The Good Samaritan


“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.” -Luke 10:36-37

The wonderful thing about Jesus' parables is that they nearly always have an element of surprise, of counter-culture, which he uses to force the listener to make a decision about accepting or rejecting the kingdom of God in their heart. The most important thing about parables is that Jesus communicates to us, through them, a divine meaning in human affairs. In them he gives the events of life a new meaning. He gives us a new vision of everyday life. Through the parables, Jesus is trying to illustrate for the people the meaning of his own presence among them, the meaning of his mission and his person and the meaning of the kingdom of God. In other words, what is important about the parables is the religious message they convey about human life, about our life with God.

Parables result in:
A Change of heart. The message is radical! We are not left in a place after reading it in a neutral position. A choice must be made, are we for or against the message Jesus is trying to get across.
Response in Action. Jesus gives us an invitation to act, just like he told the lawyer in the story to go and do the same as the samaritan had done.
Novelty and Surprise. There is surprise because the message is radical, it is a culture shock in many cases.
The Kingdom of God. The frequent theme is the Kingdom of God. For example, perfect fulfilment of the Jewish law, liberation from the Romans and social injustices or a sudden intervention of God that would bring about a kingdom which would be a new heaven and new earth. For Jesus human beings were not able to bring about this kingdom by themselves. It is a work of God, and human beings cooperate in bringing about this kingdom. It is to be understood in terms of love. It is the coming to power in and through human' beings of the self-communicating love of God. This sovereignty of God's love also requires our activity.

This post goes hand in hand with my last post about Jesus versus Religion. We are like the religion leader in the video above. He said, "If I didn't have church business to attend to I would stop and help." Then he prayed as he passed by the dying man, when all along it was you who Jesus sent along the way to help. I'm guilty of it myself.

I think the moral of the story in how it relates to the Kingdom of God is having mercy on each other, just as God has mercy on us through His son. How dare we not show mercy, or kindness?

Father, help us to stop and show love, compassion, and mercy to those who surround us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elliot

Image
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. -Isaiah 53:1-6 The verses above have stuck out in my mind surrounding this Easter Season and in the midst of this plague. Jesus wasn't afraid of disease or death or anything deemed to b
Read more

Hupomone -- A Patient Endurance

Image
I can remember the first time I heard this Greek word, Hupomone (noun). (pronounced hoop-om-on-ay') It literally means remaining under the Divine Presence while being tested. I was sitting in the church my dad was pastoring at the time, a rural church in North Carolina. It's been well over 10 years ago. I was sitting on a pew with my friend Sarah, kinda toward the front. I don't remember anything about the sermon that day, just the word Hupomone. Sarah and I looked at each other and giggled like girls do, and Sarah blurted out, "What's humopone?!" My dad, the gracious man he is, answered her interruption. For the next few months Sarah and I would run around randomly saying, "Hupomone!" several times in a row. It really is a fun word to say. Looking back on it, what a great thing to do. What if there were people running around yelling Greek words at you to remind you, Endure! Endure! Endure! Endure! Endure! People probably thought we
Read more

That You May Believe

Image
  We see the word, "believe" a lot in our culture.  We are encouraged by wooden frames, and art to "believe in ourselves."  In all actuality that is idolatry telling you to place your faith in yourself.  I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to direct my life other than to trouble.  Do we really want to lift ourselves higher than God?  That we are worthy within ourselves to reject God and trust ourselves instead?  I guess we have all walked that path at one time or another.  My existence outside of Jesus Christ and His Spirit in me amounts to nothing.  It begins and ends.  I live for myself, doing whatever I please, going wherever.  It may be attractive for a season, but in the end my life it isn't hinged on any meaning. In throwing the word, "believe" around so much it looses it's meaning almost like when we tell people we love them without thinking or feeling.  Believe is a key word to the Bible, especially the book of John.  Belief
Read more