Luke 10:29-37

The good Samaritan.

How is such love to be attained? This would have been the question put by the scribe, had be been in the state of soul which Paul describes Romans 7, and which is the normal preparation for faith. He would have confessed his impotence, and repeated the question in a yet deeper sense than at the beginning of the interview: What shall I do? What shall I do in order to love thus?

But instead of that, feeling himself condemned by the holiness of the law which he has himself formally expressed, he takes advantage of his ignorance, in other words, of the obscurity of the letter of the law, to excuse himself for not having observed it: “What does the word neighbour mean? How far does its application reach?” So long as one does not know exactly what this expression signifies, it is quite impossible, he means, to fulfil the commandment. Thus the remark of Luke, “willing to justify himself,” finds an explanation which is perfectly natural.

The real aim of the parable of the good Samaritan is to show the scribe that the answer to the theological question, which he thinks good to propose, is written by nature on every right heart, and that to know, nothing is needed but the will to understand it. But Jesus does not at all mean thereby that it is by his charitable disposition, or by this solitary act of kindness, that the Samaritan can obtain salvation. We must not forget that a totally new question, that of the meaning of the word neighbour, has intervened. It is to the latter question that Jesus replies by the parable. He lets the scribe understand that this question, proposed by him as so difficult, is resolved by a. right heart, without its ever proposing it at all. This ignorant Samaritan naturally (φύσει, Romans 2:14) possessed the light which the Rabbins had not found, or had lost, in their theological lucubrations. Thus was condemned the excuse which he had dared to advance.

May we not suppose it is from sayings such as this that Paul has derived his teaching regarding the law written in the heart, and regarding its partial observance by the Gentiles, Romans 2:14-16 ?