Carey's Bible Study Notes
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good samaritan
life of christ: luke 10.25-37
the good samaritan
introduction
Caesarea Philippi marked a turning point in Jesus� ministry. Just prior to that event Jesus had alienated many of His disciples who were offended at Jesus� Sermon on the Bread of Life (John 6:66). Knowing that He had only one year left before He endured the cross and ascended to the Father, Jesus begins to concentrate almost exclusively upon the 12 disciples upon whom so much depends. After Peter�s confession at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus begins a year-long instruction on what it means to be His disciple. Just as He was going to humble Himself even to the point of death on the cross, so He was calling His disciples to humble themselves, even if the ultimate cost of discipleship was being called for, their own martyrdom for the sake of Christ.
During this final year of Jesus� ministry, Jesus is going to emphasize the need for humility on the part of His followers. He will call them to serve others just like He came to serve (Mark 10:45). Several times He will claim that the only way for His followers to enter the kingdom of heaven is for them to humble themselves like little children because of such is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 18:3).
Now for Christ, humility does not mean a person puts himself down. That is nothing less than a subtle form of pride because it still focuses attention upon oneself. Humility does not focus on oneself but on Christ. We exercise that humility by obeying Christ. The only truly humble person is the person who obeys someone else. Jesus claims that if we obey Him, then we will love Him because He commands us to love Him and one another. Moreover, Jesus says that the person who truly loves Him will obey Him. According to Jesus a person cannot legitimately claim to love Him and yet disobey Him. That is not the NT kind of love Jesus speaks about. (See John 14:15). These same ideas are operating here in the story of the Good Samaritan.
two lucan comments (Luke 9:51-56)
Right before the story of the Good Samaritan, he makes 2 comments which will affect the interpretation of this verse. In Luke 9:51 Luke says that there was a turning point in Jesus� ministry. Up until this time Jesus had primarily been focusing upon ministering in Galilee. At this time (one year before His death), Jesus now turns His face towards Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and the eventual location of His own death and resurrection. Throughout this last year, Jesus� heart and mind are set towards Jerusalem. It governs His teachings and the eventual destination of His itinerant ministry. For example, Jesus repeatedly predicts that He will go to Jerusalem in order to suffer persecution and crucifixion at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders. During this time Jesus will visit Jerusalem or its neighborhoods no less than 4 times as compared to a total of 2 times during the past 2+ years of ministering. (The 4 times Jesus visits Jerusalem includes those recorded in John 7, 10, 11, 12; the 2x He visits Jerusalem in the previous 2+ years are those of John 2, 5.) The cross and its humiliation weigh heavily upon Jesus� mind.
The second comment Luke makes occurs right after the first one. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem via Samaria (Luke 9:51-56). He sends out some of His disciples as emissaries in order to secure lodging and shelter in one of the Samaritan villages. When the Samaritans realize that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (the site of the sanctuary which rivaled their sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim), they refuse to give Him shelter. James and John, the sons of thunder, feel that an appropriate response is called for against the Samaritan village. In their opinion the appropriate response would be to call down lightning from heaven and wipe out the city. Jesus does not share that sentiment but instead decides to leave the city alone. According to Jesus their attitude does not reflect the attitude of the Father.
This comment is interesting because the hero of our story of none other than a Samaritan. After Jesus was treated harshly by the Samaritans, you would think that the Samaritans would be the last to qualify as heroes of any of Jesus� stories; however, the fact that this episode happened and that Jesus named the hero a Samaritan graphically illustrates the very point Jesus is trying to make.
a lawyer approaches jesus (Luke 10:25-29)
At this time a lawyer approaches Jesus in order to test Him by posing the question: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Several points need to be brought out concerning this statement. First, this lawyer was a member of the caste of scribes who produced copies of the OT Scriptures by copying them by hand. Devoting large amounts of time to copying the Scriptures made the scribes proficient in their knowledge of the Scriptures. Since much of the OT is made up of laws, these experts in the OT served as the lawyers in Jesus� day.
Second, the lawyer asks this question in order to test Jesus. The word test can be used either in a positive sense or in a negative sense as to tempt. The negative sense is probably operating here because later on in this episode the lawyer exhibits some hostility towards Jesus� answer and towards the story of the Good Samaritan.
Third, the question the lawyer poses reveals the schizophrenic attitude of the Jews towards eternal life, that is, life in the kingdom of God. He literally asks, "What is the one [great] thing I must do in order to inherit eternal life?" The question is schizophrenic because inheriting something and then doing something to get that thing contradict each other. I will inherit my parents� possessions simply because I am their child, not because I went out and slew some dragon! I think that I would be mortified if my Nathan and Molly asked me what they needed to do in order to inherit my hundreds of dollars. THEY�RE MY CHILDREN; THEREFORE, THEY DON�T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING!!! Yet the Jews misunderstood this concept and were trying to perform some great act which would qualify them for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. They did not understand that simply being God�s children was all that was required. We need to be careful here also. Church attendance, praying, tithing, promoting missions, etc. do not qualify us to enter heaven but rather reveal that we are on our way to heaven.
Jesus responds by asking the lawyer how the OT deals with this issue. He replies that the OT claims we should love the Lord our God with our all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and then our neighbor as ourselves. The first part of this commandment demands that we love God with our entire being. One of the marvelous aspects of this reply is that the lawyer says that there is really only one commandment with 2 parts and not 2 separate commandments, that is, a greater one and a lesser one. The lawyer rightly attaches love for neighbor with love for God. The 2 go hand-in-hand. A person does not love God properly until he loves his neighbor who is made in God�s image (James 3:9-10; 1 John 4:20-21).
All this the lawyer should have known without even having to ask Jesus. Twice a day the Jews recited the first part of this verse because it formed part of the Shema which the Jews recited every morning and every evening. Moreover, the Jews (including this lawyer) wore little boxes dangling by the temples on their heads called phylacteries in which were little scrolls containing the Shema. The Jews wore the Shema without understanding its significance. The Jews tried to obey the OT though without even understanding it.
(One side note. Many evangelical Christians are taken back when they read this commandment and Jesus� affirmation of it because it does not mention the word faith. Remember that faith is nothing less than an obedient trust in God through Jesus Christ. When Jesus defines obedience, He claims that obedience equals love and that love equals obedience. The person who truly obeys God loves others; the person who truly loves God obeys Him. They are inseparably linked to each other.)
Jesus affirms that the lawyer has answered correctly. Now all he needs to do is go live out that commandment.
the story of the good samaritan (10:30-37)
The lawyer now feels like he needs to justify himself. He tried to put Jesus on the defensive but instead has been placed on the defensive himself. Why? One reason may be that he is not quite sure if he has fulfilled this commandment properly because he may have not loved all those who were his neighbors. The second (and more probable) reason is that he is embarrassed as to how simple the answer was to the great theological question he had posed to Jesus. He had tried to expose Jesus as being an inadequate teacher and had instead exposed his own inadequacies. He responds to Jesus by saying, "Well, duh! Everybody knows that! But Jesus, just who is my neighbor? Now that is a tough question!"
That question though is horrible. It betrays the fact that the man does not understand love. Anybody who is full of love does not go around asking whom he should love. Love tries to find ways to help others. Anyone who tries to limit the number of people he loves shows that he is either loving out of a sense of duty, have-to, or else loving only those in whom he has a vested interest, such as, family, friends, and people who present a business opportunity.
Jesus though illustrates His point with the Story of the Good Samaritan. Some claim that this is a parable. Most likely though Jesus is using a real-life story. Even in Jesus� parables, He does not concoct something contradictory to reality. Like in the parable of the tares, sowers really do sow seed, and enemies really do harm the fields of those they hate. It is likely in this case that Jesus had heard the story of the Good Samaritan and saw it as a vivid illustration of the point He was trying to make.
The story begins with a man who is most likely a Jew because Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience and does not identify him any differently. This man is traveling on the road which links Jericho to Jerusalem. This road approximately 17 mi. in length ascended from Jericho which was about 800� below sea level to Jerusalem which was about 2500� above sea level, a rise of 3300� over a distance of 17 mi. As a result, you travel up the road to Jerusalem and down the road to Jericho. (This fact will be important in our interpretation of the story.) The road itself was windy and treacherous. As you travel from Jericho to Jerusalem the sides of the road overlook cliffs which plunge down to the gorge below. Last year on our trip to Israel, our tour bus traveled this road. Many of the tourists were really frightened because of the steep drop-offs just to the right of the bus.
The road itself was primarily notorious though for the bandits who lived beside the road. In the first century when travel itself was considered dangerous, this road was notorious because of the dangers it presented. The road is so curvy and windy that you cannot see far ahead of you. Behind each turn in the road might be a group of bandits waiting to jump you. That is precisely what happened to the Jew. A group of bandits descend upon the man, rob him, and strip him of his clothes. Apparently he tries to resist the bandits because they beat him nearly to death. They leave him for dead.
A little later a priest comes down the road and sees the man half-naked and almost dead lying on the road. Just who was this priest? All priests came from the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 original sons of Jacob. The priests directly descended from Aaron, Moses� brother who was also descended from Levi. During the time of Jesus there existed so many priests that they ministered in Jerusalem approximately only 2 months out of each year. Since Jerusalem was too serious a place to live, most priests lived in other cities, such as, Jericho, the other 10 months out of the year.
The fact that he was going down the road is important because it dispels a myth many of us have concocted about this priest. Why didn�t the priest help the man? Many claim that like most preachers and ministers he was too busy and had to get to the Temple where worship services were waiting for him. Such a claim might be true IF, and I do mean if, he had been going up the road. If he had been going up the road, he would have been on his way to Jerusalem to prepare for worship. The fact that he is going down though means that he is departing Jerusalem because he has already finished performing his priestly duties. This is the minister driving home from church on Sunday afternoons right after the worship service, not at 9:00 a.m. on his way to church. The priest has just stood in God�s presence and worshipped Him, and yet when he sees the half-dead man, he does not aid him. He has not truly worshipped God; otherwise, as the commandment to love God implies he would have helped the man.
Next, comes the second-most holy person in Israel, a Levite. Like the priest, the Levite descended from Levi; however, unlike the priest he did not descend directly from Aaron. As such he was not able to perform the priestly duties, such as, presenting sacrifices. He was allowed though to prepare the sacrifices and to clean the Temple precincts. In fact, he also served from time to time in the Temple police force. Well, the Levite comes down from Jerusalem upon the man and follows in the priest�s footsteps by getting as far away from the man as possible.
At this point arrives a Samaritan. How will he respond? If the man�s fellow-countrymen neglected him, how much more should the Samaritan neglect him? From a Samaritan�s viewpoint the Samaritan should have just walked on by. One thousand years earlier the Jewish king Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, had tried to increase the already heavy tax burden upon the Samaritans. Some claim that Solomon had imposed a tax rate of 90% upon the Israelites. When the Samaritans approached Rehoboam his son for relief, he claimed that he was going to make matters worse for them. His little pinkie finger was mightier than his father�s loins; therefore, they broke away from the nation of Judah. Rehoboam responded by trying to conquer the Samaritans. Next, the Samaritan version of the OT dictated that all men should worship on Mt. Gerizim in Samaria and not in Jerusalem. In the Samaritans� view the Jews were heretics. Third, when Nehemiah returned to rebuild Jerusalem in 450 BC, the Samaritans in good faith had tried to reconcile with the Jews only to be rejected. Finally, the Jews even persecuted the Samaritans and under the leadership of John Hyrcanus destroyed their rival sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim, leaving only ruins on top of the mountain. Well might the Samaritan pass by this Jew.
Another reason the Samaritan might have kept on walking is appearance. There is a Jew laying half-dead on the ground and one of his mortal enemies, a Samaritan, is stooped over him. That situation today would be like an innocent black man leaning over a half-naked white woman who had been beaten and raped. Unfortunately many people who would see such a thing would immediately jump to the conclusion that the black man had beaten and raped her (the same in the case of a white man stooping over a beaten, raped black woman). In the case of the Good Samaritan, if anybody came upon them together, that person might attack the Samaritan accusing him of harming the Jew. This was no ordinary emergency situation but one which required the utmost caution.
He doesn�t exercise caution though because someone is lying right in front of him in dire need of help. Instead, he dismounts his beast, pours the soothing oil and the disinfecting wine upon the man�s wounds, and then bandages them, probably with bandages made from the outer robe he is wearing. He then lefts the Jew upon the beast , and takes him to a local tavern and pays the innkeeper the equivalent of 2-days� wages (2 denarii), and tells the innkeeper that he will return and pay him even more if more money is required.
At this point, Jesus turns to the lawyer and asks him who was the neighbor in this story. The lawyer responds that the neighbor was the one who showed mercy. The word Samaritan got stuck in his throat so that he had to circumvent it by identifying him by his actions and not his nationality.
application of the story
In this story Jesus takes the lawyer�s original question ("Who is my neighbor?") and answers it by saying, "You are the neighbor." By this Jesus means that a Christian by definition is the neighbor. That means whoever comes into my life is my neighbor because I am by definition a neighbor. Wherever you are and whomever you run into, you are the one to show mercy to the one in need. He doesn�t say to show mercy to the whole world because that is false mercy. What He wants us to do is to show mercy to those in our sphere of influence, those evil as well as good.
Next, in this story Jesus argues from the greater to the lesser. If the Samaritan can show mercy to a Jew, then we can show mercy to anyone. The Samaritan raised the bar so that no matter who needs help in our lives, we are obligated to show that person mercy if we have the resources to show mercy to that person.
Finally, in this story Jesus is the Good Samaritan. No one was ever hated more than He. Even today there are many who would give their eyeteeth to wipe out His religion and His followers. Many times when we reflect on this, we zero in on the way non-Christians respond to Jesus, yet the truth is that many times we Christians are the ones who neglect and avoid Christ. I thought that if many Christians ignored their spouses as often as they ignore Christ, their spouses would divorce them on the grounds of desertion. If many Christians treated their aged parents the way they treat Jesus, they would be thrown into jail for abusive neglect. Yet what did He do? He came down from on high, stooped down to us by dying on the cross, and then lifted us up by resurrection and ascension so that we who rebelled against Him might be healed and experience the eternal life the lawyer started off this whole conversation with.
Jesus continues to show us His love by the health He gives us, by the wonderful families He entrusts to us, by all the educational and material wealth He bestows upon us. Yet all these things are like the sound of the ocean in a seashell without being the ocean itself. Charles Spurgeon once wrote that focusing on the good things God does for us is like listening to the ocean of His love in a seashell. When you put your ear to the seashell, you hear the ocean; however, the seashell is not the ocean itself. When we come to the cross of Christ, we come to the ocean of God�s love. Without neglecting the sound of the ocean in the seashell, without discrediting the wonderful things God does for us daily, we nevertheless need to come to the ocean itself and exult in God�s great love for us at Calvary.