Luke 10 The Samaritan Teaches Us Grace

Jesus uses a simple story to show us how to put aside all preconceived ideas of what Grace looks like and answers the question: who is my neighbor? Interestingly, Jesus tells this story, which follows His meeting with the Samaritan woman to show men that God is impartial. God loves all and He demonstrated that when He sent His Son to die for us who are partial and evil.

The backdrop of this story is that a religious expert sought to trap Jesus in asking: who is my neighbor because in his heart he was partial to Jews and hated Samaritans. So Jesus presented this story to show him what true grace is and how it behaves.

Jesus began his story by sharing what all men think; thieves are self-centered individuals who do not care for the needs of others. Truth: that is why they are called thieves! Jesus continued; a man is accosted by robbers who beat him and steal all he has. Two others come upon this scene; a priest and a Levite, who have been taught about acting godly, yet their life reveals that actions were not more critical, so they stop and see but then go on their way leaving the injured man with no help. They arrogantly look the other way; is this how we react? What was the reason? Jesus leaves the motivation of each to our imagination. A third man, a Samaritan, is on his way, but his heart of compassion demonstrates impartiality for one in distress. He stops and sees the need and puts aside his own journey to help another. He is the godly example and teaches us what true grace is: actions speak louder than words.

The question is: which man are we? Do we see a need and meet it or go on our way saying we are too busy or the injured is “not like us.” What do we do?