THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN
Introduction:
When the disciples came
and asked Jesus,
why He spoke in parables,
He said unto them,
"because it is
given unto you to know the mysteries
(musterion, secret)
of the Kingdom of Heaven,
but to them (unbelievers)
it is not given"
(Mat. 13:10-17; Mar. 4:11-12).
The mysteries
of the Kingdom (basileia; rule, realm) of Heaven,
are the spiritual things that are hidden
to this world.
If you take this parable literally,
then you are not seeing the hidden spiritual
things of God.
One must enter into the spiritual realm
to know the secrets of it.
Thus, it can only be opened to those who
are born again,
by the Spirit of God.
Jesus gave the parables to reveal to us,
the deeper meaning of the realm of the
spiritual,
the realm of God.
The unbelievers
do not understand the meaning of the parables,
because they do not have the Spirit of
God in them,
and thus they interpret them literally.
Literal interpretation,
will contradict the true meaning of the
parables,
because the meanings are spiritual.
If you interpret the parables literally;
You will not be able to address some of
the verses,
as they will contradict the literal interpretation.
Those
who emphasize works,
see things literally and not spiritually,
for works, emphasize the things that are
physical.
Everything they see, is what I must do
for God,
or what God requires of me.
They see things from their perspective,
and they miss seeing and knowing,
the deeper riches of the grace of God.
The world misinterprets,
by looking at the Scriptures from the
physical point of view,
from me to God and what I must do for
God.
God is a Spirit,
and He is revealing the spiritual things,
through His Son and by the Holy Spirit,
in the Word of God.
Christians are saved by Grace,
through faith, and we live by faith.
However, many Christians also emphasize
works,
making the same mistake as the unbelievers,
in trying to understand the Scriptures,
by viewing them from the standpoint of
man.
From the standpoint of the physical, from
the point of works.
Doing this keeps you earthbound.
Everything you see is yourself,
what you must do,
and you walk by sight.
Parables
have different meanings,
from what they appear to be.
We can see from the explanation by Jesus,
of the Parable of the Sower,
and of the Tares of the field,
(Mat. 13:18-23; 13:36-43).
The meanings are not literal but symbolic
and spiritual.
If the parables are interpreted literally,
than the Parable of the Sower is about
farming,
and surely this is not the case.
Why then
do many take the Parable of the Good Samaritan,
as what I must do for my neighbor,
and likewise the Parable of the Talents,
as what I must do for God,
with the talents that he gave me.
On the contrary, these two parables,
like many of the other parables,
are about what God has done for us.
When Jesus
displayed powers beyond the natural realm,
He did this to reveal that He was not
of this world,
but from above,
from the spiritual realm.
When He spoke,
the meanings were spiritual and not physical.
The natural men constantly takes it literally,
and misunderstand what Jesus meant.
When He said to the Jews in
Joh.
3:19-21
"Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it"
The Jews said,
"Forty and six
years was this temple in building,
and wilt thou
raises it up in three days?"
Verse 21 says,
"but He spoke
of His body."
Yes, His body was physical at the time
He spoke,
but He was speaking of His death and the
resurrection,
of His spiritual body.
Paraphrased;
You destroy my physical body,
and I will raise up my body in spiritual
resurrection.
When Jesus said,
"except you eat
the flesh of the Son of man,
and drink his
blood,
you have no life
in you."
The Jews took it literally and were astonished
and said,
"this is a hard
saying, who can hear it?"
(Joh. 6:51-60).
Others today also
misunderstand this saying,
and try to make it true to them and through
their prayers,
they say the bread is turned into His
actual flesh,
and the wine into His blood.
Thus they say they are literally doing
what Jesus said.
What Jesus meant, to partake
of His flesh and blood,
is to believe the Gospel of God, Word
of God,
and to receive it into your heart,
and that is to receive Christ and partake
of Him.
(Rom. 10:9-10).
Jesus said to
Nicodemus,
"Except a man
be born again,
he cannot see
the Kingdom of God."
Nicodemus took it literally,
and thought that being born again was
a physical process.
Nicodemus said
"How can a man
be born when he is old?
Can he enter
into his mother's womb and be born?”
Jesus spoke of the spiritual birth,
but Nicodemus took it literally
(Joh. 3:3-4).
Some
are taking part of it literally,
and think that the water in v.5
speaks of our first birth into this world,
of being born physically,
as there is a breaking of the water bag.
Others think that it is a spiritual birth,
by something we do physically,
and that is to be baptized by or in water.
Water baptism is not mentioned at
all,
in the conversation with Nicodemus.
Jesus was not speaking of physical birth,
nor of spiritual birth done physically.
The water in v.5 of
John chapter 3, is speaking
of the being washed by the Word of God,
of being regenerated
by the blood of Jesus Christ,
that was shed on the Cross of Calvary.
Eph. 5:26 says;
"That He
might sanctify and cleanse it,
with the washing
of water by the Word."
Believing in Jesus as
Lord and Savior,
cleanses you from your sins and you are
born again.
Jesus is called the Word of God.
In Titus 3:5 it says;
"Not by
works of righteousness which we have done,
but according
to His mercy He saved us,
by the washing
of regeneration,
and renewing
of the Holy Spirit."
Peter 1:23 says;
"Being
born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God,
which liveth
and abideth forever."
The woman at the
well also misunderstood what Jesus said,
about the living water took it literally.
She said;
"Sir, thou hast
nothing to draw with,
and the well
is deep:
from whence then
hast thou that living water?"
(Joh. 4:11).
At the wedding at Cana,
Mary, the mother of Jesus says to Him
“they have no
wine.”
He said to her,
“Mine hour is
not yet come.”
(Joh. 2:3-4).
Mary spoke of the
wine of the party,
but Jesus spoke of the blood,
that was to be shed on the Cross.
It is not time for Him to die yet.
We will not understand the true meaning
of the Scriptures,
if we only take things literally.
We must look for the spiritual meaning.
We are
baptized physically,
but the meaning is spiritual.
We partake of the
Lord's Supper literally,
but the meaning is spiritual.
Although we do things literally,
the spiritual meaning is what is important
The Apostle Paul says,
"While
we look at not the things which are seen,
but at the things
which are not seen:
for the things
which are seen are temporal;
and the things
which are not seen are eternal."
(2Cor. 4:18).
Misunderstanding comes
when one does not understand,
the meaning of numbers and types.
Jesus is also teaching us by the meaning
of numbers.
The feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding
of the 4,000,
depicts this vividly.
Jesus said,
"Do ye
not understand,
neither remember
the five loaves of the five thousand,
and how many
baskets ye took up?
Neither the seven
loaves of the four thousand,
and how many
baskets ye took up?"
(Mat. 16:9-10).
Numbers
are significant in the Scriptures,
and in the two incidents of the feeding,
we see Jesus use numbers to teach us spiritual
lessons,
(see notes on FEEDINGS).
Numbers
in Scriptures,
also depict spiritual messages.
The larger the number,
does not necessarily mean it is more or
better.
Literally it may, but spiritually, it
means something else.
For example, in the Parable of the Talents,
the one who produced five talents,
does not mean he produced more talents,
than the one who produced two talents.
The number 5 depicts division and
separation,
and the number 2 depicts testimony
and witness.
The talents
represent the Cross of Christ,
as it is believing in the Gospel of God,
and through the Cross of Christ, and His
resurrection,
the Christian produces a life of separation
from this world,
and becomes a testimony for the Lord in
this life.
NEXT