Luke 10: Parable of the Good Samaritan; an allegorical interpretation

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Here I present my interpretation of Luke 10:25-37, known by the masses as “The parable of the good Samaritan” but better defined as “Jesus’/the Church’s answer to the Jew’s question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?'” Once accepted that emphasis should be placed on this initial question in the story rather than on “the parable of the good samaritan” (which was given as proof of the expert in the law not keeping the second commandment), then we can begin to focus more on Jesus’/the Church’s response to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”. The Church, historically, has emphasized the “love one’s neighbor” command as the meaning of this passage. However, as the reader of my paper will discover, Jesus (really, the Church) was saying that to inherit eternal life we must recognize our sin/guilt for not keeping the law (loving God or loving neighbor), see Jesus as the guilt/sin bearer, and believe in Him. Now, theologically, that sounds right, but how do we get that interpretation from this passage? It is all found in the phrase “Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28), and in its source Genesis 41:55. Somewhere along the line, the Church’s original meaning of this passage has been lost, and now the Church misinterprets and thus misapplies the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Parable itself was originally intended to point out “sin”- not to be used primarily as an ethical exhortation.

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