The #1 Most MISUNDERSTOOD Bible Verse? | Pastor Reacts

The Good Samaritan as the Most Misunderstood Parable

The parable of the Good Samaritan is largely misunderstood. People are familiar with the story, but not so familiar with the point of the story.

Uh-oh, I was wondering if this was going to happen.

Now, the Lord has just changed the question. Jesus says in verse 36, this isn't about who your neighbor is.

That's why parables are confusing, ladies and gentlemen. That's why Jesus said he makes them confusing on purpose. What is the number one most misunderstood Bible verse? You know, I actually typed that into the search engine here on YouTube, and out popped this particular sermon by none other than John MacArthur.

It's entitled, The Most Misunderstood Parable. Hmm, that's intriguing. But wait, why is this misunderstood? What is the actual meaning of the passage? We're going to get right into it. But first, welcome to Wise Disciple.

My name is Nate Sala, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that Jesus wants you to be. You know, when he told his disciples to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, that set them up to navigate their world both winsomely and effectively.

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Well, here we go. The parable of the Good Samaritan is largely misunderstood. People are familiar with the story, but not so familiar with the point of the story. And to some degree, we expect that because the truth of our Lord's parable teaching is hidden.

If you go back to chapter 10, verse 21, Jesus says to his followers, at this very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants.

Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight.

And then in verse 20, so what MacArthur is doing right here is he's raising the stakes right at the outset. So, I've talked about this before, but every pastor is faced with the problem of how to begin their sermon.

MacArthur has decided to frame this issue around the problem of misunderstanding Jesus, and so he essentially says, hey, a lot of people miss the point that Jesus is making, but here at this church, we're about to reveal his point.

This goes back to actually something that is also true as a strategy for debaters. On the debate stage, which don't get me wrong, this is not like a knock on preaching at all, I'm not trying to say that preaching is the same thing as debating, what I'm trying to shine a spotlight on now is actually something about the human listener.

See, it's one thing to hear something true and good, but it's another thing for them to actually care about it, to actually do something about it. Oftentimes, we assume as pastors, teachers, and speakers that just saying true things is enough for a lot of people.

It's not. It's not. No, you also have to do the work of helping people understand that this true thing that you're talking about right now, it matters, and that's what MacArthur is doing. That's what every pastor at the pulpit should do.

MacArthur is framing this issue around the idea that a lot of people have misunderstood Jesus. I would agree with that, by the way. He's got me. I'm with him so far. So if you care about Jesus and you want to understand Him correctly, now you need to lean in, right?

Great beginning so far, and I've done the very same thing at the pulpit myself.

Three, turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see the things which you see and didn't see them, and to hear the things which you hear and didn't hear them.

And then he goes into an occasion in which he teaches this familiar parable. Parables are really the most direct connection with our Lord revealing truth to His disciples and hiding it from His rejecters.

This parable, therefore, will be misunderstood by nonbelievers. It will be flattened out into a simple story of showing kindness. We kind of expect that.

Well, I'll make it worse. It's also going to be, so I don't want to say misunderstood. It's also not going to be fully understood by a lot of believers as well, unfortunately. Why? Well, because the parable of the four soils reveals to us the type of person that Jesus is looking for.

I did a video on the parable of the four soils. I'll leave a link for it below. I encourage you to check it out. The point is, even when you do some type of interpretive work with regard to Jesus' parables, you know, like you're in the Bible, you've got it open, you're doing your studies, there's still greater interpretive depth to explore that brings out the deeper connections to the Old Testament.

And Jesus sprinkled these deeper connections throughout His teaching. These are called, in the Hebrew, ramez or ramezim. Jesus puts these kinds of things all throughout the things that He says. That means there is a fuller understanding and an appreciation of the lessons that Jesus is teaching if you can identify those deeper connections.

So, it's not just that non-believers have an issue with Jesus' parables. A lot of believers don't fully understand them either, because they're not making those connections.

This is a scene of personal evangelism. It is parallel to Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. It is parallel to Jesus and the rich young ruler in Matthew 19. Jesus doing personal evangelism. So let's set the scene, go back to verse 25.

This is what establishes the intent of the parable. A lawyer stood up.

Well, let's look at the actual passage for reference, okay? This is Luke chapter 10. Now, real quick, I'm using my trusty Logos Bible app to read the Bible with you, but Logos has just rolled out a brand new subscription system.

So, it's now cheaper and easier than ever to use Logos' features. For less than a Netflix subscription, you can get access to tools that will absolutely level up your study of God's Word. For more on this, definitely check it out.

Go to logos .com forward slash wise disciple. Verse 25 says this, and behold, a lawyer stood up to put him, Jesus, to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, what is written in the law?

How do you read it? And the lawyer 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.

And he said to him, well, you have answered correctly. Do this and you will live. But he, this lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, that's a leading question.

The lawyer wants Jesus to answer in a certain way so that he can say something that will justify himself. Verse 30, Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But, now here's the shocker, a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.

Which, now here's the question, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? The key to understanding Jesus' parable, the key to safeguarding yourself against misunderstanding the parable, is right in that question, right there.

Hopefully MacArthur will unpack this. Verse 37, he said, the one who showed him mercy, and Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. Okay, now that we've got it, let's pick it back up with MacArthur.

Pulled out of the crowd, came before Jesus, took his position in front of him for the test. This tells us his motive was not good. He wasn't seeking truth. He wasn't seeking information. He was doing what all these religious scribes and lawyers did.

He was trying to trap Jesus so they could condemn him and find reason to have him executed. He was part of the religious establishment. He was a lawyer not in a civil sense. He was a lawyer not in a criminal sense.

He was a lawyer in the sense of Scripture. He was an expert of the Old Testament law. So he stands up, and like they always did, the Pharisees, the scribes, the priests, puts Jesus to a test hoping he will fail.

Totally right. He was an expert, and because he was such an expert in Tanakh, he should have known better. I actually don't agree with MacArthur that every time Jesus got these kinds of questions, it was a trap.

You'll notice in verse 29, the scribes sought to justify himself. We just went over that a moment ago. I think that means this is a genuine question from someone who probably just has a high opinion of himself.

But here's the thing. As an expert, he should have known the answer to the question that he asked Jesus before he ever asked it. This is actually what it looks like to be spiritually blind. As a matter of fact, every religious leader that Jesus encountered has this same issue.

They have blindness over their eyes. Even Nicodemus, to some degree, just cannot see what Jesus is talking about.

So he says, what do I do to inherit eternal life? Now notice the path that Jesus takes. He said to him, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? What does the law say? Let's go back to the Word of God.

You have the Old Testament. What does it say? Well, this is a sharp scholar. This is a scholar of Old Testament Scripture, and he gives exactly the right answer in verse 27 about what does the law say?

How does it read? He combines two scriptures, Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5, and Leviticus 19, 18, two familiar scriptures. They are two scriptures that sum up the entire law of God. In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus said, these are the two things that sum up the law of God.

All the law of God is summed up in these two things.

Yeah, this is a common practice. A lot of Jews tried to encapsulate the entire law with some singular idea derived from God's Word. In other words, one idea, or in this case two, I guess two ideas, that would cover the whole law in one fell swoop.

In the first century, there was already a large following of a religious leader named Hillel. Hillel famously tried to boil the law down to one sentiment, and it was this, whatever is hateful to you, don't do it to anybody.

That's the whole of Torah, and the rest is commentary. So, these teachers and leaders were already trying to do this thing. I mean, this was not anything novel or new.

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. Jesus says in Matthew 22, and these is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets.

The first half of the Ten Commandments deal with loving God. The second half of the Ten Commandments deal with loving others. This is the summation of that. All the rest of the law either has to do with your relationship to God or your relationship to people.

So, it gathers up the whole law. And what does the Old Testament require? Perfect love to God, perfect love to men. Loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, all faculties, all capacities, and loving your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself.

He said, that's the right answer, verse 28. You have answered correctly. Do this and you'll live. So, go do it. You want eternal life? Fulfill the law. Do this and live. You say, well, why is he telling him that?

Well, where's the gospel here? Why doesn't he just say, believe in me, believe in me?

That's a good point. But, you know, there's something else that Jesus is teaching this person, isn't there? Now, notice how—so, this is a style observation here, stylistic observation—notice how MacArthur is speaking the essential questions out loud.

The essential questions are those that drive the sermon to its ultimate lesson and conclusion, right? You can characterize or you can fashion your sermon along the lines of certain driving questions that were you to answer those driving questions, it will take you to the ultimate conclusion, right?

And I've characterized some of the biggest essential questions this way. What does the Bible say? What does the Bible mean? And how can we all live by it, right? Those are some questions to ask that if you seek to answer those questions, it'll give you a great sermon structure.

But there are also other questions that also drive the sermon, maybe subordinate questions that help the process of exegesis, right? Like the five W's, you know? Who, what, when, where, and why. So, MacArthur is just explicitly asking these questions and then just answering them for the audience out loud.

He's having a bit of a dialogue with himself there. That's great. What this style of preaching does is two things. Number one, it helps the congregation to understand the text that they're looking at now.

And also, it models for the congregation what types of questions they should be asking in their own studies at home.

So, this is really great so far. Because there's another issue to be confronted here, and that is how the man views himself. There's no good news unless the man accepts the bad news, right? Well, this man doesn't have any interest in a true evaluation of his condition.

Verse 29 makes it clear, but wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? I mean, he is so self-righteous, so self-justifying, that he doesn't even think about how he loves God or how he loves man.

All he thinks about is maybe you've got a different definition of neighbor. The only thing I need to work on is maybe you've got a different spin on who's my neighbor.

The way I've characterized it is, this man was waiting for Jesus to say his own kin, and then he'd be ready to say, been there, done that, Jesus. Right? By the way, that is the context of Leviticus 19.

Take a look at this. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people. Notice that phrase. This is verse 18. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You see how both phrases, the sons of your people and your neighbor, are synonymous?

They're actually interchangeable in this statement. This is precisely where the problem comes from, by the way, that Jesus seeks to correct with his parable. The Jews of their day, including this scribe, they only saw their neighbor as a limited, reduced-down group of people.

That's why the scribe asks Jesus for clarification. Who is my neighbor? What he expects Jesus to say is, the sons of your people, according to Leviticus 19 .18. And then the scribe would say, oh, of course, that's what I've done my entire life.

But that's not what Jesus is going to say at all. So hopefully MacArthur gets there.

He is oblivious to his true condition. He is hostile to the notion that he is not righteous, that he is not justified, that he does not already have eternal life, that he is not right with God. He loves God.

He keeps the keryat Shammah, Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. He does keep Leviticus 19 .18. He loves his neighbor. But oh, wait a minute here.

Who's his neighbor? Well, we know that from Matthew 5. Jesus said, the rabbis have taught you, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemy. So enemies weren't included as neighbors.

The Old Testament actually says very clearly, love your stranger in your midst. Love the stranger in your midst. That was required from the Old Testament.

This is why I said a moment ago, the scribe should have known better. He knew the Old Testament.

He should have known what it taught. They did not love their enemies. They did not love the strangers. Furthermore, they didn't even love other Jews. All they loved was the people who were part of their very narrow elite group.

Mercy, Neighbor-Love, and the Real Point of the Parable

Now, the question is, what's the misunderstanding about this parable? Again, I found this video by looking up the most misunderstood Bible verse, and it brought me to this sermon by John MacArthur, where he says that, hey, a lot of people misunderstand this parable of Jesus.

So what is the misunderstanding? MacArthur goes through the story methodically. Again, you have a beaten man left on the side of the road. By the way, he's not the main character here. He's the setup for the three other characters who appear on their way to where they're going.

The first character is a priest, right, going down the road, passed by the other side, doesn't stop. Second character walks by, he's a Levite, doesn't stop either. You would think that either of these two men would stop, right, considering their knowledge of God's Word.

Nope. The last character is the one who stops, and it's a Samaritan of all people. Verse 33, this is an enemy of the Jews, someone who is considered worse than a Gentile. He stops, and it's this last man's behavior.

That's where the lesson is for the scribe.

This is lavish love. That's the whole point of this. This is lavish love, amazing generosity for a complete stranger to one who is his enemy, who is hated by him. But that's what's our Lord saying here.

This is loving your neighbor as you love. That's what you do for you, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Have you ever done that for anybody else? Do you do that for everybody else in that condition? You know, the people who think that by giving money to poor people, they have enacted social justice and fulfilled the principle here, really should look at it again because they would be condemned by it.

If you think sending some money somewhere, if you think buying a few meals for somebody is what this is, you missed the point. That's not wrong to do, but don't put yourself in this parable.

Who does this? Uh-oh, so I was wondering if this was going to happen, but I think I'm starting to find some areas of disagreement with MacArthur. And I say that with all due respect to a man who has been preaching a heck of a lot longer than me, and I'm sure that he has way more knowledge, background, and experience than I do, okay?

But he just made a comment that flies in the face of the point of a parable. Let me play it again.

If you think sending some money somewhere, if you think buying a few meals for somebody is what this is, you missed the point. That's not wrong to do, but don't put yourself in this parable.

The point of a parable is precisely so that you will put yourself into it. You are supposed to, as the hearer or the reader of the parable, identify with the scenario. Identify with one of these characters that Jesus has crafted in this story, and then put yourself in his sandals, so to speak, so that you can recognize yourself in the same situation and then make a decision.

There was a 20th century theologian and minister from Scotland, his name was Thomas Torrance, and he said it like this, the kingdom of God comes into the midst and throws a man into the crisis of decision.

But also, the word of the kingdom is veiled in such a way that it holds man at arm's length so that he has room and time for personal decision. That's why parables are confusing, ladies and gentlemen.

That's why Jesus said he makes them confusing on purpose. If you do ultimately identify the lesson and the full meaning of the parable, it's because you had to choose to lean in and do the work of chewing on it and wrestling with it over and over again.

But that's what you're invited to do. You're invited to put yourself into the situation of the parable and to be confronted with its dilemma so that you can decide what to do or how to think yourself.

And when you do that, you are meant to put on the sandals of the Samaritan. You are meant to be confronted with the same dilemma that the Samaritan was faced with. Because the dilemma answers the scribe's question.

Who does this? Who does this? Say, well, I know somebody who did it once.

That's not good enough. Once isn't good enough. Ten times isn't good enough. If you want eternal life, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength all the time, and love your neighbor as yourself all the time.

Who does that? Nobody. Not you, not me. An open end. Whatever you want to do, do it and I'll pay it when I return. This is love without limit, love without boundaries. That's the whole point. He exposed himself, of course, to being extorted, but such is the nature of his love.

This is what he would do for himself so the good Samaritan loves the man as he loved himself. Do we do that all the time? You probably can't even think of a time in your life when you did that. That's reserved for you and maybe your wife and kids.

But is this your constant life pattern? The people who do social justice work and think they're fulfilling this need to look at it again because unless you do that all the time perfectly and love God all the time perfectly, you're not going to have eternal life if you're coming by way of the law.

This is a good point.

So I mentioned the three questions that a preacher must answer at the pulpit, right? What does the Bible say? What does it mean? And how can we all live by it? MacArthur has absolutely answered the first two questions, and he's also sprinkled in the contemporary application pieces all throughout the sermon.

Not very much in depth, but his congregation certainly has been confronted with how this story applies throughout the sermon. But here's the thing. What's the real understanding that corrects the misunderstanding of this parable?

I don't know if I've quite heard that yet.

Let's find out. Make sure we get the best attention, have our needs met, get the best doctors, the best care, the best resources. We do that for ourselves. But this is a simple story of lavish, limitless love by a person for somebody who was an enemy he didn't even know.

So Jesus asked the question in verse 36, "'Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands?'. Now, the Lord has just changed the question. The question in verse 29, "'Who is my neighbor?

Are you going to define neighbor for me now? Are you going to mess with this neighbor idea? I'm doing fine loving God perfectly, doing fine loving my neighbor perfectly. By my definition, unless you are going to redefine neighbor,' he says mockingly.

Jesus says in verse 36, "'This isn't about who your neighbor is. This is about are you a neighbor?''. Amen.

Amen. I'm so glad to hear that. I've never seen this sermon before, but I have preached Luke chapter 10, and that's precisely the thrust of the passage that I've highlighted. It's what a lot of us miss.

It's not about who is my neighbor. The scribe's question was improperly framed because, again, it's like seeking to limit the group that this would apply to somehow. And that's what the scribe was trying to do.

He was trying to limit the scope of his responsibilities so that he could say, I've done it all. I've done it all, Jesus. Name the group that I'm supposed to, you know, pay attention to as my neighbor.

I've taken care of all of them. Is my neighbor my fellow Jew? Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, right? But Jesus says it's not about who's your neighbor. The question is, are you a neighbor?

The scribe's way of thinking about this was completely upside down. It was predicated on determining how much work is necessary to gain eternal life. Jesus points out eternal life is not gained by work.

It's received through love. The love of God and the love from God, that's relationship. And when someone truly experiences this love, they stop thinking in terms of work and limits, right? They start seeing everything through the lens of love because to be close to God and to be loved by him is to be so filled with the Lord, it just, it overflows into love for others.

That's the point of the parable. That's what people miss. It's not about upping your game in terms of charity, right? It's about a completely different paradigm shift in the way that you view the whole world.

If eternal life is knowing God relationally, as John 17 3 tells us, right? That's Jesus in John 17 3. Well, then Jesus has just shown the scribe what it looks like to truly love God in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Because when you love God completely, radical mercy overflows in everything you do. Radical mercy and compassion. And it looks so surprising to everyone else, but it's the natural byproduct of seeing the world filtered through the lens of your love for God.

That's why it was the first greatest commandment listed. Good for MacArthur.

It's not, who is my neighbor? Who qualifies to be loved? But it's about, am I a neighbor who loves in an unqualified way? Deeply, the point comes to the heart. Forget trying to decide who qualifies for you to love them and demonstrate love that knows no qualifications.

Everyone in your path, everyone in your...

That is the love of God, is it not? Right? Look at this. This is 1 John 4 verse 19. We love because he, God, first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

In this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. God loved us when we were openly expressing our sinful rebellion to him. And he saved us anyway. That's a love, a compassion, and a mercy that overcomes boundaries.

As Vodie Bauckham says when he's confronted with the problem of evil, what we deserve is God's wrath, but what we get is his unmerited grace and compassion. That's the kind of love that we can reflect to the people in our own circles of influence today.

I love it. I love it. Definitely check out the whole sermon. I'll leave a link for that in the notes below. What is the most misunderstood verse in the Bible? I'm not quite sure myself, but the number one answer on YouTube was this sermon that we just watched by John MacArthur.

So what do you think? You tell me what the most misunderstood verse is. What did you also think of MacArthur's sermon? Let me know in the comments below. Hey, if any of this has been helpful to you, you're going to love my Patreon.

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But in the meantime, I'll say bye for now.