Are There Any Good Samaritans Left? (Luke 10:25-37)

Good Samaritan laws are meant to protect the person who stops to help, but we wanted to go deeper than the courtroom and back to the source. Luke 10:25-37 opens with a lawyer testing Jesus with a loaded question about eternal life, and it quickly turns into a revealing conversation about what God’s law actually demands and what our hearts try to dodge.

We follow Jesus’ “pop quiz” moment, where the lawyer correctly summarizes the law: love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself. The tension hits when the lawyer tries to define the boundaries of compassion with one slippery line: “Who is my neighbor?” That question still shows up today whenever we reserve kindness for people who look like us, agree with us, or can pay us back.

Then we walk the rough road from Jerusalem to Jericho through the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A priest and a Levite both see the wounded man and change lanes, while the Samaritan, the least expected outsider, stops and gives hands-on care: disinfecting wounds, bandaging, staying through the night, and paying for long-term recovery. The story reframes everything from “Who qualifies?” to “Who proved to be a neighbor?” and it challenges our prejudice, our fear, and our excuses.

If you want a clear, practical biblical teaching on compassion, mercy, and what it looks like to live like King Jesus, press play. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your answer: who is God calling you to love like a neighbor today?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I have read that every state in the United States has what they call Good Samaritan laws. Those are laws that give legal protection to people who attempt to help someone in an emergency. They actually encourage people to do the right thing without fear of legal repercussions. I think it's fascinating that the legal concept behind Good Samaritan laws today actually comes from a conversation Jesus had with a lawyer some 2,000 years ago. And as we continue our chronological study through the Gospels, we're now going to pick

Good Samaritan Laws And Luke 10

SPEAKER_00 1:36

up the narrative in Luke chapter 10 and verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now obviously this isn't a legal question. This is a theological question. This Jewish lawyer is actually a scholar in the law of Moses, often referred to as scribes. He wants to know how many rules he's got to keep in order to get into heaven. So what Jesus does

The Lawyer Tests Jesus

SPEAKER_00 2:09

is he turns around and gives him a pop quiz, verse 26. What is written in your law? How do you read it? Well, the lawyer responds by quoting from Deuteronomy chapter six, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. Then he adds Leviticus nineteen, eighteen, and love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus, he grades, you know, his little paper, pop quiz, and says here in verse twenty eight, You've answered correctly. In other words, you get an A plus. And since this man had dedicated his life to studying the law of God, everybody who knew him would have given him an A plus as well in the school of religion. But now the last part of his answer is where Jesus pushes back against his student. It's one thing to say you love God, and who can see into someone's heart to know if they really do. It's another thing to say you love your neighbor. Well, now that's visible to everyone. And Jesus is going to show this man that the real test of loving God is how you love your neighbor. Now, the lawyer asks Jesus, following up here, a rather clever question here in verse 29. He said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Well, by the Lord's generation, that time in history, the Jewish rabbis had defined a person's neighbor as a fellow Jew, that is, another follower of God. And they had defined loving your neighbor as loving people who loved you back. Let me tell you, beloved, that that's the standard rule of thumb to this day. We love people who love

Who Counts As A Neighbor

SPEAKER_00 4:00

us back. Now Jesus begins to tell a parable that is going to radically redefine your neighbor and show what love for your neighbor actually looks like. Verse 30. Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now we know today that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was about seventeen miles long. It was a it was a very rough road. It wound its way through areas where caves dotted the hillsides, and it created a perfect hideout for bandits. In fact, in the Lord's day, so many people were robbed and injured or even killed on this stretch of road that it was nicknamed

The Dangerous Road To Jericho

SPEAKER_00 4:52

the bloody way. Well, Jesus continues here in verse 31. Now by chance a priest was going down that road. That is, he's going in the same direction. A priest now represents the height of devotion to God. Here is a man who supposedly loves God. In fact, he's considered a servant of God. But Jesus says here, and when the priest saw him, he passed by on the other side. He literally changed lanes. Now, if anybody was considered good enough to get into the kingdom of God, it was one of Israel's priests. But he's

Religious Leaders Walk Past

SPEAKER_00 5:33

getting over in the left hand lane. Why? Well, we're not told. But there is a clue back in the book of Numbers in chapter 19, verse eleven commanded that anybody who came into contact with a dead body would be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Well, that beaten man there might be dead, probably unconscious, and as you know, being quarantined for seven days, well, that's quite a hassle. Bible scholars tell us that Jericho had the largest population of priests living outside of Jerusalem at the time. He'd just come from serving God. And again, if anybody's going to stop and help, well, it's going to be this guy. But he doesn't. Well, now here comes another man walking down the road, verse 32. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. Well, he's changing lanes as well. Now the Lord's audience is no doubt, you know, still shocked that the priest didn't stop to help, and they are definitely surprised the Levite didn't stop because his occupation is assisting the priests and serving in the temple. Both of these men would get an A plus on their religious report card. So it would seem obvious that they loved God. But they both walked away from this man. Jesus' listeners would have understood the danger of helping this man, no doubt. Thieves could still be nearby. This unconscious man lying there could be a trap. They could become the next victim. So the surprising thing here isn't that these two men didn't stop to help. Really the surprising thing is that somebody will. Now the implication here is that this beaten man was a Jew. The Jews and the Samaritans, and you probably know this already, they hated one another for centuries. So this man is the last person anybody would expect to stop and help a Jewish man on the roadside. But his compassion is so comprehensive here. He pours wine on the wounds, that's a disinfectant. He puts oil on them, that's to relieve him of pain. He bandages the wounds, he then sets him on

The Samaritan Stops And Pays

SPEAKER_00 8:40

his own animal, presumably a donkey, and and he takes him to a nearby inn. Now many people think the Samaritan checked the man into the hotel and then took off. That isn't what happened at all. Verse thirty four says He, that is the Samaritan, brought him to an inn and took care of him. That means that he didn't just take off, he took care of him through the night at the most critical stage in this man's condition. He didn't hand him off, he stayed with him, caring for him through those nighttime hours. Now in verse thirty five, Jesus tells us what he did do the next day. He took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of them, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. This amount of money, by the way, would have been enough money to cover his room and board for more than a month. So you have compassion, care, generosity, and concern. You see, the point is, somebody who loves God will demonstrate those things as they show love to their neighbor. Now with that, Jesus he turns to this lawyer and he says, I now got another pop pop quiz for you. Here it is, verse thirty six. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said. Notice he can't bring himself to say the Samaritan, uh well the one, that guy. You see, the lawyer's gotten the point. But he's not going to repent of his prejudice or his pride. You see, he wants to continue to claim that he loves

Jesus Applies The Point

SPEAKER_00 10:32

God, and at the same time, I can hate those Samaritans. Now, through this parable, uh, Jesus is not telling us that we can earn our way into the kingdom by stopping at every accident, you know, loving other people. He's telling us what it looks like to demonstrate the fact that we belong to the King, that we have his loving heart. Here's how to act like King Jesus. Beloved, this is exactly what Jesus did for you. He found you helpless, hopeless, empty, broken, and he had compassion on you. He stooped down, as it were, and he picked you up. He restored your life. Now, just like him, let's treat others with compassion and grace and love. Well, until we set sail again, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.