In this text, Jesus answers a question with what most would agree is His most famous parable.  The parable of the Good Samaritan is very familiar to any believer and recognized even by those who know next to nothing about the Bible (or who may not even realize it’s from the Bible).  The term “Good Samaritan” has even entered our lexicon as a way to describe someone who helps a stranger – “I had a flat tire and a good Samaritan stopped and helped me change it.”  Because of its familiarity, it’s easy to assume there’s little to learn from studying it.  We’ve heard it a thousand times and we all know what it means, why go through it in detail again?

That’s where it pays to remember the word of God is living and active.  We can never know everything there is to know about any passage, and that’s true even of a famous parable.  Yes, we’ve all heard the story, but there’s a nuance to how Jesus tells it that’s easy to miss even after reading it dozens of times, and that nuance is crucial to understanding the parable’s meaning.  And understanding the parable’s meaning is vital for the believer.  Jesus tells the parable to illustrate the greatest commandments and answer a question about how to put them into practice.  If we’re to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, we need to grasp what that means in our daily lives and understand just who it is who qualifies as a neighbor.

25-28
We have no idea where or when this story occurs or if it’s connected chronologically with the story of the 72 that precedes it.  At some point a lawyer (an expert in the Mosaic Law) approaches Jesus and tests Him with a question.  It’s hard to know what it means that the lawyer tests Him.  Unlike in other places where different religious leaders try to make Jesus look bad, it doesn’t appear that there are others who put the man up to this.  It could be that he simply wants to test Jesus to see if He’s a credible rabbi (or even the Messiah).  Perhaps he’s heard of Jesus and seen some of the works and just wants to verify for himself that Jesus is an authority who can be trusted.

He asks Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Since he’s testing Jesus, he presumably knows the answer (or knows what he believes the answer to be).  Jesus picks up on this and responds with a question of His own.  He asks the lawyer, “What is written in the Law?  How does it read to you?”  He essentially says to the lawyer, “You’re the lawyer, what do you think the answer is?”  Interestingly, the lawyer answers Him.  What’s odd about this is that he asked the original question to test Jesus.  If he answers his own question, then there’s no test.

He does in fact answer and he answers with the two greatest commandments.  He quotes the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:5 – “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 then quotes Leviticus 19:18 – “…and your neighbor as yourself.”  We know from Jesus’ words in Matthew 22 that these are the two greatest commandments and together sum up the entire Law.  The lawyer answers well.

Jesus responds favorably to the lawyer’s statement.  He tells him that he’s correct and that if he fulfills these two commandments, he will have eternal life – “Do this and you will live.”  It’s an interesting response.  It seems to say that the lawyer can in fact earn his way into heaven.  If we look closer, however, two possible explanations argue against that.  One, if Jesus is in fact saying that if the lawyer keeps these two commandments he’ll live, it means he must be perfect to be saved.  “Keep both commandments perfectly your whole life and you’ll be saved.”  To do that is, of course, impossible for anyone on this side of paradise.  Two, the only way someone can love God as commanded here is to first accept and experience God’s love for him.  John tells us that we love because He first loved us (I Jn 4:19).  There is no way to fulfill these commands on our own.  It is only through God’s love and grace and power (through His Spirit) that we are able.  Thus, Jesus doesn’t endorse a works salvation with His answer.  His answer carries with it the implication that the lawyer’s entire premise is wrong.  There is nothing you can DO to inherit eternal life.

The reason the entire law rests on these two commandments is because every vertical command can be fulfilled by loving God and every horizontal command is fulfilled by loving our neighbor.  If we think about the Ten Commandments, the first four are all contained in the command to love God and the last six are contained in the command to love our neighbor. 

Something we can’t miss is that the two commands always travel together.  There is no such thing as fulfilling one without the other.  If we love God with all our heart, we’ll love our neighbor as ourselves.  If we don’t love our neighbor, we can’t claim to love God.  John makes this very clear in his epistle:  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (I Jn 4:20-21).  The reason for this is if we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, then we are filled with Him instead of ourselves or others.  And since He fills our life, we don’t look to others to meet needs because we’re filled with Him.  If our needs are met in Him, then we’re free to love without demand.  We no longer focus on the ones around us and notice their shortcomings and all the reasons they don’t deserve our love.  We instead focus on Him and His amazing love for us and all the ways He’s worthy of our love, and then reflect that love on others.  Since others don’t need to satisfy us, they don’t let us down and fail to earn our love.  Think about how freeing this is.  Having received all the kindness and tender-heartedness and forgiveness we need from God, we become free to give to others without risk, because our deepest needs have already been fully met in Christ.  For example, while I may enjoy kindness from my wife, I don’t need it.  In Jesus I receive all the kindness I need.  This enables me to be kind to her without fear that she might not return the favor.  I get to revel in her enjoyment of my kindness without needing that kindness to be reciprocated.  I get kindness from Christ so that I can give kindness to her. (Tullian Tchividjian; Unfashionable)

29-37
After Jesus commends him, the lawyer asks a follow-up question hoping to justify his own views of what the commandments mean.  He’s done with the test and now looks for vindication.  He’s apparently thought through the second commandment and asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  He’s already decided that this command is limited in its scope and so wants Jesus to affirm his beliefs.  What he essentially asks is, “Who do I have to love?”, and the answer he’s looking for is, “Not everyone – only certain people qualify.”  In the lawyers’ mind some are worthy of love and some aren’t.  [The lawyer unwittingly proves what Jesus just thanked God for in vs 21 – the wise and powerful don’t understand and accept the good news of the Kingdom of God.]

To answer the lawyer, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan.  A man travels from Jerusalem to Jericho (an 18-mile journey that includes stretches of rocky terrain well-suited for hiding) and gets violently robbed and left stripped and half-dead.  As he’s lying bleeding and suffering on the road, a priest happens by and decides to pass by on the other side of the road to avoid him.  A Levite comes along after the priest, and he too decides to pass by on the other side and avoid him.  Lastly, a Samaritan comes, and when he sees the man he’s filled with compassion, dresses his wounds, loads him on his own beast, and takes him to an inn where he spends the night and then provides for the man’s ongoing care at his own expense.

That Jesus includes a Samaritan as the third person who comes along probably shocks his listeners.  They were likely expecting it to be a lay Israelite.  Israelite society is broadly separated into three categories – priest (top of the religious hierarchy), Levite (one step down from the priests), everyone else.  For Jesus to jump from the first two to a Samaritan is an unexpected curveball.  He does it to continue with His cast of provocative characters.  Priests and Levites are esteemed and would be expected to be heroes in the story.  Samaritans are hated and would presumably not be included in any self-respecting story at all.  Jesus clearly means to make a point with who He includes in the parable.

After He tells the story, Jesus addresses the lawyer and does it in a very interesting way.  He asks him, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”  By asking the question this way, Jesus changes the focus from “Who do I have to love?” to “Who showed love?”  A direct answer to the lawyer’s question would be more along the lines of, “The Samaritan treated the suffering man like a neighbor, so you go and do likewise.”  That would be an easier ask because it’s acting as a neighbor from a superior position.  But Jesus changes things up by making the beaten man the subject of his question rather than the object.  What He essentially asks the lawyer is, “If that were you lying on the road, would you be worried about which passerby is your neighbor?”  He forces the lawyer to look at things not as the one deciding who to love but as the suffering man desperately needing love.  It’s a completely different perspective and stands the lawyer’s question of who’s my neighbor on its head.

The lawyer answers Jesus’ question and says, “The one who showed mercy to him.”  It’s perhaps presuming too much to think he resists actually saying the word “Samaritan”, but it’s definitely possible.  Regardless, he gives the correct answer and one that’s likely not fun at all for him to admit.   

Jesus then tells the lawyer, “Go and do the same.”  Go and be a neighbor to EVERYONE.  Stop trying to figure out who’s worthy of your love and love everyone as you love yourself.  Put yourself in the place of the one who needs love and then love others as you’d want to be loved. BE a neighbor instead of worrying about WHO is your neighbor.  The Samaritan helped the man with no thought as to who he was or what nationality he was or whether he was deserving.  He simply saw a man who needed help and helped – at great personal inconvenience and expense.

38-42
It’s not entirely clear why Luke includes this story at this point in the text.  It obviously does not occur around the same time as the interaction with the lawyer because it takes place in Bethany (less than two miles from Jerusalem), at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  For Jesus and the group to be in Bethany means they’re much farther along in their journey than they are in the other stories in Chapter 10.  It could be that Luke includes it here to counter any thoughts someone might have that salvation is a matter of works instead of faith (because of the interaction with the lawyer).

In the story, Mary and Martha host Jesus and the disciples.  While they are there, Martha busies herself with taking care of the guests while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to him.  Martha becomes irritated at Mary and asks Jesus to intervene and make her sister help her with the preparations.  Jesus gently rebukes Martha by telling her that Mary has actually made the right choice.  There is only one thing that’s really important – her relationship with Jesus (which goes along with what Jesus said in vs 20) – and Mary recognizes that and has acted accordingly.  “…for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Thoughts
The whole Law – and our life’s mission – can be boiled down into two commandments:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  The two go hand in hand because one can’t exist without the other.

If we are to love God and reflect God’s love on to others, we must love – as much as humanly possible – as God loves.  We can’t worry about who’s worthy or who meets the standard or who fits in our group.  We instead fill our lives and eyes with God and then love others with no thought for what they deserve.  In practice, we must look at the world through the eyes of the beaten man lying on the side of the road but approach the world with the attitude of the Samaritan.