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Episode 8
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
A lawyer (an expert in religious law) asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ Jesus replied with an illustration. A Jewish man was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was waylaid by robbers. They took his money, stripped him, beat him and left him half-dead by the roadside. Along came a Jewish priest who saw the wounded man but did nothing to help. Instead he crossed over to the other side and passed him by. Then came a Levite, a temple assistant, who also saw the wounded man. He walked over to him and looked at him but did nothing to help and also passed him by. Later came a Samaritan who is despised by the Jews. When he saw the wounded man, he was moved with compassion. He knelt beside him, soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. He put the wounded man on his donkey and took him to an inn. The next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver to take care of the wounded man. If that was not enough, he would pay the difference the next time. Jesus asked the lawyer, ‘Who amongst them is a neighbour?’ The Jewish priest, Levite or Samaritan? The lawyer replied, ‘The one who showed mercy’. Then Jesus said ‘Go and do the same’ (verse 37).
The Samaritan was a model of grace. He need not and should not have helped the wounded man who was Jewish because traditionally the Jews looked down on the Samaritans. He had good reasons for not helping that man. Instead, he soothed and bandaged the man’s wounds. He even went the extra mile by sending the man to the inn and caring for him. What a beautiful display of grace in action.
The Waiting Father (Luke 15:11-31)
The prodigal son (more aptly called the prodigal father) in Luke 15 is a familiar story. Jesus told this story when the Pharisees and scribes, the teachers of religious laws, complained that he was associating with tax-collectors and notorious sinners who were despised by the people. Interestingly, it was the religious leaders and not the common people who were unhappy with the company Jesus kept. Does this ring a bell today? In any case, Jesus began his story:
A man had two sons. One day, the younger son told his father he wanted his share of the inheritance (wealth) although the father was still alive. His father agreed to the request although the family inheritance is usually given after the parents die. So he divided the inheritance between the two sons and gave the younger son his share. It is important to note that both sons received the inheritance.
A few days later the younger son packed his belongings and left for a distant land. Perhaps the father asked the younger son to reconsider his decision to leave home. Or the father needed time to raise the wealth. In either case, the younger son was determined to leave home.
The younger son soon squandered all his money on wild living. He was broke. A great famine swept across the land and he began to starve. He was so desperate for food that he persuaded the local farmer to hire him to look after the pigs (what a change in status: from a son to a servant!). So hungry was the younger son that the very food he fed the pigs (pod) looked delicious to him (what a change in ambience from a cosy home to a smelly pigsty). Anyway, no one gave him any food.
We are told when he finally came to his senses (not surprising when you think of the environment), he thought, ‘At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger!’ He decided to go home and face the music. H expected to see a furious father chiding him, ‘I told you so’. He even made up his mind to say this: ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man’ (Luke 15:17-19). The younger son felt so unworthy of his father’s love because of what he had done. He felt he deserved to be treated not as a son but only as a servant (is this not how we feel when we sin against God?). So he went home.
The father saw the younger son coming from afar. Overcome with love, the father ran to him, embraced him and kissed him (these are the signs of forgiveness and acceptance; note that it was not the son who embraced the father first). The son was so touched by the father’s gesture that he said, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son’ (Luke 15:21).
Before the son could finish what he wanted to say, the father interrupted him and told the servants to do five things: One, bring him the finest robe in the house. His clothes must have been tattered and torn. Two, put a ring on his finger. Third, get sandals for his feet. Four, kill the fattest calf. Finally, hold a party to celebrate. The father was overjoyed and called for a celebration for the son was considered dead when he left home wilfully, but he has now returned. Once he was lost but now he was found. We are told in Luke chapter 15: 24 ‘and the party began’. I like it. What a party it must have been!
The father did not hear his younger son confess or promise good behaviour before he embraced him. What he offered was ‘instant forgiveness’ with no strings attached. Instead of a rebuke, he received a hug. Instead of punishment, he received forgiveness. Instead of a lecture, he received assurance. Instead of being driven away, he received the finest robe. In a word he did not get what he deserved - rebuke or lecture, ‘I told you so’, but he got what he did not deserve - embrace, hug, finest robe, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and a party. Why? It is because of grace. When the son made his wilful choice to go away, it was as though the son was dead. Now that he had returned, he was considered alive.
The younger son expected the worst. He could have been disowned. He did not expect to pacify his father, so he prepared for the worst. He told the father what he deserved for his rebellion. He did not expect the gracious response of his father. Even in his wildest imagination, he never would have thought his father was waiting for him to return. He received his father’s extravagant grace; the father gave him what he needed and not what he deserved. The father demonstrated grace in the following ways:
One, come rain or shine, the father was waiting everyday for him to return home.
Two, when the father saw him, he ran towards his dirty and smelly son, embraced him and kissed him. Three, the father did not punish the son; neither did he pile guilt upon him by saying, ‘I told you so’, ‘what lessons have you learnt’, ‘stay in the room and don’t come out for three days’, or ‘reflect what you have done wrong’; he did nothing of that.
Four, he gave the son the finest robe, put a ring on his finger and sandals to wear.
Finally, to top it all, the father threw a ‘welcome home’ party. It does not make sense, does it? That was grace. And grace does not make sense from the human viewpoint.
But that is what grace is all about. It has to do with giving people what they do not deserve but what they need. Truly, grace transforms people as the story of the prodigal son so beautifully illustrates. There is power in grace.
Man shall find grace;
And shall Grace not find means, that finds her way,
That speediest of Thy winged messengers,
To visit all Thy creatures, and to all
Comes unprevented, unimplored, unsought?
Happy for man so coming! (1369 words)
Discussion Questions