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“Jesus Is The Good Samaritan” Religion is not enough, unless it’s about Jesus. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it is the Samaritan who stops to help and minister to the dying man. In Luke’s previous chapter, the Samaritan village would not receive Jesus. Now, Jesus is receiving the Samaritans, making a Samaritan the hero of his parable. We never read Scripture aright unless we find Jesus there, and ourselves there also. The wounded traveller was religious like us, but he was still beaten. He was left half-dead. That’s all of us. Humanity started off well from Jerusalem, or Eden, but we were beaten up by the devil. He stripped us, and we’ve lost our righteousness. But Jesus came near to where we are. He took our true humanity. God does not just shout from Sinai. God comes near where we are, like this beaten man. God puts his arms around us and provides for us. He says, “When I come back, l will balance all things out aright.” He is coming back for us. What the Samaritan does is a picture of what Jesus does. He does what the priest and Levites can’t do. You see, religion is not enough, unless it’s about Jesus. Think carefully about how you view your own religion. Is it really all about Jesus, or is it principally about other things that may be good, but that aren’t the key thing? Are there any aspects that need to shift in your mind? What would all that look like if Jesus were truly the heart of it all? By Dr Desmond Ford