Luke 10:25-37, Deut.6:5 , Lev.19:18
The parable of the Good Samaritan is well-loved and most familiar stories in the Bible. Today, we live in days when the spirit of the Good Samaritan is needed. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ illustrate the nature of true religion. As Christ was teaching the people, “a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him saying, Master what shalI I do to inherit eternal life” Jesus answered “what is written in the law?” How does it read to you” The lawyer answered and said “You should love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” “Do this, and you will live.” But the lawyer wanted to justify himself by bringing into question who qualified as a neighbor? Friends, In our text Jesus did not discuss how to be saved but He was helping the lawyer to see the problem of his heart. The lawyer taught that being good, and keeping the law was the most essential issue, but using a simple story Jesus shows him that it is a matter of the heart. Jesus story is that a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who strapped and beat him and went away leaving him “half dead”. On the same day, two men, first, a Priest who served in the temple, and the next was a Levite who take care of the temple both saw and left the “half-dead” and also passed by on the other side. Both religious men did nothing to help. The next person to come down on the spot was a Samaritan who was on a journey. when he saw the injured Jewish man ” he felt compassion” He bandaged up his wounds pouring oil and wine on them and put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn-LK 10:25-37 At the end of the story Jesus asked the lawyer which of the three proved to be neighbor to the man who had been robbed. The lawyer had to admit that it was the Samaritan Jesus command to the lawyer “Go and do the same”. Friends: What we see in the good Good Samaritan is a genuine Christlike attitude. He open his heart, eyes, purse to the wounded, an attitude of a Christ Disciple. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised by adversary.
Rev. Dr, Tommy Olawuyi Oke, Minister of Discipleship
