The Parable of the Good Samaritan is timeless. It’s one of those parables that is so meaningful that even worldly society has captured the theme and uses that term. Good Samaritan refers to someone who has helped another person without any need to or without any personal gain – sometimes at a cost. This is not merely a lesson that belongs to the past; it is a timeless call to action that echoes through the ages. This parable urges us to examine our hearts, our priorities, and our responses to the needs of those around us.
So, what has led to this parable told by Jesus? A lawyer wants to test Jesus. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question seems simple enough. But are we going to build on the wrong foundation about eternal life if that is our opening question? An inheritance is not about what you do. Remember what he asked – what must I do to inherit eternal life. An inheritance is about relationships. Especially in Jesus’ time property was inherited from family members and to family members. You didn’t do anything to earn an inheritance. An inheritance is a result of who you were – a child of the deceased or at least a family member if there were no children of the deceased. So, Jesus is going to set up this lawyer so he can see for himself that he has the wrong foundation when it comes to eternal life.
As the man is a lawyer, Jesus invites him to respond with the Law. Jesus says – what is written in the Law. The lawyer responds: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. And Jesus says – you have answered correctly. But does he understand the answer as God sees it that no one can keep the law 100%, 100% of the time. Because he doesn’t understand God’s gift of grace in eternal life and still feels that eternal life must include something he does – he asks: “Who is my neighbour?” It is still about “doing”. And that’s the problem with a foundation of “what must I do” because when it comes to eternal life there is nothing we can do that will ever satisfy the demands of the law for eternal life. We always fall short. And we will never feel satisfied that we have done enough. Until he understands God’s grace, even the answer to this question will lead to the next question – until he understands God’s grace.
So Jesus uses this question – who is my neighbour – to set up the proper foundation for our relationship with God and eternal life. At the centre of this parable is a traveller who has been beaten by robbers and left for dead. There are 2 types of responses to this beaten man and they could represent our response to God being Law or Gospel. The first to arrive are a priest and a Levite. Both are possibly on the way to the Temple and as a result, uppermost in their minds, the Law. The Law that specified that you could not enter the temple if you were unclean. And presuming that the traveller is dead they would become ceremonially unclean if they had touched the body. Numbers chapter 19 says: Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then they will be clean. But if they do not purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they will not be clean. If they fail to purify themselves after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord’s tabernacle. They must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean; their uncleanness remains on them. So, their response to the needs of this traveller is the Law and preservation of themselves.
But the 2nd response is the Samaritan. He sees a Jewish person in need. And he has 2 options. To gloat that this person who had rejected his people is now getting his deserved justice. Remember the other week when Jesus was passing through Samaritan countryside and they rejected him. And James and John wanted to call down fire to consume them. That was the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. However, when he sees this man in need he puts that aside and at his own cost, physically and spiritually, he stops to help this man. So when it comes to “who is my neighbour” the answer is anyone who is in need. It is so tempting to use the hurt of others for our own satisfaction. As a form of informal justice. Eastern religions would call this Karma – they are getting what they deserve. But how fortunate that this is not how Jesus responds. Remember what we often pray in our Confession of Sins – “we deserve your eternal punishment” – not eternal life. We are thankful that God does not treat us as we deserve but reaches down to pick us up as did the Good Samaritan.
just as the Good Samaritan said to the inn-keeper – when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.
So too, the one for whom there was no room in the inn – says he will come back to bring us to where he is. That he has paid the full price for our eternal life. And then Jesus says to us as he says to the Lawyer – go and do likewise.
There is nothing that we can do to earn our inheritance as St Paul says in Romans 8 about our inheritance: Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. The question by the lawyer is honourable and a question that seems on the surface a natural desire to show our love and appreciation to God by asking “what can I do”. It’s a question we often ask of a person who is in need – “what can I do”. But when it comes to eternal life, it’s not about “what can I do for God” but what has God done for me. We could never do enough for what God sacrificed for us – his own Son. And this was St Paul’s concern for the Galatians. They were being conned by a false Gospel. And that’s why his heart goes out in pity to them: You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. And he puts it plainly – if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Just like those who quizzed the King when thanked for feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty who had no idea – when did we see you hungry and fed you or thirsty and give you something to drink. It came from their heart Likewise the Good Samaritan didn’t stop and ponder before he acted – it came from his heart. And that’s what Jesus is teaching the Lawyer and us. That Salvation comes from an act of love – the love of God for us his children. And as his children we receive eternal life – we don’t do anything to earn it. And Jesus asks that we respond in kind – to go and do likewise.
To love one another as Jesus has loved us. And that’s also what Paul is speaking about in his letter to the Colossians: In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So friends, cherish that there is nothing you have to do to receive eternal life or the love of God. You have it because you are children of God. And if children, then heirs – joint heirs with Christ.
