The Good Samaritan “from Galilee”
By Richard P. Joseph
I stole this picture from the internet. I hope I don’t get sued….
I have heard several sermons in my life on the story of the good Samaritan and they always focus on the lesson of helping the downtrodden and being a caring and generous person. There is nothing wrong with that as that is what we should strive to be. However, I recently heard a radio preacher talk about who the good Samaritan actually is and he said it was Jesus. That should be obvious but it wasn’t to me because I have never heard it put that way. He didn’t expound much more on the subject but it prompted me to go over the story again but this time looking at Jesus as the Samaritan. Once we look close at scripture in its historical context, things begin to clear up.
In Luke chapter 10 we are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan; or are we? It starts out with a Jewish lawyer who was an expert in the Mosaic law who was embarrassed about his rhetorical question that he asked Jesus. In order to justify his arrogance he asked Jesus “who is my neighbor”? Jesus then told him the story of a man that was robbed and left for dead. Then two “well to do” shepherds of Israel saw the man and passed by on the other side. Then a man of Samaria saved the man’s life.
After hearing sermons on this for years one concludes that the guy who got robbed is our neighbor and that we should help our neighbors in their time of need. That isn’t all bad except that isn’t who our neighbor is according to Jesus. The neighbor, according to the story, is the person who “has mercy on the victim”, not the victim. The neighbor is the Good Samaritan.
According to the story line, those that claim that they are the people’s neighbors (the priests and lawyers), are really con-artists and hypocrites. Then a social outcast from a mixed breed of people shows up and becomes the real neighbor. The Samaritan man has pity on the victim and bandages him up, puts him on his own beast and takes him to a safe inn. Then the good neighbor pays the medical costs and says that he is going on a trip and that he will soon return and upon his return he will give the innkeeper his final payment. This story is eerily similar to another bible story we all know.
In John 7 we read about people discussing whether or not Jesus was a legitimate candidate for the messiahship.
41 Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”
Later on, Nicodemus tried to plead with the pharisees to be easy on Jesus but they ridiculed him and said;
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
They first make it clear that Jesus is a social outcast from a dumpy city called Nazareth in an out of the way place that has no significance (Just like they thought of Samaritans). The Jewish leadership had a long history of abusing the common person in order to gain riches and status. They would actually bribe the sitting king with large sums of money in order to gain control of the High Priesthood. They, of course, would get this money by imposing a heavy, burdensome tax upon the common citizen. The common man was beat down and left for dead just like the man in the story. Jesus, the social outcast, then arrives and bandages his people up and invites them to himself “for his yoke is easy and his burden is light”. He then puts the people in the care of the innkeepers (the church)and pays the price for them with his own blood. He then goes away for a period of 40 years and upon his return he repaid his faithful innkeepers and destroyed the evil hypocrites.
I believe the story of the Good Samaritan is yet another visual of the life of Christ including his return in AD70 to reward his faithful followers. It is stories like this that has hidden in it the prophecies of Jesus Christ so that nothing can be faked. Just like the Old Testament has hidden in it the very life and mission of Jesus, especially in the seven Jewish holidays.
