So your child comes home from school and tells you that they learnt about the parable of the Good Samaritan. You get them to tell you the story. They remember it perfectly.
“fantastic”
You think. So you follow up with the question:
“And what was the parable about? What did it mean?”
They think for a moment and then they answer:
“Kindness.”
Is that what the story is about? It’s what countless RE lessons, school assemblies, Sunday school lessons and perhaps even sermons have assumed. The former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher of course went slightly off piste seeking to use the parable to argue for her own policies and claiming that the point was that the Samaritan had money. Not for the victim an NHS free at the point of delivery.
Over the years, preachers have tried to shift the application away from moralism and to get to the Gospel, often through allegory with Jesus becoming the Samaritan in the story. That’s perhaps not that far off but we perhaps do better to arrive at the Gospel via the route Jesus takes us. What is the parable about from his perspective? Why is Luke including it. And from there we can ask, what has it got to do with us?
The answer is really the same. The parable was told to answer the question:
“How can I be right with God.”
This is the question that the lawyer is asking. In the Gospels, we encounter various people that come to challenge and test Jesus. Some of them are described as scribes, sometimes as “the scribes of the Pharisees.” These would have been men with a particular interest in and responsibility for studying and interpreting the Torah.
His actual question is:
“What must I do to inherit eternal life.”
Now, when he thought about “eternal life”, he would have been thinking about the possibility of being among those raised up on the last day to enjoy the Messiah’s eschatological kingdom. Notice that he realised that it wasn’t enough to be simply born a Jew. His ethnicity would not guarantee eternal life. So he was ahead of many of his contemporaries who believed that they were okay because they were Abraham’s descendants. Something more was needed. It is important too for us to realise that belonging to a church, having Christian parents or being part of what is sometimes still referred to as “a Christian nation” isn’t enough.
So, what is the something more? Well, Jesus takes him to the Law, the Torah, the very thing that he claimed to be an expert in, the revelation from God. What does God say? That’s the question that you and me have to ask too. And the man knows his Scripture. Not only that but he understands it. Jesus affirms that he has answered correctly when he says:
““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 neighbour as yourself.”
He understands that all of the detailed commands are pointing to this. He realises that whole hearted love for God cannot be separated from love for neighbour. You cannot claim to love the God you cannot see if you don’t love the brother you can see.
This is crucial. We were made by the God who is love. Our purpose is to love the one who loves us back and we show that we completely love him with all that we are by loving one another.
However, the man is not happy. We are told that he wants to justify himself. In other words, he wants to show that he is in the right. Once again, we are coming back to what it means to be right with God. So he asks a follow up question:
“Who is my neighbour.”
Jesus begins to tell a story. There’s a man travelling between Jerusalem and Jericho when he is attacked by bandits who rob him, beat him up and leave him for dead. A couple of religious leaders pass by, a priest and a Levite, someone who wasn’t a priest but who did serve in the temple as part of the same tribe. However, they fail to stop. We aren’t told why they fail and there has been much speculation over the years. Perhaps they were in a hurry on temple business. Perhaps they are afraid that the bandits will return, perhaps they are concerned for spiritual purity, if the man is dead or dying, they don’t want to become unclean.
Why a priest and then a Levite. Again, there has been much speculation. I suspect that the scribe will have identified with the Levite, one of his own. The lawyer is perhaps expecting the Levite to be the hero in the story. Perhaps the priestly ranks were corrupted, perhaps they were focused on ritual but this man would know the Law. Yet, he hurries by. In another conversation, Jesus will talk about those who failed to care for one of the least amongst then, failed to clothe and feed them when they were in need and so in failing to do so, failed to love and welcome him. The sense in this parable is
“You too fail to stop.”
There is the challenge for you and me.
“We fail to stop.”
We have failed to show love and compassion. We have failed to do what God’s Word requires. We are unrighteous.
Then a third man passes by. He is identified as a Samaritan. At this point, in true panto style there would be boos and hisses. The Samaritans were the baddies. When the people of Israel had been taken into exile in Assyria and then Babylon, some of those in the Northern kingdom had remained as a remnant in the land but had intermarried with those people groups sent to repopulate and had adopted their religious practices along with elements of Judaism as well. When the Jews returned, they experienced opposition from these people. So the Jews hated and despised the Samaritans and would even lengthen their journeys between Jerusalem and Galilee to avoid passing through Samaria. Yet, this man stops. He treats the wounds of the man. Then he takes him to an inn and pays for his care and lodging, promising to return that way and cover all of his bills.
So, Jesus asks the scribe “who acted as the neighbour in the story?” Grudgingly the man replies, “it was the one who showed mercy.” He cannot even spit out the words “The Samaritan.” I’m reminded at this point of an Old Testament event. Judah had three sons. He married his eldest son to a woman called Tamar, His son dies, so Tamar becomes his second son’s wife. The second son, is judged by God and dies. Judah keeps Tamar away from his third son, putting he blame on her. So, she decides to take action to get justice. She pretends to be a prostitute and sleeps with Judah. He cannot pay so he leaves his staff behind as a guarantee he will return and pay. Tamar is now pregnant and this is reported to Judah who demands that she receives the death penalty until the evidence is provided that he is the father. Then he has to acknowledge that Tamar is more righteous than him. She is the one who is proved to be in the right. She is vindicated.
The scribe has also to reluctantly admit that it is the Samaritan, who despite being from a different and hated people group, he has the wrong ethnicity. despite not having access to the Temple sacrifices and despite not having the same expertise in God’s Law, was the one person who properly fulfilled the Law by loving the wounded man, by acting as a neighbour.
Now, of course we can rightly see kindness and love shown and of course there is a point here that being a neighbour is not to do with geographical or genetical proximity. However, the main point remains. By obeying God’s Law, the Samaritan is justified, he is vindicated as the one who is right with God.
However, here is the double challenge for the lawyer. First, that he Is identified with those who fail to keep God’s Law. Secondly, that God’s Law goes beyond his expectations. He cannot keep the basics. The same is true for each of us. We fail to love those we should find it easy to love. We let them down, fail them, hurt them. How can we be expected to love our enemies. Jesus is the one who not only loved his friends but even his enemies, forgiving them on the Cross.
How can I be right with God? It’s only when I recognise that I need a saviour. That Jesus on the Cross took the blame and shame for my sin upon himself but more than that, in return he gives me his righteousness’. It is just as if I’d kept God’s Law perfectly, loving him with my whole heart and my neighbour as myself.
Justification is good news. It means that if you already belong to Jesus, you have peace with God. You don’t need to keep justifying yourself. This means that you can be honest about the things you struggle with, trials and temptations.
Justification is good news for those of you who don’t know Jesus yet too. Stop trying to justify yourself. Religion won’t save you, your own good works are not good enough. Ethnic identity or citizenship won’t work either. Instead, it is Jesus who saves and justifies.
Faithroots 