Luke 10:29–37: “But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him up, and went off, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, but when he saw the injured man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came up to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling came to where the injured man was, and when he saw him, he felt compassion for him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring olive oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back this way.” Which of these three do you think became a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ The expert in religious law said, ‘The one who showed mercy to him.’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do the same.’”
I am saying this is talking about a good neighbor. I started yesterday, and I am saying up front that Jesus Christ is the good neighbor. We see that help for this man did not come from the priest, who had his own agenda; that agenda did not include helping this man. “So he passed by on the other side.” This thing is not going to add anything to me.
We see the Levite too. These are the people who stood out among Israel as closest to God in the religious system of that day, and they could not help this man.
“But a Samaritan…” That is Jesus now. Why do I say Jesus Christ is the Samaritan? A Samaritan is of mixed Jewish and foreign ancestry. Jesus Christ is God–Man. He is fully God and fully Man. I am not saying this is a perfect one‑to‑one illustration of Jesus Christ as the good neighbor, nor that this is the main point of the passage. The passage is about being a good neighbor in real life.
But I cannot pass up the opportunity to tell you how Jesus is the maximum when it comes to this. “Everyone who came before Me,” look at what He said in John 10, “are thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). Everyone who came before Him. But He has come with compassion in His heart for you. He has come.
Who else is coming back in this passage? The Samaritan is coming back. Who else is coming back? Jesus Christ is coming back, guaranteed, and He left us the Holy Spirit. He put us as part of the body of Christ. And He said, “Take care of him, and whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” What did Jesus Christ tell Peter? “Feed My sheep” (John 21:15–17). Take care of them. And what is going to happen when Jesus comes back? He will repay. Jesus Christ is going to repay when He comes back. That is what is going to happen. He is going to repay. He is going to come back. It is so much Jesus. The good neighbor is Jesus.
He is one of us and He is not one of us at the same time. He took two silver coins. He gave us the deposit of the Spirit: “I am going; I will send the Holy Spirit” (John 16:7; Ephesians 1:13–14). Now we see in Ephesians 4 that He “gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers” to care for the flock, to equip the saints, to do all manner of work, all focused on the people He has rescued (Ephesians 4:11–12).
Jesus Christ is the good neighbor.
And this is not a perfect illustration, but I am saying that He is God and He is also Man, just as the Samaritan is partly Jewish and partly non‑Jewish. So He came down and put him on His own animal. What do we have? We have the righteousness of Christ. He got down from His height, became sin for us, and we became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).
He got down from His “donkey,” from His high place, from His righteousness, and put us there in His place. Can we walk to the inn on our own legs? No. He has to do it for us.
Jesus Christ is the good neighbor.
God bless you.