The Good Samaritan: God's Love in Action
The Good Samaritan: God's Love in Action
By Michael E. Lynch, posted March 8, 2007
And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” And he answered, “YOU SHALL 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 YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.” But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same” (Luke 10:25–37, NASB).
A friend of W. C. Fields once found the legendary comedian reading a Bible. When the friend asked him why he was reading, Fields responded, “I’m looking for loopholes.”
This story reflects one of the weaker sides of human nature. We habitually seek excuses for our behavior. Many Americans recall when former President Bill Clinton admitted that he smoked marijuana in his youth but “did not inhale.” We may even chuckle about the Christian who claims that when Jesus tells us to “turn the other cheek,” He only wants us to do it once (since we only have two cheeks). Like the lawyer (a teacher of the Old Testament law) in this story, we try to justify ourselves. After hearing the word and will of God, we want loopholes. We want God to tell us that those particularly difficult commandments do not apply to us.
When we hear Jesus say, “You shall love your neighbors as yourself,” we hope Jesus does not mean we are supposed to love those people. Take your pick: those people from that racial, ethnic, or religious group you do not like. Maybe it is not even a certain definable class of people. You may just have a hard time loving certain individuals: that gruff co-worker; the neighbors who have loud parties until late on Saturday nights; the one-time close friend who hurt you in the past; the blabbermouth who always talks about himself or herself until you feel drained. We hope Jesus will give us a special dispensation, or at least allows us to love our neighbors without acting on that love.
We are out of luck on this one. The story of the Good Samaritan teaches us two lessons. First, we must love our neighbors, even when they do not seem to deserve it. Second, love requires action.
We can begin by noticing how Jesus describes the hero of our story. He is not the priest or Levite. He is the Samaritan. In Jesus’ day, Jews and Samaritans despised each other. The priest or Levite would be the epitome of holiness: the man set apart for God’s service. However, Jews usually thought of Samaritans as half-breed reprobates.
However, the Samaritan in this story reflects the highest ideals of the Judeo-Christian ethical system. The priest and Levite reveal all the selfishness of humanity. Perhaps they had forgotten the essence of serving God. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). The two religious leaders were both heading towards Jerusalem, probably preparing to minister at the Temple. The Torah would prohibit them from doing so if they had touched a dead body. So, they might have rationalized that helping this poor victim could hinder their ministry.
Oddly enough, we may sometimes think that loving our neighbor to be an inconvenience that gets between us and God. Nothing can be further from the truth. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27, NIV). “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:11, NIV). We cannot say we love God if we ignore the needs of those around us.
Love, in its biblical sense, is costly. It will cost us time. The priest and Levite may have been more concerned about their schedule than about the life of the man on the road. Taking care of the robbery victim cost the Good Samaritan time. He probably had no idea whether tending to the guy would take five minutes, five hours, or longer. It ended up probably delaying his journey by a day or more.
Caring for others may cost us time as well. Whether we visit a sick person in the hospital, listen to a suffering friend lamenting their current crisis over the phone, or feeding the hungry, it takes time. You might miss your favorite TV show or have no time for your hobbies. It will cost, but God will see and bless.
Love will cost us money at times. The Samaritan paid for lodging for both of them, and then paid the innkeeper two days’ wages to care for the man, with a promise to pay any additional expenses when he returned. (I wonder if the innkeeper ripped the Samaritan off when he returned.) Caring for those around us may cost us as well.
When we see a person in need the easy road is to offer to pray for them. Those in need will benefit from our prayers but, as the late Christian contemporary singer-songwriter Keith Green said, “God can’t cash out-of-state checks in heaven.” Meeting the need may require money, coming from somewhere, and God may have blessed you so that you can pass the blessing on to someone who is lacking. An old retired minister once told me, “I will never say a prayer unless I am willing to be the answer to that prayer.”
The Good Samaritan placed the good of another person over his own comfort and even over his own culture and religion. The Samaritan religion was similar to Judaism. However, their Bible contained only the five books of Moses; they did not even acknowledge the prophetic books and other Old Testament writings which pointed to the spiritual aspects of the Law. Ritual purity (which could be corrupted by touching a dead person) was of utmost importance in their faith. Throughout the story, the Good Samaritan risks rejection: from the very man he seeks to help, from the innkeeper, etc. All this, with no guarantee of reward. In fact, if he told anybody back in Samaria that he rescued a bleeding, wounded Jew who had been left for dead at the side of the road, his friends and neighbors probably would have rebuked him for corrupting himself.
It is interesting that, when Jesus asks the lawyer which of the three men proved to be a neighbor, the lawyer could not bring himself to say, “The Samaritan.” Good Samaritan was an oxymoron to Jews. The lawyer had probably always thought, “ The only good Samaritan is a dead Samaritan.” Now, he had to admit that goodness was not found in a particular group of people. It was found in a heart, of whatever nationality, that shows the love of God to others.
We can learn several lessons from this parable. For one, we need to treat everyone like a neighbor, actively showing them God’s love. It should not matter to us whether we think the other person deserves it, or whether they will be willing to return the favor someday. We might find them difficult to love, but we should love them anyway. Those two great commandments, “love God” and “love your neighbor,” must take preeminence in our lives. Social stigmas and ritualistic religious rules must not take their place.