I was on vacation this last Sunday which gave me a chance to do something I often don’t do well on Sunday mornings, think about the text. My thoughts actually got started the week before when I gave my elder a Martin Luther sermon to read the Sunday I was gone.
I has always thought the point of the Good Samaritan was simple: be the Good Samaritan. After all, Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” I thought this parable was meant as a lesson for the man before Jesus and for me in how neighboring works.
But Luther suggests that the point of the parable is this: I am the Good Samaritan. Jesus is telling the parable about himself. He is the Good Samaritan rescuing humanity from the death that sin has caused. As the pastor I heard proclaim the word put it, “Jesus is the God Samaritan.” But as I listened I began to wonder about the end of the parable that we often skip over. If Luther is right, and Jesus is the Samaritan, what is the inn or who is the innkeeper?
Jesus’ words led me to my suggestion. He says, You take care of this man, and when I return, I will will repay you everything. If that isn’t Jesus talking to the church, I am not sure what it is. As Jesus walked on earth he took care of the needy of all kinds. He took care of physical needs, psychological needs, and most importantly spiritual needs. But now that he is ascended back into heaven, his care for the needy is not so direct. He has left the needy at the Inn, the church, and told the Innkeeper, you and I, that we should care for the needy until he return. And he has promise that whatever the cost of caring for the needy, be it dollars, hours, or tears, it will all be repaid. Those who care for the need will not covet that which they lost when they are given everything.
Whenever I come up with something like this that just pops in my head and doesn’t come from study, I always question its validity and start searching for someone reliable who came to the same conclusion. And I should have know where Luther got his premise that Jesus was the Good Samaritan. He got it from his truest teachers, the church fathers. Sure enough most of the church fathers interpreted the parable in this Christocentric way. And Origen explicitly named the church as the innkeeper in the parable. So perhaps this insight was not as new as I imagined, although it came to me without the original aid of the fathers.
So, you are the innkeeper. Take care of the needy until Jesus returns, and he will repay you whatever it costs.
I love it! Thanks for sharing 🙂 🙂
I said some of the same things Sunday. I think many of the ancient church fathers saw the text this way – with Jesus as the good Samaritan and we as the ones in the ditch. I also said almost the same thing about the church. I guess great minds work in tandem! (You and me, Phil, not me and Luther!)
I also think this is the only way to hear Gospel in this text.
But we can go further. I suspect that one of the great weaknesses of Protestantism is a weak ecclesiology. The church is not just a voluntary association of the saved, but a hospital for the healing of the wounded and dying (aren’t we all?).
Phil,
I have had similiar thoughts about this text, but yet am left with a number of questions that maybe you (and others) can give me insight into.
First, would Jesus have expected (and could we have expected) his listeners to see themselves as ‘the inn’ and ‘the innkeepers’ and to make the connection to see themselves as this thing called ‘the church’? It seems that we might be reading into the text somewhat by making it apply directly to us without letting it speak first to the context that Jesus found himself in and that would have made sense to that culture and time.
Second, what do we do with the reason that the parable was given in the first place? It was in response to “what must one do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said, “well, what do the Scriptures say?” The guy says (basically): love God and love others. Jesus says, “yeah, cool, you’re right, do this and you will live.” The guy though responded with, “who is my neighbor?” And then Jesus launches into this parable. So then is Jesus saying, “your neighbor is anyone I bring into the church (as the church)” (again, would that have made sense to the culture/time and context of Jesus’ listeners?) or “your neighbor is anyone you happen to meet no matter where you may find yourself and do good to them.”
Yeah, Jesus is the ultimate good samaritan…but yet aren’t we to continue the work of Jesus in the present world and follow in the pattern (and conform ourselves) of Him?
I think I would disagree with Jim that the only way to hear the Gospel in this text is to understand ourselves as the “innkeeper(s)” and “inn” and to see Jesus as the Good Samaritan. Based on what this parable is based on…a gospel understanding would be to love God and love others and by doing good to them. No matter who they are, who you are, or where you find them or yourself at.
The early church fathers, as much as I have come to love them, also were known to allegorize a lot of stuff. Perhaps their interpretation is Christocentric (though I would have issues with that, at least on this parable) but perhaps it is only that way because it has been allegorized to say something that really isn’t being said (at least not by Jesus).
I only say this because I have also had the same thought about this text and actually communicated this to a seminary class. But the more I look into this passage I guess I see it in a different light. Just my thoughts. Would love to hear yours.
Well first, the parables were not always given to be understood by the original hearers. As Jesus said, “Matthew 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” So it is possible that the unbelieving original hearers would not get it. Unfortunately, we don’t get the inner circle explanation Jesus gives of the other parables. Even more generally, I think parables are meant for chewing and not for easy consumption. They are meant for meditation and not easy meaning. So I think it is possible that Jesus’ intent in describing himself might have been hidden to the original hearers. Not necessary, but possible.
So is Jesus’ answer truly “Do good and be saved?” Either way you take the parable, it is given as judgment on the man, to prove to him that he has not kept the law and lead him to salvation by grace. While it is true as Jesus says that perfection under the law gives salvation, it is equally true that this man and no other save the speaker ever did this. I think this is the message to the man.
Yes, for sure we are. And Jesus gives a picture of himself gives us the example to follow. With the inn angle, we are specifically given the task of caring for the needy just like Jesus did until he returns again.
I will let Jim respond, but the term gospel as Jim uses it here is a specifically Lutheran way of talking. In this way of speaking, any think given for us to do is law, and not gospel.
This point did cause me to pause as well. Not to mention Origen’s heresies. However the parables do more logically lend themselves to allegory. Any interpretation is allegory to some extent. Perhaps the Fathers took sound exegesis of parables and wrongly applied it to other texts.
I am not totally sold on this view I presented but I am leaning towards it. Here is a question that I have, if Jesus is not the Good Samaratian, what is all the stuff about the inn returning and repaying all about? Why is it there. It makes no sense if we are the good Samaritan. Are we to help the needy only directly for a while and then pass them off to others or? It is the returning and repaying language that really makes me think Jesus is the Samaritan and the Church is the inn.
Whew! That is the kind of comment I like. 🙂 Tom, you could learn. 🙂 Just kidding.
Agreed, perhaps we shall blog there later.
Phil,
Thanks for you gracious and great response. You are right, the parables were not understood always by everyone…yet they were understood by some (even if it was Jesus explaining it later to a small group of people). I also agree that so many times we have made the Bible into a “readers digest” of how to live, etc. The Bible is wonderfully rich, deep, profound, complex, mysterious, etc.
But I wonder if this parable fits into the category of people not understanding it. For one, the man himself knows very well what Jesus is talking about. The end of the parable has Jesus saying, “which person was being the neighbor” and the guy says, “the one who showed help” and then Jesus says…”go and do likewise.” So, I think, for this parable the man and everyone else knew exactly what Jesus was getting at.
Okay (deep breath…getting ready for the backlash)…i wholeheartedly believe in salvation by grace…yet where in this text do we find that is what Jesus is even intimating?
I am wondering how the parables logically lend themselves to allegory?
Your question about the inn and the innkeeper is good and valid. I don’t know what they represent. Perhaps, like any story, there are details and elements present that really don’t have significance beyond themselves. Perhaps they are there to highlight the extreme care given by the Samaritan and to be left at that with no further explanation or interpretation. Maybe. Maybe not.
Thoughts?
“The church is not just a voluntary association of the saved, but a hospital for the healing of the wounded and dying (aren’t we all?).”
The Eastern Fathers consistently referred to teh Church in this way, as a place to be comforted by the Great Physician Himself through partaking of His Sacraments dispersed through Her the Church. The Church is so much more than a loose association.
With that, I am happy to hear that the LCMS synodical covnention overwhelmingly approved a resolution endorsing the practice of individual confession/absolution. I wonder why its endorsement and necessity as prescribed in the Book of Concord has gone unheeded for so long.
I wrote above what I thought about “hearing the gospel in this text.” Let me be precise. I meant that we hear the gospel in the news that the good samaritan (Jesus) ministers to wounded, half-dead travellers (us). It is not good news to be told, “go and do likewise.” That is pure law, even though it comes straight from Jesus.
Nor did I mean that the good news is in making us the innkeepers. That doesn’t seem to me to be good news at all. I am not particularly interested in the innkeepers as such, but in the church as an inn. Granted, we are all part of the church, but the church is more than just us. It is the place where the gospel is preached and the sacraments are administered. When we see the church as the place where the gospel is ministered to us, it is very much a part of that gospel. But when we talk about what we “do” in the church, we are back to law. I suspect most Protestants are more likely to see the church as a workshop rather than a hospital.
Hey, Phil,
As the church is the innkeeper caring for the lost until the Lord returns, I would really like to hear your opinion of the status of the LCMS in light of what happened at the convention.
Be more specific..what happened? I mean I know stuff that happened, but what do you refer to specifically before I respond…besides are we the church, are you…PLUG FOR NEW POST!