A Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37

Key Verse 10:37

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Today we would like to think about the way to inherit eternal life as Jesus taught it to an expert in the Law of Moses. We can think about this subject in two parts: Part 1, “Do this and you will live.” Part 2, “Go and do likewise.” Part 1 teaches us the principle, and part 2 shows us the practice (application). 

I. Do this and you will live. 

Look at verse 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?"" In this passage we see a Jewish man requesting Jesus for a Bible study. In his request, he first asked Jesus a question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is a very difficult question. But to Jesus no question is too difficult. 

Look at verse 26a. "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" Jesus knew that he was an expert in the Law. Here the Law refers to the first five books of the Bible called the Torah. The Torah is called God’s code book of creation because it has all the answers to all the fundamental questions about life – the origin of life, the purpose of life, the direction of life, everything. Because Jesus knew that the man already had an answer to the question, and yet because he asked Jesus the question only to test Jesus, Jesus did not volunteer an opinion. Rather by asking the man what he already knew Jesus helped the man to answer the question himself.  

So what did the man say to Jesus? Look at verse 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." His answer is a summary of Moses’ Ten Commandments which consist of two parts. Part 1 is comprised of the first four commandments and it governs one’s relationship with God the Father. Part 2 has six commandments. And it governs our relationship with our fellow human beings. So, the first four have to do with our vertical relationship with God and the next six commandments deal with our horizontal relationship with our neighbors. This structure corresponds to the cross of Jesus which consists of two lines: one vertical another horizontal. The cross of Jesus is then a plus sign which symbolizes that Jesus came to “add” all of us to the family of God where all members have a perfected relationship with God and with our neighbor. And at the heart of the two lines crossing, is the love of God as Paul says in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” [Please take a look at the video presentation.]

What did Jesus say? Look at verse 28a. “You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. Jesus gave him an A plus. But Jesus knew that this man needed to practice what he knew. So he added: “Do this and you will live.” The word “live” in “you will live” indicates that the love of God and the love of one’s neighbor constitute the life itself for all who practice it. Let us stop for a moment and think about how it works. We can say three things:

First, love God.

Jesus said that loving God and loving one’s neighbor is the way to inherit eternal life. We must love God first, because love comes from God. Then as we love God we come to have life in Him. Then we can love our neighbor. We can easily understand this concept because God is the creator God. Because God created everything including life it follows that in order for us to have life, and share it with many, we must first go to God who is the source of life.  

Second, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind

Then how do we secure life from God? The answer is that we must decide to love God in order to secure life from God. And we choose to love God just as a husband and a wife exchange a vow of love before getting married for holy matrimony. 

God did not create us as a bunch of automated robots. God gave us the right to choose: either to ask him or not to ask him, to love him or not to love him. It has been said, “Love is a decision, not a feeling.” Once upon a time a pastor introduced a sister to a brother as his marriage partner. The brother said to a pastor, “Pastor, I don’t feel love for that woman. It doesn’t click!” But still the pastor said, “I think she is a right person for you. Go and propose her to marry you.” Then by faith after the day’s work was done, the brother hit the road driving to her place at night. While he was driving to the woman living in another city, he got bored and turned on the radio. Then a pastor started preaching saying, “Love is a decision, not a feeling. If you want to make a marriage proposal, do not rely on your feeling, but make a “decision” to love that person before God.” He was blown away. Then all the way to her place, he offered an earnest prayer to love that woman no matter what. Later he said, “That decision was the best decision I have ever made in my life.” 

The Bible says, “God so loved the world…” The Apostle John said, “Do not love the world or anything in it.” John said, “Do not love the world” for a reason: it will all pass away. But how come God so loved the world which is here today but will be gone tomorrow? In addition, we are all sinful and made altogether ugly. Yet he so loved the world that he sent His one and only Son. How come? It was because he “decided to love” us. In the same way, we are to love the Lord God willingly, not forcedly. We must make a decision to love Him, and do so wholeheartedly! 

Now, in loving God we choose to love God as a person, not as a mere concept. The Bible presents God as a person. Why? It is because God IS a person. He is not a mere concept. Like you and I he too has feelings, will, intellect, likes and dislikes. And you may not like what he likes; you may dislike what he likes. By the same token, he may not like what you like; he may dislike what you like. But if you decide to love him, you decide to love him no matter what. 

If we love him wholeheartedly then very naturally we can get into the full relationship with Him who himself is the source of life; and as we remain in Him, the source of life, we can drink life to eternity from him the fountain of life. 

Third, love your neighbor as yourself.

What then is the ultimate purpose of life? In other words, why does God want us to love him with our entire person? We find an answer to this question in what the man answered. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The purpose of us loving God then is for us to love our neighbor, our fellow human beings. Benjamin Disraeli the famous Jewish prime minister during the Victorian age of Great Britain, understood this concept and said, “If it is not for love why live?” By “love” here he meant not only loving God but ultimately loving one’s neighbor. 

At the end of the four gospels, Jesus expressed the same idea by commanding his disciples to make disciples of all nations, or simply by exhorting them to feed his sheep. And the more we do this, the more life the Lord God pours into our life. 

A question might arise: what if in the course of loving my neighbor I lose my life? Still God will let him inherit eternal life, for the Bible says that no love is greater than the love that lays down his life for his brother. And God loves those who love Him and love others. In love God will guarantee that that person would have eternal life in the world to come. And Jesus alluded to this truth by saying, “Do this and you will live.” The word “will” here is in the future tense indicating that the future refers to not just the remainder of our life time here in a physical body but in the world to come. 

II. Go and do likewise!

So far Jesus taught the man the way to inherit eternal life as a matter of principle. Now, let us think about the application. 

Actually the discussion on the way to inherit eternal life could have ended before getting into the application part. But it continued because the man asked Jesus another question. Look at verse 29. “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"” We do not know exactly what the Apostle Luke meant by “justify” himself. Most likely being a lawyer, he wanted to obey the law, so the desire to obey it (or principle) in detail must have arisen in him. 

I think Jesus loved this man, especially the question he asked. Thus Jesus gave him one of the most famous parables, quoted most often, by the most number of people even by the unbelievers, that is, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Let us read verses 30-35. 

After giving this parable Jesus asked the man, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Interestingly the man did not say, “the Samaritan”, or “the third person”. Rather, he said, “the one who had mercy on him.” But it did not matter, for the man gave the correct answer. Then Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." 

“Go and do likewise.” This parable came directly from Jesus’ heart, so it deserves special attention so we too would apply it to our day to day life. Let us take a look at the parable and think about what Jesus means by “likewise.” 

First, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. In verse 30, in reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho…” In asking the man “What is written in the law”, Jesus added one interesting line, “How do you read it?” Here one of the meanings of “How do you read it?” is that depending on how you read it, the meanings can hit you differently taking you to a heightened level of understanding, even enabling you to change to a higher level of maturity.   

What is written in the law? How do you read it? Hidden in these two questions then is the call for us to read the Bible for all of its worth. One way to read the Bible for its full worth is to understand that every little thing such as the materials used in the Bible, the names (of people or places) mentioned in the Bible have specific meanings. Soon the Christmas season will come around. Then you will hear a lot about Bethlehem, if you are a Christian. And the place called Bethlehem has special meaning for example, that is, the house of bread. Even the house of bread itself has another meaning, that is, Jesus Christ. Actually Jesus was born there, and when he began his public ministry he said, “I am the bread of life.” This is just a small example. And there are tons of them in the Bible. 

Now, let us stop for a moment and take a look at what Jesus said: “a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” Does Jerusalem have a special meaning? Yes it does. It is the place where the Lord chose to establish his dwelling among men. So Jerusalem could mean not just a geographic location, but the throne room of God which the Lord God desires to establish even inside of you! What about Jericho? Does it have a special meaning? Yes it does. It means in Arabic, “The city of the moon.” Geographically it refers to a village in Jordan near the north end of the Dead Sea. It is located at an elevation of 1,000 feet below sea level. The expression “the man ‘going down’ from Jerusalem to Jericho” is a reference to all fallen men who lost their faith in the Lord, departed from the presence of God, and went “down” to a distant country. 

Next, he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A lot of people think that if they leave God the Father and live on their own, they can live a life which is a lot happier than if they stayed with God. But the exact opposite turns out to be true. When one does not cherish one’s relationship with God the Father, abandons his position as a child of God, and chooses to love the world rather than God, at first he may feel free, but sooner or later like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable of the lost son, he ends up falling into the hands of robbers which are symbolic of the devil and all who carry out his will.  

So what did the robbers do to the man? They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. Let us focus on the word “clothes” for it has a special meaning in the Bible. A lady I know earned a PhD and became an internationally renowned scholar by specializing in “the chair.” This lady knows “everything about the chair” – the history of the chair like who first invented it, the culture, the style, and every thing else. I think it would be good if someone specialized in “clothes” as used in the Bible, for at first Adam and Eve were naked, but they had no problem with it (I mean without wearing any clothes) but upon falling they felt shame. So, they started wearing clothes. Then Paul says that he does not want to be “unclothed” but “clothed.” Further Paul says that we must all “clothe” ourselves with Christ. But this man got stripped of his “clothes”, which is symbolic of a sinner tormented by the burning sense of shame and guilt. 

And the man left “half dead” reminds us of all the unsaved souls who are physically alive but spiritually dead. When you think about it, once upon a time all of us used to live like this. In the past I too used to live like this. Like the man I fell into the hands of robbers. Spiritually I got stripped of the spiritual clothes of my soul; I got beat down by all kinds of negative thoughts about life, so that having become half dead, I was always considering committing suicide after making my mom happy until she died.  When we look around ourselves we see tons of people lying half dead every where - on college campuses, in nice mansions in rich neighborhoods, or on skid row in all the dark corners of the metropolitan cities of this nation and the world. 

Who then can help them out? Look at verses 31-32. “A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.” In reading an introduction to a book entitled “Proverbs” by Rabbi A. J. Rosenberg, I learned that the priest represents the “law”, for in Ezekiel 7:26 it reads, “…the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost.” While a priest works as the custodian, preserver, and instructor of the law a Levite operates in the Old Testament Scriptures as an assistant to the priest. So both the priest and the Levite worked as administrators of the law. Now, it is interesting that both the priest and the Levite refused to offer help to the man lying half dead. What does this mean? One of its meanings is that the law cannot save sinners. It makes sinners feel condemned. It makes a sinner sharply aware of all of his wrong doings. In other words, the  law is good at condemning, but not at saving. 

Who then can help the man lying half dead? The parable says that the Good Samaritan did. How did the Samaritan help the man? Because Jesus devoted a considerable amount of energy to elaborate on the details of the help the Samaritan offered, it is a good idea for us to go into the details point by point. 

Verse 33 reads. “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him…” In my opinion the Good Samaritan is symbolic of Jesus. After all, the Samaritan as described here is Jesus’ brainchild. It came directly from Jesus’ heart. And whatever Jesus said did not come from him but from God. All the words of Jesus came from God the Father, for in John 12:49 Jesus said, “I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” It is God who commanded Jesus to say what he said, such as what the Samaritan did. 

Now, Jesus said, “A priest happened to be going down the road…” But the Samaritan was different. He did not “happen” to be going “down” the road. The Samaritan “traveled” on purpose. This reminds us of Jesus who came to visit us and live for a while among us on a rescue mission. Then he came where “the man was”. Then, the Samaritan “saw” the man. Here the word “saw” is very important. In the four gospels the expression “Jesus saw” is repeated a number of times. And each time Jesus saw people in any kind of predicament, the work of salvation started happening. In Matthew 4:18 Jesus “saw” Peter and Andrew. Jesus called them to follow him. Then he fulfilled his great work of salvation through Peter and Andrew. In Matthew 4:21 Jesus saw James and John. Through them Jesus taught us great things such as love, light, and life. In Matthew 8:14 Jesus saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He went over to her and healed her. In Matthew 9:9 Jesus saw a man sitting in a tax collector’s booth. “Follow me” he said, and then St. Matthew was born. In Matthew 14:14 when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd he had compassion on them and healed their sick. We can go on and on. 

The Good Samaritan was the embodiment of Jesus’ love. In love, the Samaritan saw the man lying half dead. And the salvation work began on the man. Likewise, it is our prayer that we might see all peoples on earth, especially the emerging generations with Jesus’ eyes. 

The next thing he did was to take pity on the man. He then went to him, bandaged his wounds and poured oil and wine on them. Here the oil refers to the Holy Spirit and wine symbolizes the blood of Jesus. It also refers to the joy Jesus grants to those who put trust in Him. These things work together to bandage his wounds. 

Then, he took the man on his own donkey, which is symbolic of Jesus carrying the sin burdens. He then took the man to an inn which is symbolic of his church where he takes care of his sheep. Look at verse 35. “The next day he took out two silver coins 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.' Here arguably the innkeeper refers to the disciple of Jesus under whom Jesus put his flock to be cared for by saying, “Feed my lambs.” John 21:15 

“Look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.” He did not say, “In case I return” or “For I may return”, but rather he said, “When I return…” When he returns then he “will” reimburse the innkeeper for any extra expense he might have. In the meantime he gave the innkeeper two silver coins which are equal to two days wages. This indicates that the man is going to return in two days. On the third day he is going to come back. 

Normally if you check into a hotel, the receptionist asks for your credit card number. Then only as you check out, you cover the hotel for the expenses. But in the case of the man, he prepaid the two days’ portion. On the third day, he would come back. When he comes back what does he want to do with the man? The answer is obvious. He wants to take the man back to the place where he is supposed to be. Let us not forget that having been stripped and robbed of everything he had, we are pretty much sure that the man totally lost the capability to go back home on his own, for he lost his wallet, airplane tickets, driver’s license, check book, credit cards, cash, his car key, and of course his transportation. The Samaritan saw this, so that he had to return, not just to cover the innkeeper but to take the man back home safely. Jesus came to take us back home. He picked us up when we lay half dead. Then, he put each of us in a sheep pen called church, and then after making us whole while we tarry there, he is going to come back to take us home. What is our home? The spiritual Jerusalem, not the Jerusalem below, but the Jerusalem above! [Revelation 21:2]

After sharing the parable Jesus asked the expert in the law, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" It is interesting to see that Jesus changed the question a little bit. The man asked, “Who is my neighbor?” But Jesus asked, “Who is his neighbor?” or simply “Are you his neighbor?” Another interesting point is that the expert did not utter the word “Samaritan”. Rather he replaced it by saying, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jewish people of Jesus’ day did not like Samaritans. To them ‘Samaritan’ was a dirty word. So the man refused to make his mouth dirty by uttering the word. When Jesus came, Jesus rebuked the Jews for not listening to him. Because Jesus claimed that he is the Son of God the Jews tried to kill Jesus thinking that Jesus committed the sin of blasphemy. But Jesus did not back down. He in turn said that they belonged to the devil who was a murderer from the beginning. The Jews became mad and said to Jesus, “Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?" John 8:48 Now Jesus turned the table around and got one of the hard-core Jews, the expert in the Law, to admit that it was not a priest or a Levite but the “Samaritan” who had mercy on the man. But we all know that Jesus did not do this in retaliation but to teach him the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God, namely, Jesus Christ himself who is the giver of eternal life. 

Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise." No doubt, Jesus was aware of what the Jewish community thinks of him, that is, calling him a “Samaritan”. But Jesus did not mind whether his own people called him a Samaritan or a Jew. All Jesus cared was to make it sure that the needs of the needy people were met. So he framed the essence of the gospel using the parable of the good Samaritan. 

Go and do likewise. Here, “likewise” reminds us of what the Apostle Paul said to his flock:  follow my example as I follow the example of the Christ. 1Co 11:1 The example of the Good Samaritan very much resembles the example of Jesus. Go and do likewise, then, is the command given to all who choose to follow Jesus. As we follow Jesus’ example, then the life thrives among all who are in need. 

In conclusion, we learned that eternal life consists in securing a love relationship with God the Father and a love relationship with our neighbor. Jesus came to build our relationship with God the Father and our relationship with our neighbor. In love Jesus died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. In love and through love Jesus opened the way for us to come to the Father being able to call Him Abba Father. By faith in His love and power, we can then overcome ourselves and this world, go out and practice the kind of love God has for us, just as the Good Samaritan did for the man lying half dead. 

One word: Go and do likewise