One of the most renown and profound parables of Jesus Christ is the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. This tale captures the essence of compassion, challenging us to extend a helping hand to those in need, and critiques social barriers corrupt humanity erects that leaves neighbors abandoned. It is about the heavenly virtues of mercy, selflessness, and charity.
A lawyer and Jesus were having a conversation about inheriting eternal life and the they agreed that the Law taught: “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself” (Lk. 10:27). [1] This response weaves together lines from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. On another occasion Jesus said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:40). All the commandments are then expressions of love for God and others.
“Who is my neighbor?” asked the lawyer (Lk. 10:29). The lawyer wanted to justify his own way of dividing those to be loved from those to be hated. He embraced that perverted understanding of Leviticus 19:18 — “you shall love your neighbor but hate your enemy” (c.f. Matt. 5:43-48). The lawyer thought himself faultless with respect to keeping the commandments.
Jesus replies with the parable of the Good Samaritan to illuminate the lawyer to his fault. The Good Samaritan tells of a traveler who is ambushed by robbers then left wounded, helpless, and unconscious on the roadside. A priest and a Levite pass without offering any assistance.[2] Why did they walk on by? One possibility is “the priest and Levite may have avoided the man because they thought he was dead, and they did not want to become ritually unclean” but “more probably, they were fearful of the robbers attacking them also.”[3] They were indifferent to the suffering of the man bloody and beaten on the side of the road, and more focused upon taking care of their own affairs. Their actions could not be justified. However, a Samaritan, a despised outsider in the eyes of the Jewish community, stops to help the wounded man. Whereas the priest and Levite were unmerciful the Samaritan extended mercy.
Jesus’ parable emphasizes the contrast between the actions of the religious leaders and the Samaritan. While the priest and the Levite, who were expected to embody righteousness, failed to act, the despised Samaritan demonstrates extraordinary selflessness. He tends to the injured man’s wounds, takes him to an inn, and even pays for his care. The Samaritan even “took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper,” with the instruction to “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back” (Lk. 10:35). He gave his time and resources to tend to the injured.
Authentic compassion extends beyond mere sentiments and manifested in tangible acts of kindness. The Samaritan goes beyond societal expectations and engaged in selfless action to alleviate the victim’s suffering and thus reflecting the unconditional love and mercy of God.
Jesus finishes in asking the legal expert, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (Lk. 10:36). The expert reluctantly responds, “The one who showed him mercy,” Jesus responds, “Go, and do likewise” (Lk. 10:37).
The Good Samaritan represents not only a compassionate stranger but also an example of how we should treat others. Darrell Bock puts it this way: “Here human beings fulfill their created role — to love God and be a neighbor to others by meeting their needs. Neighbors are not determined by race, creed, or gender; neighbors consist of anyone in need made in the image of God.”[4]
The moral of the Good Samaritan is to love our neighbors unconditionally, irrespective of their background, beliefs, or societal standing.
How we need to connect with the message of the Good Samaritan. Let it sink deep within and overflow into every interaction we have in our earthly sojourn. Upon the road we come across acerbic speeches, cancel culture, gaslighting and racial partiality all done in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not diversity, equity, and inclusion in the truest sense but a very satanic distortion of these glorious virtues. To mutilate the healthy genitalia of a children for gender reassignment can hardly be consider the loving thing to do, even if it comes at the bequest of a weeping child, who knows not the left hand from the right. This sort of thing represents a defilement of love. We can show compassion to those suffering with dysphoria, but we must care enough to keep them from unnecessary life altering acts that never guarantee a resolution to the inner turmoil.
We must love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. How do we love ourselves? We begin to love ourselves in realizing that we are loved by God, because God loves the creatures He made in His own image. God’s love for us is ultimately demonstrated through the Son of God, who came to die on behalf of sinners and give them everlasting life.
— WGN
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted
[2] Priests were appointed to officiate the worship in the temple but there were many other Levites to assist the priest.
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1083.
[4] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 199.
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