Parables for Real Life
BRANDEN OBRERO
6/4/2025
How applicable are parables? Can they be relevant to specific ministry situations, or are they best used to derive timeless principles for life? Parables are most relevant to specific situations if one can faithfully apply a parable’s lesson, as understood through its fulfillment in Christ. I hope to illustrate this with the following example.
I have friends who serve in a church ministry, Grid, targeted towards young professionals in their 20s and 30s. It functions similarly to a Bible study where attendees spend time conversing with one another, praying for one another, and studying Scripture together. Grid has been steadily growing with new attendees and contains social circles among the regular attendees. Because of the ministry’s growth, its format is changing to include break-out groups with pre-assigned people. However, there is a fear that this format change will cause the pre-existing social circles to turn into cliques and result in newcomers feeling unwelcomed. The issue facing the regular ministry attendees is how to prevent the formation of cliques and promote a welcoming environment, despite the format change. The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 provides an answer to this issue. This parable exhorts Christians unto displaying a self-sacrificial love to people across social lines, despite cost to self. The modeling of this biblical standard for love will be impactful wherever it is manifested, whether in personal or ministerial contexts. The expression of the self-sacrificial, neighborly love taught in this parable by the attendees of Grid will help prevent the formation of cliques and ensure all attendees feel welcome.
The parable of the good Samaritan was given by Jesus in response to an “expert in the law” who asked Jesus how he could have eternal life (Luke 10:25 CSB). After Jesus affirmed this expert’s answer that loving God and loving neighbor would allow him to “live”, the expert sought to define who his neighbor was (Luke 10:26-29). He sought “to make God’s second great commandment more manageable.”[1] It would be easier to keep this command if one has few neighbors, rather than many. Jesus gave the parable of the good Samaritan to answer the question of who is one’s neighbor. The story tells us that a man was travelling from “Jerusalem to Jericho” and ends up getting robbed, beaten, and left on the side of the road (Luke 10:30). Multiple people passed by this beaten traveler, including a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan (Luke 10:31-33). The broad applicability of this parable is revealed by the variety of people who pass by. It doesn’t just concern the religious, such as the priest and Levite. It also concerns the less-religious who may be looked down upon – the Samaritan. Consequently, a Christian cannot ignore the implications of this parable because he thinks he isn’t the contemporary equivalent of a priest. Rather, every Christian should pay attention to the lesson Jesus conveys through this parable.
Jews typically didn’t associate with Samaritans (John 4:9). What is astounding in this parable is the one who ends up helping the beaten traveler was not the religious priest or Levite. They both “passed by on the other side” and ignored the man in need of aid (Luke 10:31-32 CSB). However, the Samaritan “had compassion” on the beaten traveler, cared for him, and took him to an inn (Luke 10:33-34 CSB). The reality of who aided this beaten traveler should be a clarion call for all Christians. Whereas the religious people ignored the beaten traveler, the Samaritan, who was looked down on by the Jews, aided him. The presumably Jewish audience of the parable is confronted with the reality that someone they despise is displaying love which their own people did not. This parable forces contemporary Christians, including attendees at Grid, to assess whether they are caring for and loving those different than themselves, outside their social circles; or is their love only given to people who are similar?
The Samaritan didn’t aid this beaten traveler out of convenience. Rather, he interrupted his own journey to provide aid. The Samaritan used his supplies to tend the beaten man’s wounds and paid for his stay at the inn (Luke 10:34-35). This is a keen reminder that loving one’s neighbor isn’t necessarily easy. It often comes at one’s own expense – whether it be time, money, or other resources. It is easy for people to love when displaying love is easy or cheap. Are we able to love when it costs us? That is a question posed by this parable. Are the ministry leaders and attendees at Grid willing to love those different from them at the expense of their own time, money, and resources; or are they only willing to love when it is convenient?
Answering the law expert’s question of who is his neighbor, Jesus affirms that the neighbor to the beaten traveler was “the one who showed mercy to him” – the Samaritan (Luke 10:36-37 CSB). However, Jesus actually re-worked the law expert’s question; he wanted the expert “to consider a deeper question – not ‘Who is my neighbor?’ but ‘Whose neighbor am I?’”[2] Are Christians displaying the neighborly love they have been called to? As seen in the parable, love for neighbor is shown to be irrespective of shared social or ethnic similarities, and it often comes at one’s own expense. Love for neighbor is sacrificial. The exhortation to those at Grid is clear: they must show neighborly love to all, across social lines, despite their differences, and often at cost to self. If this mindset is firmly adopted by the regular attendees at Grid, the ministry will be well-equipped to minimize the formation of cliques with the format change. This is because there will be a culture of self-sacrificial love at cost to self being displayed across social lines. A contemporary Christian may retort that this kind of love will cost him time with his own friends. However, neighborly love often comes at cost to one’s own time. Another retort may be that this kind of love can be hard to express with those different than he. However, neighborly love is to extend across social lines and be expressed to anyone we may meet. The love for neighbor reflected in this parable is not easy nor convenient. However, Christians are not to display love to others that extends across social lines and at cost to self merely because the Samaritan in this parable did so. Rather, Christians are to display this kind of love because Jesus displayed it and exhorts us unto the same.
The original hearers of this parable were presumably Jewish and still under the Old Covenant. Contemporary Christians who hear this parable now are not typically Jewish and are under the New Covenant. Despite these differences, the Old Covenant moral law to love one’s neighbor still applies in the New Covenant (Rom 13:8-10; 1 John 3:23), and the standard for love is actually heightened because of how Jesus has loved us (John 13:34; Eph 5:2). That is the main concept being communicated in this parable – love for neighbor. However, Christians often fail to love their neighbors to the standard set forth (1 Cor 13:4-7). Jesus’ love for his sheep was a key reason he went to the cross (John 15:9-14; Rom. 5:6-8), and he is the only person who has loved neighbor perfectly. The love Jesus displayed on the cross was directed towards those different from him – sinners dead in their sin and in rebellion against God. It was done at great cost – Jesus descended from heaven, took on humanity, and gave up his life (Phil 2:5-8). Through the cross, Jesus brought those outside the community of God’s people into the community of God’s people. Indeed, it is because Jesus loved us that Christians are exhorted to love (1 John 4:19). The Holy Spirit given to Christians as a result of the work of Christ empowers them to keep God’s commands, including the command to love neighbor (Ezek 36:27). When Christians fail to love perfectly, they receive grace from Jesus who has loved perfectly (Heb 4:15-16).
How can the regular attendees at Grid prevent the formation of cliques and ensure all attendees feel welcome, despite the format changes? They can do so by exemplifying the love for neighbor taught in the parable of the Good Samaritan and exhorting others unto the same. This parable invites us to evaluate if we are displaying neighborly love to those we meet, and it teaches us that love for neighbor is self-sacrificial, extends across social lines, and is often expressed at cost to self. Christians strive to display this kind oflove, not because the Samaratin did, but because Jesus did and exhorts us unto the same. When Christians fail to love neighbor as they should, they receive grace from Jesus who has loved neighbor perfectly and can find encouragement in knowing that the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers them unto the keeping of God’s command to love neighbor.
As I hope has been displayed by the preceding example, lessons taught by parables are relevant to specific ministry situations. However, they must be understood through their fulfillment in Christ. If one fails to do this, he risks moralizing a parable and imposing a superficial burden of “dos and don’ts” onto others. Let us strive to apply the richness of parables to our own lives and situations through understanding parables’ fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke: Volume I, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), location 9670, Kindle.
[2] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke: Volume I, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), location 9799, Kindle.