“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, 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, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.35 And the next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)
The parables of Jesus fascinate me. They are amazingly brilliant and nuanced (not surprising since Jesus is God!), with layers upon layers of meanings begging us to dig deep into a journey of discovery of those meanings. Rarely can we look at a parable of Jesus on a surface level and be able to grasp the depths hidden within The parable of the Good Samaritan is a fantastic example of this. We can look at it at a surface level. See it as a story that we are all supposed to imitate. “You go, and do likewise.” But is that all there is to the story? Is that all that Jesus is getting at? Is He giving us a law that we are to live by? Or is there, perhaps more going on in this amazing story?
In order to understand the Parable we need to understand the context. Jesus is being questioned by a lawyer in the story. He is asking Jesus what he must DO to inherit eternal life. And Jesus responds with, “What does the law say?” The lawyer responds correctly: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” And Jesus responds…”that is the correct answer. Do this and you shall live.“
Now at this point in the story, the lawyer really should have started to feel a sense of desperation...love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength? 100%. Not 50%. Not most of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 100% of it! All the time! AND, on top of that, love your neighbor as yourself! What an impossible weight!! And Jesus puts that weight right on the shoulders of the lawyer (and on ours, I might add). Right here and now this lawyer should have dropped to his knees saying, “Son of David, have mercy on me a sinner! I can’t do this! Help me live!” And Jesus, because He loved this man, would have stepped in and saved him. But instead the text tells us that “seeking to justify himself he asked, ‘Who is my neighbor?’” Seeking to justify himself. Wow...there you have it right there in the text...the heart of every human being exposed...seeking to justify himself! Trying to make this command of God attainable by human effort so that he could justify himself, he sought clarity on who specifically constituted his neighbor. And that’s when Jesus tells the parable. And in telling the parable, he continues to seek to love this man into desperation. He continues to seek to push this man into crying out for a Savior. For he tells a parable that shows us a love that is rooted in complete selflessness. The hero of this story is a Samaritan. Now we need to understand that the Samaritans were absolutely hated by the Jews. In fact, when a Jew really wanted to lay a low blow on someone...they would call them a Samaritan. It was the worst insult you could say to someone. (Check out John 8:48 to see what the Pharisees called Jesus!!!)
But I digress! So this Samaritan man, as he traveled along the road, comes across a nameless man in the ditch, looking for all the world as if he were dead. Now this Samaritan was under no obligation to stop. Others had passed by this man. No one would be surprised if he didn’t stop to help! He was, after all, a Samaritan! But the text tells us that when he saw him, he had compassion on him. It was compassion...it was love pure and simple that motivated the Samaritan to stop for a man who perhaps was a Jew and was his enemy. It was compassion alone that motivated him to pick him up and to clean his wounds, to tend to his physical wounds, to make sure he had medical care, to make sure he had food, clothing, and shelter. At great cost to himself, motivated by love, the Samaritan shows us what selflessness and love looks like..
Now everyone, go and do likewise. And so, we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, determined to justify ourselves, and try our hardest to imitate this good Samaritan. Because obviously that’s the point of the story. That’s what Jesus wants us to do. Right? If you want eternal life, go and do likewise. And just like the lawyer in this story, even the way we interpret this parable reveals our own belief that we are capable of justifying ourselves. We see ourselves as the hero and we miss the greatest part of the story to be had. The part of the story that Jesus was seeking to bring the lawyer to...the part of the story that He is seeking to bring us to...where we fall on our knees and cry out to Jesus saying…”Help me, Jesus, I can’t love like that! Everyone I meet? Anyone I meet? With selflessness? At great cost to me? All the time? Have mercy on me!” And Jesus, would turn to you with compassion in His eyes and say, “Finally, I thought you’d never ask! You see that’s why I came...I came to show you that only I can justify you. Only I can love like that. Only I have loved God will ALL my heart, soul, mind and strength. Only I love like the Samaritan in the parable loved. And by placing your trust in me, my perfect life is now yours.”
You see, until we FIRST see ourselves as the person lying in the ditch and Jesus as the Samaritan who saw us and had compassion on us, rescuing us without being morally obligated to do so, at great cost to Himself, our attempts to justify ourselves will be just that—attempts. They will fall far short of the love that is required by the law. You will never love God or your neighbor enough to justify yourself. Why? Because our attempts to love for the purpose of self-justification are selfishly motivated and therefore they are in actuality love of self and not of God or neighbor. Can you see that??? But if you see that about yourself, If you realize that you can’t justify yourself. If you allow the weight of the words of Jesus to bear down on you and bring you to a place of helplessness and cry out to Jesus...then and only then will He shower His mercy on you. Then and only then will you receive the justification you long for. And then, and only then, will you finally be able to truly love. You will truly grow to know what it means to love God because He has first loved you. You no longer feel the need to work hard to earn his favor because you already have it and so you are free to love Him and to obey Him out of that love. And you will also truly know what it means to love your neighbor. Because you first saw yourself as needing the rescue of THE ONLY truly Good Samaritan, and you understood the mercy that He has shown you, it is then that you can do as Jesus said, and go and do likewise.
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