Luke 10:25-37 "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, what is written in the law? How readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbour? 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."
The part I would like to focus on today in Luke Chapter 10 is the parable of the Good Samaritan, starting in verse 25 where it says a lawyer, now a lawyer in those days is not like the lawyers we have today. In those days a lawyer is someone who is an expert in the scriptures, someone who is an expert in the laws of Moses.
Now the lawyer stands up to tempt the Lord Jesus, asking Jesus, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Now if you would, flip back over to Matthew chapter 19, here we find a similar story in the bible, I'm going to use this story to help explain the story of the Good Samaritan.
Matthew 19:16 "And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"
Jesus responds to this question in the following verse.
Matthew 19:17 "And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."
Now a lot of people will take these verses and completely misunderstand and stumble over these verses, just like the people in Jesus time, the people who he was speaking to didn't understand what was being said.
You need to understand something here with the people in Matthew 19 and Luke 10, Jesus was speaking to people who are very zealous of their religion, the Pharisees, the Scribes and they thought that they were going to go to heaven because of their own righteousness.
Let's turn to Romans Chapter 10 for a moment, where it talks about the same type of people here.
Romans 10:1-3 "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
And in Romans Chapter 9 we read the following.
Romans 9:31-32 "But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;"
The problem with the Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes is that they believed that by doing good works, they would be saved; they thought by doing the works of the law they would go to heaven.
But let's see what the bible says should one decide to get into heaven by the works of the law.
James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
Let's be honest, nobody can keep the whole law and not offend in one point, there is nobody who can say that they have never lied before, and I'm sure there are people out there who have done worse things than lying…and the bible says if you offend in one point; you are guilty of ALL.
The bible says for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The bible also says that, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Look, every single one of is sinner, every single one commits sin, and the Pharisees and Scribes actually thought that they were good enough to get into heaven; they were trying to earn their way to heaven by doing good works, but of course John 3:16 tells that for God so loved the world, that he gave us his only begotten Son, and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish and have everlasting life.
That's what decides on who is saved and is not saved, that fact that you need to put ALL your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout the four gospels you can see that Jesus is trying to teach these people and show them of their imperfections, Jesus is trying to show them that they are not as good as they think they are; he is trying to get these people to a point where they realise that they are a sinner, that they come short of God's glory, that they're not good enough and that they need Jesus Christ to save them.
Look at it from this point of view, if people were good enough, if people could get into heaven by their own righteousness, and they lived a good life; then why did Jesus have to die on the cross?
Doesn't make any sense does it?
Most people think that every person will stand before God and he will judge us by our works, and then say along the lines of, "Oh my child, you did many wonderful works come on in", and the bad people will go to hell, that's what a lot of people think.
How much is enough good works? There is no such thing as you tried, or do the best we can and then Jesus will fill in the rest for you, NO. If the bible says you offend in one point of the Law, you are guilty of ALL.
EVERYBODY needs to be saved by putting your faith only in Christ Jesus!
Notice in the four gospels that Jesus did not go around preaching to everybody that he was going to die, be killed, and then get buried for three days and rise from the dead?
Notice how his disciples didn't even understand this when Jesus told them what was going to happen?
It wasn't until after all the things that happened to Jesus, and when he ascended back to heaven that the Apostles had fully realised what Jesus meant, all his teaching became clear to them.
Now going back to Matthew 19 we should have a clearer understanding at what Jesus is trying to teach here.
Now Jehovah Witnesses will twist this passage and will try to teach you two things here, I know this because some of my family are Jehovah Witnesses; anyway they will try to teach you from Matthew 19:17 that you have to earn your way to heaven by works, and also teach that Jesus is not God.
Let's just quickly go to Romans Chapter 2 first, I just want to explain something here.
Romans 2:6-8 "who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,"
What is being said here is if you do everything right, keep the Law and live a perfect life, you will have eternal life and if you don't, you will have the wrath of God abiding on you; now we've already concluded that everyone is a sinner, be it Jew or Gentile, we are all sinners and come short, and in Romans 3:28 we read that, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."
You see how easy it is to take Chapter 2 out of context while he is explaining that in order to go to heaven you have to be perfect, but then he goes onto explain how nobody is perfect and that everyone is justified by faith, and not by the works of the Law.
Taking Chapter 2 out of context, people will say, see you have to be perfect to go to heaven…
There are a lot of people out there on this earth, who think they are perfect, full of pride. They think, talk and act like they have no sin, That God will justify their acts, and that God will understand their circumstances.
They will make excuses for their bad actions and choices by saying, God will understand why I do these things because of my up bring, because I had a bad life, or so and so is being bad to me so God will understand the reason why I do behave this way or that. I've heard it, I'm sure you have too.
We're all responsible for our own actions, and God will judge you according to your own actions.
Stop lying to yourselves; you're a sinner and I'm a sinner, which is just the way it is.
Now in Matthew 19, let's see what Jesus says to this man.
Matthew 19:16 "And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"
So let me ask you this, what does this guy think is going to get him into heaven? His works, he ask Jesus what good works should he do to get a ticket into heaven.
He's asking Jesus, how good he has to be or what good thing I have to do to have eternal life.
Now notice what Jesus says to him in the next verse.
Matthew 19:17 "And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."
Now the Jehovah Witnesses will say, see right there Jesus is not God!
Now wait a second, is Jesus good?
Of course he is! Then guess what? Jesus is God, there is none good but one.
Jesus is saying to him, why are you calling me good? Why do you think I'm good? Are you saying that I'm God? See, Jesus isn't saying here that he is not God, Jesus is saying that there is only one good, and that's God.
Jesus is saying to the man that he is not good, he is trying to show this man his own imperfections, he is saying you're not good, and there is only one that is good and that's God. Jesus is saying to him that you're saying it to me because I'm good, that's because I am God.
There is not a Just man on this earth, there is not a man that sinneth not, and this proves that Jesus is God.
Jesus continues onto say if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Matthew 19:18-19 "He saith unto him, which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Verse 18-19 the young man asks Jesus which commandments, Jesus gives him a list of commands, notice they aren't a complete list at all, this is not some special list that some say Jesus deems these sins more grievous than others.
But look at the young man's reply in verse 20.
Matthew 19:20 "The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?"
Now do you really believe that this man kept all these things from his youth up?
He's always loved his neighbours, he's never stolen, and he's never told a lie right back from his youth till now, do you really believe that? Even though the scriptures have spoken, all have sinned?
This guy is lying, he's never done all of that, and he's saying to Jesus that he basically feels like he needs something else, he saying, what am I lacking, what do I need to do, I've done it all.
Now let's read Jesus response to him in the next verses.
Matthew 19:21-22 "Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."
So here is a man that came to Jesus, thinking that he could earn his way into heaven by keeping the works of the Law; that's NOT what the bible says, it doesn't say that in the Old Testament, and it doesn't say that in the New Testament. The whole bible teaches that it is by faith, and not of works.
So here is a man who said, I want to know exactly how good do I have to be, what do I have to do to make sure I'm going to heaven. This guys doesn't even know if he's going to heaven.
Nobody, who thinks they are justified by their works can really know for sure if they are going to heaven, because they don't know if they are really good enough; but the answer of course is they are not going to heaven.
The young man is saying, what am I missing?
Jesus said to the man if he wants to be perfect, let me point it out for an area in what you're lacking where you're NOT perfect.
You see this is prime example of what the Law or specifically the 10 Commands is used to achieve, Jesus is using the Law to show this man that he is not perfect and that we need a saviour to save us, and we have that saviour, Christ Jesus.
Jesus said to the young man, sell all your belongings and give to the poor. Here is a person who has amassed a great deal of wealth, and Jesus is saying to him, why don't sell it and give to the poor, why aren't you following me?
Jesus is saying here that Salvation is not just a list of things that you don't do, he saying why aren't you following me?
The young man ends up walking away all sorrowful and not willing to do none of these things, he came to Jesus thinking he was Justified by works, and he left Jesus still thinking he was justified by works; went away sorrowful because he couldn't measure up!
Now let's get to the main part of this article which is titled The Good Samaritan.
Turning to Luke Chapter 10, here we have a similar story where the key precept is obtaining eternal life or getting into heaven.
Now this is a different event but what we have learnt so far is key to understanding this particular parable.
Now most people, if not everyone has heard of this story, it's one of the most famous stories in the bible whether you're a believer or not you would have heard this story in its many forms, and like all parables it's true meaning is hidden to the spiritually discerned, the unsaved will not understand the deep spiritual truths of the parables that Jesus taught.
Luke 10:25 "And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Can you see the similarity to the story of the rich young man?
It says here, the lawyer is tempting Jesus, now is tempting someone a good thing or a bad thing?
The lawyer is trying to catch Jesus, he is trying to trip him up in his words, trying to get Jesus to say something wrong by asking him really hard questions.
Jesus responds to him in the following verse.
Luke 10:26 "He said unto him, what is written in the law? How readest thou?"
The lawyer replies.
Luke 10:27 "And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."
Jesus responds to him with the following.
Luke 10:28 "And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live."
Jesus is saying here, if you were to do all the commandments perfectly from your youth until now, if you were never to make a mistake, never break the any of the 10 Commandments, never do anything wrong, sell everything that you have and give it all to the poor, follow Jesus your whole life, Love God with all your heart, soul and strength and do likewise to your neighbour just as much as you love yourself; you will go to heaven, but NOONE CAN DO THAT! Not one is able to do that!!
OK, theoretically if you did all these things would you go to Hell? No, if you lived a perfect life you would be saved and go to heaven, but we know that it is not true, no one can say they have no sin.
But this isn't finished look what the lawyer says.
Luke 10:29 "But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbour?"
Now Jesus has told that he needs to love his neighbour as he would love himself. Now the lawyer says to Jesus, ok so who is my neighbour, who do I have to love as myself?
So this is where Jesus begins to tell a story.
Luke 10:30 "And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
So here is man who is on a trip, just moving along, doing what he normally would do minding his own business but suddenly falls victim to a bunch of thieves waiting for somebody to come along that they can rob.
They jump this man, they attack him and look what the bible says, they strip him of his clothes, and they wounded him, possibly stabbing him, they leave him for dead.
And then what happens?
Luke 10:31 "And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side."
Here is a priest, someone who is supposed to be a religious man, someone who was giving his life to teach other people to love each other, help each other, but he comes across this guy lying in his own pool of blood and just looks at him. What does he do? He jumps over to the other side and walks right past him. Isn't he the type of person you would see in our society today? You know, that type of person who says I don't want to get involved in that, I don't want to deal with that, not my problem.
Look at the next verse.
Luke 10:32 "And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side."
The Levite does the same thing…
Luke 10:33 "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,"
What is the significance of the third man being a Samaritan? The bible said in those days that Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, it was like a racial thing.
The Samaritans were a mixture of different races, when the kingdom of Assyria sacked the northern kingdom of Israel the Israelites of the northern kingdom intermingled with the foreign invader, because of this, the Jews of the southern Kingdom of Israel or the Kingdom of Judah did not want to mix with the Samaritan for this reason, they looked down upon these people.
This is pure racial prejudice and is definitely not right, the bible says we are of all one blood. We should not believe that races should be separated and is taught by wicked people like Charles Darwin who pushed his theory of evolution. Evolution pushes racism, period.
It doesn't matter what race you are, we are all the same.
Now this Samaritan man is looking at this poor fellow on the ground, he's looking at him and he sees he is hurt, in trouble and is dying. The Samaritan is filled with compassion, what going through his mind is that he needs to help this man, my heart goes out to this man, I need to give him some attention or he will die.
We then read what the Samaritan does.
Luke 10:34 "and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him."
So he sets the man on his own beast, and starts to lead the horse while the injured man lay on the horse and leads them to an Inn and took care of him.
Luke 10:35 "And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."
Now the next day, we read that the Samaritan took out as he was departing some money and gave it to the host or the Inn keeper, and said to him to take care of the guy and that whatever he has to spend more on him he will come back and repay him.
These days you can't really walk to a place and say just send me the bill, we no longer live in a world where a stranger can be trusted at all. This story tells me that this man could be of a good reputation with the keeper, why else would he agree to do this?
Jesus now gives in the next verse the moral of the story.
Luke 10:36-37 "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."
Now the lawyer is picking the one person that was probably not the person he would think to treat as his neighbour, a Samaritan.
But notice how Jesus turns the story back around to the lawyer?
In verse 29 the Lawyer tempting Jesus asked him, who is my neighbour?
And in verse 36 Jesus asks the lawyer, "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?"
Jesus is saying who do you think (of the 3) was neighbour to the guy that fell victim to the thieves?
It's not about who is your neighbour, it's not about having a neighbour; it's about BEING a neighbour.
It's not about how many friends you have or who is a friend to you, Jesus is saying it's about who YOU are a friend to, who YOU are going to help; Jesus is saying YOU are the one who is going to decide who YOU are going to be a neighbour to.
He says it's not that somebody's your neighbour or your friends and family and you're going to help them out. You decide who your friend is, you decide who your neighbour is, and when you see somebody who needs your help, whosoever they are, when you see somebody in need, now is the time to for to be a neighbour to them!
That's what he meant by "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self" it is the person that YOU love, it's the person that YOU'RE willing to help, it's the person YOU have compassion on; that's YOUR neighbour, NOT who is your neighbour but who YOU are going to be a neighbour to.
And Jesus tells them to go and do likewise, that's how I want you to live.
When you think about this story, reflect for a moment and ask yourself this, is this really the type of person that most people are in this world?
The type of person that would just pull out hundreds of dollars of money to help somebody out? To go out of their way to help their fellow man in need?
This type of person is rare indeed, much like a virtuous women, this type of person that we all ought to be is a rare jewel indeed. Let's be honest, NOT all self-professing Christians would even do this.
Not All truly saved persons would do such a thing, it doesn't mean they're not saved, that's why James Chapter 2 asks the question about our faith, what does it profit or who does it profit it we remain dead in our faith?
Jesus is saying Christianity is about when we see someone in need, we should be that neighbour and offer our assistance.
Jesus said, Love God will all thy heart, soul, mind, and all thy strength; he said that comprehends the first half of the Law right there.
He also said the other half is this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; he said on these two commandments, hang all the Law and the prophets.
If you love your neighbour as yourself, you aren't going to steal from your neighbour are you?
If you love your neighbour as yourself, you're not going to commit adultery with his wife or vice versa?
If you love your neighbour as yourself, you're not going to covet what your neighbour has, you're not go to lie to your neighbour and so on.
Love is the fulfilment of the whole Law according to what the bible says.
So the original question that was asked was, who is my neighbour?
But Jesus said, who are YOU going to be a neighbour to?
On a deeper spiritual note, this entire story symbolizes what Jesus has done for us.
The beaten man = is us, all the people in the entire world.
The thieves = Satan and his demons, and his children, they came to steal, kill and destroy. (John 10:10)
Priest and Levite = the priests and Levites are they that represent the Old Covenant (Old Testament) Laws and Ordinances, they have nothing to offer the wounded man under the Old Covenant.
They are headed on the path of destruction, trying to keep the Law perfectly but can't. Following the Law leaves no room for Grace. (Romans 4:4 and Romans 11:6)
The Good Samaritan = Jesus is symbolized by the Good Samaritan, remember there is none good but one, and that is God; and Jesus is good, so he is God. (Parable of the Rich young ruler Matthew 19)
Also note in John 8:48 the Jews accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan.
We are all dead in our sins, there is not one righteous (Romans 3:10), and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Jesus came down from heaven not to do of his own will (John 6:38), who is God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) who saw that we needed to be saved because we could not do it ourselves (Romans 3:23).
God who has compassion and mercy on us would become our neighbour and selflessly offered his own life to save us from the death.
He bandaged our wounds, pouring oil and wine…
Oil = the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the marking of ownership. Just as in the story of King David, you are marked by the King of Kings with oil, showing the world that you are his.
Wine = symbolically being born again, Just like pouring new wine into new wine skins. The person must first be given a new nature. Once you are born again, Jesus through the Holy Spirit can then begin working on regenerating your spirit.
The Inn = is also symbolized as the Holy Spirit, when we are saved by Jesus the Holy Spirit indwells the believer (2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5, Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Inn is a place of safety and security, in this sense the Holy Spirit is the one who protects us from Satan and his devices and spiritual wickedness.
When the Samaritan departs the next day (Jesus ascending back to heaven after his death and resurrection) leaving the Holy Spirit to watch over the Church who Jesus says is the Helper. (John 16:13)
The Inn Keeper = the body of believers (the Church), he instructs the Inn Keeper to continue to care for the wounded man and nurse him back to recovery (Life). He gives the Inn Keeper two pence to help with any ongoing costs. Does this mean that Jesus has given the Church enough strength to last for the next 2000 years after his departure?
The Samaritan tells the Inn Keeper that he will reward (repay) when he returns (2nd Coming).
THIS STORY IS ALL ABOUT JESUS...NOT A STORY ABOUT A GOOD PERSON BEING NICE.
He is the One and Only Good Samaritan, and by faith in him, we can act as his tools and thus fulfill the duty of a Good Samaritan.
Now go and do likewise.
Amen.
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