Parable of the Good Samaritan, Notes - Ministry Exchange (MX)

Parable Bible Studies, Rich Lamb

The Good Samaritan Luke 10:25-37

1. Set the scene. What’s the situation?
Who’s involved? Jesus and a lawyer
Who is the lawyer? Describe him. Knows the law, sits around and argues all

day the fine points of the Jewish law—religious and moral law, not civic.
What’s the lawyer’s motivation? Why is he coming? to put Jesus to the test. He’s coming to test Jesus’ knowledge of the law—he’s the expert.
Does the lawyer seem sincere? not coming to learn but to show his own knowledge- not sincere
What does the lawyer call Jesus? teacher
In a student-teacher relationship, who tests whom? teacher tests student
Who is doing the testing here? the lawyer Is he sincere? no
What does the lawyer expect to come out of the confrontation? to prove superiority, pride
What type of question does he ask? basic question, but not easy; a common topic of discussion

2. How does Jesus deal with his question? points him back to basics— “don’t you remember Sunday School?”- humiliates the lawyer- points him

back to scripture; Jesus takes the role of teacher
What is the lawyer’s response? love God with all heart, soul, mind, strength, love neighbor (from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18)
What does Jesus say? “you answered correctly”—emphasis on doing, assumes the lawyer should know, quoting Leviticus 18:5
How would the lawyer feel? he was the expert, he probably expected to be evaluating Jesus’ answer, not the other way around—it put him lower than Jesus’ authority
What does it mean, “wishing to justify himself”? he wants to justify his asking the question (so he doesn’t look dumb), and also his not fully DOING the answer- He says he doesn’t understand who his neighbor is.

So what is the man’s question? “Who is my neigbor?”, an interpretation

question
What type of answer does he expect? 1. something specific, to nail it down exactly, because that’s what the study of the law is all about; the Jews though of only Jews as neighbors 2. something like, “You’re right, it is very hard to tell who your neighbor is”

3. How does Jesus answer the lawyer’s question? with a parable
What do we know about the man on the road? very little, not important
(The road down from Jerusalem to Jericho was through rocky and uninhabited

wilderness notorious for attacks by robbers; called “Bloody Way”)
What about the priest, Levite, Samaritan? priest—operated the sacrifices Levites—caretakers of the temple; priests are chosen from the Levites Samaritans—Jews left behind during the exile, intermarried with non- Jews, worse than gentiles in the minds of the Jews

Jesus uses one of his common tactics of extreme examples to demonstrate his

point- he picks very moral people to represent the bad behavior, and a Samaritan, the worst type of person, to represent model behavior. The expected progression would have been Priest, Levite, Israelite.

Why would the Priest, levite pass by? unclean: he looked dead, and priests

would be considered unclean if the touched a dead body- he would need to go through inconvenient purification rights; they didn’t want to get involved; they were going “down”- coming from Jerusalem, probably from the temple

What does the Samaritan do? heals wounds, takes him to an inn, lots of

time, effort, money- He does all he can do
At what cost? high cost: time, money

4. What was the lawyer’s original question? “who is my neighbor?”
What is the question Jesus asks at the end? “Who was the neighbor?”; Again,

Jesus is acting as teacher, not being tested as pupil
What is the emphasis? not on “to whom must I show love?” but rather on “How can I act as a neighbor to someone? To whom will I be a neighbor?”

A neighbor can’t be categorized- it is anyone who is on the path and in

need. The only thing a Samaritan had in common with a Jew, in the Jew’s eyes, is that he is human- but that’s enough.

What is the difference between the man’s emphasis and Jesus’ emphasis?

“Who is my neighbor?” vs “To whom can I be a neighbor?” obligation vs opportunity knowing God’s law vs doing what we do know testing knowledge vs testing action

What is the lawyer’s problem? Rather than doing God’s law, he tries to

justify himself by pointing out how unclear God has been in giving the law- he can therefore blame his failure to obey on God’s failure to communicate clearly what he requires

Does he justify himself? no
Who justifies us? only Jesus, and we must come to him, not out of pride,

but out of need
Who really is the good samaritan? Jesus- he’s taken up half-dead people and uses God’s resources to build them up- he’s the one who shows mercy

The emphasis is not on knowing, but on doing that which we do know. As we

do what we know is right, it verifies the truth for us and we learn more, and we are given more.

5. How can we be a neighbor?
How much do we do the good we know to do? What things keep us from it?