There are details in the larger parables of Jesus that are often overlooked by the casual observer. The details are there for a reason and are critical to a fuller understanding of Jesus’ teachings. One of the issues concerning how Christians read and then recall the parables is that, after a while, details can fade from memory and the parable loses potency. Another, subsequent, issue is that the parables are then recast in the reader’s mind and can take on a meaning never intended by Jesus. We sanitise and even romanticise the parable.
Take, for example, the parable of the Good Samaritan, as it has come to be known. It is full of details and each is important. It is important to remember, of course, that it is a parable and not an actual event. Assuming you’re reasonably familiar with this parable you will recall that Jesus delivered it in response to a lawyer who was pressing Jesus concerning attaining eternal life – he was testing Jesus. This is how it started …
Luke 10:25-30 (NLT) One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking Him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” 27 The man answered, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” 28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” 29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” 30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. …”
The parable starkly contrasts two sets of values. The first was the values set of the religious elite of Jesus’ day. The way they loved God and neighbour was to keep to strict observance of the law. A key issue here was that this strict legal observance of the law overrode the proper concern for the neighbour with desperate need. The parable lays out the values of the kingdom. It depicts, first, a priest who sees the stricken man, beaten half to death. Yet, he passes by without doing a thing. We’re not told exactly why. The second passerby was a Levite; he was worse. He avoided the stricken man and crossed to the other side of the road to avoid any uncleanness in his pursuit of ceremonial holiness.
The fourth person in the parable is the Samaritan – and Samaritans were considered “dogs” by the Jews. The Samaritan rescues the wounded Jew, binds up his wounds, sets him on his donkey, transports him to an inn – and takes care of him. The Samaritan then pays money to the innkeeper – two denarii. Scholars cannot agree on the exact monetary value. Some say it was two weeks' worth of board. Others say two months. But the point is that he paid the innkeeper a considerable amount of his own money to take care of this unknown, injured man.
Right there, when we properly take this detail into consideration, we understand something crucial to the mission of Jesus. It always costs something. The priest and the Levite refused to pay any attention to their neighbour in desperate need. Their lopsided, narrow religious focus eliminates the poor man from any consideration of the second part of the law, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. They couldn’t pay him any consideration, let alone put their hands in their pockets to help.
All parables reveal something of the nature, operation and values of the kingdom of God. In this parable Jesus is saying that any observance of the law that cannot include proper love for one’s neighbour is not, and can never be, the remotest expression of love for God. No – that is love of religion and self-righteousness. The Samaritan was no observer of the Jewish law, but with his roots in the ancient Abrahamic-Mosaic tradition, clearly he knew something of it – including love for neighbour. It’s just a parable – a story to make a couple of points about the nature and workings of the kingdom of God. In the end, the lawyer is speechless. He is eventually forced by the parable to honour the “dog” Samaritan, as having fulfilled a key aspect of the law when Jews did not. I’m sure it thoroughly messed with the lawyer’s head. And it should mess with our thinking, too.
A key kingdom issue here, as I alluded to above, was that if we are serious about loving God with all we’ve got – all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind – and our neighbours as ourselves, it will sometimes cost us significantly. Mission will cost each of us something at some point. That cost will vary from person to person depending on the neighbour we come across – and the neighbour, as Jesus illustrates in the parable, is the person right in front of you. But Jesus is also saying here that the cost is worth it. In God’s eyes this was a key ingredient in devotion to Him and authentic worship.
Reading recently in a biography of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, I came across a comment she made in a television interview back in January, 1980. She said, “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He had money as well.” She was so right. She nailed a key issue in the parable about mission. Good intentions are not enough – they don’t do anything. Actions are a crucial part of worship and missional engagement. Genuine worship is expensive or it isn’t worship – it’s religious pursuit, that’s all.
James 1:27 (NIV) “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Good intentions are never remembered by God or anyone else. The Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable is remembered for what he did, and what it cost him.
Matthew 25:34-46 (NIV)
"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.'
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?'
40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.' 41 "Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.'
44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help You?'
45 "He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
To love (not pity) our neighbour in a worshipful compliance with kingdom values will cost us. But, I see it as a special worship investment for Jesus that carries into eternity.
Think on this. Your neighbour is right in front of you.
Ps Milton