Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St LukeBurton, Henry
Religion
Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St Luke
Burton, Henry
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
He himself comes down, dismounting, that he may help the man to
rise. He opens his flask and puts his wine to the lips, that their
groans may cease, or that they may be soothed down into inarticulate
speech. The oil he has brought for his own food he pours upon the
wounds, and when the man has sufficiently recovered he lifts him upon
his own beast and takes him to the inn. Nor is this enough for his great
heart, but continuing his journey on the morrow, he first arranges with
his host that the man shall be well cared for, giving him two pence,
which was the two days' wages of a labouring man, at the same time
telling him that he must not limit his attentions to the sum he pays in
advance, but that if anything more should be needed he would pay the
balance on his return. We do not read whether it was needed or not, for
the Samaritan, mounting his steed, passes out of our hearing and out of
our sight. Not quite out of our hearing, however, for Heaven has caught
his gentle, loving words, and hidden them within this parable, that all
coming times may listen to their music; nor out of our sight either, for
his photograph was caught in the sunlight of the Master's speech; and as
we turn over the pages of Inspiration there is no picture more beautiful
than that of the nameless Samaritan, whom all the world calls "the
Good," the man who knew so much better than his age what humanity and
mercy meant.
In the new light the lawyer can answer his own question now, and he
does; for when Jesus asks, "Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved
neighbour unto him that fell among the robbers?" he replies, with no
hesitation, but with a lingering prejudice that does not care to
pronounce the, to him, outlandish name, "He that showed mercy on him."
The lesson is learned, the lesson of humanity, for the whole parable is
but an amplification of the Golden Rule, and Jesus dismisses the subject
and the scholar with the personal application, which is but a corollary
of the proposition He has demonstrated, "Go thou and do likewise." Go
and do to others as you would have them do to you, were the
circumstances reversed and your places changed. Read off your duty, not
from your own low standpoint merely, but in a binocular vision, as you
put yourself in his place; so will you find that the line of duty and
the line of beauty are one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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