Short Study – The Good Samaritan / The Golden Gate

25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”	The lawyer asked a very good question even though it was done in an attempt to trap Jesus. We all at times will think about eternity and it is a very important subject. We were created to be eternal beings, and in fact eternity is guaranteed for everyone, but what the question really is about, is how to obtain eternity in Heaven with God; in His presence. However as we know and shall mention a few times, eternity is not something that is guaranteed to those who do not believe in Jesus, but for Jews they followed the Mosaic law and remain bound by the Law because they did not acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. However the Mosaic law remains very expedient even to Christians and Jesus proclaimed in Matthew 22:37-40 “Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”	The Answer Jesus gave the Lawyer was very very clever, what Jesus did was reverse the question onto the Lawyer testing the Lawyers knowledge. Also in doing this Jesus was directing the Lawyer to the words of God. In affect he asked “What does God say?” which is what we all should do when we have questions or are in need of help, we should seek and prayer to God and ask ourselves “What does God say?” and then we should look in God’s Bible.
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.’ ”	And just as we proclaimed earlier “the greatest commandment” that sums up the Law, the Lawyer basically said the same thing which proves that the Lawyer knew the answer already and only wanted to test and trick Jesus. Of course Jesus is God and already knew the Lawyer was out to trick Him. Because the Lawyer knew the answer, his heart was clearly exposed as not right, because by trying to trick Jesus meant he exposed his true intentions. The Lawyer had little choice but to answer the question correctly because he has a reputation to maintain, he is a man who is educated. If he got it wrong, he would be ruined as a Lawyer. But by answering correctly exposes that he knew the Law but did not live by the Law, or else why is he trying to trap Jesus? Jesus always answers questions just perfectly, always convicting and exposing the true motives and intentions of those out to trap him.
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”	Jesus is telling the Jewish Lawyer what he already must know. Any Jew that can fulfil the greatest commandment will fulfil the entire law, because the entire law is encompassed in the greatest commandment. However the Lawyer knows that he falls short of achieving the entire Law and so does not proclaim to have achieved this, in fact no man can successfully fulfil the entire law. The Law is perfection and convicts us, it points to God. So only Jesus the Son of God can fulfil the entire Law.
29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”	The Lawyer had fallen into his own trap and feeling exposed and probably convicted, tries to justify himself. I bet we have all done this. We try to be clever, or we know we have done something wrong and then we try to justify ourselves but all we actually achieve is to dig a deeper hole for ourselves.
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. As Christians we all walk with God, we should be praying and seeking Him always and He will be present with us on our Journey in this life. We need to put on the Armour of God. Ephesians 6:10-20	The Jew had been travelling alone and on a dangerous path, meaning Jews were no longer truly walking in accord with God. Jews had become lost because they were rejecting their God, who was reaching out to them and wanting to walk with them. Without God they become prey, they will fall fowl into the enemies hand. We can also look at this from another perspective, before we believed in Jesus whom is our saviour, we were all half dead. Bodily we were living but spiritually we were dead because we were headed to hell. Satan is the thief, when he deceived mankind into eating the forbidden fruit we all became Spiritually dead. He stole us away from God whom had to depart from us due to our sin.
31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.	Those who walked by are the eternally dead ones, too busy and selfish to care, too concerned what others might think. They are blinded by hardened hearts and pride and so rejected God. They know the law but did not follow the law. Just by breaking one law creates a violation of the whole law.
32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.	The Jews had the law for a long time and knew that their neighbour is a fellow Jew. But they did nothing to help their fellow Jew. By crossing to the other side, taking an easier path and forsaking your neighbour to avoid danger is the same as rejecting Christ and crossing over to the side of satan.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.	Samaritans were not considered neighbours but looked down on. Jesus, despite being a Jew must have found that He was accepted more easily among-st the gentile crowd because they received His word more readily. The hearts of the Gentiles were not so hardened.
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. Wine contains alcohol which is good for cleaning the wounds, it is also representative of the blood that Jesus shed for our sins. Jesus bled for us to wash us clean just as the Samaritan washed clean the dying Jew with his own wine.	Jesus came to reach out to His special people, the Jews and grant them eternal life. Yet we see where the Jews fail to follow the law and fail to even love a Jewish brother and help him, yet a mere Samaritan gentile finds his heart and follows the way that Jesus shows us, he put away any differences and helped his Jewish neighbour – we can liken the Samaritan to Jesus who is a light to the world. The Jews however have forgotten they are to be a light to the world. They have hardened hearts and too much pride (being the chosen nation) so God shall extend His invitation of eternal life to all people such as the hated gentiles, including this Samaritan whom imitates Christ, who is Jesus our saviour. In this story, the Samaritan just like Jesus intervenes, caring for all of mankind, anyone whom will receive Him. He sees that we are all dying, due to the original sin when Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Jesus wants to restore us into fellowship with Him, to carry us and walk with us no matter what the cost. Just as in this story, the Samaritan put the injured Jew upon his own animal and instead of riding, he walked next to him until He got him to safety in an inn.
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.’ The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25:31-46 Abrahams bosom Luke 16:19-31	The Samaritan said he will pay whatever the price might be on His return to nurse the Jew back to health. The inn keeper had to trust and have Faith that the Samaritan will return and and repay him. We can view the Samaritan again as an imitation of Jesus. For Jesus we are His priceless treasure, there is no price he attaches to saving us and once we are saved, Jesus entrusts us with His work. He also promises us that if we serve Him loyally during His own absence, (remember Jesus left us with His Bible prepared for us by His Spirit and Apostles and given to us to guide us) it says Jesus will return and when He does, He will repay us for everything we faithfully do and reward us even with crowns.
36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” So who do you think the neighbour was? The Priest? The Levite? The Samaritan?	The Samartian. Although the Law does not apply to anyone who is not Jewish, Yet the Samaritan did what the Jews failed to do and fulfilled the part of the Law that tells us ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ which puts the Jews to shame and also we too should be convicted by this story should someone need our help, and be like the Good Samaritan.
37 And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” The Sanctity of Blood Leviticus 17:10-12 We need to even love our enemies. Just as Jesus healed the ear of a man who was trying to arrest him, Malchus whom Peter stuck with a sword cutting off his ear. Despite being in the situation of being arrested, Jesus still showed grace for those whom persecuted Him.	The Lawyer could not bring himself to say “The Samaritan” which is the correct answer. Because if he did, he would be elevating a race of people that all the Jews looked down upon. But even so, the answer given is very correct. You see, it all comes down to Mercy. The Samaritan showed Mercy. If it was not for the Mercy of our God, we would all be dead already because we are all sinners, but by the Grace of God we have Mercy and God came to this earth in the form of Jesus to save us all from sin, by dying on the Cross. I believe the injured Jew lived, because in the Parable he was washed with wine representing blood and God said life is in the blood. By the precious blood of Jesus we are all saved. Jesus also defeated death and now if we believe in Jesus, through Him we can all have eternal life with God in Heaven, Jesus is our God and Saviour. But if we truly believe in Jesus, then we will all want imitate Jesus. Just like the Samaritan, whom knew how much Jews hated his kind for simply being a Samaritan, but he still put himself in danger to Go and show mercy toward a person from a nation who has persecuted his own kind. No matter how difficult, we need to put aside all of our differences in a time of need and show Mercy. In Jesus name.