The Good Samaritan
Luke 10.25-37: 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, ”what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied.“Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The expert in the Law of Moses gives the right answer in pointing out the two commandments to love God and to love your neighbor. The Law had already given the indispensable revelation in this regard. These two precepts, taken from Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18, summarize the will of God for man. It is on the condition that he practices this will that the Jew can inherit eternal life.
Jesus’ approval of the man is sincere, for the lawyer’s understanding of the will of God goes well beyond the nit-picking and outlandish legalism of his colleagues. But, while he recognizes the theological wisdom of the man, Jesus adds a short sentence that no doubt speaks to his specific need: “Do this and you will live.”
About what does the expert in the Law want to justify himself? I’m not sure. The emphasis that Jesus puts on the necessity of doing (“Do this and you will live” in Luke 10.28 and “Go and do likewise.” in Luke 10.37) seems to contain an implicit reproach. The scribe has in some way failed in his duty toward his neighbor, that is the Jew who would have the right to lay claim to his love and mercy. (The perspective is limited here to the people of Israel.) Smarting under the implied rebuke, the scribe asks, “In regard to which fellow Jew have I been derelict in my duty?”
Jesus answers the question by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. The first question to settle in our investigation of this story is to decide if it is a true parable whose meaning is to be found in a comparison of two situations, or if it is simply an exemplary story where the commendable behavior of the main character deserves to be imitated. It is true that the story works very well as a specific example and a concrete illustration of loving your neighbor. But the fact remains that the whole construction of the piece, with its characters referring us to real persons, with its unexpected—even scandalous—ending, and with the question of Jesus asking the listener to give his judgment, all of this strongly indicates that we are dealing here with a true parable and that we are therefore to look for the real situation that constitutes the second term of the comparison.
Let’s proceed by determining the symbolic identity of the three main characters in the order of their appearance in the story: the man who is wounded and half dead, the priest and the Levite (which we will treat as one single character), and the Samaritan.
All throughout his ministry, Jesus pictures the chosen people by using images that underline their extreme moral distress: the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10.6); a man tormented by an evil spirit (Luke 12.24-26); blind people who are heading straight for a ditch (Matthew 15.14); sick people who need a doctor (Luke 5.31); a barren fig tree that is about to be cut down (Luke 13.6-9); sinners who will perish if they do not repent (Luke 13.1-5); weary and burdened (Matthew 11.28). The classic text and perhaps the one most relevant to our parable is Matthew 9.36: 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless [literally, mangled and cast down], like sheep without a shepherd.
For Jesus the people of Israel are an object of pity and compassion: wounded by sin, beaten by the forces of evil, half dead spiritually, in need of urgent medical care.
The priest and the Levite represent, obviously, the class of religious leaders in Israel: the holy elite which includes not only those who serve in the temple but also the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and elders. Their attitude toward the spiritually needy in Israel is exceedingly clear: they, the official shepherds of the people, instead of binding up the wounds and strengthening the weak, display only contempt and indifference for this “cursed mob” (John 7.48-49). Throughout the whole Gospel, they look with unfeeling and hardened eyes at the misery, the open wounds, in a word, the deplorable spiritual state of the people.
Their lack of compassion is evident in the miracle accounts. Rather than showing pity to the sick people that Jesus heals and rejoicing at their healing, the scribes and Pharisees only look for a chance to accuse Jesus: he violates the sabbath, he blasphemes, he calls on the power of Beelzebub. They explicitly criticize his ministry among the tax collectors and sinners.
Luke 15.2: 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 5.30-32: 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Ezekiel well prophesied of them: Ezekiel 34.2-5: 2 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.”
Casting a Samaritan in the starring role is somewhat of a scandal. (Note that the scribe cannot even bring himself to pronounce the word “Samaritan” in verse 37.) The Jews’ hatred of the Samaritans, who were heretics and schismatics in their view, was even more merciless than their hatred of Gentiles. “Samaritan” was the ultimate insult in Jewish society. It is really remarkable that the character who gives such an example of compassion and love is not a good, devout Jew but a Samaritan, the most hated and despised person imaginable. In fact, that is the essential element of the parable.
In the polemical atmosphere that dominates Jesus’ dealings with the Jewish leaders, it is easy to understand that Jesus casts himself in the role of the Samaritan. Who in Israel has compassion on sinners and is deeply moved by their plight? It is Jesus. He is the one who shows universal, compassionate, active, generous, persevering, caring love. He is the one who shows solidarity with the outcasts of official Judaism: the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the sinners. He is the doctor who has come to heal the sick and the blind and the poor and the crippled and the lame.
But he is a despised and hated doctor, even as the Samaritan is despised and hated. John 8.47-49: 47 “He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” 48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” 49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.” The only one to have compassion on the Jews mangled and cast down by sin is this “Samaritan” Jesus, despised and rejected of men.
The call to put this teaching into action (“Go and do likewise.”) is thus addressed to the scribe as an official religious shepherd of Israel and keeper of the key of knowledge (Luke 11.52). Comparing the spiritual bankruptcy of the religious leaders with the generosity of the hated “Samaritan”, the scribe can understand which Jews are his neighbors and just what kind of compassion he should show: seek out the scattered lost sheep of Israel and gather them around the Good Shepherd. Luke 11.23: 23 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”