Good Samaritan

 THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Wow…I’m re-reading the Good Samaritan Encounter. You know the one about the villain who became the hero. 

Remember a lawyer comes to trap Jesus for the umpteenth time. Jesus turns the tables on him, and the hunter becomes the hunted. Jesus takes the lawyer on a winding narrative to expose the hatred in his heart and inability to measure up to God’s standard’s. Bottom line…the lawyer needs a new heart… like we all do. There is a kind of life and love that can’t be manufactured by religiousity and learning. 

The parable showcases how easy it is to have cold hearts, cloudy minds and keep our hands in our pockets rather than love God fervently and express compassion to our neighbors. Jesus wrapped up his story with these words compelled by the Samaritan’s actions, “Go and do likewise”. The lawyer and the listeners must have thought, “This is what I have to do to keep the law? Who could do that? That’s impossible!” Jesus must have been smiling thinking, “I know someone. ME.” 

Yes, it’s impossible to love like that. That’s the point. Ultimately the story isn’t first about us, it’s about him. Jesus is the solution. Yes…we should love and have compassion. But to become that person we first we need to see we are the person beside the road…we are hurting and helpless…we need a Savior as bad as the man in the ditch. Religion and Law can’t save. 

What if the lawyer didn’t try to justify himself but rather humbled himself and said, “Jesus, I can’t do it. I can’t love God and my neighbor as I should. I can’t merit favor with God.  I need a new heart…your kind of heart.” That’s my challenge, too. I’ve got a lot in common with the first two guys in the story. It is so easy to walk past need and find an excuse. Fortunately, the Ultimate Good Samaritan named Jesus offers me and everyone a new heart and saving/transforming/empowering grace.

As we get so full of His heart, that heart naturally spills out to others. Religion can shrivel the mind, but Grace develops the heart to work like His heart, our minds to work like His mind and our hands to work like His hands. That’s the way of Jesus.

Now let me get off my donkey and do something.