WHO IS THE GOOD SAMARITAN IN THE LORD'S PARABLE?
WHO WAS THE GOOD SAMARITAN IN JESUS’ PARABLE?
One of Jesus’ best-known parables is that of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10. It seems on the surface to be a simple story extolling the virtues of going out of one’s way to help those in need and distress, and indeed the responsibilities of godly people to do this. This no religious or moral person would question. Theologically, however, evangelicals would part with those of a more liberal position in seeing more than this in the parable.
A parable being “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning,” the meaning one gets from it depends importantly on the identification he makes with the story’s characters. The theological liberal has no hesitation in identifying with the Samaritan, who ministered to the poor man the robbers had attacked and left to die, while the priest and Levite passed by. “The meaning of the parable is right on the surface,” he would say – “you’re supposed to help those in need.”
Just so, we evangelicals would agree, but we also see a deeper meaning to the story, another identification to be made. Remember how despised the Samaritans were in the eyes of the Jews to whom Jesus told the parable. They delighted to belittle Him by calling Him a Samaritan (John 8:48). Now in answer to a question a Jewish lawyer had put to Him about who his neighbor was, Jesus parabolically held up a Samaritan as an example. He was doing more that simply illustrating true neighborliness; He was humbly accepting their derogation of Him as a Samaritan. And He was telling them the purpose for which He had come: to save sinners waylaid on their journey by Satan and his emissaries, just as the poor man in His story had been attacked by robbers.
But seeing Jesus as the Good Samaritan necessarily involves identifying ourselves, not with the parable’s hero, but with its hapless victim. We were lost. Like the man in the parable, we had our backs to Jerusalem–the city whose very name means “The Foundation of Peace, Shalom”–and wer on our way to Jericho–the city of the curse (Joshua 6:26). And when we came to the predictable end of such a downward journey, this blessed “Neighbor” of ours, through His death for us on Calvary’s cross, came to where we were in our helpless condition. Anointing us with oil, frequently in Scripture a type of the Holy Spirit, and reviving our perishing spirits with the wine of His joy, He took us to an inn, a picture of His church, where we would be taken care of.
“We know we’re far from perfect,” the liberal theologian would reply to this interpretation of the parable, “but isn’t it a bit extreme to ask us to identify with a man left to die? Shouldn’t religion be an uplifting force in people’s lives? Surely our understanding of Scripture should appeal to human dignity and encourage the good side of human nature instead of stooping to a morbid preoccupation with sin and failure.”
It is not preoccupation with sin, but preoccupation with the holiness of God that leads us evangelicals to see sin as the first thing to be dealt with before we can go on and consider the more positive aspects of Christianity. To us it is not consistent with God’s holy character to envision Him as overlooking even a scintilla of sin, as being satisfied with the best His fallen creatures can do. That is why we emphasize the cross in our preaching. In the cross we see not a martyr suffering because He was misunderstood, but a Savior sent into the world by a loving God to shed his precious blood as an atonement for the sins of those who put their trust in Him.
There is no question, of course, that Jesus expected the lawyer–and that He expects us as well–to identify with the Samaritan. He told the parable in answer to the question the lawyer asked in a lame effort to justify himself, “And who is my neighbor?” Obviously, his neighbor was not the priest or the Levite who passed the pitiful stranger by, but the Samaritan who showed mercy on him. Jesus’ charge to the lawyer, “Go and do likewise,” is to us as well. But it is not until the sin question has been dealt with, decisively and unequivocally, that we evangelicals believe the individual is ready to respond to this charge. Once we have experienced the kindly dealings of this heavenly Neighbor, we are ready to be a neighbor ourselves. Once we have known mercy, we are prepared to show mercy. The gospel is all about mercy and grace, which dying men cry out for. Religion and the law, represented in the parable by the priest and the Levite, can tell living men what they should and should not do. But when the encounter the dying, however much they may care, they have no choice but to pass by on the other side.
Who was the Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable? He was. And in imitation of Him, we are.
posted with his permission
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