The Bad News of the Good Samaritan
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most well-known stories Jesus ever told, and it is often cited as an example of neighborly love. Many take it as a lesson in morality—urging us to be kinder, more compassionate, and more sacrificial in our care for others.
But Jesus was not teaching about kindness, nor was He offering an opinion on social ethics. He was exposing the impossibility of justifying ourselves.
The parable begins with a question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). The lawyer, seeking to test Jesus, was not asking a genuine question, rather it was asked from a desire to justify himself.
Jesus, in response, pointed him to the law: “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (v. 26). The lawyer answered correctly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (v. 27).
Jesus affirmed his answer: “Do this, and you will live” (v. 28). But the lawyer, unwilling to admit his failure, sought to narrow the standards of the law, asking, “And who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). It is in response to this question that Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The Story’s True Purpose
The parable itself is simple: A man is beaten, robbed, and left for dead.
A priest passes by. A Levite passes by. Neither helps. Then a Samaritan—an outcast, hated by the Jews—sees the man, has compassion, and goes to extravagant lengths to care for him.
At the end, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (v. 36). The lawyer cannot even bring himself to say “the Samaritan,” but merely replies, “The one who showed him mercy” (v. 37). Jesus then tells him, “Go, and do likewise.”
This is where we often misread the parable. We assume Jesus is giving the lawyer instructions to be more like the Samaritan. But Jesus is doing something far more devastating: He is showing the lawyer that he cannot justify himself. By using the weight of the law, Jesus is showing this man, and us, that he is a sinner with no hope of eternal life.
The Bad News
The lawyer wanted to justify himself. He wanted to prove he had fulfilled the law. But Jesus’ story demolishes that possibility.
Let’s think about this:
- The law requires perfect, personal, and perpetual love for God and neighbor.
- The priest and Levite, the religious elite of the day, failed to show love.
- The Samaritan does show love in an unattainable way. He gives of his time, resources, and comfort at great personal cost.
Jesus’ final words—“Go, and do likewise”, are not an exhortation but a crushing weight.
If this is the standard, who can stand? Who has ever loved their neighbor with such sacrificial devotion at all times? Who has never walked by on the other side?
This is the bad news of the Good Samaritan. The parable is not about the Samaritan’s goodness, but about our badness.
It exposes our inability to love as the law requires.
This parable is the same as when Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and follow Him (Luke 18:18-23). In both cases, Jesus is not giving a command but is showing the impossibility of self-justification. Both the lawyer and the rich young ruler wanted to know what they must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus’ response in both cases serves to make the law heavier, to show that they cannot and will not do what is required.
Understanding the Law-Gospel distinction helps us sort this out. The law crushes us with its demands, leaving us with no hope in ourselves. The Good Samaritan is not a moral example; he is an unattainable standard under the law.
The Only Hope: The True Good Samaritan
If we read this parable rightly, it should drive us to despair, and that is precisely Jesus’ point.
The law demands perfect love, but we do not possess it. Left to ourselves, we are hopeless. But Jesus Himself is the true Good Samaritan. He is the One who saw us in our wretched condition, had compassion, and came to rescue us at great cost. He not only binds up our wounds but bears them Himself.
This parable is not a call to be the Good Samaritan as a means of self-justification. It is a call to recognize that we aren’t the Good Samaritan—and never could be. We must look outside of ourselves to the One who alone fulfills the law on our behalf. In Him, and Him alone, is eternal life.
So, the next time you hear the parable of the Good Samaritan, don’t think of it as a lesson to imitate but a mirror exposing our need for grace.