Parables of Jesus: The Good Samaritan

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0:00 For us, the stories we're telling is we're working on understanding Jesus' parables that had so fascinating and there's so much there, and because I found this book that I had bought in seminary and never read, called Through Peasant Eyes, which is supposed to give us some of the cultural context of these parables. And it goes through several that are lined up in Luke's account of the gospel, and so the one that we're on right now is in Luke 10.

0:30 If you want to look there with me, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, so it's towards the back. And we're in Matthew, I mean, Luke 10, sorry, Luke 10. And this is like a, I mean, if the last one we did, we're kind of really small, little one sentence on most parables in the midst of a dialogue.

1:01 This parable is also in a dialogue, but it's long enough and famous enough that it often, not usually, often gets pulled out of a dialogue that it's a part of. But remember that Jesus tells parables not just feel like entertaining, though they can be entertaining. He's always telling them to communicate some truth. He puts the truth inside of this story. And I think one of the, was it last week or the week before that we talked about when Jesus tells the guy who wants to follow him,

1:34 that foxes have holes and birds have nets, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. It's a really cool example of, you don't need any really cultural context to understand it on one level. Foxes have holes, birds have nets. Yes. If you can observe, create, if you can see that. But then we also talked about once you are able to understand some of the idioms of first century, you realize that they might refer to the Herodians as foxes. And so Herod has a palace and they often would refer to the Gentiles who are nesting in Israel as like the birds of the air buzzing around nesting.

2:13 So, Pilate has a palace, Herod has a palace, but Jesus is something different. So, if you want to follow him, don't anticipate making your way into palaces. So, these parables are really cool. I think one of the reasons is because it's like Jesus delivered them in context with particular cultural punch. Right? But that, that, it can carry meaning even outside of that for us. What I'm having fun with is getting down into that cultural punch from, and we'll do that a little bit here in Luke chapter 10 verse 25.

2:51 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life. A couple things real quick. The lawyer stands up, which is a sign of respect. The teacher would stay sitting, so you stand up to address the teacher. That's a sign of respect. And then he calls him teacher, which also says at least reappears. He's the lawyer, uses a teacher, at least reappears. And then he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life, which is like interesting language, and I didn't catch it till this guy pointed out.

3:27 Inheritance and doing, like, he doesn't say what do, what shall I do to earn eternal life. Right? And this notion of inheriting was like a cultural context, like that the Israelites would inherit a certain thing. And that there was this thing where they, by virtue of being Israelites, they got this free inheritance, so that they inherited the land. They didn't go get the land. God gave them the land. And then the rabbis would interpret the promises that were made with respect to in the land now are coming in the inheritance in the new kingdom.

4:05 And so there's this continuity of promise that revolves around inheritance. And then there was a debate about how you stay in the inheritance. And it's usually around doing the law. So this is a ready-made debate where the lawyer is asking Jesus, and he's assuming Jesus will take one side or the other of the law. And it kind of does. So he's testing him. He has this, like, kind of walking the line of respect. But he definitely is wanting to kind of see where Jesus falls on a debate of the day.

4:36 Teacher said, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? So he takes them right to the law right away. And so this was a rabbinical teaching style where you would ask a question that implies your answer and moves the conversation forward. So he might have said, what do I do to inherit eternal life? And he might have given him a long list. There are some rabbinical lists of things you have to do which go past the law, but are applications of it.

5:11 Take care of this certain subset of people, apply this truth in this way, take this action on this day, provide these sacrifices in this way. And where they've now read the law, made the interpretation, and applied it to specific teachings. Jesus just asks him a question that recognizes, he's saying, you maintain your inheritance by saying the part of the law or by saying the part of Israel by keeping the law. How do you read the law? And the guy goes, how do you read it? And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

5:56 It's really good just to position in some places people believe Jesus was the first one to say this, to put these two together this way, the love of the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself as the summation of the law. Of course, it's like the two tablets of the 10 commandments, but putting them together as the summation of all of Moses's teachings. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. Putting them together, a lot of people think Jesus was the first one to do it, do that. So then the teacher is giving a head nod to Jesus by answering in the way that he's heard Jesus give the teaching around.

6:34 Saying he's heard that this is how Jesus summarizes the law. And so Jesus says, hey man, good answer. You've answered correctly. Do this and you will live. The context there of you will live is interesting. It feels almost like it's a current phrase. So it's like you will begin to live. You will start living. There's definitely in first century Israel less of a separation between the now and the hereafter.

7:07 This notion that like T.S. Lewis really gets into where we've started eternity already. And we go forward into forever in the way that we're living now, just in progressive. And so Jesus says, do this love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. And you will be living. You will be living. Okay. But desiring to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

7:37 He wants a lift, which like I mentioned in a rabbinical tradition, there would be like circumscribe my action so I can check off my boxes and make sure that I've done all of the correct things and feel good about myself. As a matter of fact, what he's anticipating is that Jesus will give an answer that's circulating around often, which probably in the back of his head, he's done, so that he can say, oh I did that. Remember when there was another young ruler who came to Jesus and said, what must I do to inherit her life and he says, you know the law and it gives him a rundown and the guy says, oh, all of those I've done and Jesus gives him another finger.

8:18 So there's this like tradition of people when a respected rabbi comes through town, then the lawyers of the church want to come in in front of the teaching, in front of all the people, and challenge, demonstrate how smart they are by being able to go toe to toe in questions with the rabbi that's impressing everybody, and then ask a sequence of questions that they already feel like they know the answer to so that in front of everyone, the rabbi goes, man you're doing great.

8:50 Then when he leaves everyone knows that the rabbi said this young lawyer was doing great, and he gets all that cultural prestige power and self satisfaction. Is there, I mean, there are corollaries for that, right? I was, I can't remember, I think it was a conversation to me just when I were in the other day, but I was noticing how easy it is for us today to broadcast our kind of

9:35 positions, and it's better if the positions that we broadcast come with kind of a righteous indignation against something else. And it is interesting to me how often that's as far as we go, like our platform to broadcast our indignation, or even maybe sometimes our self-righteous indignation is enough.

10:07 Like our voice is our biggest agency, and our voice on platforms is the most powerful thing we have to offer, as though then that absolves us from reasonable action or life amendment. It feels a little bit like this, like the lawyer has found out there's a crowd, and he could broadcast his accomplishments and seeming, wanting, looking to justify himself in front of everyone.

10:40 He says, but tell me who my neighbor is, because there's documented tradition that neighbor is like family and country. So I take care of my family and the other Jewish folk, right? That circumscribes my set of responsibilities and goes, man, I need that all day. I'm a lawyer. And they can go, wow, man, I had some other people in the crowd, and I did my family wrong. I cheated somebody, this guy, not him.

11:14 Oh, he says, but he designed to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replies with a story. Awesome. Like not at all what the guy wanted, you know? And so he's like, just give me the list, and Jesus replies with a story. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers.

11:48 Okay, if you've heard anybody talk about this passage before, it's known like that's a dangerous road at the time of Jesus, but also like there's evidence that the crusaders built like watchtowers on the road, because it was still dangerous road at the time of the crusades and renaissance and right in the middle ages. And so that road is like known to be dangerous all throughout history. It's like a tough spot to be. And it's a widely trafficked road.

12:19 Remember that Jesus comes back on this road passing Jericho where he heals blind bar demands and goes in for the triumphal entry. This is like the way that people go by all the time. And so it's a dangerous road because of that, because it's highly trafficked. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half from dead. Apparently, you know, because it was a big thing, well being dead is a big thing.

12:54 But it was a ceremonial hinge point, right? So like in order to come to the temple and to do the sacrifices and to be ceremonially clean, you had to have a certain distance from dead. So then you can imagine if there are lots of church lawyers trying to make sure they're checking the boxes all of the time, they need to qualify what is dead. At what point are you dead? So they had like terms for when it was dead.

13:26 And this phrase right here that we have translated as half dead means probably unconscious, like dudes almost dead. Dead dead is like there's another one that's like next to dead, but that means he's dead. He's not coming back. He's dead. But not embalmed yet. Half dead means they, he probably put up a fight, and so they beat him real bad and left him unconscious.

14:04 And this is significant because, and they stripped him and left him half dead. And significance not only is proximity to actually being dead, but because when you know that he's half dead, then you know that he's unconscious and he's not speaking. And there were like all these different dialects happening around Jerusalem, like three different Hebrew dialects, and then several other different languages all right around the region. So you had a quick way of figuring out what nationality the person was.

14:39 First was how they were dressed. They all dressed in different kind of ritualistic, cultic, and tribal garb. So you would walk by someone and you'd know are they your kind of Jewish or not, are they some kind of Gentile or not. By the way they're dressed, only homeboy doesn't have any clothes anymore. Right? So then you would know by the way they speak their particular dialects. You've asked them a couple questions and you'd know your responsibility to them by the way that they spoke. This dude's not talking.

15:10 He's laying on the side of the road half dead, meaning unconscious and beat up and not able to help himself. Okay. We need to know that to get to the next thing. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed on the other side. Like there's several reasons for this, right? And the first one, the guy wants us to know that there's this like building so that the priest, it's a 17 mile road.

15:50 He said there's no way the priest is walking. He's on an animal, which is important. You don't have to say it out loud. You would know it. Like if you and I are going to Gainesville, I'm going to tell you that I'm not walking to Gainesville. I'm clearly, if I'm going to Gainesville, I'm driving to Gainesville. It's like on this road and a priest is an upper class. The guy who fell in with robbers might have been walking, but probably not if they beat him up and robbed him. He had enough stuff that he was on an animal, right?

16:20 The Levite coming later might be walking because he's not as big of a deal as the priest, but the priest is definitely riding, which means the priest could totally help the dude out. Like if the priests were just walking, the best they could do is kind of hang out there and wait on the side of the road for some other robber to come get him. Like that's a lot to ask, but the priest has a riding. He could help the guy. But the priest can't tell if he's a Jew or not, right? And he knows there's a whole thing that happens.

16:52 If he comes across a dead guy and Anna's a Jew, he's got a rip his clothes. He can't not rip his clothes. That's the cultic observance of someone who's next to dead and dead. You've got to. And there's a whole system then to get back to cleanliness. Also, if the priest is leaving from Jerusalem, going down to Jericho, he's probably just finishing serving at the temple. So if he gets unclean, he's going to have to go right back where he's been for two weeks working. He's on his way home.

17:22 He's going to have to go back to where he's like, it's a real problem for him. And so rather than deal with the problem of the person, he absolves himself in his head and goes, I don't know if this is a Jew. And the neighbor I'm responsible for is a Jew. As a matter of fact, there was a whole cultural notion that if you helped someone who was not a Jew, this was bad. I mean, you were not supposed to do that because they were not God's people, so you were helping the enemy of God. So he would actually get in trouble for helping someone who was not a Jew in the cultural observance of the day because you don't help people that are Jews.

18:00 Like that's helping the enemy, not God's people. So he looks at it and for like half a dozen reasons, he's out. He stays the right number of qubits away from the half-dead guy so that he's not in trouble and keeps going. And then now by a chance of priest he's sent a pass so likewise a Levi when he came to the place and saw him pass on the other side, just real briefly, the guy's pretty sure this road, the guy who writes this commentary has been on his road several times, talks about the people he said especially at the day.

18:37 When you're leaving Jerusalem, you're asking people right outside who else is on the road for your own safety. And so if the Levi is falling behind the priest, nine chances out of ten, he knows there's a priest ahead of him and the priest out ranks him. And so when he comes up to this guy laying right here, he knows the priest right ahead of him, made the judgment about the law that said, I don't have to deal with this guy. So if the Levi makes the judgment different from the priest, he's like outranking the priest and he's like the priest already skipped by, dude, I'm skipping by.

19:09 Like I'm not dealing with this guy because it's just too much. So likewise the Levi when he came to the place and saw him pass on the other side, but a Samaritan as he germinated, came to where he was. When you saw him, you had compassion on him. The verb is progressive, like the Levi saw from the distance across to the other side. I mean the priest saw from the distance across the other side.

19:39 It said the Levi came to him, looked at him, and then left, and then it says that the Samaritan comes all the way to where he is, sees him, and has compassion on him. When I realized that this was like maybe a decade ago in a new kind of way when I was orienting myself to Orlando, and I read this parable about the story, not a parable, story about Jesus.

20:12 I don't want to take the time to tell you the whole story, but the short version is Jesus was trying to get away from a crowd, and in trying to get away from a crowd, he goes off by himself, across the lake, and comes upon the crowd again. And when he comes upon the crowd a second time, it says that he had deep compassion, welling up inside of him. And something hit me when I read that 10 years ago, and I thought, oh my gosh, the compassion of Jesus walking around in first century Israel was not obligatory, or even compulsory.

20:47 It wasn't that he was obligated to love people, or that he was compelled to love people in order to accomplish the will of the God. It's that genuine compassion for brokenhearted, broken people was in him, and he couldn't not respond. And when I asked myself the question, when had I felt that, if I'm honest, it was not enough?

21:17 The next sentence was interesting for me, the next thought was, I think, just like I told these children, I think I have the capacity to be able to do this. It would be a person like Jesus. If I recognize that I am not, that I have no compassion, it's not that there is not compassion in me. It's that I have not walked towards the, I have not cultivated the Spirit in me to the point that the compassion is awoken.

21:48 And so I did things like, I just started driving down different streets. It said, there has to be compassion in me, the same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead is alive in me. There is compassion in there, and the fact that there is injustice and poverty, the fact that there is wrong in my city, not just globally, but in my own city, and I don't have compassion. This is a problem. I do not want to be a guy who just stays on the other street so that I don't see the problem.

22:19 I'd rather be a person who can't not respond with compassion. And God help me, at least I'm going to walk closer to it. The Levite sees the problem and lets compassion awaken him, and he has to deal with all the complexity. He crosses the city out of the south. The Levite comes and looks at the problem and absolves himself with responsibility, with the cultural awareness of someone else and absolved himself before.

22:49 The Samaritan, outside of all the cultural obligation, walks towards the problem and has genuine compassion in it. A couple of things. The lawyer and all the teachers. When Jesus is telling the story, remember the question is, who is my neighbor? And Jesus doesn't answer. So they're like going along with his ride, waiting for the punchline at the end. And he tells his story, and it takes us longer to get through the story because we are missing the cultural punch, but they get the cultural punch as it's coming every time.

23:19 And what's happening when he does the Samaritan thing is he flips it on him. So there's a normal storytelling mode that goes priest Levite's Jew. It comes up a couple of times even in the Acts of the Apostles. So when he goes on the story, they might roll their eyes and go, you rabbi always with your story. But he goes, starts going down the priest, Levite, and then he doesn't go Jew.

23:49 He goes Samaritan. This dude found records in synagogues around the first century where it was a regular practice. In synagogues to pray against Samaritans. God, keep that group from your salvation. Remember when Jonah is told to go to Nineveh, he's like, I'll go anywhere but there because I know you, dude. You're going to forgive the Assyrians and I'd rather not have your mercy in the world.

24:23 This attitude still pervades the first century Israel. Literally, they are praying against the Samaritans. They are not neutral to this group of people. They do not like them. They do not like them. As a matter of fact, when they're listening to the story, the lawyers would rather have, because the dude on the side of the road, when the Samaritan comes, is defiled by a Samaritan helping him.

24:55 They would prefer that he yell at the Samaritan, get away from me. I don't need any of your help. Though I'm half dead. So when he goes, there's a priest, a Levite, a Samaritan. They're like, their minds are blown right now. They do not know what to make of this. So likewise, Levite, okay, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion.

25:30 And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine. So there's more that we can go into this parable than we have time. But the short version is he flips the axon here, Jesus does. Normally, you would pour the oil on first, because oil they use to clean. So it's softened the wounds and clean. Then you would pour the wine. The wine would disinfect, and then you would bind up the wounds.

26:00 But Jesus says to bind up the wounds first, and this dude thinks it's because of our call to worship. So we have to remember, Hosea, Chapter 6, come let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us that he may heal us. He has struck us down and he will bind us up. After two days, he will revive us. And on the third day, we will raise up. Of course, this can point to Jesus himself and what God does to Jesus on the cross.

26:35 And also, it can point to what this Samaritan is doing for this dude in this story. He will bind you up and lift you up and carry you. Jesus is telling these folks, we're like, hey, who's my neighbor? And he's gone answer his head and knows he's done the answer. And he can't wait to get to the self-righteous pronouncement that the lawyer has done all things good.

27:10 And says, okay, just give it to me, I'm ready. And then Jesus says to his answer that Jesus, the rabbi, is like the Samaritan, that the neighbor and the people equate the Samaritan with the messianic promises of Hosea, the Samaritan whom we pray again. The writer says, this is so offensive. He tries to come up with a way. He's like, it takes courage for Jesus to even share this story.

27:56 It's hard to think of a cultural corollary, but it might be in the deep south during Jim Crow making a young African American the hero of the story. It's like the example he gives is in the prairie Indians in the west where the Indians is the Savior and brings a cowboy who's been scalped back into town.

28:30 In the story that Samaritan's putting himself in danger, but the commentator wants us to know Jesus is demonstrating immense courage just telling this story because of the straight correlation to the messianic figures of Hosea. Okay, we've got that covered. Let's keep going. Luke Travis in. Oh, he went bound up his wounds pouring oil and wine. Then he sent him on this animal and brought him to the inn and took care of him.

29:00 And the next day he took to Daenera and gave it to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, whatever more you spend, I will repay when you come back. So the Samaritan comes to him. So the Levite comes to him and walks away. The Samaritan comes to him and goes further, binds up his wounds. The priest stood away with his donkey and left. The Samaritan takes him and puts him on his own donkey.

29:33 The robbers approached him and took everything that he had and then abandoned him and left him alone. The Samaritan takes him and leaves him and gives him money and says, I'll come back and continue taking care of you. So in sequence, the robbers, the priests and the Levites, brews and abuse and abandon. And the Samaritan undoes all their evil one at a time, complete.

30:03 The story is told in seven parts and completed by the Samaritan. And then I'll take care of him and ever you spend, I will repay when I come back. And then Jesus says, oh, remember your first question? Which of these do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? And he can't say this, Samaritan the lawyer says, the one who showed him mercy.

30:38 And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. Of course, there's one reading of his parable that is helpful and instructive. Be a person of compassion to all you come across. And then there's a second, of course.

31:12 The dude asking the question, who's my neighbor is a Jew. And the guy on the side of the road beat up and left for dad is a Jew who comes and against his will or knowledge has someone to do. And he's not willing to say when he is unable to be a neighbor at all.

31:44 I think there's an implicit story here where the guy is so oblivious in his self-righteousness, he doesn't see how busted up and needy he is. And though he doesn't have the capacity to receive it, Jesus smuggled a truth inside of the story that says, hey, lawyer, where you least expected, the one who has torn you to pieces will come back and bind you up.

32:16 The one who has overseen, overseen, and saw every wound and brokenness will bind it up and restore. And set you up to live. You and I will never be perfect neighbors. We have the capacity to live and act. A refrain in his parable.

32:46 Another one I told you we can't get into all this, go and do. That feeling aligns with action in the worldview of Jesus. You and I have the capacity because of the spirit that lives in us to not only be people of compassion, but to be people who act on our compassion. We have the capacity to do that. And yet we will never be perfect neighbors. The good news for us is even when we are busted up, beat up, and left for dead.

33:16 Jesus himself comes, finds up moves, the stores redeems, and sets us back to life. The sooner you and I realize that our self-righteous indignation or satisfaction gets us nowhere, that the way we get love from God the Father is to recognize our brokenness.

33:48 And then he comes, finds up and the sooner we get back to living. The sooner we are set back up, restored, healed, and put out to live. My prayer for us is that we could be people who let the God heal us in order that we might likewise live, compassionate, giving people in the world. Let me pray.

34:18 I pray for you to pray for this story and the testimony of your son and his teaching. Be with us now. Heal us and restore us. Give us hearts of compassion as well. Live life consistent with you. And Jesus, stand with me.