Along comes the Samaritan

If you know this story, then you know what's coming next.

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, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two silver coins 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.’

Luke 10:33-35

Let's review a little bit of this story:

• An expert in the law talks to Jesus
• What must I do to inherit eternal life
• Love God... and love your neighbor...
• Who is my neighbor?
• Jesus tells a parable
• A man gets robbed, beaten, stripped, and left for dead
• A priest passes by on the other side of the road
• A Levite passes by on the other side of the road

The man who was robbed - we really don't know anything about him except that he was robbed. Was he Jewish? Was he Samaritan? Was he a foreigner? We don't know. He was left for dead by the robbers. Maybe the priest and the Levite thought he was dead and didn't want to make themselves unclean by touching a dead body. Maybe they thought that it was a trap and they would be attacked if they helped. Maybe they thought that the man was an enemy and they didn't want to help him. We don't know. The priest and the Levite were men that the expert in the law would have looked up to and maybe he would have excused their not helping the man. But the Samaritan man - a man that the expert in the law would have looked down on - wasn't concerned about anything but helping the man who had been robbed. If we were to restate this parable in our world, the Samaritan man, would have stopped, pulled out his first aid kit, bandaged the man's wounds, drove him to the hospital, paid his hospital bill, and promised to pay any additional medical bills while the man was hospitalized. He would have paid this all out of his own pocket even though the medical bills alone would probably total thousands of dollars! The Samaritan, like the priest and the Levite, didn't know anything about the man who was robbed. Would he have liked the Samaritan if they had met in other circumstances or would the man have looked down on the Samaritan as inferior and unlikable like most Jewish people of the time did? Was the man who was robbed an enemy of the Samaritans? Was it a trap? The Samaritan didn't care, he just looked out for the mans needs.

• What does it mean that the Samaritan had pity on the man who was robbed?
• What did the Samaritan personally give up to help the man?
  • He used his own bandages, etc.
  • He put him on his own donkey - which meant that the Samaritan probably had to walk rather than ride.
  • He took care of him at the inn
  • He used his own money to pay for the inn
• Think again about the expert in the law. Considering that men he would look up to didn't help the man who got robbed and that a man who he probably disliked or hated did help the man, how do you think the expert in the law felt about it?