Bible Text: St Luke 10:23–37 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Jesus often points to foreigners, and especially Samaritans, as examples of faith. We’ll see this again with the ten lepers next week – the one who comes back to thank Jesus is a Samaritan. I often just assume that everybody knows what a Samaritan is, but I’m not going to assume that today, because it’s very important to the point Jesus is making with the Good Samaritan that we all know what a Samaritan is, why the Israelites didn’t like them, and why Jesus makes the hero of his story a Samaritan.
Samaritans lived in Jesus’ time in the land between the Sea of Galilee and just north of Jerusalem. The Jews, or the Israelites, lived above Samaria and below it. So Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is below Samaria, but He grew up in Galilee, which is above Samaria. It’s a lot like it is today with the Israelis and the Palestinians, living right next to each other and not liking each other at all. How did the Samaritans get there? In 1000 BC King David united all the tribes of Israel into one kingdom. It became the most powerful kingdom in the world for a brief time. Solomon, David’s son, ruled for forty years, and expanded the Kingdom from Egypt to Syria, and had the most powerful kings in the world wanting alliances and trade deals with him. But after Solomon died, the kingdom split in two. Judah in the south, and the northern kingdom, obviously, in the north. That northern kingdom didn’t stay faithful to God. They worshipped Baal and Asherah and other pagan gods, and eventually the Kingdom of Assyria took them over, sacked their capital city of Samaria, exiled a bunch of the population, and planted other defeated people with them. They intermarried and eventually became known as Samaritans.
The Jews didn’t like the Samaritans and the Samaritans didn’t like the Jews. But it wasn’t simply because they were different races. That’s almost never the reason people dislike one another. It was because they believed different things. The Samaritans claimed to worship the same God as the Jews, but they refused to go the Temple in Jerusalem and they came up with their own traditions and even their own bible. So the Jews and Samaritans each accused the other of worshipping God the wrong way. Jesus, for his part, comes down on the side of the Jews. He tells the Samaritan woman at the well, “Salvation is of the Jews,” and He’s saying there that God had preserved the true teaching among the people of Israel, in their Bible, and that the Samaritans had it wrong. But Jesus is still there in Samaria. He’s still talking to a Samaritan woman. He doesn’t dislike them; He loves them.
For the most part, people hate other people not because of race, but because they don’t like what they say or do or stand for or believe. America and the world just saw this with the assassination, or rather the martyrdom, of Charlie Kirk. Charlie was not shot because he was white. He wasn’t shot because he was American. He was killed because he voiced his opinions loudly and clearly, and a lot of people hated him for it. You can disagree with a lot of what he said (I did, well not a lot, but at least a little), but what he voiced most clearly and publicly was faith in Jesus, His Savior and the Savior of the world. And for that he died. He died a martyr of the Christian faith. Because that confession does divide people. Jesus claims to be the Son of God. He claims to be the Truth. He claims to live and die for all the world. And when He claims that and people don’t want to hear it, division and then, sometimes, often, violence results. This is what happened to Jesus Christ Himself. He said He was the Son of God. He called all to trust in Him for eternal life with God. And enough of His own race didn’t like it that they accused Him of insurrection, handed Him over to the Roman authorities, and crucified Him.
And then Jesus rose from the dead. And His message was not vengeance against His enemies. It was not, kill those who killed Me. It was, go to all the nations and teach them and baptize them and forgive them, because that’s why I died. Jesus never preached violence. He didn’t say, attack those Samaritans for not believing the right thing. He didn’t say, conquer the world by force. He said use words, use My words, words that proclaim forgiveness and life to all, bought by my blood. And after the Jews, the first people who heard this message were the Samaritans. You can read about it in Acts 8. It’s called the Samaritan Pentecost.
So Jesus uses the figure of a Samaritan in this, his most famous parable, to show this, that He loves all, came for all, died for all, and His word is therefore meant for all. And it unites people of all nations, tribes, and languages, of all times, in one Church, confessing that our salvation comes not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has done for us.
That gets us to the second reason Jesus uses a Samaritan as the hero of our story. Because while the Samaritans believed wrongly, Jesus wanted to show that His own nation, especially its leaders, believed even more wrongly. There is nothing Jesus goes after more than religious hypocrites. People who act holy and follow the rules and can quote the Bible, but don’t actually do it and then stand in judgment of others.
The example of this is first the lawyer. He comes to Jesus and asks Him, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” They say there’s no such thing as a stupid question, but they’re wrong. This is a very stupid question. What must I do to inherit? If my son comes to me and asks, Dad, what do I have to do to inherit your money? What do I say? Well, first, there’s no money to inherit, sorry kid. But second, you’re my son. That’s why you’re going to inherit. There’s nothing you did to become my son, and there’s nothing you can do to keep being my son. You’re my son. And therefore I love you, therefore, what’s mine is yours, and therefore you will inherit from me.
Jesus plays along with lawyer. What do you have to do to inherit eternal life? Well, what does the law say? And the lawyer perfectly sums up the law, he knows his Bible – love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the right answer. And Jesus doesn’t say, “Do this and you will inherit eternal life,” he doesn’t say that, because you don’t inherit things by doing things. He says, “Do this, and you will live.” And that’s true, if he does it, he will live.
But he can’t. And you can’t. And I can’t. That’s the point. There are only two religions. I know there are hundreds of them, but when it comes down to it, there are only two. On the one side you have all religions besides Jesus, and they will all hold to the same basic point – do good, and God will reward you with heaven, or you’ll reach nirvana, or you’ll be subsumed into the Oneness of the universe. Jesus, and this is why people don’t like Him, Jesus insisted that yes, you do have to be good, but you’re simply not. Not if the standard is loving God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself. I’ve been a Christian all my life. I have had highs and I have had lows, highs of waking up happy, thanking God I’m alive on His earth, thanking Him for my children, where everything around reminds me of God’s goodness. And even on those days, I can’t claim to have loved Him with all my strength. I’m simply not capable of it. And I have had lows. Where despite the fact that God is still gracious, and I’m still alive and breathing, and the mountain is still beautiful, and the kids are still cute, it’s all clouded over with worry and regret and feeling sorry for myself. If the standard is the law, I can’t do it.
So what does the lawyer do? He tries to lower the standard. Which is again what all other religions do. Make a standard you can actually keep. Who is my neighbor? Notice, he ignores the whole God question. Goes straight to the neighbor. And if I can narrow down my neighbor to the people I actually like, then maybe, just maybe, I can pretend that I love them as I love myself.
So Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. And notice what Jesus does. He describes this man, presumably a Jew, beaten and left half-dead on the side of the road. He’s totally helpless, dying, can’t help himself at all. And the priest walks by. The priest sees him, and doesn’t help him. And the Levite walks by. And he looks at him too, and passes by. And the man any Jew would think was most unlikely to help, a Samaritan, a sworn enemy, comes by, and he looks, and he has compassion, and he helps the man, and gives him everything he needs.
There are two things Jesus is teaching. First is, you haven’t done it. Anyone who comes into your path who needs your help is your neighbor. And you’ve passed by. You’ve had more important things to do. You’ve said, I’ll pray for you, when your neighbor needed your time or your money or your words. Even in the easiest point of the law, we fail.
But Jesus also chooses his characters carefully. Who passes by the halfdead man? A priest and a Levite. People who know the law. And they don’t help. Because the law can’t help you. It will only tell you to be good, to be better, but it won’t ever make you able to do it. The law always ends up accusing. You never measure up.
And so the law leaves you like the halfdead man on the side of the road. Helpless. And helpless people need help. Who helps? The Samaritan. The outsider. The one who doesn’t know the law. But he does know mercy. He knows compassion. And that’s the picture of Jesus. What’s the law going to say to you, if you are halfdead, unable to help yourself? Get up! Do it! But you can’t. Jesus doesn’t say that. He acts. He loves. He takes your burden on Himself. He loves you as Himself. His claim on you is not some religious contract, that if you do this, I’ll help you. His claim on you is that He is your Creator, and when you failed to measure up to Him, when you were beaten down by the law you could not keep, He came down to you. He did love His Father with all His strength. He did love His neighbor as Himself. And you are His neighbor. He lived for you, suffered for you, died for you, took all the load of lovelessness on Himself, and bore it for you, because His standard is His own love, His own compassion, His mercy, and that’s what He gives to you.
He puts wine and oil on the wounds, lifts you up, and brings you to His church. And here He cares for you with the Gospel, the free forgiveness of sin, constant mercy, His own blood shed for you and given into your mouth. He treats you as a son, gives you His Holy Spirit, and on that basis, and on that basis alone, you will inherit eternal life. Because life is His to give. So learn from Him how to love your neighbor. Because He has shown mercy to you. Go and do likewise.