Msg #1725 The Good Samaritan

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan more eloquently answers the unscrupulous lawyer's first question than his second. The eloquent answering of, “Who is my neighbor?” is so renowned that it made “Good Samaritan” a cliché, but look more carefully at that lawyer's first question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). This lawyer was tempting Christ, with his question, and likely emphasized the “I” as if he were a special case, and the “do” as if there were some kind of work in the answer. Jesus, knowing “there is none righteous, no not one” (Rom 3), knowing that “all we like sheep have gone astray” (Isa 53), knowing that “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal 2:16), and knowing “the law was a schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ” (3:24), told the haughty lawyer, “Go ahead, keep the law.” A mature believer can look into the depth of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan and see that no human priest can give out eternal life. They might just have a Roman dress and backward collar, or be a legitimate Aaronic Priest, but there is no salvation from a priest, he passed by on the other side. So to the Levite, with the keeping of all the Levitical law, and ministering daily in the temple, had no power to save. But when there came a despised and rejected one, who reached out with compassion and touched the half-dead pilgrim, salvation came from his hand. To inherit eternal life, you need to be touched by the Good Samaritan, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14). Priests and works won't cut it. Praise His Holy Name.

An Essay for week #25 Jun 18, 2017

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