Luke 10:33 Commentary and Bible Study

This Samaritan was not even of the same faith as the Jew he was helping. That may not mean much to us today, but it meant an awful lot to them in those days. He had been brought up to have no social interaction with Jews and to feel no obligation towards them, but he went and he tended to this man. Likewise, the Lord Jesus Christ is not of the same race as we are. He is from heaven; we are from earth. He is from God the Father, the Son of God whose character is all together holy and beautiful. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, eternally equal with the Father, and he loves the things of heaven. Here are we on earth, half alive. We love the things of earth, we love sin, we love deceit, we love pleasure, we love ourselves, and we have no regard for the things of heaven. Could you get two interests that are further apart? Just as the Samaritan tended to the Jew, so Christ came down and was ready to walk among men, sinful men, abhorrent as their ways were to him, and to come to each one of us who feels a need and tend to us and bless us. Furthermore, the Jews hated the Samaritans. They hated them with such an intensity that they would spit upon them, and speak against them; they would do them down in business. A Samaritan was lower than the dirt in the estimation of a Jew in those days. There was tremendous hostility and hatred between them. Wouldn't you think this would have affected the Samaritan a little? Wouldn't you think that when he saw the man was a Jew, one of those who hated him, he would have drawn back? But he didn't. He went and tended to him. And the Lord Jesus Christ will come to every one of us though we have hated him, spat upon him, worked against him, slandered him, spoken against him. Yet, such is his love and his compassion that it doesn't put him off. He creates a sense of need in our hearts, and shows us what half-dead, wounded people we are, and then he comes and tends us and blesses us. Such is the compassion of the Lord that he doesn't hold against us our hatefulness to him; he still comes and deals with us, though we are total strangers. This Samaritan had a lot to do. Just put yourself in his position. He was coming down this road. He sees this man. What do you think occurs to him at first? Our first emotional response wouldn't be, ‘Poor man.’ Our first emotional response would probably be, ‘There are violent bandits about. Where are they? Are they still there? Am I going to be next?’ But the danger didn't matter to him; he was moved by the situation he saw. It didn't matter that the bandits may still be there, waiting to launch a fresh attack, and that he may join this wounded man. No, he went straight to him. If he was on an important assignment or engagement, or if he thought about the trouble he would face, none of that put him off. ‘This man is so bad. I'm going to have to put him on my own mount and walk himself. I'm going to have to tend to him. This is a long and arduous business.’ But, if he thought those things, none of them put him off. As soon as he saw this poor man, he stopped, did what he could to nurse him, and set him on his own mount. He was prepared to give his time and his substance, his efforts and even his own safety for this man.