This week our parable is found in Luke 10:30-35, but we also need a few of the verses before this parable to understand the response of Jesus. These would be verses 25 through 29.
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
A man with excellent religious credentials stood among the crowd. He studied God’s law continually and interpreted it so the people would know how to obey it. He tried his best to obey the law himself. He helped administer justice within the Jewish system. People respected his expertise and hi life. He had a question for Jesus. He thought it would reveal the weakness and falseness in Jesus’ teaching and lead people away from him and back to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, the qualified religious leaders.
Jesus bounced the questions back to this “expert”. Both agreed the answer must be in Scripture, particularly in the Law of Moses. So, Jesus asked “What does the law say? Both knew the law had to be interpreted for modern times, so Jesus asked this expert for his own interpretation. Now the expert was being tested.
True to his profession, this expert quoted Scripture. It is interesting that Jesus quoted the same Scriptures in Matthew 22:37-40 and in Mark 12:29-31. This is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. Both of these Jewish leaders’ viewpoint and from Jesus’ unique teachings, these Scriptures stand at the top of all other Old Testament teachings. Love God and Love neighbor. Such love is not half-hearted. It must be all-encompassing. Every part of you; thoughts, emotions, feelings, and actions must be controlled by love for God and others.
For once, Jesus agreed with a Jewish religious leader. Jesus emphasized the nature of this answer; not just an idea of the mind, but an action of one’s strength, a feeling of one’s soul, an emotion of one’s heart. Love must control the entire person.
This leader tried to take the offense again and put Jesus on the defensive. One more trick question: Who is my neighbor? That is, how far does my love have to extend? Jewish legal interpretation sought to govern every situation and every relationship: Jew and Gentile, Jew and Roman; man and woman; free man and slave, priest and laity, clean and unclean, righteous and sinner. Every relationship was clearly defined, and the definitions determined how and when a person could participate in Jewish worship. The question was vital to Jewish identity. Jesus responded in our parable for this week.
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii 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.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Jesus described a normal trip a person would take, seventeen miles from Jerusalem down to Jericho through a mountain pass that fell almost 3,300 feet in elevation. Herod had built New Testament Jericho as his winter palace on the same spot Hasmonean rulers had earlier built their palace. Herod included three palaces, a swimming pool, and a sunken garden. Thus, government officials frequently made the trip from Jerusalem to Jericho as did Jewish religious and political leaders. Criminals took advantage of the upper class’s need to travel this winding, crooked road through dangerous passes. They hid behind the large rocks above the narrow passes and preyed on travelers. Jesus told the story of one victim without identifying the man by race, occupation, or reason for traveling.
Fellow travelers soon happened on the situation. A priest, the highest of Jewish religious officials, hurriedly stepped to the other side of the road and continued on his important business, even though rabbinic law expected him to bury any corpse he discovered. Similarly, a Levite, who carried out the more mundane tasks of temple worship and operation, passed quickly by. No reason why, except not enough love for this “neighbor.”
Next, we would have expected a member of the Jewish laity, the clergy having failed the love test. Instead, we get an unexpected Samaritan, one who in Jewish eyes had little reason to be in Jewish territory and who would be the last person to qualify as a neighbor to be loved. Such qualification is made from interpreting the law. From the dying man’s ditch, anyone who will offer first aid and emergency assistance qualifies as a loving neighbor. Thus, Jesus uttered shocking words for a Jewish audience grilled in legal interpretations and prejudiced judgments. The Samaritan had pity (some translations uses the word compassion); a Greek expression built on the word for a person’s inner parts, the seat of emotions and feelings. It expresses Jesus’ feeling for those in need (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; 8:2; Luke 7:13). It is the feeling and attitude of a master who cancels a servant’s massive debt (Matthew 18:27). This is true neighborly love, a love that goes beyond anything society or religious law expects and acts simply because of the extreme need of another.
Thus, the Samaritan took the dying man from the ditch and gave him life under supervised care without cost to the suffering man. The Samaritan representing everything the Jews hated became more than one they should love as a neighbor. The Samaritan became the hero of the story, the person showing love, the individual whose love Jews should imitate.
Jesus set up for the obvious question: Who among the three was the loving neighbor? The response was the only possible answer: the one who showed mercy to the traveler. Again, this Greek term is often applied to Jesus, who responds to calls for mercy (Matthew 9:27; 15:22; 17:15; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 17:13). Jesus promised God’s mercy to those who show mercy (Matthew 5:7). So, Jesus told him to go and show mercy like the Samaritan had done.
Let us all remember that we are to love our enemies (as well as business associates, fellow church members, neighbors, and those in authority over us) and to be kind and do good to others so that they may benefit from our acts of kindness, without expecting anything in return, considering nothing as lost in our acts.