The Exterior and Interior Samaritan - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
July 13, 2025
Have you ever seen a
Russian nesting doll? At the surface
level, the exterior view, it’s just a charming wooden doll painted in the
folk style as a peasant girl. But crack
it open and you discover there’s much more to the doll than you see from the
exterior alone. The interior view
reveals layers of meaning as we find doll-after-doll-after-doll inside.
What’s true of a
Russian nesting doll is likewise true of the very best stories. Whether those stories are in a book or presented
as movies, a genuinely great story contains layers of meaning. There’s the exterior meaning, which is
usually quite plain and obvious, there for us to see on the surface of things,
and then a deeper, interior meaning beneath the surface. What’s best of all is that you don’t have to
choose between the exterior meaning and the interior meaning. Both in their own way are true and
valuable. But you only get the complete story when you uncover and engage both the exterior and the interior
versions of that story.
Let me give you two
examples. I’m sure many of you have read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The exterior story, there on the surface, is about a man unjustly
accused of a crime and a lawyer who heroically defends him. But dive deeper into the book and its context
and you find a complex story of race and racism in America. Another example is one of my all-time favorite
movies: Field of Dreams. The
exterior story, on the surface, is about a magical Iowa cornfield where old
baseball players show up and reclaim their glory days. The interior story though looks past the
famous ball players to tales of second chances, redemption, and reconciliation,
especially between a son and his father.
Arguably the greatest
collection of layered stories in all of world literature is the parables Jesus
told. Each one has a surface or exterior
story and associated teaching. But dig
deeper and you uncover an interior story that extends the parable’s teaching
and significance even farther. In fact,
most parables have multiple interior stories. Our Gospel lesson today includes one of the
best-known parables, the parable of the Good Samaritan. As evidence of the parable’s fame, just consider
the term “Good Samaritan.” It has transcended
the Bible and Christianity to become a generic term applied to anyone who helps
a stranger in need.
Because this parable is
so familiar to us, we risk half-listening, over relying on our recollection, and
settling for just the exterior story, the one that inspired the term “Good
Samaritan.” If we do that, we’ll miss
the additional truth, teaching, and instruction Jesus has for us in the
interior of the story. But let’s begin
at least with that exterior version, because that’s important too, and it will
help us get reacquainted with the story’s details.
It begins with a lawyer
who asks a deep and important question I think we all occasionally ponder: “what
must I do to inherit eternal life?” The
more common way people have posed the question to me over the years is,
“Pastor, what do I have to do to get to heaven?” Luke tells us a bit about the lawyer’s
motivation. He wants to test Jesus. And he, the lawyer, wants to justify himself
or, in other words, demonstrate that his understanding of the answer is right
and that he has in fact already accomplished everything necessary to earn
eternal life.
Despite the lawyer’s
self-centered motivations, Jesus promptly agrees with him that his answer is correct. To inherit eternal life, to get
to heaven, you must keep the two great commandments: love God and love your
neighbor. That answer comes straight out
of the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.1 But the lawyer recognizes that there is a
technical ambiguity in that second law. Who is my neighbor? Is it limited
to my family, my friends, and the people living near me? Or is it broader than that? It’s a perpetual question, one we continue to
debate in our time too. In response,
Jesus tells the parable.
The details of the
story are of course very familiar to us all. Likewise, I think most people are aware of the surprising twist to the
story. The hero, the one who
demonstrates mercy, isn’t the temple priest or the Levite (who was also a
temple official), but the Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews had long been enemies, separated by countless
quarrels over theology, ethnicity, and a host of other grievances. If Jesus told the parable today, he might try
to shock us, like he shocked his original listeners, by making the story’s hero
a North Korean or an Iranian, while the Pope passes by on one side and a
Lutheran bishop passes by on the other side.
The obvious lesson of
the parable’s exterior story is simple: our neighbor is everyone,
without exception. That simple lesson is
far more complex in practice though. At
one time or another we’ve all seen a suffering person and passed by on the
other side. Why? There are lots of reasons. Perhaps they are even the same reasons the
priest and Levite might have offered. Often
we’re afraid to get involved. It could
be dangerous. Or the scope of the
problem overwhelms us and paralyzes us into inaction. Sometimes we wonder if it’s a scam, or we
worry that any generosity will only perpetuate an addiction. I wrestle with all these questions just like
you do, and I don’t have any easy answers.
But there’s a less
laudable reason why we often pass by our suffering siblings. We’re just too busy to stop. Nowadays, our lives are so complex, so overly
full. I’m convinced that we need to
prioritize the spiritual disciplines of simplicity and slowness of
life. We’re moving in so many
directions, at such speed, that we’re losing connection with our souls, our
humanity, and those around us. We are
enslaved by our schedules and distracted by the unrelenting noise and busyness
of daily life. I’m trying to rebalance
my own life by embracing more simplicity and slowness, and I encourage you to
do the same. I believe that pursuing
simplicity and slowing our lives is our last, best hope to breathe again and regain
the holy freedom to care for our neighbors in need, just as the Samaritan
did.
Now let’s conclude with
a few brief words about the interior meaning of this parable. It isn’t as well-known, but it is ancient and
rooted in symbolism.2 In the 400’s,
St. Augustine was among the first to pick up on it, but over the centuries Protestant
theologians have also embraced this approach. In this symbolic interpretation, we are the injured man. In our sins (and we all sin), we’ve
fallen into the hands of God’s law, which painfully thrashes us, exposes our pride
and hypocrisy, and doesn’t permit us to hide behind pious expressions and false
faces of pretend perfection. The law
offers no escape from the consequences of our sins. No thing and no body passing by
can save us from the Law’s demands. Heaven
is hopelessly beyond our reach if entry solely depends upon our merit. This is the lesson the lawyer in today’s
gospel had not grasped. We too forget.
But then Jesus wanders
down the trail. He is the symbolic Samaritan
in the parable who applies oil to us in Baptism, and gives us himself in the
wheat and wine of Holy Communion, to heal us and make us righteous again before
the Law, as only he can do. And
then he instructs us just as he instructed the lawyer: “Go and do
likewise.” It’s only when we unite the
interior and exterior meanings of this parable, and when our sin-sick souls are
healed by Christ’s grace and mercy through Word and Sacrament, that we can ever
hope to faithfully care for our neighbor or enter Heaven’s gates. So today, dear friends, be healed in
Christ. Find peace in his righteousness rather than your own. And
then in humility, simplicity, and slowness, seek out your neighbor in
need. “Go and do likewise.” Amen.
© 2025 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Citations
1 Deut. 6:5 and Lev.
19:18.
2 See, e.g., https://sermons.logos.com/sermons/47795-augustine's-commentary-on-the-good-samaritan;
https://www.1517.org/articles/gospel-luke-1025-37-pentecost-5-series-c-2025; www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/11-july/faith/sunday-s-readings/4th-sunday-after-trinity
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
25 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He
said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He
answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor
as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right
answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But
wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus
replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the
hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half
dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and
when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise
a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other
side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and
when he saw him he was moved with compassion. 34 He went to him
and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on
his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The
next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take
care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you
spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor
to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said,
“The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
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