Beyond Duty

Today we're looking at the parable of the Good Samaritan - except have you ever noticed that the Samaritan is never actually called good?

As always, let’s check out the context before we get into the parable itself.

The parable is only found in Luke, let’s read.

Luke 10:25-28

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘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 neighbour as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

The Expert's Salvation Question

We have an expert in the law - a religious lawyer - asking Jesus “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Well, it's a flawed question from the beginning. You can’t do anything to inherit something, by definition it’s a free gift, not something you earn as payment for services.

But this is the question the lawyer asks Jesus. It’s interesting because this kind of discussion was happening among the Rabbis in the first century - they all had different ways of summarising the law. 

Jesus has a famous way too, the lawyer answers with it - we’re not sure if he’s heard Jesus say it before, we can guess that He has. So what is Jesus’ summary of the law? “‘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 neighbour as yourself.’” 

Jesus' Summary of Discipleship

Jesus takes his summary from the Old Testament, but he switches the order. Love your neighbour appears in Leviticus 19:18 and Love God appears first in Deuteronomy 6:5. You’d expect Jesus to keep the order they appear in scripture so the switch must be intentional.

And I think it's because it isn't possible to love your neighbour until your heart is filled with the love of God, which provides the strength and compassion necessary to actually love your neighbour. And it’s the love of God that keeps us loving our neighbour. As we’ll see, compassion might move us, but the love of God sustains us. To try to be sustained by anything else, the gratitude of the person you’re helping for example, will very quickly lead to frustration. Nice words aren’t enough to keep you going.

So Jesus says, "Go and do that." But here's the problem - it isn't possible to do that. The lawyer should see that the ask he’s set himself up for is impossible and realise he's asked the wrong question. But he doesn't. He hears “you have to love God with everything you have, consistently, and love your neighbour in the way you love yourself” and thinks yeah alright then. The only issue he has is that he isn’t sure who his neighbour is. So he opens up the conversation with Jesus again, and this is where we get into the parable.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:29-37

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Three Responses to Human Need

At first, the lawyer reopens the conversation and Luke tells us it’s because the lawyer is wanting to justify himself. 

What does that mean? Well to be justified is to be saved, and to be saved is to inherit eternal life, so this lawyer is wanting to save himself, to earn his own salvation. That’s what he asks right at the start, “What do I need to do in order to inherit eternal life?” The focus is on what he needs to do.

He expects Jesus to give him a list of people he can manage to love. And then he can tick off his actions and inherit eternal life.

But then Jesus tells the story. Let’s go through it.

We can assume the wounded man is a Jew, or at least those hearing the story would have presumed it. In reality, Jesus never actually specified anything about this man and maybe that’s the point because it wasn’t his identity that classified whether he was a neighbour or not.

He was travelling down a notoriously dangerous road that linked Jerusalem and Jericho. It’s a very open road, there isn’t much protection, and most people probably wouldn’t have wanted to travel it alone. And so this man is attacked on the roadside by thieves. They stripped him of everything and left him for dead.

Along comes a priest. The priest may well have been on his way home to Jericho after his two-week assignment in the temple at Jerusalem. The listeners would have assumed the priest was riding down the road as priests were often quite wealthy. He could have quite easily transported the man to safety.

But here's the thing - the priest couldn't test whether this man was someone he should help. A fellow Jewish scholar would have spoken Hebrew, but he couldn't tell which language the man spoke because the man was unconscious. What if he touched him and became unclean? He'd have to return to Jerusalem for a week-long ceremonial purification. The priest was a bit stuck, without knowing anything about this man, he didn't know what his duty was under the law. So he continues down the road.

Next up, the Levite. Levites were assistants to the priests - he may have even been this priest's assistant. Since the priest set the precedent, the Levite could pass by with an easy conscience. He can't upstage the priest. If the priest has passed by, I’ll pass by too, he probably thinks.

And that’s how easily our actions influence others. When we ignore someone in need, others feel permission to do the same.

The Unlikely Disciple's Compassion

Now listeners would expect the next person to be a regular layperson, that’s how these stories were usually told. A priest, a Levite, a layperson. But instead, along comes a Samaritan, and that’s where things get uncomfortable. 

In order to understand this parable in the context of how Jesus taught it, we need to know just how offensive the term Samaritan was to a Jew. To call a Jaw a Samaritan was the most offensive thing that could be said at that time and it’s hard to find a modern day equivalent. So Jesus making the Samaritan the hero of this story would have been mind-blowing to the Jews.

But this Samaritan looks at the beaten man and really sees him, and he feels compassion for him. But he doesn’t let it finish there, he acts. ​​He uses his oil and wine to treat the wounds, puts the man on his own donkey, takes him to an inn, pays for his care, and promises to cover any extra costs.

Think about this - a Samaritan wouldn't have been safe in Jewish territory, but he risks his own safety to help this man. He spends his own money, time, and energy on someone who would normally despise him.

We don’t actually know what happens to the Samaritan at the end of the story, but we do know that he really cared about this man. In fact, in those days, if a person stayed at the inn and couldn’t pay their bill, inn-keepers would have sold them into slavery to reclaim their costs. And so this Samaritan even protected the injured man from that threat.

Jesus Reframes the Question

And then we get to see the brilliant teacher that Jesus is. The lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbour?" But Jesus doesn't answer that question. Instead, he asks, "Which of these three was a neighbour to the man?"

Do you see the difference? The question shifts from "Who do I have to love?" to "Who can I choose to love?" The answer is anyone in need.

The lawyer can't even bring himself to say "Samaritan" - he just calls him "the one who showed mercy."

So the lawyer can't save himself after all, because what Jesus is asking is impossible for humans to do perfectly. We can't love everyone perfectly all the time.

From Self-Justification to Grace

Instead we must look to Jesus, and that’s a really beautiful part of this parable. Jesus is like the Samaritan. He’s the one who rescues us when we’re beaten up and left for dead by life. We’re not the hero of this story, we’re the guy in the ditch who needs saving. And Jesus has done everything to not only bring us back into full life but to protect us from the slavery that we would otherwise face.

Eternal life isn’t something we earn, it’s a gift. And once we realise that we’ve been rescued by God’s love, we’re then free to show that same love to others, not to earn anything but because we’ve already been given everything we could ever need.

The Kingdom of God just works differently. It’s about asking, “who can I help today?” instead of, “what’s the minimum I need to do?” It’s about becoming a neighbour to whoever God puts in your path. And the amazing this is that we don’t have to do it in our own strength because God’s love is what makes it possible.

Question

Who can you be a neighbour to today?

Prayer

Jesus thank you that you gave everything for us to enter into eternal life with you. Lord would you give us eyes that see the people around us and hearts that are moved by compassion to act, freely sharing your love with those we come into contact with, knowing that there’s more than enough to go around. Would you give us opportunities to be a neighbour to someone today. In your precious name Jesus, amen.