The Jews of the day did not regard the Samaritans and would not want anything to do with a Samaritan, more so, a doctor of the law. So, Jesus told this story, in response to the question by the lawyer about who he should consider and relate with as his neighbor; in this case, a Samaritan.
Instead, it pointed the lawyer to the One, the despised One... the Lord Jesus, who was the true good Samaritan who went out of His way to save mankind. Jesus didn't cross over to the other side of the road.
Without uttering the loathed word âSamaritanâ, the lawyer admits the truth. The mercy shown by the Samaritan makes him the neighbor. Refusing to define and thereby limit âneighborâ, Jesus answers the initial question of what must be done to inherit eternal life. âGo and do likewise.â Being a neighbor is not restricted to relation or proximity.
The Jewish lawyer who approached Jesus wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. He was looking at his own works and trying to justify himself. He was thinking that what he did was enough. On one level, Jesus' answer about the good Samaritan pointed out that this man didn't love like he should.
He was, in short, a person who did not need to move, and when he asked âWho is my neighbor?â he expected Jesus to re-inscribe that system and, thus, to show that the lawyer was already standing in a good spot, that he was, in fact, justified. But Jesus proclaims a kingdom on the move.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveler (implicitly understood to be Jewish) who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road.
John 4:5-30 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
âWhich of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?â The expert in the law replied, âThe one who had mercy on him.â
When Jesus asks which of these three â the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan â acted as a neighbor to the robbed man, the lawyer answers âThe one who showed him mercy.â As Jesus often does, he turns the question of âwho is my neighbor?â on its head and instead answers âwho might be a neighbor to me?â
This parable is unique to Luke's Gospel and reflects Luke's stress on Jesus' attitude to the marginalized, here, the foreigner. The parable is triggered by a lawyer trying to catch Jesus out by testing his ability to interpret the Jewish Scriptures and solve the human puzzle of how to receive 'eternal life'.
Jesus explained to her that the water He offers is not physical: Jesus answered and said to her, âEveryone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
When the woman believed, she immediately ran off to tell others. The filling not only filled her longing, but it gave her a new desire to use the energy to go out and live her purpose. To share the gospel, to become disciples. The woman at the well is an example of love, truth, redemption, and acceptance.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at Jacob's Well gleans much from her long conversation with Jesus. When she discovers his identity as the Messiah she leaves her water jar, much like the disciples left their nets, and becomes an effective evangelist to her community.
When the Samaritan saw the man, he took pity on him. He bandaged him and cleaned his wounds. He then put him on the back of his donkey and took him to an innkeeper, whom he paid to look after him. The parable ends with Jesus giving a commandment to go out and do the same as the Samaritan had done.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan (also listed below), is in the Gospel of Luke 10:25-37 NIV. When Jesus explained that the way to eternal life is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, he was questioned about the definition of 'neighbor'. He used the parable to explain what being a neighbor entails.
Your neighbours are the people who live near you, especially the people who live in the house or flat which is next to yours.
Jesus gave to the ''certain lawyer'' a parable that told of a ''certain Samaritan.''. In doing so, Jesus taught the Lawyer an important lesson on neighborly love and what it was to be a real neighbor. Stuart Briscoe says of this story that it is ''one of the world's superb short stories.''.
A lawyer in Jesus day was not only someone who was considered to be an expert in legal affairs , but was also considered to be an expert in the law of God. A lawyer in those days was someone who devoted much of his time to the reading and studying of the law of God.
Luke 10:25-37. Robert Frost once said, ''Good fences make good neighbors.''. G.K. Chesterton wrote, ''The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.''. Another has written: To love the whole world. For me is no chore; My only real problem's.
A Neighborly Samaritan. JESUS is perhaps near Bethany, a village about two miles [3 km] from Jerusalem. A man who is an expert on the Law of Moses approaches him with a question, asking: âTeacher, by doing what shall I inherit everlasting life?â.
The lawyerâs aim may be to get Jesus to answer in a way that will offend the sensibilities of the Jews.
He tells a story, possibly based on an actual happening. âA certain [Jew],â Jesus explains, âwas going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who both stripped him and inflicted blows, and went off, leaving him half-dead.â.
In fact, later even the apostle Peter said: âYou well know how unlawful it is for a Jew to join himself to or approach a man of another race.â.
Many priests and their Levite temple assistants live in Jericho, a distance of 14 miles [23 km] on a dangerous road that descends 3,000 feet [900 m] from where they serve at the temple in Jerusalem. The priest and the Levite would be expected to help a fellow Jew in distress. But they do not. Instead, a Samaritan does.
So, Jesus told this story, in response to the question by the lawyer about who he should consider and relate with as his neighbor; in this case, a Samaritan.
Since the lawyer wanted to know âwhat to do,â Jesus gave him a summary of the law, âââLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mindâ; and, âLove your neighbor as yourself.ââ.
Jesus did not tell the story to teach us about brotherly kindness or good neighborliness but to show the lawyer how impracticable it was to perfectly keep the law, because that lawyer would never have accepted a Samaritan as his neighbor (Luke 10:25-37).
The Bible says that the law cannot justify (Galatians 2:16, Rom 3:28), rather it accuses (John 5:45) and gives sin-consciousness (Romans 3:20). We can only receive the righteousness of God by grace through faith. It is not of works, lest any man boasts (Romans 3:22-24,28; Romans 5:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-9). Spread the love.
God in the Old Testament spoke to the people through prophets using parables. Jesus, being a âProphetâ, used this method to communicate certain lessons to the audience of His day. One of such parables that was told by Jesus was that of the Good Samaritan. What was the parable about?
Jesus detects that the man is not simply asking for information. He may be trying to get Jesus to reply in a way that will offend the Jews. Jesus realizes that this man already has a definite viewpoint. So he wisely responds in a way that gets the man to reveal what he is thinking.
Jesus continues: âBy coincidence a priest was going down on that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan traveling the road came upon him, and at seeing him, he was moved with pity.â. â Luke 10:30-33.
To return from the temple, they must travel down a road some 14 miles (23 km). That route can be dangerous, with robbers lurking along it.
In fact, a Jew may claim that it is even âunlawfulâ to have fellowship with a non-Jew. ( Acts 10:28) Thus this man and possibly some of Jesusâ own disciples view themselves as righteous if they treat fellow Jews kindly. But they may treat a non-Jew unkindly; he is not really a âneighbor.â.
The focus of the parable is on the Samaritan, a man of mixed descent and considered an enemy to the Jews. Though not a Gentile and still under the Law, Samaritans customarily did not have dealings with Jews (John 4:9). According to the primary record of oral tradition in Rabbinic literature, âHe that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like ...
He references Jesusâs command to âlove your neighbor as yourselfâ (Mark 12:31), which leads to the core question: who is my neighbor? In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus is âput to the testâ by a lawyer seeking to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him how he reads the Law, which was, after all, his profession.
Refusing to define and thereby limit âneighborâ, Jesus answers the initial question of what must be done to inherit eternal life. âGo and do likewise.â. Being a neighbor is not restricted to relation or proximity.
Jesus teaches us that love is an action, not just a feeling or a theory , and that it sometimes requires the shouldering of othersâ burdens, an often uncomfortable process. The priest and the Levite were religious men and yet they acted inhumanely, and the Samaritan demonstrated just the opposite.
According to the primary record of oral tradition in Rabbinic literature, âHe that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine â (Mishna Shebiith 8:10). Safely considered the farthest from a modern day âneighborâ in every regard, the Samaritan both felt and showed compassion towards the beaten man.
However, if such action would be likely to endanger the Samaritan or his child, one must look at the commandment that first compels: âLove your neighbor as yourselfâ. Self-love means self-protection, just as loving a neighbor means protecting him.
This is why Jesus mentioned the âright cheekâ, because he was teaching that insults ought to be endured in love without retaliation.
In Luke 10 the lawyer is an individual âlearned in the law.â. However, he is learned in holy law. The Torah, or Five Books of Moses, is the core of that Law. Hereâs where it gets tricky, though. A lawyer who was also a Pharisee â as many of them were â would regard the oral law as equally binding. (This oral law eventually became ...
The Pharisees, on the other hand, tended to be interested in politics only when it affected their religious practices. The term Pharisee itself seems to stem from the idea of separation. This concept fits well with the Pharisaic practice of separating themselves from other people.
Adherence to the law, both the Torah and the oral law, was foremost in importance to this party. The Pharisees did not seem to object to the name Pharisee. This is somewhat surprising since the word was probably a term of derision.
The Sadducees were primarily aristocrats . Most were priests, but not all priests were Sadducees. (Emil SchĂźrer points this out in his five-volume History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ .) It was the âaristocratic priests: those who by their possessions and offices also occupied influential civil positionsâ (Second Division, Volume 2, p. 30) who were the substance of the Sadducee party. This group was highly political, generally more interested in retaining power than in providing spiritual leadership.
As noted above, the Pharisees separated themselves from any potential source of defilement. They refused to associate with anyone who did not observe the law as scrupulously as they did. Fellow Pharisees were their principal associates, and they viewed their group as a community, calling themselves neighbors.