to do as Jesus would do. We might call that selective good will. It is when our love comes with strings attached that it ceases to be truly loving because it has become in some way legalistic. That kind of love is based on conditions wherein it becomes “I love you if …”.