“He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27).
Luke 10:25-37 contains one of the best known parables of Jesus. It is a story that touches the chords of any human heart as it resonates with basic human existence and needs.
It is a story that has every element of a true story…as if Jesus picked it up from Reader’s Digest or the front page of the local newspaper.
A band of robbers attack an unfortunate traveller robbing him of everything, save his life. A Priest, a Levite and a Samaritan find themselves travelling on the same road.
The Priest and the Levite – both “men of the cloth” – God’s servants in their specific roles were expected to stop and assist the unfortunate traveller. But they don’t…they just pass by on the other side (most likely shaking their heads.).
A Samaritan – a business man, yet a cultural, religious outcast – actually stops and takes care of the unfortunate traveller. His care extended beyond expectations, seeking a complete recovery of the wounded man.
At one level, this is a story of the great reversal: the expected is overtaken by the unexpected…a “picture” of God’s kingdom.
God’s kingdom is characterized by the great reversal.
“God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1Corinthians 1:28, 29).
Jesus, God’s own Son stooped down, becoming a servant, an outcast in order to bring us into an eternal relationship with God. He became the ultimate “good Samaritan” saving us from sin and its wage – death.