But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29 NASB)
In the 10th chapter of Luke, we find the Lord telling the parable of the “Good Samaritan” to confound the self-righteous and self-deceived mindset of the lawyer and others. This parable is probably one the most famous, if not the most famous, of all the made-up stories spoken by the Lord of glory to reveal divine truth. As with the rest of the Scriptures, there is so much that can be unpacked out of this account since the written oracles of God are the inexhaustible fountain of life. While pondering upon this parable in recent days, I could not help but notice that my Lord fulfills the perfect picture of the “Good Samaritan”.
As Samaritans were hated and rejected by the Jews (John 4:9), so my Lord was spurned by His own people (John 1:11). As the Jewish populace considered the Samaritan community to be a half-breed race between unfaithful Jews of old and pagan Gentiles (2 Kings 17:24-34), so too Christ Jesus was maliciously regarded as a mixture of Jew and Greek heritages (John 8:41). Now comes the real amazing similarities between the Son of God and the good Samaritan, and between the traveling Jew and us, who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Just as the unsuspecting Jew was beaten, robbed and almost killed by the robbers, we were beaten, stripped naked of true righteousness and spiritually killed by sin and satan. Just as the injured, half-dead man was dismissed and looked over by the greatest examples of false religions of his day (the priest and the Levite in Luke 10:30-32), so also we are despised and looked over with disdain by all deceptions of demons, masquerading as the true religions of the world (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
Furthermore, the True Good Samaritan on His journey from heaven to earth came to the lonely, hopeless sinner lying on the side of the road to have compassion on him (verse 33), to heal his spiritual wounds caused by sin, to pour the oil of the Holy Spirit and the wine of His blood on his body (verse 34). Moreover, my Lord paid the ultimate price, so that this half-naked, half-dead sinner might be restored to life (verse 34). In addition, this Good Samaritan left the now resting, not abandoned but beloved sinner under the supervision and care of the innkeeper, the Holy Spirit of holiness, because He needed to travel back from earth to heaven (verse 35). Notwithstanding all that the Good Samaritan had done for the undeserving sinner, the Lord of glory promised to fully be responsible for his every day need and to return for him (verse 35).
What an amazing, divine Good Samaritan we have in Christ Jesus, my Lord!
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