Jesus, the Good Samaritan
Recently, in a Bible Study, the leader was telling us about how Jesus was the ultimate neighbor. He was so compassionate on the world of sinners that he came down to earth to save it. But after some thought I began to realize so many more similarities and parallels between Jesus and the Good Samaritan. And at the same time, we sinners of this world are just like that broken, half-dead man on the side of the road.
We are so beat up by the world that, just like the robbed man, that we can't even ask for help. Instead someone has to come and take us out of this misery.
Jesus, like the Good Samaritan, wasn't expected to save this poor and dirty man. No one would have said anything if the Samaritan man just left the Jew on the road because, historically, Samaritans had been so poorly treated by the Jews. Jesus, didn't have to come and save us. It was our own fault that we had fallen away into sin. God would still be righteous if he did not send His one and only son to die on a cross for us. Instead, Jesus as in his prayer at Gethsemane submits to His Father's will rather than His own.
How similar this is to my own relationship with God! I am so broken, defeated, and hopeless in this world but my natural inclination is to reject the help of the Almighty and survive on my own. But I suppose the greatest blessing of the half-dead man is that he is just that--half dead. If the Jew had been in his right man or had the energy to say anything, it is more than likely that he would have rejected help from a Samaritan man. Therefore, it is so important for us to recognize and realize how truly broken we really are as sinners so that we can accept all that God is willing to do for us without condition or exception.
Just as Samaritans were rejected by the Jews (the very people the Good Samaritan man helped) so is Jesus rejected by the world that He had come to save.
Finally, Jesus doesn't just save us and then expect us to manage the rest of our lives completely on our own. The Samaritan man pays the inn expenses and promises to return and pay for whatever else the man needs. In the same way, Jesus paid for our debt once and for all with his death on the cross but He also sent us the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us for the remainder of our lives here on earth.
All we have to do is be willing to listen.
Created about 2 years ago
