First Mennonite Church
December 7, 2025
Parable of the Good Samaritan
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Just to give you a heads up on what we will be considering today and the next two Sundays: Today we will take a look on one of Jesus’ most beautiful parables: The Good Samaritan, as it’s been titled. Next Sunday, because we will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper, we will take a look at Jesus’ parable of The Great Banquet, found in Luke 14. On the December 21, there will be a Hymn Sing interspersed with Scripture readings related to the birth of Jesus.
Read: Luke 10:25-37
Jesus was debriefing his disciples on their recent missionary commission they just returned from. In his joy for their success, Jesus offered a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father for giving his disciples the privilege of seeing God’s healing and liberating power work through them. Jesus told them past kings, prophet, and wise men had desired and prayed to see God’s miraculous works and to hear his powerful voice speaking in their time and lives but did not have such privileges. Jesus then told his disciple, “Do not rejoice that the (evil) spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
As Jesus was still speaking, lo and behold, as the KJV says, a lawyer stood up and asked Jesus a question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked. The question was spot on! It is an all-important question everyone should ask the Lord. However, there were at least two major problems from the one who asked it. The first problem is that the expert of the Torah only posed the question “to test Jesus.” And by testing, Luke does not mean testing Jesus’ knowledge of the words of God. In chapter four, Luke says that as soon as Jesus came out of the Jordan River, when he was baptized, the devil showed up in the desert to test Jesus. That is, to tempt him. So, the true intention of this expert of the Law was not a sincere desire to know what to do, but simply the evil intent of trapping Jesus on his words.
The second problem there was with the question is the man’s understanding of what eternal life is. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus narrows the distance between the present age and the age to come. There in chapter 18, where a young rich man also asks Jesus how he could inherit eternal life, Jesus tells Peter that those who make sacrifices for the kingdom of God will “get back very much more in this age and in the age to come eternal life” (18:30). The expert of the law believed that eternal life is simply a future state of being with little connections with the present life. However, Jesus teaches that eternal life spills into the present; it begins as of now, but also that the present life determines the realities of eternity will be for everyone.
So, Jesus knowing the intentions of the expert of the Law also asks two piercing questions: “You are an expert of the Law. What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
The lawyer quotes back to Jesus the heart of the Torah. “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.” This is a quote from Deuteronomy six, verse 5, with an extra phrase—”with all you mind.”
Jesus, without hesitation, affirms his response as the correct one. Then he charges the man, “do this, and you will live.”
We would think that at Jesus’ affirmation of the lawyer’s response that he would be satisfied, but no. He would not settle; he wanted to justify himself; thus, he asked: “And who is my neighbor?”
Again, in the gospel of Luke, self-justification is not simply the attempt of proving oneself right. Self-justification is the attempt of creating our own definition righteousness before man and God. It is the task of deciding for oneself what is right and what is wrong on our own terms—not on what others say nor on what God says. Jesus describes this human attitude as “an abomination in the sight of God.” Look it up in Luke 16:15.
True righteousness is a divine gift, not something we can earn nor something we can achieve by ourselves. So, the lawyer was attempting the impossible by trying to justify himself and still yet, in his insistence at it, he poses another question: Who is my neighbor? This question reflects the very foundation on which self-justification is grounded. The question is a veiled attempt at defining the limits of one’s moral obligation towards others. It is an attempt at setting a boundary to my love and concern for others. It is a polite way to ask, “Who is not worthy of my love, and even more, who can I hate?”
At that, Jesus goes on to tell the story of the robbed, beaten, naked, and abandoned half-dead man on the road.
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead.
This was a nameless man, an unknown person who could be just anyone. If clothes give hints about one’s identity, not even those he had to be identified. This man was leaving Jerusalem going down towards the Dead Sea. In fact, there is an inn along the road between Jerusalem and Jericho called “Inn of The Good Samaritan.” It’s actually a museum. (saw it in 2004 when I visited Israel/Palestine).
It could be that this ordinary man was leaving Jerusalem after fulfilling his vows to God. But there on the road he was attacked, robbed, undressed, severely beaten and left half dead. He couldn’t help himself. He did not have clothes, money, nor the strength to get up. He laid there awaiting the worst—his own death. But hope seems to pierce through his dark moment. A priest happens to travel on the same road. He arrives by, sees the man, but then chooses to pass by without rendering help. And then a second person comes by—a Levite, who is a little lower in rank to a priest. However, he does exactly the same in regards to the dying man. And as in the stories we know where there is always a set of three characters—remember “Goldilocks and the Three bears”? “The Three Little Pigs”? “The Big Bad Wolf”? There are three characters showing up in a row. So, must likely, Jesus Jewish audience was expecting that the third character to show up would be a layperson. A layman would have to be a Jew, which would not be so shocking should he do what the priest or the Levite did not do. But to their shock, Jesus introduces an unexpected character—a hated and unclean Samaritan. He is an enemy. He is a person none of his audience members would want to associate with, touch, and much less, be touched by. Upon arriving at the scene of the attack, he sees the man. And the way Jesus describes the Samaritan’s response is very revealing.
Jesus says, “But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.” He not only felt bad for the beaten-up man; he not only felt pity at the man’s situation. He was moved with compassion. Thus, he bandaged his wounds, gave him a drink, loaded him on his transportation and took him to an inn to be cared for and even offer to pay more if needed.
The Jesus closes in with another question: Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” “The one who showed him mercy,” replied the lawyer. Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
If you grew up in church, you know this story by heart, in and out, back and forth. The Good Samaritan is a familiar name too. There are Good Samaritan Hospitals, shelters, thrift stores, recovery centers, and charities. There is even a law called “Good Samaritan Law, which gives legal protection to those who voluntarily give emergency assistance to others, protecting them from civil liability in most cases.
But today, I would like for us to consider two aspects about this story. You see, we take the words of Jesus very seriously when said, “Go, and do likewise.” However, in our context we will always have difficulty embodying the identity of the Good Samaritan. He was an enemy to the man he helped. He was an apostate, in terms of religion. He was someone, who if it were in a different circumstance, the recipient of his aid would be insulted if offered. We, however, help others from a position of respectability and as a practice of orthodoxy—true or correct religion. The Samaritan man had none of those social qualities.
But the most shocking aspect about this parable for Jesus’ listeners was that the one who received the aid from an enemy was one of their own. Those who should help did not help their one of their own. The one who help their friend was one who worship differently. One who read a different version of their sacred book. It was one who believed differently. It was one whom they simply hated and avoid at all cost. Yet, they realized that in that person, something, something about the character of God’s very essence—his mercy and compassion was embodied in him tangibly.
So, let me ask you: Who would it be a person who wouldn’t care less about—what she/he is? Believes or says? Who would be that person who you would consider the last as “good?” Who you would wish to convert to become like you and yet you would not ever feel the need to try? That was exactly who the Good Samaritan was.
And lastly, when the beaten and half-dead man laid there in the ditch heard footsteps approaching. When he felt warm hands carefully assisting him to sit down. When his naked body was warming up to dry clothes. And when he finally was being taken to receive further care, the injured man did not care what the other was, where he came from, what he believed, or looked like, but gratefully received his assistance. He was glad someone rescued him from sure death.
It takes humility to receive help. But when we are down, when our resources are wiped out, when our health is no more, when a relationship is crumbling, when death sees us in the eye, we don’t care who gives us a hand. We don’t care who offers to pray for us. We don’t care who offers to stand by our side and hold our hands. Then we understand how it feels to be robbed, beaten, and in need of a helping hand.
Many are in need of compassion and mercy. When we embody these virtues, God appears in the flesh to those we offer them. Jesus says in the beatitudes: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Go, and do the same! Amen!
Pastor Romero