Is Jesus The Good Samaritan That He Spoke About?
Question: Who is the good Samaritan? Is Jesus the good Samaritan that He spoke about?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
This is a dimension of revelation that a dear preacher spoke about saying Jesus being the good Samaritan.
Let us dig a little bit and see how it fits.
Hear the Parable of good Samaritan, "25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” 27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” 29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”" (Luke 10:25-37).
The above parable is a setting of one dimension probing in to the other, (i.e.) an earthly dimension asking and probing about the heavenly eternal dimension. A finite dimenion trying to understand and apprehend a infinite eternal heavenly dimension. A earthly lawyer of the law testing a heavenly law of life in person who is eternal, uncreated, fully God, fully Man, who is not dependant on anything created for its existence.
The earthly law is not made to keep, but to understand that they are law-breakers according to the Bible by nature (1 Tim 1:9). Thus by knowing that we are sinners, lawless, ungodly, unholy, profane and insubordinate, we should be able to run towards God seeking the fullness of Christ which makes us free (Gal 3:24-25). When we run to Christ seeking salvation from sin, sickness and death (Rom 4:5), God imputes righteousness in our account in heaven apart from any work of ours (Rom 4:6). That is when all our sins are forgiven and we become a child of God. Hallelujah!
The Earthly Lawyer Vs The Heavenly Lawyer
This earthly lawyer tests the heavenly lawyer Jesus by asking the question, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Little did this man realize that He was speaking with the very Creator of all humans, who created it for His own purpose. The one reason he was not able to see beyond the humanness of Jesus appearance was because the lawyer had a critical spirit to judge and not act as a real lawyer for humanity which includes himself. This man was trying to sit on the throne of the Judge which only belongs to God, when he should have been acting as a lawyer for humanity and live for the Glory of God.
When a man want to test the very giver of law, who gave it in to the hands of Moses through angels (Gal 3:9). Boy, he must be filled with pride. Pride and prejudice go together. Jesus came in to this earth not to make a show of his power and boast about himself, but rather to express what God is like when he relates and become one with the humanity which He has created for His Glory. Jesus the great Creator became one with his creation in humanity! Hallelujah!
The pride of the lawyer was due to his learning much about the law, but prejudice came in to his heart because he was a unsaved finite human trying to understand the infinite God. The lawyer was only able to see Jesus as a perfect human and was not able to look beyond that in to Divinity of the God-Head within Him.
Jesus always asked question to answer a question, because he knew that giving better understanding might help make them think rightly for them to open up their heart towards God, who is only able to reveal His truth to humans. Others wise every human no matter how wise and noble, they cannot be able to know anything about God and eternal life (1 Cor 2:11; Eccl 3:11).
It is human wisdom that asks God how I can enter in to heaven by my works and by my own strength? It is human ingeniousness that seeks for a way to eternal life by its own effort and strength, it happened in Babel where God came down to check human work which was so big and awesome that it led to idolatry and self-glorification that God totally rejected because it led to demonic rulership over humans, that is why the Bible describes that those people living at that post-diluvial flood timeline wanted to build "a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and [they said] let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (Gen 11:4). To build a tower in a city whose top may reach heaven, does reveal that humans wanted partnership with demonic fallen angels, and in lust for power tried to keep them to be subordinates to them to fulfill their wish when in fact they became slaves to themselves, and thus wanted to produce a one world religion of works to maintain "a name" because of the fear of being scattered upon the whole earth.
In other words, every time human wisdom substitutes and works for itself to enter in to heaven, they end up only with a religious name without God involved in it because it will work against the will of God. Here the will of God from the day of creation of humans is to, "fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28), but Satan was working against the will of God through humans desiring something that God hates which is idolatry (Col 3:5). In idolatry man chooses his own god and end up being a slave to it rather than obey their Creator God to be blessed to fill the earth and subdue it under Him (Rom 6:16).
The Heavenly Lawyer Jesus wanted every human to get back in to the will of God and align themselves to God through the example of Jesus which he had shown to all humanity through his life lived on earth.
When Somebody Wants A Religion And Not God, Jesus Points Them To The Law Of Moses?
Jesus answered the earthly lawyer asking him the following question, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?". Every one according to Jesus who understand the purpose of the law, will live with the law. And in the same way, everyone who does not understand the purpose of the law, will live without the law and become lawless overtime. So in the whole wide world, the law of God has been set by Him and especially in the nation of Israel where the Bible has become the civil, religious and criminal law for the good conduct of the whole nation. The Psalmist says to God like this, "The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple." (Psa 119:130). So we know that because of the Law of Moses, the life within the nation of Israel was full of light. God's laws are the best of the best because He gave to humans out of understanding their ability and inability perfectly. Praise the Lord!
There were so many nations around the world till Jesus came, but mostly in all instances they looked to the nation of Israel for the exalted righteousness of God as a example for the rest of the world (Deut 28:37; 1 Kings 9:6-9; Psa 44:9-26; Joel 2:17).
But in many other nations the Lord left themselves to choose their own law of the land and the culture they wanted to keep (Psa 33:12; Deut 32:8). Man's ignorance of the true knowledge of God brought religion, through which cultures embraced pantheism and monotheism and the like (Acts 17:28-29).
But in the midst of such darkness without the light of the Word of God, God wanted humans to seek individually and find Him personally (Acts 17:27). The division in languages that happened in Babel of confusion scattered people in to all the world based on unique languages and destroyed the idolatry of all humans, that is to lift themselves up to gods of this world which are not gods and instead make them seek the true and living Creator God to find solutions both temporally and eternally for themselves and their nations in the midst of existing confusions (Acts 17:26; Rev 7:9; 5:9; Gen 11:9).
Because the earthly lawyer had read the law and understood up to a certain extent in his mind without the heart, he was able to answer Jesus saying, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
But again Jesus the heavenly lawyer appreciated the earthly lawyer for his correct answer and said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” The earthly lawyer beaing a religious man, immediately wanted to justify himself before Jesus and there again asked him saying, “And who is my neighbor?”.
Who Is My Neighbor?
Everybody who lives in the planet earth is our neighbour and that includes our enemies, because God has put them in so that we can know that nomatter how much we try, we are not able to keep the law perfectly with out breaking it even once (Jam 2:10).
Jesus told parables which are stories that compares a earthly scenario to reveal the heavenly truth that they each hearer of it need to understand. Jesus always trusted that God would open the heart of the hearers who are seeking Him, and make them understand deep spiritual truths through the parables. Other wise he also believed, that those who do not have a seeking heart, God will shut the door of their heart so that these people will hear the parable but will not understand it. These onlookers or rebels may even become convicted by the parable when it reveals their inner heart, but they will not be able to receive the spiritual blessings out of it in to their lives.
Hear the Parable from the lips of Jesus, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”" (Luke 10:25-37).
In the above parable, there are some hard questions to ask. It is, who is the certain man and who are the theives. Who is the certain priest, who is the certain Levite, and who is the Samaritan? Who is the innkeeper? Who is the neighbour to the Samaritan?
We know that the certain man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among the thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and deperated, leaving him half dead. Jesus was the heavenly traveller who came from heaven (John 6:38), he was indeed an outsider and people called him Samaritan because they never understood his virgin birth at all in his own nation (John 8:48; Matt 1:18; 22:45; John 10:33, 36).
Jericho’s location was key to its significance. The city was situated in the lower Jordan Valley, just west of the Jordan River and about ten miles northwest of the Dead Sea. It sat in the broadest part of the Jordan plain more than 800 feet below sea level and nearly 3,500 feet below Jerusalem, which was only 17 miles away. This geographical detail explains why Jesus said in His above parable that the good Samaritan “went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:30). In other words, in this earthly life each human who goes to religion of earthly Jerusalem, is sure of going down towards deathly Jericho day by day which is the valley of death that leads towards the shadow of it which is sickness and disease which leads them towards the place where darkness and torment exists for the sins of humanity (Psa 23:4).
In other words, Jesus came to Jerusalem to bring a transformation and take them to heavenly Jerusalem, but lo and behold the religious Jewish people who lived in the earthly Jerusalem who were appointed by men to be leaders of the people of God rejected him (Matt 23:37-29), and therefore Jesus chose a new nation from all the nations of people to become the people of God (Matt 21:42-43), therefore he he did not stay in Jerusalem but changed direction and started to walk down the Calvary path towards Jericho to fight the fight against Satan and his demons to give salvation to the Gentiles as a Samaritan among them (Col 2:11-23; Rom 11:25).
Jericho the place of victory through praise, where by faith the righteous could flourish as palm trees in Christ Jesus through His righteousness was not reached before Cavary, but he was on the way walking behind the believers fallen lives on the way of pilgrimage towards Jericho with them for three and half years.
All those who pursued God when they fell in to sin and death were never helped by the religious thieves of the Pharisees, Levites and the long religious order of tradition as they have become hireling instead of being a shepherd to have compassion on the sheep-sinners (John 10:11-13). They were down on the road lying half dead not knowing whether they will go to heaven or hell fire for their imperfect religious law-walk of Jerusalem, which they left when Jesus met on the way when they were down and out on the road hit by the religious thieves and left for dead, and they changed their direction and went with Jesus towards the reality of God in Jericho seeking by faith.
Thus when the Priest and Levite the Old System of the Law could not save them from imminent death to their soul and lack of assurance of eternal life, Jesus as the rejected Samaritan and a class outsider from the pure Jewish circles, entered the scene and had compassion on the people who were on their way to eternal death of hell fire and healed them and saved them and gave them eternal life through his grace of death, resurrection and ascension to the believers through their faith (John 1:17; Matt 9:36).
Jesus took the wounded man on the road who can be likened to a sin sick believers on whom He had compassion (Matt 9:36), and so he went to him and bandaged his sin sick wounds by pouring on oil of the Holy Spirit by sealing him with salvation and giving him the opportunity to partake in the wine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27; Eph 1:13-14; 5:18; 1 Cor 11:23-26, 27-29); and he set him on his own animal which is nothing but the sacrifice of his own body in which the believer gets all the benefit of what he has achieved through his death, burial, resurrection and ascension (Rom 6:5-6, 11; Acts 1:11), brought him to an inn of the Church where he is fed to good health with healthy doctrines which makes them rich for eternity (2 Cor 8:9; 1 Tim 3:15), and took care of him by saving him from sin and sickness and death of the soul (Rom 8:32; 1 Pet 2:24), and made sure that they be sovereignly taken care of by God who is the inn keeper of the inn which is the Church (John 14:2; Luke 15:17-22).
We know that there are no free lunches anywhere except for the sons of the house in heaven whom their heavenly Father owns (John 8:35; Gal 3:26), so Jesus Christ has to pay for our sins and have to redeem our soul from death, so that we could live as the sons of God by believing Him through faith (1 Cor 6:20; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Heb 9:12). Jesus paid the price through his death for the recovery of the holistic health of the wounded human who were recovered from the road to be kept safe for healing by the inn keeper (Matt 8:14-17; John 17:14-19).
The price Jesus paid to the Father God was very costly, it cost him his sinless life to be put on the line of the fire of God's judgment. By paying the price, he redeemed mankind from hell fire to make them the sons of God and thus take them to heaven.
Jesus directly took care of the wounded sinners for three and half years when he was with all the believers physically (Acts 1:1-3), but then after that time he paid "two denarii" which means two days wages to stay in the inn and told the inn keeper to take care of the wounded sinner (John 3:16; Eph 3:14-15; John 17:20-26). Two days are two thousand years in the sight of the Lord (2 Pet 3:8). Now that nearly two thousand years have passed by, just as Jesus told and promised, He will return back soon to receive all the believers to Himself in His Father's house in the New Heaven and New Earth which has been prepared for their eternal stay (John 14:1-4).
Lot of people are working with the inn-keeper to run the inn (Matt 9:38), whatever is spent on behalf of the sin-sick sinners within the inn of the Church, all those things Jesus has told that it will be repaid back when he comes to take the Church to be with himself after the Rapture of the Church (Matt 10:40-42; 19:27-29; Mark 10:28-31; Rev 22:12). Hallelujah!
Jesus Is The Only Good Samaritan From Whom We Learn Compassion!
So as far as Jesus is concerned, there were Pharisees and Levites who walked before him, they would not turn to help the wounded man on the road because really they do not have the reality of the life of God within them to supply this half dead man on the road of life who was bleeding and inching towards eternal death because of his sin sick soul. All humans have sinned and have fallen from the Glory of God (Rom 3:9, 23), and therefore every man has to first sacrifice to God for their own sins and then only can be able to sacrifice to God on behalf of sinful fellow humans and brethren every day (Heb 7:27-28; 10:11). Most of the Pharisees who were not able to sense the sinfulness within their own heart, became total hypocrites who said one thing to people and did totally another thing of rebellion against God in their own life and living. They became hireling altogether, when Satan and the enemies of God came against the sheepish people of God, they fled for their own lives (Matt 23:1-10, 23-27; John 10:7-13, 14).
So Jesus as the one and only qualified sinless lamb of God became the heavenly High Priest on behalf of people by giving himself as a sacrifice to God once and for all time (Heb 7:27; 8:1; 9:12), became He is the one and only Good Samaritan who gave His very own life for the wounded sin sick sinners who were left on the road of life as half dead by the religion bigots, all of which the Jews rejected because of their tradition which blinded them completely in to sel-righteous deception and thus killed Jesus who stood against their blindness, thus Jesus the very prince of life who was pre-appointed by God for death was sacrificed for the sinners who needed his mercies and grace (Mark 7:9-13; John 1:36-37; Acts 3:15; John 15:13). In other words, the enemity of the Pharisees towards Jesus grew to such an extent of killing him because Jesus was the friend of sinners while they as religious bigots were the enemy of the same sinners, as they considered themselves self-righteously as holy men of God being deceived and deceiving others who followed them (Matt 11:19; John 8:10-12).
So we as sin sick sinners have been invited by Jesus to come and learn from him the humble heart needed to follow God and gentleness towards fellow humans which God requires for a relationship with humans which is eternal life (Matt 11:28-30; 1 Pet 5:5; Jam 3:6-10; 4:6; Mic 6:8; 1 John 3:15; John 17:3). By measuring how we are able to love the sinners who are ready to die on the road of life and show compassion to them is what we can only learn from Jesus alone. Hallelujah! That is why He is the one and only GOOD SAMARITAN sent by God to rescue all of us and take us to our Father's House or the Inn in the new heaven and new earth.
Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
Doing The Works Of Faith Does Not Save Us, But Authenticates That We Are Saved!
The first step is to get saved from sin by Jesus, and then after receiving the new nature of God as the sons of God by faith, we should learn to live the new nature of God by loving God and showing compassion and love towards our fellow humans.
There is a very important truth that apostle James says in his Book that clearly co-relates to what our Lord Jesus Christ wants to sink in to our heart through Good Samariatan parable, here is what he says, "14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" (Jam 2:14-20).
In the above passage, we see that the apostle James clearly wants us to understand that if faith is present, surely enough we will do the works of faith without fail. Those who say that they are saved, and does not have any good works of faith are deceiving themselves and are continuing to live as the unsaved sons of hell fire. Saving faith will have works of compassion that will succeed it. In other words, we do not work our way to get saved, but rather when we are saved we work our way to heaven's reward and glory! Praise the Lord!
We are not saved by good works, but rather we are saved by God for good works which He has preplanned for us before the foundation of the world (Eph 2:10). Any faith that does not have works of faith done in compassion is a dead faith of the unsaved human.
When Jesus finally told the self-deceived lawyer of the law with a critical spirit, "36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” 37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”" (Luke 10:36-37), for the first time this man's eyes of the heart got opened and was able to realize that those who show mercy to every one are one who have been saved by God to inherit eternal life. In other words, Jesus made him understand that living a religious life like a Pharisee or a Levite cannot save him, but those who trust in the soul saving work of God through Jesus Christ who only as a good Samaritan could help people do good work through infusing his new nature can be able to not only save us, but also help us do the good works which he has prepared for each of His children as long as they live on earth for the Glory of God.
The bottom line of this parable Jesus conveyed is, religions can say do, but it cannot save the soul as it does not have divine power operating through it. But when we believe Jesus, He says to us done, our sin sick soul He saves first and then He helps us overcome sin and spend our lives with works of faith to live pleasing to God and be rewarded eternally for the Glory of God! Hallelujah!
Does the above lawyer or any other human in the entire planet have the power to live a life pleasing to God without Jesus? Can any human love God and his neighbour without being saved by God through Jesus? Can any human inherit eternal life without the Good Samaritan Jesus Christ? The answer to all of the above questions are a BIG NO, so we must come to believe Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and ourselves as sinners to repent and become saved from sin by calling on His name and confessing Him before other humans after we are saved as a sign of our faith that has come within (1 Cor 12:3; Luke 18:13; Acts 2:38-39; Rom 10:13; Matt 10:32).
Recognize the Good Samaritan Jesus Crist who has saved you, and you will never be disappointed by the tragedies that had happened in your life on the the road of life unexpectedly. Because of the fallen nature of sin which leads to death, all humans must come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan and his demons operate always in deceit through our very own sin nature within and want to make us justify ourselves before God and fellow humans, therefore every child of God should be careful enough to self-examine themselves first and then should judge others justly and righteousness by the help of God just like Jesus has done for us by showing compassion for us by saving us from sin freely through shedding His own sinless blood, and so we should do likewise to all the needy wounded-sinners like us to reveal the nature of God and bring Glory to God (1 Cor 11:31; John 7:24).
Those who are religious and self-justify before God knowingly, even God cannot save them from sin and death to give them eternal life through the Good Samaritan Jesus Christ whom he has sent to save sinful humans. God will not force any human to become saved because it is against his nature which wants humans to choose voluntarily by their own will and volition to get saved and have eternal fellowship with God. Hallelujah!
Don't believe the lawyer within you to justify yourself, but you judge yourself first and then let God justify you. When you justify yourself, you remain unsaved. But when you judge yourself as sinner in need of God's mercy and grace, God justifies you as righteous in His own sight by substituting Jesus' perfect righteousness on your account (Luke 18:9-14). What a good God He is and what a righteous God He is at the same time, how He could be righteous to judge our sin and at the same time could show compassion to us righteously through punishing His very own beloved begotten Son Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21-26; 11:22)! This is what the righteousness of God is that has been revealed to us! Remember it is not our own righteousness, it is God's righteousness working on behalf of us to make us bright and right before the sight of God and our fellow humans supernaturally. Hallelujah!
Much Blessings...
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