The Parable of the Good Samaritan (3) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

And He said to him, you have answered rightly; do this and you will live. But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbour?
Luke 10:28

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (3)
A lawyer wants to know from Jesus Christ what he must “do to inherit eternal life”. Jesus refers him to the Old Testament, which condenses this question into two commandments: Love God, and love your neighbour!

“And who is my neighbour?” the lawyer asks further. The Lord Jesus knows how much the questioner is occupied with himself and his own knowledge. That is why He answers him with the well-known parable: On the way from Jerusalem to Jericho, a traveller falls among robbers who rob him and leave him lying by the wayside, mortally wounded. Two spiritual dignitaries pass by, one after the other. But neither of them lifts a finger to help the dying man. It’s as if Jesus is saying to the lawyer, “Look, there is a man in terrible distress. And of all people, those you would least expect to do so are letting him down.”

With this parable, how gently and yet very clearly the Lord Jesus rebukes the lawyer, who, after all, counted himself among the dignitaries of his time! Was it perhaps his pride in his scholarship and his high social position that clouded his view of his neighbour?

But there is another meaning in the parable, if we think about the traveller who had fallen among the robbers: By nature, we human beings resemble this man. Because of the sin that separates us from God, we are in a terrible condition, and without help from outside we are in danger of being lost forever. But how good it is that the Good Samaritan is already approaching the scene of the disaster!

(to be continued tomorrow)

Today’s reading: Job 41:1-34 · Acts 19:23-41