THE REAL GOOD SAMARITAN

11 While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as He entered a village, ten men with leprosy who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 But Jesus responded and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? 18 Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has [n]made you well” (NASB).

Will the Good Samaritan please stand up? Candidate #1 is a Samaritan who walking down the highway sees one of his inveterate enemies lying half dead on the side of the road. The injured man’s friends have passed him by but this man, this Samaritan, stops, assuages his wounds, brings him to the nearest doctor and pays the entire bill. Who could doubt that this man was good? And so he is forever used as an example of anyone who inconveniences self for the sake of another. But is this Samaritan the true ‘Good Samaritan?’ Enter candidate #2.. This is the man in our text in Luke 17. This Samaritan never helps anyone as far as we know. He is a leper, and a needy one at that. He goes to Jesus with nine others, possibly Jews, and begs for mercy. Instead of mercy, Jesus sends him and the others to see the priest. On the way to the Temple he is miraculously healed and he instantly turns around and heads back to thank Jesus. Now it would be easy to turn this story into an exhortation to thankfulness. And given the season we are in, our minds would naturally be turned in that direction. But that application is about as far from its meaning as Pluto from the Sun. It’s not the man’s thankful spirit that lies at the center of the story. Rather it is his faith. And for that reason I nominate this man to be the real Good Samaritan for the Bible plainly declares that ‘the just (the righteous) shall live by faith.’ The fact that a Samaritan would have the faith that saves would have pierced through a Jew’s sensitivities like a bolt of lightening. But as we read Luke we find over and over again that the good doctor is trying to communicate one central theme of Jesus’ ministry and this story is a part of that mosaic. And that mosaic is how Jesus saves the most unlikely people, the ones nobody else wants, those who have no inside track to God, those whom the religious people (the Jews) despise. This mosaic started way back in chapter 4 as Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in his home town. The Jews ask him to be the guest preacher expecting to hear something flattering from their home town boy. Instead they get two Old Testament stories about God choosing to feed and to heal sinful Gentiles instead of showing favor to the Jews. For this, his Jewish ‘friends’ try to throw Him off a cliff. In chapter 10 we have the story referenced earlier about a Samaritan who helps a needy Jew. The story arises from a Jewish lawyer’s question about defining who is one’s neighbor. Little doubt that the man was looking for a loophole to justify his selfish heart. Lawyers never change. Jesus punches the lawyer right square in the gut with a memorable punch line. Jesus brilliantly notes that the issue is not to delineate who is one’s neighbor but to whom can you be a neighbor. The first question has limits; the second has none. We are to love our enemies as the Samaritan did. This was a well landed gut punch and the lawyer’s constricted and privileged heart is exposed. Jesus is really digging himself into a hole. In chapter 14 Jesus continues his assault on clean, heartless, formal, privileged religion when he speaks about the Messiah’s feast with His subjects at the end of history. Since he is eating a meal with some Jewish hotshots He turns the conversation to how the Jews viewed hospitality. They loved to feast with their rich buddies. But Jesus notes that God loves it when we invite those who cannot pay us back (14:12). That is exactly how God operates. A Jew sitting near Jesus probably heard little of what Jesus said picking up only on the word ‘blessed.’ Thinking he was surely going to be at that final feast, the man exclaims, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” (14:15). Certainly Jesus would not argue with this statement. It was true. But who would actually be there? Jesus then gives a parable. A king prepares a feast and the roast is succulent and ready to eat. Many are invited but refuse. Jesus stopped. You could hear a pin drop. This rejection of the Messiah with flimsy excuses was exactly what they had done. So with many empty seats the master tells the servants to invite all the undesirables, ‘the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind’ (vs 21). “Oh, there will be a feast,” says Jesus, “but those who attend will be societal ruffians and outcasts.” Once again, we see Jesus’ point. Those privileged ones will deny him and eventually kill him. But those on the outskirts of convention will gladly receive His invitation and come in droves. Now we begin to see the point of the story before us in Luke 17. The hero of the story is one who was given an invitation and through the gift of faith accepted Jesus and worshipped Him. The other nine did not see His power and beauty and kept going their way rejoicing not in their good providence. The Samaritan, however, realizes that this healing was no accident and that Jesus had healed him. But how did he come by this understanding? Did he actually hear Jesus say He would heal him? Did Jesus touch him or pronounce a blessing on him? No and no. This man returned to Jesus for one reason only; he had received the gift of faith. And his faith was proven when he returned back to Jesus and worshipped Him. Going to Jesus is always the first response of true faith. The lessons here are piercing. First, men may be healed on the outside and even do what is prescribed in the law and still be not converted. Conversion comes about when a man realizes who Jesus is and flees to Him and this realization only comes when God by His sovereign grace grants someone the gift of faith. Second, Luke wants us to know that the Old Covenant is fading rapidly away and it is being replaced by the New. The men are sent to the priest, but the Old Covenant priest cannot heal them. That system was fading away; it had no power. In its place the new High Priest had come. And so the man who is healed knows the true priest and runs to Him. And third, God will surprise us by bestowing that gift of faith on those we do not expect. The nine Jews never come back. Only the Samaritan believed and returned. And that’s what happens whenever God saves a soul - it flies instantly to Jesus. And may I say that this is the only good act in all the universe. So at last we have discovered the identity of the Good Samaritan. It is the one who ran to Jesus and worshipped and thanked Him. And therein we have the only true definition of goodness. We are good only when like spiritual lepers we receive the gift of faith and then fly to Jesus in grateful response for all He has done.