We want to skip directly to the end, don’t we? We hear Jesus’ words to the lawyer, “Go and do the same,” and we assume that Jesus is speaking them to us. But is Jesus doing that?
Are you seeking what the lawyer was seeking, the one who approached Jesus? For Jesus’ words, “Go and do the same,” was a response to his question in a certain context. If your question isn’t the same and your setting is different, how do you know that Jesus would speak the same words to you?
When we skip to the end, thinking Jesus’ words apply to us directly, we misunderstand the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We then strip the parable naked and turn it into a simple, morality lesson. That’s not why Jesus told the parable.
So, how do we take Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan, a story He told to a lawyer who was seeking something in the way he wanted it? Let’s then go back and hear this familiar parable with fresh ears.
It begins with a lawyer looking for a loophole. The lawyer stood up and asked Jesus a calculated question to test Him. The question was, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Did you catch the irony in his question? He asks what he must do to inherit something. By definition, you can’t do anything to inherit something. If you have to do something, then it’s not an inheritance. An inheritance is something you get because someone died, and you happen to be born in the right family. It’s that simple.
So, from the beginning, the lawyer is stacking the deck, asking a loaded question. But, this lawyer knew what he was doing. He was a student and teacher of God’s Law. He knew God’s Law well and believed he was following it. And this lawyer of God’s Law thought he’d put this traveling rabbi, Jesus, to the test.
So then, what does Jesus do when the lawyer tests him? Since the lawyer asked Jesus a Law question, Jesus gave Him a Law answer. “You want to do something? You’re a lawyer, what’s your reading of the Law?”
The lawyer then answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” He answered correctly. That was a sound summary of God’s Law. And so Jesus recognized the lawyer’s correct answer and replied: “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
“Do this and you will live.” How does that settle with you? That statement shouldn’t give you warm fuzzies inside. If it does, then you haven’t wrestled with the Law of God in its full strength and weight, and you have not been honest with yourself. “Do this and you will live” does not mean try your best. “Do this and you will live” means always loving God, without ever failing, with all that you are 100% of the time. Oh, and don’t forget, while you’re at it, always love your neighbor, without ever failing, as you love yourself. Do that and you will live.
How does that settle with you now? How did that settle with the lawyer? Not so well. Luke tells us that after the lawyer had heard what Jesus said, he sought to justify himself, that is, show that he was right.
The Law of God had convicted the lawyer. The Law of God had even convicted the lawyer of how he understood and lived out God’s Law. He knew that he had failed to love God without flaw. He had failed to love his neighbor as much as he loved himself. He was convicted and embarrassed. He stood there fidgeting in his sandals, looking for a way out. He was seeking a way to save face.
So, the lawyer rationalizes and asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” For the lawyer knew that what he had just asked, “Who is my neighbor,” was a matter of much debate among the Jewish religious leaders. Let’s take the Pharisees. They didn’t see known sinners like tax collectors, prostitutes, or people who had been declared ceremonially unclean to be their neighbors. As the Pharisees had understood God’s Law, they were to avoid and shun such people. Yet, most people knew that Jesus had associated and even ate and drank with such people.
So, there was the lawyer looking to justify himself. He wanted to direct God’s Law away from himself back on to Jesus. He hoped to expose Jesus and force Him into taking a side on this well-debated issue. After all, the Lawyer knew that Jesus ate with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors.
So, the lawyer thought he had Jesus in a corner. Jesus would have to answer that sinners are equally my neighbors, just like the righteous Pharisee was. Then, he could condemn Jesus with the support of the scribes and Pharisees. But the lawyer’s verbal snare failed to entrap Jesus.
That’s the setting in which Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells a parable to answer the lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” But Jesus also answers the earlier question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And He also gives the parable to expose the lawyer’s sin but not allow Himself to become trapped.
And you probably know the parable. A man fell among robbers who stripped him, beat him, and left him half dead. Both a priest and a Levite pass by on the other side of the road. The Samaritan, however, had compassion on the man. He went to him, dressed his wounds, poured on oil and wine, placed him on his own beast of burden, and took him to an inn and paid for his stay. He promised to come back and repay the innkeeper whatever else it cost to care for the man.
It’s a simple story about a man who finds himself in a terrible predicament. It’s about a man incapable of helping himself out of his dire straits. What the man needs is someone to help him, someone to show him mercy and compassion. In short, the man needs someone to be his neighbor. Although three men pass by, it isn’t the priest or Levite who show the man mercy. No, it was the despised Samaritan–a man whom the priest and Levite wouldn’t even consider as a neighbor.
Jesus then asked the lawyer, “Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by robbers?” And, the lawyer again answered correctly, if reluctantly, “The one who showed mercy to him.” The lawyer couldn’t even bring himself to say, “The Samaritan”!
It was no coincidence that the priest and Levite left the bloodied-and-beaten man in the ditch. After all, like the lawyer, they defined who their neighbor was in a narrow way. They then could claim to have followed God’s Law by serving their neighbor. After all, their neighbor was honed down to a select group of people, which didn’t include the Samaritans.
But, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is not about the Law of God and what we must do to inherit eternal life, not if we hear the parable with Gospel-soaked ears? Now, it is if you are trying to climb your way to heaven. But with the ears of faith, the parable becomes a story about the mercy of God. Think of Jesus. Jesus comes to those who can’t come to Him. He helps those who cannot help themselves at His own expense, even at the expense of His own life in crucifixion, suffering, and death on the cross. Jesus uses a Samaritan to picture God’s mercy shown to us in Christ Jesus.
Jesus didn’t tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan to inspire us to go out and do good deeds to others. He didn’t tell the parable, so you can feel good about yourself because you’ve been a good neighbor. When Jesus says, “Go and do the same,” it’s His call to “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). If you reduce this parable to a simple morality lesson, then the same Law of God that damned the lawyer also damns you.
“Do this and you will live” are not words of mercy. They are not words that bring you life. They are words that kill, for no one can to the “this” that Jesus tells him to do. You can’t do it, not as the Law of God demands. You don’t have perfect love for God and neighbor. And since you can’t do the “this” that Jesus says to do, His words, “Do this and you will live” only bring us death and damnation.
So, who are you in the Parable of the Good Samaritan? You aren’t the Samaritan. That’s who Jesus is in the parable. You’re the man stripped naked, beaten, and bloodied, and left for dead on the side of the road. You’re the man whom that robber, Satan, attacked and stripped and left for dead, wounded, crippled by sin, and unable to help yourself. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who found you in that spiritual condition and had compassion on you. He cared for you, healed your wounds, and arranged to care for you at His own expense.
You need to see yourself as the helpless man who received mercy from an unexpected and undeserved source. And the source of that mercy is Jesus. For the primary definition of a Christian is not a person who does good deeds, but someone who knows that he needs mercy, forgiveness, and healing and that he has–and continues to receive–such mercy from the Son of God.
In Holy Baptism, your Good Samaritan, Jesus, applied the healing oil of His Holy Spirit to you and dressed your wounds. He brought you into the inn of His Church at the expense of His own body–His own life laid down for yours! In His Church, you are brought into His Sabbath rest for you, where He continues to care for you with the bread of His body and the wine of His blood. With His Gospel Word of mercy and forgiveness, He strengthens, preserves, and keeps you ready for His return, when He will return again on the Last Day. That is your God, the Good Samaritan, who loves and saves you. Amen.
