The parable of the Good Samaritan has been sitting heavy on my mind lately. Most people who have heard this parable have been taught that everyone is our neighbor and that we should show them God’s love. Yes… that’s true… and that’s certainly part of what Jesus was teaching. But I think there’s more to it.
Take a minute to read Luke 10:25-37 and then we’ll break this parable down in ways to better understand.
In this passage, Jesus is answering the question of who is classified as our neighbor. What I recently noticed is that Jesus doesn’t once point a finger as to how the traveler found himself robbed, beaten, and left for dead in a ditch. Jesus doesn’t tell us that the traveler went down the wrong path, or that he shouldn’t have been traveling at that time of day, or that he did anyone wrong along his journey. He was simply making a journey.
The journey from Jerusalem to Jericho was known to be a journey of hardship. The terrain was steep and rugged but also known for the very real potential of violence from bandits. No matter how anyone looked at it, they knew it to be a route that was challenging and full of danger (Jesus’ audience would have known the route as the Way of Blood). Since the journey was from Jerusalem (the city of God) to Jericho (representing the worldly concerns), it’s not just a treacherous path physically, but there’s also symbolism of the path being morally and spiritually treacherous, too.
I also noticed that Jesus never stated whether the man was a Jew or a Gentile. He was simply a traveler. But isn’t that what all of us are? We’re all traveling to our final destination no matter what skin color we are, no matter what church we go to (or don’t go to), and no matter what country we hail from. We’re all created by God… and we’re all loved by God.
But this parable isn’t about how the traveler came to be robbed and beaten and left for dead. The parable is about revealing the heart of who found him there.
If you’re anything like me, if you don’t understand the significance of something, you have to dig a little deeper – just like the very real significance of the route. Until recently, I just kind of breezed over the distinction between that of priest and Levite. But Jesus included them specifically in this parable for a reason.
Both priests and Levites are from the tribe of Levi, but not all Levites could be priests. The priests were descendants of Aaron (Moses’ brother) and were the mediators between our holy God and sinful man. They were the ones who offered the sacrifices and maintained the holiness of the sanctuary. They taught the Law to the people. And only the priests could enter the Holy Place of the temple. Levites were not in Aaron’s lineage and while they were still respected, they were considered the lowest order of the priesthood. They maintained the temple, provided music for worship, helped educate the local community, and handled the administrative tasks.
The priest and the Levite both represented the Law. They were trained in and maintained different tasks in religion – to inspect a person’s condition in order to approve them as worthy – but were not known for deep relationship with those outside of their profession. They measured a person’s value by what they could see. And they both saw the traveler as less than worthy of their time, attention, or compassion. They were so disgusted by what they saw that they went to the other side of the road so they could pass by as far away from the traveler as possible.
And then we’re introduced to the Samaritan – the one that most would have disregarded as being capable of heroism. The one least likely to show compassion. Why? Because the audience Jesus was speaking to didn’t see Samaritans as worthy of anything other than disdain. It’s interesting that Isaiah 53:2-3 describes our Savior as someone who was despised and rejected, too.
Samaritans were despised by Jews because they were ethnically impure. They had a mixed heritage, mixed pedigree, and mixed religious practices. According to the Jews, all Samaritans were spiritually corrupt. It was better to be a Gentile than a Samaritan in the judgmental eyes of the Jews… and would have especially been for the expert on the Law of Moses that Jesus was answering with this parable. While Samaritans were rejected by the Jews because they were considered spiritually corrupt, the Jews saw Jesus as a threat to their comforts and traditions.
The Samaritan didn’t retreat to the opposite side of the road. He didn’t inquire as to how the traveler came to be robbed, beaten, and left for dead. The Samaritan acted on compassion instead of determination of worth. Every action that came from the Samaritan – the binding of wounds, the resources of oil and wine, the transportation to safety, and the provision of lodging – was for restoration before any question of responsibility.
There was no inquiry as to whether the traveler had sinned, tripped over his own feet on the treacherous path, or angered the wrong person along the way. It wasn’t about how the traveler had come to be in his state of need, but rather it was about how resources weren’t withheld for his redemption.
This parable isn’t just telling us how we’re to treat others – no matter their background, social status, race, church attendance, or political party – but even more, it’s revealing Jesus. While we’re to be modeling the actions of the good Samaritan, this parable was taught so that we could see that we’re the ones in the ditch. We’re the ones who have been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. But God so loved us, didn’t He (John 3:16-17)!
In all of His interactions with the people who came to Him, Jesus’ compassion for others was never dependent on how they came to be carrying the wounds they brought to Him for healing. He never turned someone away that was suffering because of their own stupid choices. He didn’t avoid them because they had sinned one-to-many times. He brought them out of the ditch! He was moved with compassion to heal all who came to Him no matter what it was that needed healing (Matthew 9:36, Matthew 8:16-17, Matthew 14:14, Matthew 20:34, Mark 1:41, Luke 7:13).
This changes how we treat others, but also how we treat ourselves. The Law (represented by the priest and the Levite) are a picture of shame – you’re in the ditch for a reason. But Jesus is grace personified – let Me restore you. Shame wants us to keep replaying our finest fails, but Jesus wants us to only see His greatest hit.
How many times have we expected an interrogation into what formed our choices that led to our finest fails? There have been times that I pictured God, club in hand, grilling me for the stupid choices I made. The parable of the Good Samaritan flips the script. While the traveler’s wounds were never ignored, they were never the basis for determining worthiness of love.
Brokenness was acknowledged, but the Good Samaritan didn’t let brokenness have the final word. And Jesus didn’t either. The traveler never earned the Samaritan’s kindness, just like we could do nothing to earn God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:1-7). No matter what ditch you might be in, no matter what ditch you were once in, because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross, you’re not to be defined by those. Rather, you’re to be forever defined by Jesus – the One who refused to leave you there.