The Parable of the Good Samaritan

While reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan, I wondered why Jesus specifically chose to have the man walking from Jerusalem to Jericho.

It occurred to me that Jerusalem is the place where people worship, but Jericho is the place that - if rebuilt - includes a curse.

Just like sin, God once gave His people authority and victory over Jericho and it was understood that to raise it up again would lead to death.

The thought occurred to me that maybe the man’s journey is symbolic of someone who is backsliding. Maybe he is going from a place of worship - church, community, and fellowship with other believers - to a place that God has specifically said should not be resurrected, to a place that includes a curse: sin.

On the way, he is attacked by bandits. I think the bandits could be representative of demons.

When we leave God’s presence and return to sin, we are open to attack by demonic forces.

This man was so battered that he could not defend himself and nearly died.

I believe the different reactions of the people who encountered him are representative of how the church responds to people who are suffering.

Verse 31 says a priest came by by chance. I don’t think it was really by chance. I think God gave that priest a divine appointment but he passed it up. Both the priest and the Levite were people who spent time in the presence of God as part of their lives and part of their work. They were by definition religious people. Unfortunately, they exhibited a typical religious response: they judged the man, they didn’t want to deal with the man, they had no love for the man, they figured the man’s circumstances were his own fault and therefore his own problem.

Who was the one who loved the man the way God would? Verse 33 says it was the despised Samaritan.

Just like Jesus was despised by the religious leaders of his day, many Christians who sincerely love God are despised by the current church because they have God’s heart and not a religious heart of stone.

Verse 34 says the Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds using olive oil and wine. Oil and wine are often symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Religious people can’t accept God’s Holy Spirit, but those who have been filled with the Holy Spirit have received God’s heart, and they can show compassion the way God does.

The Holy Spirit was the one who did the work of healing through the Samaritan that the religious leaders all despised.

Often it is not the severely pious and judgmental who shine Christ’s light into the world. Often it is those the church rejects (“The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone…”) who are willing to love like Jesus did, who are willing to carry the Father’s heart into the places people who consider themselves clean don’t want to touch.

I think it’s interesting that in verse 29 the question posed is, “Who is my neighbor?” But in verse 36 Jesus’ answer is not who your neighbor is but who you can be a neighbor to.

The expansion of your territory in the Kingdom is directly related to whom you consider to be your neighbor.

If you consider only a few people worthy of your love, your territory in the Kingdom will be limited. “Who is my neighbor?” is not the correct question. “Who can I show God’s love to?” is. The more you love, the more God’s Kingdom expands through you.

“Who is my neighbor?” is an inherently religious response.

This is asking how much we are required to love - but obligated love isn’t love at all. Those who are forgiven much, love much, like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears in Luke 7. We must carry God’s true heart and love - despite what others might think of us - the way the despised Samaritan did.