Storyteller: The Parables of JesusSample

Real Love (Part 1: The Parable of the Good Samaritan)

The Gospel of Luke presents Jesus as the Savior of all people, highlighting His love for both Jews and Gentiles alike. Luke aims to show the compassion and mercy of God for the lost, the outcast, and the marginalized.

Luke 9-19 is known as Luke’s "Travel Narrative,” in which he chronicles the most significant teachings of Jesus as He journeys toward Jerusalem and His death on the cross. This marks a significant turning point in Luke's gospel because, until now, he has mainly focused on the actions and activities of Jesus, but from this point on, he focuses on the words of Jesus as He trains and prepares His apostles for what is in store.

Like many other parables, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is given in response to a question. The text says the man asking the question is a lawyer, but not the kind we think of today; he is an expert in the law of Moses, known as a scribe. He asks Jesus an important question but does so with ill intentions to test and trap Him.

By the end of their conversation, Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer so he not only receives the answer to his question but is also gently led to the most important discovery of all: what it truly means to be loved and to love with a real, authentic love.

The point of this parable is love; the point of our lives is love. We are made by God, Who is love, to both experience it and give it away, and anything short of real love will never satisfy.

What is real love? If we try to define it by cultural and human standards, the boundary markers will continually change as quickly as the passing trends. For love to be real, it must be defined by the One who created it and designed it in a way that was possible for us to experience it.

We must come to terms with how dreadfully sinful we are and how gloriously good and full of grace He is. We were once dead in our sins, until God made us alive in Christ, and when we encounter the magnitude of His overwhelming love, it should completely undo us. Acknowledging that Jesus has given us everything enables us to give Him everything in return. Only His love can revolutionize our lives and reshape our hearts to love at all.

When the lawyer asks what he can do to earn God’s favor and gain eternal life, he expects Jesus to answer in a way that disregards their laws, but He doesn’t. Jesus points him back to the Old Testament, emphasizing that He takes the law very seriously. The lawyer is glad because he knows the answer immediately and proceeds to summarize God’s 600-plus laws into one concise and supreme commandment: to love God and love others.

When the lawyer answers correctly, Jesus says, “Okay, that is it; you are right. Now go and do that! Love perfectly, and you are good to go!”

The problem is that no one can love or obey the law perfectly, and that is what Jesus is trying to convey. Although God demands absolute perfection, Jesus is the only One Who has met God’s standard for us. The law is only designed to help us recognize that we will never be able to reach perfection, no matter how hard we try. Therefore, our only hope is in the transformational power of Jesus’ blood poured out on the cross.

This was likely discouraging and frustrating for the lawyer, who hoped Jesus would say he was doing everything right and to keep up the good work. But Jesus says love is more than knowing the right answer; love is action. It is meeting the needs of people around you and putting them above yourself. In this way, Jesus does not nullify the law but elevates it to a higher place.

Real love always supersedes the law.

Prayer

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfect in us.” (1 John 4:7-12)

Jesus, may I be overcome by Your great love. Empower me and fill me to love like You do, with the help of Your Spirit in me, I pray. Amen.