Luke 10:30

Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two shillings, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee.

The method of interpreting this parable which is usually followed in these times is that of contrasting religious people (the priest and the Levite) with non-religious people (the Samaritan), making the non-religious humanitarian superior to the uncharitable religious person: then construing the whole as an answer to the question of how to inherit eternal life, with the conclusion that the only thing needful in order to inherit eternal life is for one to do good to his fellowmen. This parable teaches no such thing. While it is true, of course, that uncharitable and pitiless religious persons cannot be saved, it is likewise true that the unreligious humanitarian is also without hope. It is the conviction of this student that "a certain Samaritan" in this parable does not stand for non-religious humanitarians at all, but for the Christ of Glory, who alone, of all who ever lived on earth, has shown infinite compassion and pity upon all. Bertel Thorvaldsen, the great Danish sculptor whose "The Good Samaritan" adorns the rotunda at Johns Hopkins University, depicted the true message of the parable, making Christ the Good Samaritan. Jesus our Lord is the true model of all human behavior, and not the unnamed Samaritan who lavished pity and care upon the victim of robbers on the Jericho road.

One of the favorite slanders of Jesus by the Pharisees called him a "Samaritan" (John 8:48). See under Luke 9:19. But in this parable Jesus touched that slander with the genius of his divinity and changed it into the most glorious encomium, an accolade of eternal praise. They called him a Samaritan; very well, Jesus defined "Samaritan" for all generations in this incredibly beautiful parable.

CONCERNING JESUS' PARABLES

The parables of Jesus are excellent beyond all excellence. The hymns of Wesley, dramas of Shakespeare, novels of Scott, eloquence of Churchill, stories of O. Henry, philippics of Demosthenes and the scope of the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY are all surpassed and exceeded by the parables of Jesus.

"The Sextette" from "Lucia di Lammermoor," the "Hallelujah Chorus," the "Chant of the Pagan Priestess" from "Aida," the marches of Sousa, and all the harmonies of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Handel none of these nor all of them are as beautiful as the parables of Jesus.

The whole world for nearly two millenniums has loved the parables. They are the essence of all philosophical and moral wisdom, the distilled knowledge of all that characterizes human behavior, and the most influential words ever written. They live in the hearts of millions, monitor the activities of all mankind, judge the secrets of men, reveal their motives, disclose their sins, and announce their destiny. They are at once simple and profound.

The parable of the Good Samaritan has alone built a thousand hospitals, or a million; it has fed orphans, relieved the poor, and poured its blessings upon all the wretchedness and disease of this earth. Thorvaldsen's statue of the Good Samaritan symbolizes the relation of this parable to the science of medicine, but the connection with all the sciences of human service is just as real and dramatic. If there is anything ever written that compares with the parables of Jesus, why does not someone identify it? Good Samaritan hospitals all over the world honor this parable. Where is its rival? If the sacred parables of Jesus are not indeed of God himself, why have twenty centuries of human genius been unable to write another?

The conceit that a parable has only one point is a human device for the reduction of infinity to a smaller theater for the purpose of accommodating inadequate understanding of God's word. When man is bewildered, challenged, perplexed, and amazed at the scope of one of Jesus' parables, he may console himself and reduce embarrassment by the allegation that, after all, there is only one point anyway! The inability of men to agree on which is the "one point" proves there are many. Jesus allegorized the Master Parable (Matthew 13:18f); and here is another parable of the same type, displaying the same quality of exciting analogies.

ANALOGIES OF THE PARABLE

The wounded man stands for Adam and all his posterity.

The descent from Jerusalem to Jericho is the Fall.

The thieves are the devil and his servants who strip men of their garments of purity and the fear of God.

The man left half dead shows the result of the Fall in that man was left dead in his body, but immortal in his soul.

The priest is the Law given through Moses.

The Levite is the teaching of the prophets.

The Good Samaritan is Jesus Christ himself.

The inn is the church which receives every kind of men.

The failure of the priest and the Levite to aid the stricken man shows the inability of the Law and the Prophets to save the souls of men.

The compassion of the Samaritan shows the loving compassion of Christ himself.

The Samaritan's paying all of the charges for the care of the wounded man stands for the fact that Christ paid the total cost of human redemption.

With slight variation, this is the allegorization of this parable as found in Euthymius,[23] who extended the allegory to include the innkeeper as the ruler of the church; but the innkeeper is an inert factor in the parable, bearing no analogy whatever. Such an understanding of the parable does no violence at all to the obvious teaching on "who is my neighbor?" and it also has the advantage of refuting the humanistic nonsense which modern commentators have imported into it.

As Spence said:

This exegesis which has commended itself so heartily to learned and devout churchmen in all the Christian ages deserves at least a more respectful mention than the scornful allusion or contemptuous silence with which it is nowadays too often dismissed.[24]

The parable was given by the Master in response to the question of "Who is my neighbor?"! and if Jesus had nothing else in mind except answering that question, he might merely have said, "Every human being is my neighbor if he is in need and I have the ability at whatever cost to help him." The mistake of the lawyer lay in the restricted view he had with regard to the identity of his neighbor. Even if the person in need is of another race or color, if his need is the result of his own folly, or if aiding such a one is fraught with danger, expense, and inconvenience, nonetheless, he is my neighbor.

One of the ministers of Central Church of Christ, Houston, Texas, whose life was ended in a tragic traffic accident in the mid-1930's, especially loved the parable of the Good Samaritan; and, in the sermon outlines and notes which he left to the church library, James H. Childress left the following poem. It is included here out of respect to a faithful, energetic, and brilliant preacher of the gospel whose genius as a church builder is still attested, forty years after his untimely death, by the fact that a great church still retains as its nucleus many of the faithful souls whom he gathered together in the name of the Lord.

THE MAN BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

In the long, long ago, a traveler came down the road to Jericho; He fell among robbers, who stripped him, and left him dying from many a blow. A priest passed by on the other side; he had no time to spare; A Levite glanced at the wounded man, but left him lying there.

A human being, beaten and robbed, and left by the road to die! And others content to have it so, and willing to pass him by! But, lo! another traveler came, a man of a hated race; He came to the victim's side, and grief and pity were in his face.

He bathed and bound the bleeding wounds of the man by the side of the road; And on his beast of burden placed a different load. And then to the inn there slowly moved that tiny caravan; That wounded man and the little beast and the Good Samaritan.

His time and his strength and his money too, the Good Samaritan gave, That he might from a cruel death that day his needy neighbor save. And my prayer is that I may be like the man who mercy showed In the long ago on the Bloody Way to the man by the side of the road.

-James H. Childress

[23] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 752.

[24] H. D. M. Spence, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), Vol. 16, Luke, p. 277.