A Good Samaritan’s Love
I know that Luke 10:25-37 holds a special place in the hearts of many Christians. When we consider the love and mercy demonstrated by the Good Samaritan in the story that Jesus told a certain lawyer, we are even today able to glean many necessary and valuable lessons. Please consider just a few of these with me.
Love involves the activity of service. Love motivates one to be busy doing something—love serves! We find the word “do” three times in this passage (10:25, 28, 37). Now, if we go back and look at the question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and the answer, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God…and thy neighbor as thyself,” then we see that love does! Jesus said, “This do!” (10:28, 37). There is the activity—we often think about love as being an emotion or sentiment, but that is not what the Bible discusses when it talks about love. It talks about love that is active—it does something—it is not just a feeling or emotion. That is the reason that we can love our enemies (cf. Matt. 5:44), because it is not an emotion. I would have a real problem if loving an enemy involved an emotional love, but when it involves doing and showing concern for his welfare, I can do that—I can do good things to him, although he may be an enemy.
Love is practical. The lawyer asked, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” That is a theological, religious question. Look what Jesus did—He took that question out of the temple and just put it down on the rugged road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and said, “There is your answer.” How many of us would think about finding the answer to a religious, controversial question outside of the church building somewhere on the roadside? Jesus said that the answer to the question is down on the road! In other words, He was saying that it was practical, and we should learn about this. If Luke 10:27 is active in our lives, then it means that there is activity outside of the church building—the activity of loving God and loving neighbor puts us down on the roadside where people are in need. More of us may be as this lawyer than there are those who are as this Samaritan. I am afraid that I have been too many times as the lawyer and not enough as the Samaritan. In addition, one of the significant things characteristic of Luke is that all the way through, the people to whom he refers are relatively unimportant as far as specificity—in other words, the people involved are unnamed. This is one of Luke’s “certain” men as Christ describes (Luke uses this word “certain” 43 times in his gospel). Thus, the gospel of Christ is not selective about for whom it is intended—it is for everybody! Love is practical!
Love sees things differently (10:33). The priest and the Levite saw exactly the same man in the same condition as the Samaritan did, but they saw something different from what he saw. Is that not a strange thing? Love sees things differently!
Love is costly. The flexibility of his schedule cost him some time. He went through some expense and effort (10:34-35). He saw that the innkeeper was paid—that is cost! David knew this valuable lesson (2 Sam. 24:24), and we are to learn it, too!
Therefore, there is much to learn from a Good Samaritan’s love!