Monthly Archives: July 2018

The Parables of Jesus>Who Is the Good Samaritan?

A painting titled The Good Samaritan painted by Balthasar van Cortbemde (1612–1663) in 1647. It shows a man in Middle Eastern attire bending down to help a near-naked man who appears to be on the point of death.
Is Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan merely a moral tale that He intended would encourage us to good works? Or, did He have something else in mind altogether? The Good Samaritan (1647) painted by Balthasar van Cortbemde (1612–1663).

We’ve all heard of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. And, we’ve all heard that through this parable, Jesus was teaching that we should show love to our neighbor through self-sacrifice. “Good Samaritan” has even become a term used to describe a helpful or charitable person. According to this common interpretation, the parable teaches that when we see our neighbor in need, we are to help. Yet, if this is what Jesus is saying, it would mean that the half-dead man on the side of the road is the neighbor of the parable, the person in need, the neighbor we are supposed to help.

A fact that is often missed, however, is that Jesus contradicted this accepted understanding by agreeing with the lawyer when he identified the neighbor in the parable as being, not the man in need of help, but the Samaritan who helped him. In fact, there are several difficulties with the standard definition of the parable that, when corrected by the Bible, completely change the meaning from the one assumed. What, then, is the answer to the lawyer’s question in Luke 10:29, “Who is my neighbor?” And who does the good Samaritan in the parable represent?

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