It’s one of Jesus’ most popular parables, to such an extent that being a ‘good samaritan’ has entered common parlance and can often be used to describe anyone – Christian or not – who does a kind act or a good turn from someone else. That in itself should be enough to warn us how careful we need to be as we approach this well-known story.
The conversation begins with an expert in the Law wanting to know from Jesus how they can inherit eternal life. It’s perhaps a strange question for an ‘expert in the Law’ to ask. And it isn’t insignificant that, rather than giving a straight answer, or simply pronouncing the forgiveness of sins, as He does elsewhere, Jesus turns the question back on the ‘expert’. It’s an entirely valid question to ask an ‘expert’. ‘What is written in the Laws … How do you read it?’. The answer betrays the expert’s assumption. In spite of his rhetoric, he believes eternal life is something he can merit through his own performance. The tell-tale verse in v.29: ‘But he wanted to justify himself…’ not in terms of wanting it to look like he was asking an appropriate question, but in terms of being justified before God (see also Luke 18:14). It has always been the case that ‘a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law’ (Rom.3:28). Jesus deftly exposes his faulty assumptions.
But locked in those faulty assumptions, the expert latches on to the issue of loving neighbor. Who is my neighbour? Where do the limits of love lie?
Strangely the Parable of the Good Samaritan is often used – usually outside the Church, but I’ve heart it get pretty close inside the Church too – for exactly the opposite purpose for which Jesus designed it. ‘Go and do likewise’ (v.37) does sound like Jesus is telling us to be good people, to follow the moral example of the ‘good Samaritan’.
Except of course, a Samaritan was not a good person, and was certainly not an example to be followed. The parable would have turned the expert’s world upside down. Here was one of the most religious of religious leaders being told he had to be like a Samaritan – the very person he would have rejected. Eternal life isn’t about heritage, or religiosity. It isn’t about obeying the Law.
If the expert wants to be justified, he’s going to have to let go of everything he thinks is giving him a right to eternal life. In fact, when we read the story carefully, we aren’t meant to be thinking about being the Samaritan at all. Who is the neighbour who needs to be loved? The man who is beaten by the robbers, left for dead. Does the Law (the Priest or the Levite) help those who are left for dead?
No. But the one who is rejected does, and he pays for it all. The expert asks who is the neighbour he must love. Jesus responds by telling him he is the neighbour who needs to be loved. Only when he is healed will he begin to learn to love as he has been loved. Only then will have the eternal life he longs for.
Questions:
Why does the expert in the Law talk about inheriting eternal life? Does the question make sense? Do you have to do anything in order to inherit something? What is the ‘expert’ driving at?
Do you think Jesus really believes that if the expert does fulfil the two great commandments from Deut.6:5, he ‘will live’ (v.28)?
Why does Jesus tell him he has answered correctly when he has in fact given the answer of legalism that is the very opposite of the Gospel, and that leads to a curse (Gal.1:6-9)?
Why is Jesus so willing to let the first commandment drop out of sight, and to allow the expert to focus on the second commandment that is like it?
What does it mean to be ‘justified (before God)’? How were people in the Old Testament ‘justified’?
Can you think of any passages in the Old Testament that actually answer the question of what we must do to inherit eternal life?
How is the Parable of the Samaritan designed to lift the ‘expert’ out of his legalistic mindset?
Based on this parable, who is my neighbour?
What would you say to someone who said they were like the Good Samaritan?
If a denarius is a day’s wage (Matt.20:2), when will the Samaritan return?
