Luke
10:30-37 (NIV)
In reply Jesus
said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into
the hands of 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, took
him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver
coins 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 neighbor 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."
In Luke 10:27 Jesus
gave the two greatest commandments—to love God and to love your neighbor as
yourself. He then was asked, “who is my
neighbor?” Jesus’ answer was the parable
of the Good Samaritan. Your neighbor is
anyone who needs your help. True love of
your neighbor requires sacrifice of yourself.
This story has
several characters. There is the
traveling man who was robbed, stripped and beaten nearly to death. There are the priest and the Levite, both who
knew about the laws of God and the need to show compassion, yet neither did
anything to help the man, even going out of their way to avoid him. And there is the Samaritan, considered by the
Jews to be in the lowest class of people because they married non-Jews and did
not keep the law. Jews would have
nothing to do with Samaritans, yet Jesus says it was a Samaritan who did go out
of his way to help the injured man, and who represents the person who showed
how to love his neighbor. You can
imagine how insulted Jewish listeners were hearing Jesus basically describing a
Samaritan as the hero of the story while their own people were castigated. Note that Jewish hatred of Samaritans was so
great that when Jesus asked which of the three were the good neighbor, the Jewish
man who asked the original question about who is my neighbor answered “he who
showed mercy (compassion)”, without saying “the Samaritan”.
This story tells
you to love others regardless of who they are, what their race or religion is,
what their social status is, or anything else.
Anyone in trouble or having any need is your neighbor. And notice that the Samaritan in the story
did not expect anything in return for all he did for the injured man. His compassion was pure, without any selfish
motive for himself.
I’ve heard a sermon
where the Good Samaritan is Jesus, the injured man represents all sinful
people, the robbers are Satan’s attacks on men, the priest represents apostasy
and the Levite represents legalism with both showing prejudice. However, I personally don’t like this
interpretation; I prefer to believe that this story simply describes what
compassion means, what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Compassion for others starts with a need that
inspires you to do something, you see the need that often interrupts what you
might be doing otherwise, and you act on the need that often is an
inconvenience to you.
“The first question which the
priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen
to me?’ But the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help
this man, what will happen to him?’” – Martin Luther King, Jr.[1]
[1] Martin Luther King, Jr. said this in speech he gave in
Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968, the day before he as assassinated. Here is one
website that contains his speech that includes his discussion of the Good
Samaritan: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/ive_been_to_the_mountaintop/
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