Luke 10:29

‘But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” '

But the Scribe wanted to justify his coming to Jesus so he asked a crunch question, “And who is my neighbour?” ' He quite possibly saw this as a prelude to a long discussion, and even as a means of tripping Jesus up. If Jesus gave the same reply as a Pharisee, all the ‘sinners' who followed Him would be dismayed, if he gave any other reply He would be opening Himself to attack..

There was once a philosopher called Socrates. When his opponents attacked him he would ask them questions and when they answered he would show up their folly. By common agreement he had a brilliant mind. But in point of fact much of what he said was simply common sense which any student could agree with him about. The difference however between Socrates and others was, and this was what made him stand out from everyone else, that no one had thought about it that way until he did. With his simple questions he showed up man's folly. That is why he is famous.

The same is even more true of Jesus, and nowhere more so than here. Here He was facing a man who was strong and firm in his own beliefs, bigoted, present there with Jesus probably in order to criticise whatever He said and prepared to attack Him on it, and who despised sinners (those who failed to follow the Pharisaic rules of cleanliness) and outcasts, and even more hated and despised Samaritans and Gentiles. He probably wanted either to have his own view confirmed, or to debate the question as to whether marginally some few among the ‘sinners' might be included in a widening of his idea of a neighbour, or to show Jesus up totally in the eyes of His listeners. What then do you think will be the chance of him saying within two minutes of Jesus beginning to speak that a Samaritan could be his neighbour? That would be impossible. It would require genius.

It should be noted here that we should not just look at Jesus' reply and see it as an illustration from which to draw a conclusion (although it is that). Nor is it simply a varying of the question. Looked at from the point of the crowd it contains a direct reply. The man had asked ‘who is my neighbour?' and Jesus answers his question by  getting the man himself to say publicly that the Samaritan was neighbour to the Jew, and necessarily therefore to all Jews, and therefore also to him. That was a major reason for it. His aim was to get this proud Scribe to  admit in words  that a Samaritan could be his neighbour in front of the whole crowd. And it succeeded. Jesus did not just leave him to think about it theoretically. He  actually got him to say it. Now some scholars may not recognise the fact that the Scribe had been made to say that the Samaritan was his neighbour, but the Scribe certainly knew it, as his reluctant reply reveals, and so did the amazed crowd. And then some scholars try to say that the story does not fit the context!

I have had some considerable experience of taking questions from hostile sceptics at Speaker's Corner in London, and had I been faced with this question before Jesus was I would probably have presented a huge number of arguments, all of which would have been dismissed, and we would have finished up with both holding the same opinion as before. Yet in two minutes Jesus left that man admitting in words, and totally unable to get away from the fact, that all his previous conceptions had been completely wrong. If that is not answering the question I do not know what is. The early church would never have come within a hundred miles of thinking of an answer like this. As in the case of the replies of Socrates, it required genius.

But there seems little doubt that as we consider the well known story we may also be expected to draw from it other conclusions which Jesus included in it, such as that it shows us, as it showed the Scribe, how we too should behave, ‘go and do the same'. This was his second lesson. But do not see it lightly. Jesus is not just saying, ‘Go and do good', He is saying, ‘Go and make sure that your whole attitude towards life,and towards sinners, and towards foreigners, and towards the battered of Israel, is different from now on'. The man was facing a revolution in his life.

And we should also note that as well as accomplishing this, Jesus' words did also illustrate for all time the requirement for inter-racial and inter-religious tolerance and compassion from us all, not by forsaking what we believe, but by holding it firmly and yet showing love to all.

But, and herein was the further genius of Jesus, we can see even more from this parable, for it is based solidly on Old Testament references which referred to God's intentions for His people, and its context reveals that that is how we are to apply it. The Good Samaritan was the fulfiller of the Lord's Prayer. For here is a picture of Israel in its need, as bruised and battered by robbers (Isaiah 42:24), and of how its need could be met (the Samaritan is clearly deliberately contrasted with orthodox religion). ‘Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord against Whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?'

So in line with His other parables it contains messages below the surface, and He left its lesson to be gathered by those who would see it. But any discerning listener knowledgeable in the Scriptures would soon recognise what it was saying. For this Jew in question clearly stood as a representative of his people as being battered and bruised by robbers (Isaiah 42:24). The priest and the Levite clearly represented the hierarchy and teachers of Israel who could not and would not meet the man's need, and the foreign stranger, the ‘Samaritan', represents the unorthodox religious ‘outcast' who yet was faithful to God's Law, and especially represents the prophet from out of the way, unorthodox ‘Galilee of the Gentiles' (see below) Who had come to seek and to save those who were lost. In the end He represented the Great Physician Who had come to save the sick (Luke 5:31), the Provider of ‘daily provision'. The One Whom the Judaisers called ‘the Samaritan' (John 8:48).

And even further to this Luke no doubt hoped that his readers would gain another lesson from it, and that was that all those ‘foreigners' who truly responded to God could become members of the new Israel, and be welcomed as such by Jesus.