Amy C Walters

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

This is the third of three posts about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Now that we understand that we are not the hero, we are the broken person in need of rescue, and that Jesus is the ultimate Good Samaritan, we are informed, motivated, and empowered to go and do likewise.

This is the third of three posts about the Parable of the Good Samaritan and one key thing that we haven’t talked about yet is what Jesus says at the very end of this story. After he’s told the parable, and he’s challenged the expert in the law with who was the neighbor, Jesus finishes by saying, “Go and do likewise.” 

It’s easy to jump right to that application without getting the other pieces in place first. But those other pieces are crucial: we are not the hero of the story, we are the injured person in need of rescue. And Jesus is the ultimate Good Samaritan. Those crucial pieces inform, motivate and empower us to go and do likewise. 

If we don’t recognize that we are the broken ones who have been beaten up by the sin of this world and needing rescue, then we turn helping others into self-justification, just like this expert in the law. We make it about doing good things to earn God’s favor. 

We become prideful in our own good works. We lose the humility that recognizes we were in that same desperate situation. And we lack empathy–the pity that leads to action. 

What about if we fail to realize that Jesus is the ultimate Good Samaritan before we go and do likewise? We turn the helping into something that’s about us, not about Jesus. We are representing who we are to hurting people, not who Jesus is. We can become motivated by spreading our own fame as a good person. 

We might also try to serve on our own power, with our own effort. 

So when we get things in the right order, recognizing that we are broken in need of a rescuer and our rescuer is Jesus, then we go and do likewise because that’s what he did. We do because God did. 

That’s a tiny encapsulation of the gospel. God has already done the work necessary for our salvation. We don’t need to do anything to earn it, but we do the things that he calls us to do out of gratitude and love, and the desire to be his representatives here in this broken earth.

Some of the passages in Luke 9 tell us a little bit more about Jesus’ mindset at the time he tells this parable. Luke 9:51 says that Jesus has set his face resolutely for Jerusalem. He’s not just going on a tour of the big city. He is preparing for what will happen there–his self-sacrifice for our salvation. Everything that follows Luke 9:51 points toward Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. 

So when Jesus tells this parable of the Good Samaritan, his sacrificial death–the work of the ultimate Good Samaritan–is in the background. 

We also see Jesus preparing his disciples to carry on his work. As Jesus has his crucifixion ahead in mind, he knows that he has limited time in person left on this earth. And he needs to prepare his people to continue the work in his absence, to be his representatives when he is gone.

And so when he tells this story, he urges his listeners to “go and do likewise.” You are my representatives. I am going to be the ultimate Good Samaritan, laying down my life for people in need of rescue. Now you, out of gratitude for your rescue and empowered by Jesus’ example, must go and do likewise. 

That application from Jesus is our key truth for today. And for the rest of this post, we’re going to flesh out what “likewise” looks like. 

At the beginning of the story, the expert in the law asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” What is he trying to accomplish with that question? He wants to shrink the definition of “neighbor” to something that is really manageable and recognizable. He’s probably looking for external factors to help identify who is in and who is out. 

But Jesus takes the definition of neighbor and expands it. He turns it into something that is not about external, but about internal.

It’s not about somebody’s job or reputation or status or clothes they wear or their ability to pay you back at some point later on. Instead, it’s about your heart response that leads to action. Jesus defined neighborness not as your relationship to someone, but as your response to someone. Neighbor isn’t meant to be a boundary of a group but an attitude of your heart. 

James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” If you know in your heart if God is prompting you to do something and you don’t do it, that is sin. God will point us to the needs around us. We must respond. Because when God shows us a need, he’s showing us a neighbor. 

Another thing this parable shows us is that mercy is an action. In this story, you have the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan who all see the injured man, but only the Samaritan takes pity on him. Pity is a word in our culture that is stripped of all of its strength. We use it in very weak ways because we mean it just as feeling bad for someone. 

But this story shows us that pity is not just a feeling, it leads the Samaritan to action. He gets his hands dirty. And when we show mercy like that, we get involved. 

Finally, I think this story shows us that being a neighbor is sometimes going to involve risk and sacrifice. It is not easy to be a neighbor. Sometimes being a neighbor is going to mean going to risky places, putting yourself in jeopardy. 

But that’s exactly what Jesus does. He was killed on our behalf, and yet look what it accomplished! It bought us salvation. 

The Good Samaritan also sacrificed quite a bit to help this man. He gave of his time, his money, his resources, his future time, as he promised to come back and repay the innkeeper. He sacrificed to help this man, and he sacrificed in a way that could never be paid back.