* Most of this comes from Pastor Dax Swanson’s December 23rd sermon at Grace Community Church in Bellingham, WA
Almost everyone has heard the parable of the Good Samaritan, retold in the eleventh chapter of Luke.[1] This parable is usually used to encourage us to be kind to people – even our enemies. I think that may be a small part of the reason Jesus told the story, but the real reason for the parable is to show us that we need Him! The parable of the Good Samaritan shows us why we need Christmas.
The scene opens with a teacher of the law (someone who knew the Hebrew scriptures well) asking Jesus what he needs to do to go to heaven. In typical fashion, Jesus answers his question with a question, which the lawyer answers correctly, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”[2] The lawyer then asks for clarification about who exactly is his neighbor, which precipitates the telling of the parable by Jesus.
The story is about how a man is robbed, beaten, and left laying alongside the road. A priest and a Levite both walk by and do nothing, but a Samaritan comes along and takes care of the man. It is obviously a good thing to show compassion and mercy to people who need our help, but I think there is a greater reason that Jesus told this parable!
To really understand the main point of the story, you first need to know what the Jewish people thought of the Samaritan people.
Imagine the hatred between Serbs and Muslims in modern Bosnia, the enmity between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland or the feuding between street gangs in Los Angeles or New York, and you have some idea of the feeling and its causes between Jews and Samaritans in the time of Jesus. Both politics and religion were involved.[3]
The split between the Jews and the Samaritans goes back to before the separation of the northern and southern Jewish kingdoms. 1 Kings 16:24 records that King Omri of the Northern Kingdom bought the hill of Samaria from Shermer and built the city of Samaria. 1 Kings 16:25 records that Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord and caused Israel to sin and worship idols.
When Samaria was taken by the Assyrians in 722 BC, many Samaritans were taken captive. Those left behind intermarried with non-Jews, which, along with the previous actions of King Omri, caused the Samaritans to be condemned by the Jews. When the Jews returned from their exile in Babylon and wanted to rebuild the temple, the Samaritans offered to help, but their offer to help was rejected.
With the rejection came political hostility and opposition. The Samaritans tried to undermine the Jews with their Persian rulers and slowed the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple. Nehemiah tells us (Nehemiah 13:28-29) that a grandson of the high priest, Eliashib, had married a daughter of Sanballat, the governor of the province of Samaria.
For defiling the priesthood by marrying a non-Jewish woman, Nehemiah drove Eliashib from Jerusalem–though Sanballat was a worshiper of Yahweh. According to the historian Josephus, Sanballat then had a temple built on Mount Garizim in which his son-in-law Eliashib could function. Apparently, this is when the full break between Jews and Samaritans took place.
According to John McKenzie in his Dictionary of the Bible, the Samaritans later allied themselves with the Seleucids in the Maccabean wars and in 108 B.C. the Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple and ravaged the territory. Around the time of Jesus’ birth, a band of Samaritans profaned the Temple in Jerusalem by scattering the bones of dead people in the sanctuary. In our own era which has witnessed the vandalism of synagogues and the burning of black churches, we should be able to understand the anger and hate such acts would incite.[4]
Given this history, you can imagine the impact of Jesus’ choice of a Samaritan as the one who had compassion. The priest and the Levite (the two people who walked by first and ignored the beaten man) both knew the Law and knew the command to help people in need – but the command in the Law didn’t result in compassion or love. Jesus is not actually answering the question asked by lawyer (Who is my neighbor?); instead He changes the question to “What is the quality of love” and is answering that instead.
The Samaritan exhibits limitless love by pouring his oil and wine on the wounds – using the expensive liquids liberally on an enemy! He puts the beaten man on his own animal and takes him to an inn where he gives the innkeeper an unlimitedbudget to take care of the man. All of this would seem like an impossibility to the Jews listening to the story – which I think is the point. Imagine an L.A. gang member doing this for someone in a rival gang.
Jesus is saying that to get to heaven, you must exhibit limitlesslove – which is impossible for us to do! So, this story is teaching the gospel message that we cannot DO anything to get to heaven. The Old Testament Law doesn’t compel anyone to show limitless love, and we are incapable of doing it ourselves, so we need the grace given by God in the person of Jesus – which is why we need Christmas!
The placement by Luke of the Martha and Mary story immediately after this parable strengthens this point. In this story, Jesus is visiting the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha was distracted – implying that she was not able to listen to Jesus - by trying to DO things for everyone while Mary chose the “good portion” by sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His teaching.[5]I think this is reinforcing the point from the Good Samaritan that we can’t DO anything to get to heaven; instead we need Jesus.
Christmas is the celebration of Jesus coming into the world so that He could do something that we are incapable of doing; Jesus came to take on all of our sins and restore our relationship to God so that we too can “inherit eternal life” and spend eternity in His presence. Merry Christmas!
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