Our summer preaching series on ‘The Parables of Jesus’ will come to an end this Lord’s Day as we complete our look at ‘The Parable of the Good Samaritan’ in Luke 10:25-37.

Popular expositions of this parable seem to take a common path, arriving at a similar conclusion. It is often assumed that the point of this blessed story is purely an ethical one. That is, the parable is told by Jesus in order to show us that the Gospel is about loving whoever is in our pathway, especially the needy.

In the hands of more progressive interpreters, the parable is then singularly applied to all types of perceived social maladies, from racism, income inequality, mistreatment of the marginalized and the oppressed, to discrimination in all its forms, and the like. The Gospel, then, is reduced to love, our love for the weak, the needy, and the vulnerable. In the words of the lawyer in the parable, one “inherits eternal life” by loving oppressed people.

However, such an approach to this parable is unfounded and misses the point completely. While all would agree that love is central to the Gospel, the popular interpretation of the parable only tells part of the story, and it gets the Good News totally wrong!

If we take the time to read the parable very carefully, and with the immediate context and the rest of Scripture in view, we see that Jesus is not at all suggesting that the essence of the Gospel is loving others. To the contrary, Jesus is demonstrating the absolute impossibly of earning one’s own redemption by the practice of love!

This parable, then, destroys a popular assumption about love. Namely, that the love which God requires is easy to supply!

However, as we carefully trace this story to its conclusion on Sunday, we will discover another truth being taught by our Lord. It is one that will surprise us, alarm us, and render us helpless before our Father’s sovereign grace. But it will also shine the light on something truly amazing!!