The Parable of The Good Samaritan
What is the most important thing God wants us to do on this earth? How do we get eternal life? It is by loving God and loving others! This episode will be focusing on who we are to love as we learn about the parable Jesus told about the Good Samaritan.
What is the most important thing God wants us to do on this earth? It is love others! This episode will be focusing on who we are to love… others!
But first we need to talk a bit about the word love, because the word we use often refers to a strong feeling of affection or concern towards somebody, which means that like the person a lot.
But you cannot make yourself feel affection for someone, you might not like every personality that God created, and that’s ok. Jesus is not asking us to kiss and hug everyone we meet, and tell everyone we meet how much we adore them!
The love that we talk about in the bible is slightly different from feelings. It is more to do with your actions and your attitude towards another person. To love somebody in the way I am speaking about today, and the way we talk about in church and in the bible, we talk are wanting good for the other person. This love is more of a doing word, a verb, than a thing, a noun.
What do you think?
Loving everybody is hard! In this section today I have some yes or no questions for you to think about. Here are the questions.
Could you love somebody if they:
Bullied you every day at school, taunting you and hurting you?
Treated your dog or your cat poorly?
Destroyed ALL of your belongings on purpose?
Bossed you around and didn’t care about your thoughts or your feelings at all? (Parents might be able to relate to this one at work!)
It is easy to love people who are lovely, people who are loveable. What about loving those who are not lovely, those who are much harder to love? The Bishop showed love to Jean Valjean even though he was not lovely. Are we supposed to love unlovely people too? Yes! There are a lot of places in the bible that tells us we are to love unlovely people, including in Luke 10. Luke tells us the answer in the parable that I will read to you now.
Bible Passage: Luke 10:25-37
“An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”
The man replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, ‘Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”
Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”
But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbours?”
Jesus replied:
As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper[i] came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side.
A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.”
Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”
The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”
Jesus said, “Go and do the same!””
Samaria is not a place we are familiar with. Do you know what people from Samaria were like? They were not jews, so they were a different people group, and they didn’t have God as their God. While they weren’t warring countries, the Samaritans were rivals to the Jews. A bit like when you compete against another school/team for sport. Your team won’t let you like them; you want to beat them.
Bible Passage: Matthew 5:43-48
“You have heard people say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.” But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for that? Even tax collectors[k] love their friends. If you greet only your friends, what’s so great about that? Don’t even unbelievers do that? But you must always act like your Father in heaven.”
Question Time!
Who are the people God wants you to love? Who are your neighbours?
How can you practically love these people? What can you actually do today or this week that will show them love?
Challenge: Memorise God’s command in Luke 10:27, which says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind’ and love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”
