If the greatest commandments tell us what love is, the Parable of the Good Samaritan shows us how to practice love. This daily devotional looks at how this parable shows disciples of Christ not how to do but to be.
Nuggets
- Jesus made the point that religion by itself was not that for which God is looking.
- Jesus drove home the point that disciples must be compassionate to all.
- Hearing and knowing what God expects us to do isn’t enough — we have to do it.
Devotions in the Putting the Great Commandments into Practice series
Jesus was being questioned by a lawyer. Now, the lawyer had an ulterior motive for asking what he did how he did.
The lawyer really wasn’t interested in finding how to obtain eternal life. If anything, he wanted Jesus to tell him that he was good to go.
The real intent behind the question was to trip Jesus up. He wanted Jesus to answer in a way that he and the Pharisees would have evidence to convict Jesus.
After telling the lawyer to follow the two greatest commandments, the lawyer asked for clarification as to who his neighbor was.
To answer, Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A parable is a story that Jesus told using everyday examples to illustrate spiritual concepts.
Let's Put It into Context #1
In previous devotions, we had the following nuggets:
- Questions may appear to be designed to show our genuine love of God, but we aren’t always honest with Him or ourselves.
- Jesus wants us to verbalize where we are at in our faith.
- Loving God and others lead to eternal life.
- We can have the right answer, but not answer the question correctly.
- We can’t justify our sin to or deflect it from God.
Let's Put It into Context #2
We’ve looked at this parable previously. It was in a series where we were looking at when people had to get out of their comfort zones to made a choice to follow Jesus. Even though the Good Samaritan had to have gone out of his comfort zone, he helped the victim where the religious leaders did not.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Setting Up the Parable of the Good Samaritan
“Jesus took up the question and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side’” (Lk. 10: 30-32 CSB)
Jesus made the point that religion by itself was not that for which God is looking.
Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan in order to show the lawyer two things. Yes, He was showing him the definition of neighbor. But He was also showing him how the question itself was off.
To do this, Jesus showed us a snapshot of where our relationship with God should be and where, many times, it isn’t. He used a lot of imagery to accomplish this.
Let’s take a quick look of what the imagery was. Keach helped us out here.
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We first meet the victim. He was traveling on the road that runs from Jerusalem to Jericho. He represents mankind after Adam and Eve’s original sin.
Glossary
Grout brought up an interesting point. The victim didn’t do anything wrong. He had a perfectly legitimate reason for being on that road that day. He wasn’t doing anything hinky to put himself in harm’s way.
Grout wrote, “There is poverty and pain and sorrow, for which the sufferer is not, at least directly, responsible. It must, however, be owned that the chief woes of the world come of sin. There are no thieves and robbers so cruel as worldliness and wrong. doing, irreligion and vice.”
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The thieves didn’t actually attack the man in the narrative of the parable, but we see the aftermath of their attack. “… fell into the hands of robbers …” (Lk. 10: 30 CSB) means the victim became embroiled in sin.
That the thieves are not actually shown may also be symbolic. So many times, sin sneaks up on us. We may think we are on the right road and everything is hunky dorey.
Then, bam! We get slammed by Satan tempting us.
We probably see the fact that the victim was stripped of his clothing as a form of humiliation or more goods for the robbers to sell. Keach equated this with mankind being stripped of righteousness before being cast out of the Garden of Eden. We just talked about Sovereign God being clothed by His moral character.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Sin beats us up and leaves us for dead. Because Adam and Eve sinned, we are separated from God, leaving us spiritually dead.
Keach felt that the priest and the Levite were symbolic for the law/priesthood and the sacrifices. The law cannot save us. Even religious ceremony cannot save us.
It is very easy for us to bite on the priest and the Levite because they did not help the victim. Elmslie puts a different take on it. He noted that, “Their sin was not in not doing something, but in being heartless.”
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That ties in with what we said in the Redo for Godliness series. Perfection isn’t about doing or not doing — it is about being.
God may not have put it in my plan to do some thing, so my not doing it is not a sin. It will always be a sin if I am not growing and changing my character to be like his.
I don’t know about you, but this totally flips the way I read this parable. We like to have visible things so that we can check our progress to fulfilling our call.
God does not prioritize our physical acts. He requires that our physical acts be an extension of Him living in us.
Elmslie had a good what if discussion as to the priest’s and Levite’s reaction if they had been called on their cold heartedness. They would have been clueless in Jericho.
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They might have been on autopilot. They were going home from work and just wanted to get there. Maybe they were rushing to make it home before dark.
It would have been interesting if they didn’t help the victim because that would have made them unclean. How many times do we use religious excuses to justify moral failures?
Glossary
Really, Jesus saw only one reason why these men did not stop to help the victim. They did not exhibit God’s character. Jesus was more concerned about their spiritual condition than any worldly reasoning for them not to stop.
Getting to the Point of the Good Samaritan Parable
“But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend’” (Lk. 10: 33-35 CSB)
Jesus drove home the point that disciples must be compassionate to all.
Enter the Good Samaritan. Most of the Jews in the audience listening to Jesus’ parable would not have seen this twist coming.
There was no love lost between Jews and Samaritans. Not only were the Samaritans from a different country, but they were also from a different religion.
Elmslie thought that the Good Samaritan may have been a businessman in Jesus’ parable. If so, he may have lost a business opportunity by taking the time getting help for the victim.
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No, helping others can be inconvenient. Meats wrote, “There is no goodness without a self-denial which runs right against self-convenience.”
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We may be asked to experience new things. We may be led to feel different feelings.
Being kind to a fellowman cost the Good Samaritan. A denarii was about a day’s wage for an average worker in Jesus’ day. So, at a minimum, the Good Samaritan was out two day’s wages.
What is obvious from the parable is the Good Samaritan saw a human being in need and saw that he could help him. Nothing else mattered.
In other words, the Good Samaritan did not ask if this Jew was his neighbor.
Keach felt the question was not asked because Jesus was the Good Samaritan. Jesus came to earth to bind up the wounds caused by sin.
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Burns shows us what we can learn from the Good Samaritan.
- A major component of our religion must be mercy and compassion.
- Religious people are deluding themselves if they are not truly following God.
- We need to imitate Jesus.
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Putting the Point of the Good Samaritan into Practice
“‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ ‘The one who showed mercy to him,’ he said. Then Jesus told him, ‘Go and do the same’” (Lk. 10: 36-37 CSB)
Hearing and knowing what God expects us to do isn’t
Ooo, baby. Think about what the lawyer was feeling then. He started out wanting to pick a fight. Now he had to give the correct answer — an answer that was totally opposite to his way of thinking.
How many times have we passed by on the other side of the road, rather than stop and help? How many times have we let it go to voicemail instead of answering? How many times have we cut someone short because we just didn’t want to be the Good Samaritan?
Then think of it this way. Dods wrote, “The need is often greatest where least is asked.”
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Here we are actively resisting to see a need that is hidden. It is a wonder we see anything at all.
I love what Elmslie wrote. What was Jesus’ instructions to the lawyer? Go back and keep reading the law?
No. “… Go and do the same’” (Lk. 10: 36-37 CSB). Elmslie wrote, “Christ had made that man understand that what he wanted was the real love of the real, living, loving God, and the real, common human love to his fellow-men.”
Making the Connections
The greatest commandments show that God is not interested in a checklist of what we do or don’t do. There is only one item on God’s checklist: that we imitate Him.
Flint build his sermon around an interesting premise. He felt that Jesus was trying to show the lawyer that he could not really love according to the depth, breath, and comprehensiveness of the law.
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That really shoots a hole in the theory that God’s laws can save us. But wasn’t that the purpose of the laws all along? God provided the law to show us what sin is and to show us that we can’t save ourselves.
The law always pointed to Jesus as our Savior.
It is really interesting to contrast the lawyer with the Samaritan. The lawyer probably had much going for himself. He was probably respected. But, to Jesus, he was dead inside.
The Samaritan would have been loathed. The Jews would not have conversed with him, let alone accepted him. Jesus told the lawyer to be like the Samaritan.
Have you ever had a worldview person tell you that they rejected God because they wanted to make their own choices? Keach blew that out of the water by writing that sin and evil are “… soul-thieves, and seek to rob us of our choice and chiefest treasure.”
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We asked how many times do we use religious excuses to justify moral failures? We have to discuss the flip side. How many times do worldview people think we are using religious excuses to justify what they consider moral failures?
Whatever we do or don’t do has to be what God is asking us to do or don’t do. We aren’t looking for the worldview stamp of approval. We are looking for God’s.
How Do We Apply This?
We have to remain in the world until God calls us home. That means we will have to remain vigilant in watching for Satan masquerading as a thief.
Meats gave us a good reminder on how to apply this. He wrote, “We do not become good by doing such acts as these, but such acts as these declare our nature. We observe yet further, this goodness wins the respect of the world.”
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Salvation is not earned by our good acts. Our good acts solidify our salvation.
Jesus was making it clear that He was Savior to all people, regardless of nationality. All need Jesus as their Savior.
We need to
- Seek God so that we can answer our own questions.
- Put what we read in Scriptures into practice. Love God’s way.
- Strengthen the relationship and give up reliance on religion.
- Lead with tenderness and compassion.
- Don’t wait for someone to tell us about the need — go and find it.
- Build the relationship so we can identify with those in need.
- Minister to the weak.
Father God. You have told us how You want us to live. You have given examples as to how that can play out. Help us to crow into who You want us to be. Amen.
What do you think?
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