24/05/2026
The Good Samaritan*
_An Expository Sermon on Luke 10:30–35_
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.”
— Luke 10:30
Introduction: A Story Born of a Question
This parable does not stand alone. It is Jesus’ answer to a loaded question. A lawyer — an expert in the Law of Moses — had asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus turned the question back to him, and the lawyer answered correctly: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. But then came the real question — the one that revealed the lawyer’s true motive: “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).
He was not asking for information. He was asking for a boundary. He wanted to know how little love he was required to give, how narrow he could draw the circle. Jesus answered not with a definition but with a story — and the story destroyed every boundary the lawyer had in mind.
I. The Road and the Robbery (v. 30)
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.”
Jesus begins with geography, and the geography matters. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho descends nearly 3,300 feet in roughly 17 miles. It wound through barren, rocky wilderness — a notorious stretch known in antiquity as the “Way of Blood” because of its danger. Travelers knew the risk. To walk it alone was an act of either courage or desperation.
The man in the story has no name, no nationality, no religion. He is simply a man — a human being. Jesus strips away every identity marker, leaving only his vulnerability. He was beaten, robbed, and abandoned — half dead. The Greek phrase suggests he was closer to death than life, lying in the dust with no strength left to help himself.
The sermon truth here is this: Human need, in its rawest form, is the starting point of the parable. Before we hear about a priest or Levite or Samaritan, we must sit with the image of a suffering human being who can do nothing for himself. Need precedes every other consideration in this story.
II. The Religion That Passed By (vv. 31–32)
“A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”
Two men come — and both are men of God by profession. A priest served at the Temple in Jerusalem. A Levite assisted in Temple worship and the keeping of the Law. These were the most respected religious figures in Jewish society. If anyone could be counted on to embody the command to love one’s neighbor, surely it was these men.
Yet both saw the man. The text is careful to say that — they saw him. This was not ignorance. It was a choice. And they both “passed by on the other side.” They crossed the road to maximize the distance between themselves and the suffering man.
