Outside of the parable, who is a Samaritan? He or she would be of the people who were generational offshoots of the conquered Northern Kingdoms of Israel. After the reign of King David’s son King Solomon, who went off the deep end with over 700 wives and concubines (!), the Kingdom of Israel and its 12 tribes splintered into two major areas. The Northern Kingdom which the Bible refers to as Israel (which contained 10 tribes) and the Southern Kingdom which the Bible commonly refers to as Judah (which included the remaining 2 tribes of Judah and Benjamin).
(Sorry for any typos, there are a lot of details in this article, it’s getting late, and I want to publish this now.).
After roughly 200 years, the Northern Kingdom, led by a succession of Kings who chose not to worship God but instead worshiped the pagan gods like Baal, fell faster and deeper into paganism than Judah, became weak and was conquered by Assyria. The Israelite people, by and large, were taken into captivity and some were ordered to remain but were forced to integrate into a broader pagan culture of those non Jews relocated into Samaria. In other words, foreigners for a long time, had mingled with the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom because they had drifted and departed from God’s call to be a holy and separate people. Though the Israelites retained some of the worship practices and cultural traditions of from the times of King David, it was very corrupted by paganism.
Because of the contaminated family blood lines and pagan culture, the people of Judah who retained their separate jewish identity as God’s chosen people (although they had their own problems with idolatry, paganism and Kings who “did not walk in the ways of the Lord”) thought the Samaritans were as despicable as a people could be: Unclean, spiritually corrupted, and no longer Jewish people.
Hence, this introduces this cultural clash to this parable taught by Jesus.
Jesus’ focus was to teach people about the Kingdom of God and what it takes for man to enter. Jesus as the Son of God became fully and truly man to exhibit a physical representation of the invisible God and ultimately, Jesus’s mission was to defeat the death that we all face and to provide fallen mankind an eternal pathway to reconciliation to God.
C.S. Lewis beautifully described God, who is the author of Creation and of mankind, revealing Himself to the those he created in the limited dimension of the pages in the story He is authoring. But how can the characters in a story establish a relationship the one who is writing the story? God, the Author, writes Himself into His own story (human history) becoming one living amongst His Creation. He did this by introducing His Son Jesus Christ as a man, a fulfillment of a promise from the very beginning of humankind in the Garden.
So there’s a couple of passages in Luke 10 before the Parable that highlight some of the important truths.
“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me. And he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” – Luke 10:16. To the genuine followers of Christ (the Church), who are also being persecuted are compared to those persecuting the Church who are rejecting not only the believer, but also Jesus Himself, and, consequently, not only Jesus, but the Father also.
This highlights the relationship of the Godhead (the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are One), and because the Church is the Body of Christ, rejection of the Church is the rejection of all that is God.
Also, Jesus is also declaring that He has been sent by the Father on his rescue mission to Earth as the man-King, Jesus of Nazareth.
23 And turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see,24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.” – Luke 10:23-24
Here, Jesus is confirming and authenticating to his disciples His arrival as the Messiah, as foretold by the Prophets throughout the Old Testament. In Christ’s life on earth will he fulfill many prophecies given in the Old Testament. The odds of which, are hyperbolically impossible without divine intervention. Of these prophecy’s, several in Isaiah 53, stands out, written about 700 years before Christ was born, foretelling in incredible detail the sufferings of Christ on the Cross.
Although we take a very lackadaisical attitude toward the Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy, we should stop to consider the astronomical odds that 8 key prophecies (overall there were more prophecies) of Jesus’ life were fulfilled. The evidence provided by Scripture and confirmed through anthropological and historical research points to events occurring that were virtually impossible, something over 1 to the 1017power according to Taylor University’s Study: Examining the Probability of Christ Fulfilling Prophecies.
The study cites a popular illustration of this probability, quoted as follows: “…if you take 1×1017 silver dollars and cover the State of Texas, the resulting stacks would be roughly 2 feet deep. If you mark the bottom of a single one of them, and then blindfold someone and send them out to pick out a single silver dollar, the probability that the silver dollar selected is the marked one is 1 in 1 ×1017.”
To further consider not just one, but over 45 prophecies (estimated to be over 1 to the 10150 power) fulfilled should make you consider quite carefully your spiritual direction in relation to Christ and how the Scripture bears this evidence of God’s fingerprint unlike any other religious text. That is, of course, if rational thinking or academic knowledge in themselves had anything to do with an unsaved person coming to Christ. They actually do not.
A miraculous statistic may alert your attention, but Faith in God comes from God’s grace.
25 And behold, a scholar of the Law stood up and was putting Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” – Luke 10:25
Here we have, not a humble man seeking to be more Holy and Righteous, but someone who is seeking to uphold the righteousness he has achieved for himself, this is what is implied in the phrase “putting Him to the test”. The scholar was not seeking that which he sought from God who provides all blessings. What does scripture say about putting God to the test in such self-interests cases?
“You shall not put Yahweh your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. – Deuteronomy 6:16
They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
14 But craved intensely in the wilderness,
And put God to the test in the wasteland.
15 So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease against their lives. – Psalm 106:13-15
NOW BACK TO LUKE 10:
26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered and said, “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 neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” – Luke 10:26-28
Academic and scholarly knowledge does not equal a heart seeking to serve and trust God. The scholar answers correctly, but as the Lord shall soon prove, man’s understanding of God’s glory and man’s sinful shortcomings is woeful.
29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” -Luke 10:29. A question not asked in humility but in effort for self-justification.
30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 And a priest happened to be going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him, and when he saw him, he felt compassion. 34 And he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’36 Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” – Luke 10:30-37.
Well, seems like we have to give some credit to this lawyer. He didn’t dance around the answer with some dramatic defense of the ritual laws or launch into an attack on Samaritans.
However, this parable that the Lord tells is not to highlight the righteousness of Samaritans as a people, but first, highlighting the nature of people more interested in outward appearances instead of compassion. Moreover, Jesus uses a category of person, a Samaritan, whom the religious jew thought unworthy, further presses against the questioner’s self-pride and prejudice. The purpose of works of compassion was an ongoing battle between Jesus and the religious Jews. Jesus would intentionally heal on the Sabbath to drive home a wrecking ball into the superficial nature of the Jews fastidiousness. The Pharisees and other religious leaders would criticize Him for “doing work” on the Day of Rest, verbally attacking Jesus for ignoring their overtly meticulous and compassionless man-created ordinances.
Moreover, a passerby stopping at all to give assistance would have already been a far cry more compassionate than any of the religious figure in the story and perhaps in real life who dared not stop for hurry or for fear of those who are unclean.
The one who is stopping to take care of the beaten traveler, is about to prove his lavish generosity. His offering of time and attention to the stranger provides every good thing to take care of this helpless and hapless victim. He cleans and bandages his wounds manages his pain and infection. The “Good Samaritan” then puts the strange victim on his personal animal and leads them to an inn where he stays with the victim over night and personally takes care of him. This good Samaritan cleared his schedule, he didn’t just call the Police, or 911, He became like a One-Man emergency support unit. He then pays the innkeeper about two days’ wages to cover the stranger’s stay and then declares he will come back and reimburse the innkeeper for anything that the stranger needs.
This is simply a parabolic standard of caring offered by the Lord’s example to smash the lawyer’s self-righteous concept of what being good to a neighbor could be like. In other words, to bring it home, not only do we wrongly assume that our neighbors are the people in our closed community of acceptable people, but understand that Godly compassion, the divine compassion He offers us, is not something you can compare to even though you, while giving all glory to God, rightfully strive and strive in pursuit of the divine servant-leader model of Christ.
You can always interpret greater truth in every parable by focusing on the glory of God and His ways related to the Salvation of man.
Man’s response to God’s Grace-filled path to salvation is humble submission and gratitude. Have you experienced that yet? Have you been blessed yet to receive your sight when once you were blind?
Though Jesus showed compassion and brought healing to many who suffered, though we are called to help our fellow man, the primary purpose of this parable is not a mandate for social services or social reform, but a change of heart regardless of your station in life. God is out to convert our hearts of stone to that living flesh and filling it with the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit, a process that will someday culminate in the glorious resurrection of the bodies of believers.
God provides abundantly and lavishly a gift of Grace for the good of all who love him and, consequently, it is an obstacle for people to embrace God’s kindness and mercy if they are afflicted with hardness of heart – just ask Pharaoh.
We are like the beaten up stranger, utterly helpless, until God stops to resuscitate our lifeless body out of a ditch and nurse us back to health. Once again, like John 3, God’s saves, man must be born-again by the grace of God.
Do you see anything in the parable that highlights the effort of the man laying helpless on the side of the road? Laying helpless in an inn recuperating, unable to pay for any of it because the thieves stole everything and stripped him. That’s about what we bring to the table when God saves us – only bodies destined for death and souls broken in sin.
If you do not think this is about entering the kingdom and salvation, let’s go back to the original questions posed by the lawyer to Jesus to test him and the theme of the Luke Chapter 10. It has to do with accepting Jesus, and being obedient to God’s most important laws.
25 And behold, a scholar of the Law stood up and was putting Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”27 And he answered and said, “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 neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” -Luke 10:25:28
You can strive to do these things and those works are good, but the point is, “Your righteousness, needs to be greater than the Pharisees,” (Matthew 5:20)(in other words, it is unachievable using man’s effort) Because of God’s Holiness and our sin, the only way we can achieve this state is through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
If you think in your human life, you can ever meet the criteria of the most important law: “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“, I would caution that your concept of sin is wanting and your understanding of the level of worship that Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe, deserves from each of us is also wanting. Getting a grasp of the magnitude of the error should drive you to the feet of Christ, His mercy and grace.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. – John 3:16-17
A Response to God’s Grace
A Prayer for Salvation
If you are ready to respond to God’s love for you, if you are ready to turn from sin and trust Him, pray with your heart this request:
Heavenly Father,
I know I have sinned and I need your mercy. I turn from my old self and ask You to forgive me.
I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and that You raised Him from the dead. Today, I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Savior.
Thank you for saving me. Help transform my heart with a desire to follow you and to live for you from now and forever more.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
ACT LIKE MEN a short talk given by John MacArthur (click on the link)
All quoted excerpts have footnotes removed, usually from Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), sometimes from New International Version (NIV), on rare occasion the Amplified Bible (AMP).
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9-1-2024