The Parable of the Good Samaritan

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The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

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Transcript

relatable and accessible to everyone, even the person who like sneaks into church late, you know and sits on the back pew,
trying to reinforce your faith or bring you into the faith.
Really our main goal was just to help you guys out there, anyone trying to learn, and listen in all these stories and just pick up really helpful tidbits so we can all apply to our lives.
This is the back to you guys. They're on to the next.
Yeah, I'm just gonna hop on back into Yeah, so for this, the next three weeks for everyone listening, we'll be talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is only found honorable parable of the Good Samaritan. So this is only found in in Luke. That's the only gospel that it's actually listed in its 12 verses total. It's it seems like a pretty short summarized event. Yet, as you see, we're gonna go through this, there's gonna be again, like we mentioned in the in the first one, the onion, the layers, right, so the first thing I just wanted to quickly touch up on here is like, what is a parable, I'm sure most of the listeners or some of the listeners already understand this, but I want to just kind of touch on it slightly here. So a parable is just a simple story. It's a simple story told by Jesus that has a spiritual lesson, but it's like an earthly meaning behind it. So it's something that's super easy for everyone to understand and follow. But it has all those layers of like spiritual and moral depth to it that we can still today draw from, there's around 40 parables total, within the Gospels, some claim there's more on going forward, because that's the most reasonable number I could find. But they're all profound, theological, full of doctrine and stuff like that. There, there are a lot of fun. And you're gonna see that as we go through these this month. And then the last thing I think is pretty neat is the actual word parable itself. What it means is to, it's something to throw alongside literal. That's like the actual definition of what parable is. So it's like when we tell a story to our kids, and we're trying to get an understand somebody throw along an analogy, same thing, a parable is Yeah, same exact thing. It's just Jesus to try and get these worldly people to understand things. We just throw alongside this story to help them understand it. So I thought that was pretty cool. So I threw that in there for you. You're welcome. You're welcome. For the Quick Tip. Tip of the day, all right tip of the day, and then yeah, so then, like I said, it's just only found in Luke, Luke chapter 10, and 25 to 37. So 12 hole verses about six of those actually covering the the purple itself.
And for everybody listening, you are about to be graced by the man himself. reading a story. Reading Rainbow, you guys remember reading
even though you might be the only one John,
how do you enlighten us
Reading Rainbow? It's like when you're in like elementary school, the reading green, but I was. Probably yeah,
I'm 37 Almost dude.
So you definitely how old? Are you?
33 I did Hooked on Phonics.
It was like it was like a thing where like the teachers, like have too long of a night the night prior. And they would like wake come in with their big coffee mug and they just be like, watch the TV. And they put it on it was like,
Nah, dude, my mom taught me dude. My mom, I was homeschooled to up until eighth grade. And then I went to high school for sports reasons. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'd never know. You were
I was homeschooled. My last two years. Due to high school asked me not to come back. We won't discuss that.
That sounds like a future episode. Maybe not giving us testimonies? Or All right, well, hopping right into it. Um, Nate, it's great to be here. So Matt, thanks for that introduction with the parable especially thrown alongside, I'd never heard that before. It's like what it actually means. So getting into it, Luke 1025, through 37. So what I'm gonna do is not necessarily read all the verses, but kind of just kind of double kind of there. But break this down, making it maybe a little more easy to understand. And then we'll stop along the way. And basically just point out things that we think are interesting, and maybe foreshadowing, what we're going to talk about in the next episode, as far as wrapping things up, and just biblical application, especially like, Alright, how does this parable pertain to us? In the real world? Like, how does it pertain to us right now, we serve a God who is never changing, right? He's the same God, the same God that I brought this parable up is the same one we're worshiping now, and learning about now. So without further ado, getting into it. So Jesus is talking to a lawyer, so a lawyer in this time and an age if you will, not necessarily a trial lawyer, how we might kind of view it nowadays, but really one who interprets the law. So Sadducees and Pharisees were kind of the People, you know, they thought they were very, will say hottie kind of better than better than you was kind of their attitude. And they always were trying to trip Jesus up, which was impossible because he was he is omnipotent and omnipresent and omniscient works. So we're not going to trip up Jesus, but they certainly tried and he made him look really dumb. So he poses a question to Jesus, he says, what is written in the law? And how do you interpret it? And Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord. I'm sorry, I got that backwards. Oh, they ask you how you are, you just have to say that you're fine. When you're not really fine. You just can't get into it. We, it's early. It's really not that early. But Jesus answers this guy. He says, what is written in the law? And this guy answers Jesus, thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, soul and mind and strength, and my neighbor as thyself. That's his answer to Jesus, of what is written in the law. And he answers him and he says, hey, you've answered, right. And if you do that, you're gonna have eternal life, you're gonna live. But the lawyer went a step further, kind of trying to trip him up. And he said, to Jesus, but who really is my neighbor? Which is a pretty simple question. But again, I think there's there's a lot of profound meaning there. Especially today, which we can talk about after the wrap up story. But Jesus answered him, and he said, and getting into the actual parable, throwing alongside with our analogy here, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. So I'll stop right there. This is a this is actually a pretty well known path. And it's wrought with thieves robbers. People really just looking for a quick fix is that about what you got? For sure, quick fix with with money, you know, robbing guys for what they had on them, perhaps, you know, in this age as well. It's not necessarily all about money, but property as well. So animals, you know, donkeys horses, had a lot of value as well. So really just looking to rob people and get their quick fix. So this is a perilous journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. I also think it's worth noting, The Jesus answered with this parable, He just says a certain man, he doesn't necessarily define Black and White who that man, you know, was ethnicity wise, or, you know, was he a Jew? It's kind of open for debate. But I think, in getting to the rest of the barrel interested to see what what you guys met John think, but basically, this man is of Jewish descent. He's a Jew. You guys agree with I agree with that. And again, that's, that's, that's our interpretation. That doesn't mean we're 100% Correct. That's just kind of how it would play out. I think it makes the most sense. So this certain man in this about 21 miles, again, that is also open for debate. But roughly most of the interpretations and commentaries that we've read, it's about 21 miles. This man fell among thieves. He was robbed, he was beaten, he was stripped of his clothes. So these guys are really kind of took everything from this man, these these robbers. In another important note, I think when they beat him, they wounded him. That's a key word there, I think, wounded, we can get into that deeper as well. But they also left this guy for dead upon wounding him. So he's holding on to life can imagine he's in a pool of his own blood. He has no clothes on, and he's left for dead. And then Jesus in the parable gets into three different encounters. We'll call it with this Jew with this Jewish man. And he says, By chance, the first encounter is a priest and the priest. This is very short, verse 31, it says, he saw the man and then he passed by on the other side, and that is it. That is all we have one sentence, the next encounter is a Levite. And the Levite, it says was at the police, so he may have witnessed the actual beating and blood or he passed by him and in passing by him. He kind of you know, leads to the encounter. We're not sure if he observed the beating or he just is passing by, but what it does say is that this man, the Levite looked on the Jewish man and passed by on the other side. So at the very least, he looked at him maybe had a look of compassion or kind of translate into modern, modern day, he probably looked at him and he's like, oh, man, that sucks. Like, that is that's just terrible. But again, no response, his responses passing by on the other side. And then that brings us to our third encounter of this Jewish man who is again, wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood, and he's naked. And the third encounter is a Samaritan. The Samaritan is on his journey, he comes alongside this Jewish man. And immediately, what we are told in this verse is that he sees him, and he has compassion right away. So it's not just like, oh, man, that sucks. It's, it's a feeling of like, wow, who could do this? How could this happen? And I'm going to fix it, I'm going to have compassion, but I'm going to act, this Samaritan went to him right away. And the first thing he did is the most important thing, right? Like, we're all military background. So stop the bleeding, stop in stopping the mass hemorrhaging going on here. And he bounds bounds up his wounds, right. And he takes care of his wounds. And in doing so it says he pours in oil and wine. Interesting there. I want to go back. And I'm going to let Matt kind of expound because I think it's super important. In our studies, we all kind of have different perspectives, but we all know probably growing up, or if we just maybe read this story, that like the Samaritan and the do not not a great relationship. But I'm gonna let Matt kind of expound on this relationship a little bit more in depth, because it is one of you have to go back actually a very, very long time to understand the Jewish and the Samaritan like relationship and just how bad it is. So Matt, on the past to for that, yeah, for
sure. Um, so the Samaritans so I think our cultural norm now you hear something someone say, like the Good Samaritan, that's like, we understand it's a positive figure that's like, because of this story. Actually, that's where it comes from, obviously. But in this day and age, when Jesus is speaking to this lawyer, this would have been like a notorious bad guy, he was the traitor. He was the one who was no longer like, in the religious in crowd. Right. So the Samaritan is immediately when he interjects that name, that person into the story, this lawyer would have been offended by the presence of this this individuals name. There's a whole 1000 year background as to why this is the case. And I think we'll jump into that a lot more in the next episode to really give you a lot more depth as to the whole history behind that. But for time sake, I would say I mean, this is the bad guy. This is not the hero of the story. This is the bad guy in in the minds of the loggers. He listens to this Samaritans, not the figure that this lawyer would want to hear.
Yeah, sure. Think like the person that you see down walking down the sidewalk, and you're walking towards them, and you kind of like, move over just a little bit because they look a little bar rough, or you just don't want to mess with this guy. And it's that is how the Levites would look at this Samaritan. Yeah, they would have the same type of feelings
that are spot on, I thought worth just expounding just a little bit. It means a lot to the story for sure. Yeah. Like Matt said, we'll get into it in the next episode, so stay tuned for that, but definitely looked at as an enemy, and someone we would try to stay away from. So I would say for our listeners, you know, insert your person there, that maybe that you're trying to stay away from looks different from you, is different from you, in many ways, but but also more more than that, like an actual enemy. Anyhow, so then we kind of get into the caring for this person. So again, I think interesting, he first he bounds, he binds up his wounds, which again, during this day and timeframe, is kind of in line with how you would treat people you would bind up their wound. And by doing so, you would pour in some oil, and some wine and then use like wool strips to actually like, take care of the wound and bandage the wound, if you will. And I'm going to pass it to John here. Again, try not to get too much in depth. But John, what do you kind of think of when you first read this? It's kind of backwards, right? You would think he would pour in the oil and wine first. Right? Yeah.
So if you look at a lot of the Bible, because every word has a meaning. And every column has a meaning and the way stories are lined up and the way sentences are, are put together. It has meaning. So if you know anything about old school holistic care They would put oil and wine in the oil would be almost like a Neosporin. And the wine would be like the antiseptic, your peroxide type deal. And wine was also used for like upset stomach. So this deal was pretty beat up. So that could have been a deal. Oil obviously has a lot of fat. So that could have been like he could have been, you know, he didn't know how long he was laying there. So if you look at this as a physical thing, we're gonna talk about other the other meaning to this. And I just had this crazy moment while you're sitting there, I cannot wait till we hit this again. But yeah, so he could have been given an oil for food, and wine for an upset stomach. But regardless, I want everybody to when you read this, read how it's set up, the sentence is set up with the commas. Commas mean, like we're stopping an action and then moving on to a new action or we're separating things. We're always separating things, if it was bound up his wounds with oil and wine, and bandages that would make sense to me as he took care of the the cut or the scrape or the wounds. But when it says bound up his wounds, comma pouring in oil and wine. I mean, we could look at that in two ways. But we'll get into it. And I'm excited to get there. But I so yeah, I'm excited. I'll keep going to it. Yeah, keep
going. But hopefully our listeners are definitely intrigued. So stay tuned for the next episode, but kind of continuing on in our breakdown of this parable, our wrap up. So we're on the third encounter, we've talked about the Samaritan and him being kind of an enemy and we're getting into the actions so he bounced the wounds for his oil and wine on this man and then he sets him on his own animal the Bible just says beast it doesn't specify whether it was a donkey camel or horse perhaps but you know, I think going in depth there try not to go too much into the next episode, but I think it's important. It's pretty inconvenient. Right? Like super inconvenient. Think about a modern day comparison. You've just had your car detailed or your truck detail we're in Georgia. Everybody's got these these nice lifted trucks they probably don't off road in them. Anyhow, like they've just gotten the truck detailed and now you set this like bloody mess of a human being if you will, in that backseat and just completely ruin your your vehicle. There's much to go in, or you
gave him your vehicle and then kept walking. Yeah, absolutely. He put him into it. So if you're driving down the road, you see this bad car accident happen. Yeah, instead of you hopping you and ask that person, you give him the keys to your car, and you're just like, I'll get there when I get there.
Yeah, I mean, that's, it's like we like we've been talking about throughout this whole parable, there's, there's profound meaning in really each sentence as we as we found, so he sets he sets the do on his own animal. And then he continues to go the extra mile, if you will. And he brings this man to a local end that was that was nearby, there's things to go in depth with this local end as well. There's basically two kinds of ends. In that day and age one of them was really just you do everything yourself. And the other was you actually had an innkeeper, to kind of help take care of you bring you some food and some wine and some water. I think it's important to note that this is the ladder, right? Like he's bringing this man to an inn where someone could also take care of them and look after him. While this Samaritan, you know, could then go about his his business and his appointments, right? So he takes him to this end. And he says to the innkeeper, he says, you know, take care of this man. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and pay you in advance for taking care of this man. The Bible says he took out two pence so I'm not sure you know what the comparison would be to today's money. Monetarily speaking, but we do know that two pence is a fair amount of money so I don't know what the modern day comparisons be but is quite a bit of money.
It's comparable the two months two months where the hotel says two months so
imagine putting somebody up at the DoubleTree local a very like very good local hotel. Like I said, it's not the first in that I had mentioned before probably would have been cheaper. So maybe like your motel eight, your Motel Six. Yeah. You know, a dirty kind of place. This is this is your nicer hotel that he put this man in and he says, I want you to take care of this man. If you see any need arise, or you're spending more money than I've given you in this two pence. When I come back to check on This man, I'm going to repay you, whatever you spent. So super important there, in wrapping this up. So our three encounters are complete at this point. In verse 36, and 37, Jesus basically asked the lawyer, and he says now, of these three encounters, what do you think, represents the best? Like who? Who is the neighbor that did the best? And in verse 37, he says, and again, words mean things, words are super important. As we as we read this verse, specifically, this man answers Jesus, and he doesn't say the Samaritan, which again, will expound on in the next episode, he just kind of says, The man that showed mercy, right, the man that like, did the deed, and he keeps it super vague. So I think probably, again, foreshadowing where his heart was in, you know, we got to think these are the Samaritans and the Jews. They're their enemies, right? So like, again, super important there that he doesn't even name the guy. Jesus says to this man, this lawyer, go, and do thou likewise or go and do what I have commanded you to do from this parable. Anyway, let's kind of wrap up before we close this episode out, just just John, you have a takeaway, just a main takeaway before we get into the next episode.
Yeah. So moving forward, I can't wait to go from 34 to 37. Oh, yeah.
I mean, potatoes. Yeah,
it really is the meat and potatoes. But I think we learned this when we were studying Genesis, is that every word has a meaning every every column of period is there for a reason. And then I like that you did add at the end, they he wouldn't, he was so angry. I like how we're going to do this. And we'll probably get better at it is like paint trying to paint you guys a picture. But this man, looking at Jesus and saying, you know, how do I get there? And if you're so smart, basically, if you're so smart, then how do I get then Jesus gives them this picture of something that he hates. And he just he literally cannot accept the fact that a guy, Jesus, who is saying that, you know, who is doing all these miracles and stuff is basically he knows it. I think the lawyer knows that Jesus is God or, you know, he has he has he's better than the lawyer and what's killing him the most is that he has to except that a Samaritan is doing better than him. Keywords being
like, has to Yeah, he's he's has to he's compelled to answer. Yeah. Well, of course, it's the third guy. Right? It's the third encounter is the best among those that like keys. The key word there, I think is like he's compelled. Right. Yeah. He doesn't wants to say that. It's the third encounter, but he knows that he has to he
doesn't want to say that he refuses to say the Samaritan.
Yeah. And we've we've lost like, in today's day, like we've lost communication with other people were just so everything's like lol BRB. Like it's so small, but at this point in the world, words mean things. They're the wording that is being put on, in just this parable between Jesus and a lawyer. It's almost like a tit for tat. But every time this guy's trying to like one up Jesus, and he just can't get can't get beyond it, because he doesn't know it. But he's fighting. He's fighting God over. Sure. Matt. Matt, what do you
mean key takeaway just or just something that like maybe jumped out to you without like, hopping too much into the next episode?
That's the trick is not helping too much. Right. I think I think one thing I would just say for the listeners is, obviously moving forward to the next episode, we're going to start diving deeper almost verse by verse and like really getting a more historical understanding of this so that we can pull from that our applications and our observations at aliter applications, right? I think, something I was doing when I was putting this as I was trying to put myself in, in a position, like, who am I in the story? Am I Am I the, my the priest? Who doesn't care? Am I the Levite? Who kind of cares? Who doesn't do the action? Am I the Good Samaritan? I mean, I think that's definitely Jesus, God Himself would be the Samaritan in this story, most likely. Try and figure out who we are in the story or who we should be in the story. Yeah. And honestly, I think who I am in store is the guy who got beat up and left on the side of the road, you know, and I think just trying to find who you are, as we go through this, and what the story really represents and how how what we can take from that is kind of where I've been, I've been focusing my attention on I think that's kind of an important piece of this to
know, I think with every parable, every thing that you're reading in the Bible, the church that Nate and I go to, I think the pastor does a good job of who are you like, we're going through Revelation, the churches, are you and what church are you now I've heard that a few times. Like I do try to go through it and you Okay, put myself in that position. Who am I? We're going to talk about a goal for the month, the month of March and what we're trying to get accomplished. And then we want to set that goal out for you guys. So that's a pretty good segue. As you'll hear in the last episode, we're going to try to give you guys a goal to get for the next month. But this one should be fun and tried to start it already. So we're gonna see how it pans out. So this is exciting. I'm just so stoked. Yeah, like, it's just too cool. But yeah, it's good stuff, bro. So we'll, we'll see you guys next next episode. Thank you so much for joining us to get out there and be fishers of men. If you have any questions or comments, email us at back pew Bible study@gmail.com Have a good