25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life? And He said to him, What is written in the law? How do you read it? And he answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself.'' And He said to him, You have answered correctly; do this, and you shall have life. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
Jesus, taking up the question, said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who having both stripped him and beaten him, went away, leaving him half dead. And by coincidence a certain priest was going down on that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. And likewise also a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan, who was journeying, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion; And he came to him and bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them. And placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him; and whatever you spend in addition to this, when I return, I will repay you. Which of these three, does it seem to you, has become a neighbor to him who fell into thehands of the robbers? And he said, The one who showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go, and you do likewise. (Luke 10:25-37, Recovery Version)
In the past, I understood the parable of the good Samaritan from the Bible as a simple yet powerful illustration of compassion. It taught me to "love others as you would love yourself." At the heart of this lesson, it taught me to be a good and compassionate person. But last Thursday night, I saw this parable in a completely different light thanks to a ministry meeting message. As a result, for the past few days, I've been amazed at the profoundness of this parable and my previous superficial understanding of it.
The parable, as I previously assumed, was not intended to instruct us to love others. Instead, The parable of the good Samaritan was intended to instruct us to love God and to love the Lord Jesus as a Neighbor who came to us and saved us from a wretched state. When the Lord told him to love his neighbor, the lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbor?" in order to justify himself. But the Lord replied with the story of the good Samaritan and then asked him, "Which of these three, does it seem to you, has become a neighbor to him who fell into the hands of the robbers?" In asking this question, the Lord tried to show the lawyer that the man who had fallen into the hands of robbers, who was stripped, beaten, and left half-dead actually represented the lawyer. In doing so, He completely turned the tables on the lawyer. The lawyer assumed that he had the capacity to love his neighbors, but Jesus spoke from God's perspective and tried to show him that in fact, the lawyer was in a wretched and paralyzed state.
The Samaritan represents the Lord Jesus. Samaritans were stigmatized for their mixed racial background -- for being part Jewish and part non-Jewish. Jesus was often accused of being a Samaritan because of His unsanctionable interactions with Gentiles. But here, Jesus employed this figure to represent Himself. The Samaritan "was journeying" just as the Lord Jesus was journeying in His ministry to save sinners who were beaten, stripped, and left half-dead by their attempts to be good and moral. The Samaritan "came to" the man and rendered him an astonishingly gracious care for the dying man. In this sense, God came to mankind by becoming a man and caring for it in such a compassionate, detailed, and wonderful manner. This was such a life that Jesus lived.
I'm not sure if the lawyer understood what Jesus was telling him. In his religious mindset, the lawyer assumed that he needed to do or be good in order to inherit eternal life. The man that was left for half-dead on the side of the road was overlooked first by a priest and then a Levite. This illustrated that religion, as represented by the two religious figures, always demands that we do something for God (or if one does not believe in God, do something to meet a moral standard) to be pleasing to Him. This is what the lawyer attempted to do in asking Jesus his initial question. But the Lord tried to show the lawyer that, in fact, the lawyer's condition was that of the man lying on the road. He was one who needed compassion and a particularly loving care from his neighbor, the good Samaritan.
This is almost always the case with myself. For almost a decade now, I assumed that I needed to be loving to others, to do kind acts, and to be a good person in order to be pleasing to God. But, like the lawyer, this has just been an attempt to justify myself!
In this sense, I am not alone. Many, whether confessedly religious or not, assume and even confirm that in order to be moral, we must at least be good, kind, and loving to others if we do not do regular acts thereof. And in observing my colleagues and public figures, this moral or religious mindset is instilled in the mores of culture and society.
In March this year, Eliot Spitzer became an effigy for his grotesque betrayal of public trust. His office and campaign stood on his reputation of being a moral knight against Wall Street unrighteousness. He found out in a very clear and obvious way, however, that he had no ability to maintain even a relatively decent standard of morality. The moral case for Mother Theresa is a seemingly more complicated one but in principle the same. In August last year, it was discovered that Mother Teresa had a terrible period of darkness in doubting God's existence which lasted until her death in 1997. She suffered inwardly and psychologically and yet continued to do amazing acts of charity in the name of God. Her inward torment, I'm sure, left her in such a psychological and spiritual state as described by the Lord of the man on the road. Spitzer found out in a hard yet clear way of his moral incapacity. Though she could do acts that were considered miraculously good, Mother Teresa suffered inwardly from her inability to meet her own religious standard of believing in God.
The parable of the good Samaritan was intended to instruct us to love God and to love the Lord Jesus as our Neighbor who saved us. When we allow the Lord to love us, we are healed of our wounds and then can love Him back as our Neighbor. Furthermore, after we're healed, we can then love others with this wonderful Neighbor as the One who is truly capable of loving others in us! The Lord does not want us to try to be good as I previously thought. He is the Neighbor who came down to us, and He only wants us to love God, and love Him as the Neighbor who is capable of caring for us in such a marvelous way. Hallelujah!
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