The Good Samaritan
Parables are lots of fun, and there are lots of tasty morsels just awaiting our exploration and discovery. To the ‘Lost’ they are just an interesting story, but to the ‘Saved’ they are an abundant wealth of treasures. Now pretty much all things in scripture have three phases, (a) Predicted or Prophesied to come someday, (b) the Prophecy becomes a reality, (c) the event comes around a third time, and this is ‘Spiritual,’ or ‘Global,’ and often comes normally at the end of time, around the time Jesus comes back to shut down this world and to resurrect his sleeping saints and to translate his ‘Sheep,’ Wheat,’ ‘Wise Bridesmaids,’ and takes them all back to his house.
The Parable; Luke 10:29-37 “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, and who is my neighbour? 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. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked [on him], and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion [on him], 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. 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. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
Now there was a famous artist, Caravaggio by name, who used to invariably paint himself into a few of his portraits, in lesser roles, behind, as a minor figure in the edges somewhere, but he was there somewhere. Now this ‘Parable’ is a Caravaggio, in that Jesus hid himself in the midst of the story. Now three men left Jerusalem to head ‘Down’ to Jericho, but Sodom and Egypt are often implied to refer to Jericho as well, one was a ‘traveler’ and the other two were ‘Church Men,’ of various rank. Now coming ‘Up the Hill,’ was a lone traveler heading to Jerusalem, he met and passed the two ‘Church Men’ going down-hill, and then found the abandoned, despised and rejected lying wounded and dying on the road. Now being a ‘Samaritan’, he was instantly registered to ‘Church Men,’ as being ‘despised and rejected,’ Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Here we find a ‘Caravaggio’ hidden in plain sight, Jesus wrote himself perfectly into the story, hidden in plain sight, the despised and rejected heading to Jerusalem and then on to Calvary, for all. But “Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” [Matthew 7:14] Just how many saw the ‘Caravaggio’ there hidden in plain sight? Now to be very sure, we find this, Luke 10:35 “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.”
Now we have this revelation in 2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Now a standard ‘Day’s Wages’ of the day was a penny, so two pence is two day’s pay, now this is a Caravaggio, and Jesus is here so now the day is also a thousand years, so two pence is two thousand years. Somewhere between AD 27 and AD 31 this story was told, add 2000yrs and you get 2027 – 2031. Now back to the story for more revelations, Luke 10:35 “and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.” Jesus is clearly stating that some 2000yrs after this story, Jesus himself will return as King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s, a ‘Judgement’ has just already been completed, Revelation 22:11 “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” Revelation 22:12 “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Those that have been just ‘Inn Keepers,’ get a just reward, and all and any expenses are then re-imbursed, and with interest, for caring for the ‘despised and rejected.’
Now Jesus does a very sneaky Caravaggio, in that he plays ‘Two’ characters, the Samaritan, and the injured traveler as well, Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Jesus the Traveler) Matthew 25:40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.” We also find Jesus with a “Calvary” style, bleeding and dying, but who has compassion upon him?? The ‘Despised and Rejected,’ step up while the ‘Holier than thou’ just pass by on the other side going downhill. Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (The Good Samaritan) Here we have depicted ‘The Good Samaritan, but we also have him depicted as the ‘despised and rejected’ injured traveler, John 10:17 “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” Zechariah 13:6 “And [one] shall say unto him, What [are] these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, [Those] with which I was wounded [in] the house of my friends.” It was ‘Church Men’ that cried out, “Crucify Him” and then they killed the son of God, just as predicted, Matthew 21:37 “But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” Wounded and killed in ‘the house of my friends.’ So then are you and I going to cry out “Crucify Him” or are we going to crucify ourselves, die to sin and corruption, acknowledge Jesus as our Saviour, Redeemer and King, let him bind up our wounds, to heal us and to restore us, and to give us life, real life now and Eternal Life at the end of this age? Choose well and carefully the path to tread, but make the decision quickly, call on Jesus right now and let the real “Good Samaritan” have compassion on you, bind up your wounds and take you to his Father’s House to recover from the wounds of sin.
