(25) And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (26) He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? (27) And he answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. (28) And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. (29) But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? (30) And Jesus answering, said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. (31) And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. (32) And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. (33) But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. (34) And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (35) And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. (36) Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? (37) And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
There can be no doubt but that this lawyer's question was not with a view to learn from Christ, but to confound Christ; for it is said that he tempted him. And what a body of such critics have the servants of Jesus been tempted with ever since! How admirably our Lord sends the man to the law for conviction! When the law is used as Christ here useth it, the Holy Ghost makes it a school-master to Christ. By the law is the knowledge of sin, Romans 3:20; so that Jesus sent this lawyer to the law for self-condemnation. But how the man aimed to evade the force of it! He saith nothing about the love of God, but questions about his neighbour. The method the Lord took with this lawyer is both beautiful and striking: and though we have no authority to conclude the discourse ended in any saving work upon his heart, yet it could not but silence him with confusion. But, leaving the lawyer, it will be more for our purpose to observe some of the many precious things contained in this most interesting account of the wounded traveller and the kind Samaritan. Reader! we shall do no violence to the subject before us, if we behold, in this certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, our own nature in every individual instance of it, leaving the holy city, which Jerusalem represents, and going down to the cursed city, Jericho, so declared in the Scriptures of God, Nehemiah 11:1; Joshua 6:26; 1 Kings 16:34. As then this man, leaving the holy city, fell among thieves, which stripped him, wounded him, and left him half dead, so our nature, by the fall, is robbed by Satan, stripped of original righteousness, is made a whole mass of disease with the wounds of sin, and left more than half dead by the great enemy of souls. In soul - that is, spiritual death, truly dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1. And in body, exposed to natural death, certain and sure: and unless relieved, as this poor man was, during the present life, as certain of eternal death, both of body and soul forever. Such is the awful state of every man by nature.
Our Lord describes the passing, by of a Priest and a Levite, beholding the wounded traveller. The former immediately went on, seemingly regardless of his misery. The latter went and looked on him, but passed by on the other side. Probably, by these different characters, both equally unfriendly, might be meant, in allusion to our fallen helpless nature, the inability of either law or sacrifices, under the law, to heal the wounds of sin. But a certain Samaritan, Jesus describes as doing all the needful offices, nor departing from the wretched creature until he had brought him to an inn of safety. All commentaries, without hesitation, have considered this Samaritan as representing the Lord Jesus Christ. And there can be no doubt but that he, and he only, proved the divine Samaritan to our ruined nature. Yet, in the first view of the subject, Christ, in his human nature, was not a Samaritan, but a Jew. And moreover, if we trace the subject higher, and look at the Son of God, when first assuming our nature, he was indeed no Samaritan, that is, not a stranger, but from being the head, and husband of his Church, when he stood up as such, at the call of God, before all worlds, he, and he alone, was the nearest of all relations from all eternity. And his journeying, as is here represented, might be supposed to mean his coming down from the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all, to the Jericho of this world, brought under the curse by reason of the fall. But be this as it may, he proved the Samaritan to our nature. It is said that he saw him. Yes! Jesus beheld his Church from all eternity. Christ saw the Church when presented to him by his Father, before all worlds, in her native glory, in excellency in him. She was, from all eternity, a king's daughter, all glorious within, being God the Father's gift to his dear Son. Jesus saw her, loved her, delighted in her, for so the Scriptures speak: see Psalms 21:1-2; Psalms 21:1-2; Proverbs 8:30-31; Proverbs 8:30-31. But the seeing our nature in the deplorable state of a robbed and wounded man here described, is in allusion to our Adam-nature, and time-state of sin and ruin, into which, by Satan, we are involved. And here comes in all those precious blessed offices the history represents, which so exactly corresponds to the mercies of Christ. If the Samaritan went to the wounded man, and poured in oil and wine, and bound up his mangled body, set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him, Jesus still more. The Son of God, in our nature, hath remembered us in our lowest estate, for his mercy endureth forever. He hath indeed not barely poured in the oil and wine, to heal the wounds of sin, but the precious balsam of his own blood. He hath set us not on his own beast, but borne us in his arms, and carried us in his bosom. He hath brought us to his Church, to the richest inn of plentiful provisions, in means of free and sovereign grace and ordinances of gospel worship; and having washed our wounds in the fountain he hath opened for sin and for uncleanness, he hath took care of us with all this care. And now, though as on the morrow of departure he is returned to glory, he hath commanded all his servants, who minister in his name, to be attentive to our wants, assuring them and us, that at his return, which he will assuredly make good his promise in coming, he will make ample amends to recompence all done for us during his stay. The two-pence spoken of, is in allusion to a Roman coin, about fifteen-pence in value, to our English money. Some have considered this two-pence as in allusion to the two Testaments; and some to the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. But perhaps this may be fanciful. Yet though it were not necessary, nor perhaps proper, to strain the history to every minute, point, it may be well to gather from the whole, under divine teaching, what the Lord Jesus evidently intended from such a striking illustration of our ruin, and his mercy over us; so that every poor sinner, made sensible by grace of his lost estate by nature, and his wounded, ruined condition by Satan, may cry out, when contemplating Christ in the display of such mercy as is here set forth, and say, Lord Jesus! thou divine Samaritan, pass by and behold me, in my desperate circumstances, like this poor traveller. Pour in the precious balsam of thy blood, take me to thy Church, and heal me! The confession of the lawyer could be no other than what the Lord extorted from him. But it is not said that any other effect was wrought by it upon his mind.