The Gospel of Luke and the Good Samaritan

The following is a part of a series of papers for my Jesus Through The Ages class at Capital University.

Jesse Harmon

RELIG 210

January 23, 2012

Gospel of Luke and the Good Samaritan

            The Gospel of Luke is actually one of two parts, (the other being the book of Acts).  As I mentioned in a previous paper, the Gospel of Mark was written as if it were a newspaper article by a person of few words, (like me).  The Gospel of Matthew, however, was written by a tax collector to convince the Jews to believe in Christ.  The Gospel of Luke was written as a story, with long, intricate passages, detail a lot about Jesus’ life.  I believe this gospel describes Jesus the best.  Matthew, to me, viewed Jesus as a teacher.  Mark viewed Jesus as a savior, and Luke viewed Jesus as a friend.  Luke is by far the longest of the four gospels.  It has been said that the author used two sources; Mark and another source called Q.  There are several passages that are unique to Luke that are not in any other synoptic gospel.

            My favorite parable of the whole Bible is the story of the Good Samaritan, (Luke 10:30-37).  This story is unique to Luke.  A traveler was beaten and mugged on a road.   A priest walked by, but didn’t help him.  It’s interesting to note that Jesus spent almost no time describing the priest, as if to say the priest wasn’t important to the story. A Levite also walked by, but didn’t help him either.  Finally, a Samaritan helped the poor man up and paid for a stay at an inn.  Samaritans and Jews generally didn’t like each other particularly well, so this was a strange, but beautiful occurrence. 

            I think this story is perfect for explaining Jesus as a person.  It talks about loving one’s neighbor as oneself.  This is my interpretation of this story.  The Good Samaritan, a metaphor for Christ himself, is helping out his neighbor, or God’s people.   The mugged man was a metaphor for people who have fallen away from God.  Jesus came to save the Jews and bring them eternal life.  The robbers, who were not described, are a metaphor for the temptations and sins of the world.  The Good Samaritan came to save the man from death, (apparently this was the same interpretation of Augustine).  This proves that Luke viewed Jesus as a “friend.” 

            The author of the Gospel of Mark wanted to get the facts out quickly.  Mark’s book is only forty pages in my Bible, (which is called the Bible Across America).  My Bible has devoted seventy-two pages to the Gospel of Luke.  Other stories in Luke that aren’t in Mark are when Jesus visited the Temple as a child, the lost coin, the lost son, the ten lepers, and the story of Zacchaeus.  There are many more stories of course in Luke that aren’t in the others, since Luke is a historical account.