Amy C Walters

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

The Parable of the Good Samaritan has become a kind of shorthand for how to be a nice Christian. But when we look at the context of a religious expert trying to justify himself, we see that it’s primarily about being rescued than being the rescuer.

We’ve come to another very familiar parable from Jesus, the Good Samaritan. Even people who barely know anything about the Bible have heard of it and it’s become a kind of shorthand for how to be a nice Christian. But the context of the story shows it to be something quite different. 

At the beginning of the story, an expert of the law stands up to test Jesus. An expert of the law was basically a lawyer of religious things. We don’t know why this lawyer wants to test Jesus, but we know his intent in asking these questions is not really sincere.

The lawyer asks, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s a question that people are still asking today–what do I need to do to get to heaven? 

Jesus doesn’t answer his question. Instead, he poses his own question back to the expert. “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” Notice that Jesus points the expert back to the law. He doesn’t set aside God’s commandments.  

The expert answers with a summary of the law: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Jesus tells the lawyer that he has answered correctly. But he also says, “Do this and you will live.” The “do” here is iterative–not just do it once. Do it constantly. Jesus is saying, love God perfectly constantly and love your neighbor perfectly constantly. 

This is impossible. And the lawyer realizes it. He’s at least honest enough with himself to know that he falls short of that standard. So he tries to “justify himself,” to excuse his shortcomings, by looking for a loophole. He wants to lower the standard to make it attainable. 

So the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” He’s thinking, if I can just tightly define who I’m supposed to love, then I can do this. 

Once again, Jesus doesn’t directly answer the man’s question. Instead, he tells him a parable. It involves a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. This is a journey of about 17 miles, and it is a dangerous stretch of road, as we can see, because this man is attacked by robbers.

He’s stripped of his clothes, he’s beaten, and he is left for dead. This man is totally broken, laying there at the side of the road. 

Then two people come along, a priest and a Levite. These were religious men. Levites assisted the priests in their duties in the temple and priests were supposed to represent the people to God. So if anyone is going to help this poor man, it should be these two. 

Instead, they see him and pass by on the other side. Why would they do that? It’s not an issue of ignorance–we know that they saw him. 

Maybe they were apathetic. Maybe they see so many people in such tough situations that they cannot possibly help everyone. And they are just calloused toward the man.

Maybe they’re afraid. If that man has been beaten and robbed, that could happen to them too. If they stop to help him, they are putting themselves in danger as well.

Maybe they don’t want to risk becoming ceremonially unclean. They can’t tell from a distance if he is alive or dead. And if they touch him and he’s dead, that jeopardizes their ability to do their job.

Jesus, however, doesn’t dwell on their reasons for why they pass by. Because their excuses don’t matter. They make an intentional decision to not help the man. 

Their fear or their apathy or their distraction are not excuses. They are indicators that reveal their hearts. And we see that the priest and the Levite are not the neighbors that they are supposed to be.

Then a Samaritan enters the story. Samaritans were hated by the Jews for various reasons. They were enemies. So when Jesus introduces the Samaritan, the expectation is that he’s going to be another villain, just like the robbers who attacked the man. 

Instead, Jesus turns him into the hero. The Samaritan is the one that goes to the man in his need. The Samaritan is the one who bandages his wounds, puts him on a donkey, pays for his care. The Samaritan shows mercy to this broken man. 

After Jesus concludes this story, he asks the expert in the law, “Who was a neighbor to the man who had been robbed?” Notice that Jesus turns this question to the perspective of the man who had been robbed. Jesus forces the lawyer to put himself in that man’s shoes to answer the question. And you see, this is intentional because when we hear a story, we naturally put ourselves into that story. And typically, we see ourselves in the role of the hero. 

The lawyer would be trying to place himself in the story. Am I the priest or the Levite? They’re important religious figures but they’re not neighborly in this story.

Am I the Samaritan? Such a thought would be vile to this lawyer. Notice that when he answers Jesus’ question, he can’t even say the word “Samaritan.” So no, he’s not going to associate himself in this story with the Samaritan.

So who’s left? The broken man. The man who’s beaten and lying half dead on the side of the road. The man who can do nothing for himself in this story. The one who needs rescue. 

Imagine if that man who was half dead had tried to refuse the Samaritan’s help. What if he had said, “No, I’m okay. I can do this myself.” That would be absurd! And yet that is exactly what the expert in the law was trying to do with his self-justification. 

The lawyer was not the hero. He was the broken man. And that is Jesus’ point with this story and our key truth for today. You are not the hero. You are the broken. You are as helpless in achieving your own salvation as the broken man was in saving himself. Self-justification and making yourself right before God is impossible. 

That’s what’s so dangerous about ripping this story out of its context. Because we twist it into being some simple instructions on how to be a nice Christian. If we just do these things, then we’re a good Christian. But Jesus is saying exactly the opposite. You are not the rescuer. You are the one in need of rescue. 

This expert wanted Jesus to make him feel better about himself. He wanted a loophole. But Jesus does not allow any loopholes. 

We want messages that say, you can do it. You’ve got this. Feel good about yourself. But Jesus doesn’t offer that. 

We cannot lower the standard that’s needed to inherit eternal life. We cannot move the bar or find a loophole because that standard is just and it is right. That standard is based on God’s holiness and perfection and character. And to try to lower that standard is to try to take God down from his throne, to make ourselves god in his place. 

So this is bad news that we cannot skip over. But this story doesn’t end with that broken man dying on the side of the road. It ends with rescue. There is a rescuer who comes and gives him the help that he needs. That is the good news. In the next post, we’ll talk more about that good news. 

Today as you go, I want you to spend some time in prayer, specifically repenting of your efforts to be the hero of your own story. Ask God’s forgiveness for refusing the help that he has offered you. Ask his forgiveness for trying to be a nice Christian who does everything perfectly and does all the right things so that you no longer need God’s mercy. Because the reality is that you and I both are not the heroes. We are the broken.