The parable of the Good Samaritan and its application today
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Date
2000-02-16
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
Parables are one of the ways, which our Lord Jesus Christ used to teach his disciples. This was the
method by which Jesus, depicted the vivid examples which were found in the daily lives of his
contemporaries. Though the very parables were used by Our Lord Jesus Christ can be dated almost more
than two thousand years ago, they still found their relevance and application today in our situations and
society, especially in carrying Christ's mission. Jesus fulfilled the mission of his Father by teaching
through the words and actions. That is, he was himself the life living example. One of the parables Jesus
used was the parable of the Good Samaritan which is the center of our discussion.
The exemplary story of the Good Samantan ranks as one of the most beautiful and compelling of
all synoptic parables. It illustrates the teaching of Jesus on love of God and Neighbour; for there is nothing
more central in Jesus' teaching than love, which is necessary for eternal life.[Lk 10: 28]" Not only that,
but also, as Mary Warnock comments; -the image of the Good Samaritan is not wholly divorced from the
image of the caring government which will provide the necessity to meet the needs of the unfortunate:
Perhaps we have a big concern to ask ourselves that,who are the most unfortunates of our day today
encounters!
The parable of the Good Samaritan is a hard lesson to hear but all the same it carries a supreme
importance. The overwhelming extremes in our society especially that of conformity to the traditions and
laws, which are actually highly man-made and are not meant to care for the unfortunates in the society,
must be seriously questioned. The story does not just end like that, but with the commission of "Go and
Do it". This is a commission, to emulate the Samaritan who teaches how to love God and our fellow
neighbour who are in need. Our task in this work, aims at discussing the parable of the Good Samaritan and its application
into our lives today. The parable which he used when he was teaching his disciples This parable as we
shall see and read, is centered on the commandment of love. The love of God and our neighbor as a way of
attaining eternal life. That is a call for everybody.
The work is divided into three chapters, with their respective subtopics. In chapter one we are
going to see what the parable is all about. In this we will define and elucidate the very terminology and
answer a question what is a parable. It will be together with offering various definitions as they have been
propounded by vanous theologians. As we shall see, especially from the various definitions, the central
point of the explanations about parable, is the teachmg of Jesus by examples and stories. The stones which
were vivid and concrete to the people. As a matter of fact, we shall also see that. Jesus himself learnt the
art of using the parables in the Old Testament.
In the second chapter, I intend to bring the parable into the relevant situation. The parable of the
Good Samaritan speaking to us today. Speak to us and visit our situations. The point is to see if, it should
find its place in today's life situations. Thus, as we will be discussing the situation and relevance of the
parable, we will be trying to answer the question, who are the wounded men and women today in our
society? And again, do we have the similar situation or rather incidences and cases which can be equated
with the ones in the parable of the Good Samaritan? After exploring this in detail we will automatically
admit that the parables of the Lord are still alive and fresh particularly the parable of the Good Samaritan.
For the characters and the message of the parable will be solely seen in our context or rather in our
situation.
The third chapter, which is the final one, is going to contextualise the work or rather the parable.
That is putting it into practical application today. This one is going to be in the line of the mission of the
Lord. Again we will see our mission situations. After hearing the message, we should ask ourselves,
-then what can we do with it?" Are we just to pocket our Bibles and the preaching?". What we are to put into practice, is the example of the Samaritan which we are going to learn in the parable. The Samaritan
shows the example of loving God and neighbour, by attending our sisters and brothers in need. This will be
the call again of putting the message derived from the parable of the Good Samaritan into practice and
application.
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Keywords
Parable, Samaritan, Extremism, Levite