Luke 10:25-37
25 An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus
a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to
have eternal life?”
26 Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures?
How do you understand them?”
27 The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord
your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love
your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”
28 Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do
this, you will have eternal life.”
29 But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was
talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”
30 Jesus replied:
As a man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he
had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road. But
when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. 32 Later a
temple helper[a] came to the
same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on
the other side.
33 A man from Samaria then came traveling along that
road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him 34 and went
over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine[b] and
bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where
he took care of him. 35 The next morning he gave the innkeeper
two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than
this on him, I will pay you when I return.”
36 Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was
a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”
37 The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”
Jesus said, “Go
and do the same!”
REFLECTION:
You know something - - sometimes an occasional topic/parable
will arise that will make us go hmmm, and we’ll back to
plain-old-back-to-basics way of thinking. This is one of those parables. Let’s
begin by taking on the thought of a child. I’m reminded of a passage that come
later (vv. 18:17) when Jesus say, “Truly, I say to you, whoever
does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” So, with that in mind, I think the message of
the Good Samaritan is this: "Love thy neighbor as thy self"
Once again we find faith and love side
by side. We are born of God; therefore we love. Because we love, we fulfill His
commands. All this is done through faith
in Jesus.
Now we can see that in the parable of the Good Samaritan,
faith is defined in terms of love. It is a faith that expresses itself through
love. It is a faith that is prepared to love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our
strength.
Jesus tells the story of the traveler who feared everyone who
wasn't like him. But after he is robbed and left for dead, it is the good
"Samaritan," a stranger from a strange land, who comes to his aid.
· In
this parable Christ’s address with a lawyer about some points of conscience, which we are all
concerned to be rightly informed in and are so here from Christ though the
questions were suggested with no good
intention.
LET'S WE TALK ABOUT THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN
I think all of us are familiar with the parable of ‘The Good
Samaritan’ but have we all ever really meditated on the fact that here is a
parable about eternal life? I think it important
to mention right now, at the beginning, that we ought to go back to
the plain-old-back-to-basics way of thinking that I brought up earlier. This
parable of the Good Samaritan is not
just about being nice to other
people.
And so, we are saved not merely by believing the right principles because we can have this kind of faith without love in our heart. We are not going to be saved by doing this good or that good. We are saved by becoming a new person into whose heart God pours His love by the Holy Spirit. We are saved by being born of God, created in the image of Christ. This is Christ Jesus was teaching in this parable.
With the above in mind, why don’t we go back to that first
question that the lawyer asked Jesus? “How do I inherit eternal life?” The
answer is to believe in the Lord Jesus and to fulfill the commandment to love. We
must, we must, and we must understand that it is not one or the other. It is both. We cannot separate faith
from love. A person who has saving faith carries out God’s commands. In this
respect, there is a connection between John’s writing and this parable. Let’s
read together:
·
1John 5:1.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God (faith in
Jesus identifies us as children of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves
the child.
Playwright Janet Irene Thomas
Founder/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts (BSTFPA)
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