The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 274

l!O.l'erully kept, hia prnyer-formu!M never nnturall v to their own homos. It has been negluctod. Yes: e.s regards God, the remarked thnt the grave censure which Pharisee-lawyer's oonscience WFIS e.t ease I this story levels at the everyrh1y want But his neighbour? He thought of his of ?he.rity on the part of priests and oonduct towards tha.t simple, truthfol-look- Levites, fills up what woul<l otherwise have ing Ge.lilme.n Re.hbi, Jesus, that very de.y: been a blank in the Maeter'e many-siderl trying to trip him up in his words, longing tee.ching. Nowhere else in the go,pd to do him injury-injm·y to that wom-lo1Jk• narrati!e do we find our Lord taking np ing, loving Me.n who hAd never done him the e.tt1tude of censor of the priestly and any he.rm, e.nd who, report said, we.e only Levitical orders. We have little difficulty Ii ving to do others good. We.s he, perchance, in discovering reasons for this apparently his neighbour? Bo, vexed e.nd nnoosy- strange reticence. They were still the but it seems in porfect honesty now, e.nd official guardians and ministers of hie in good fe.ith-he asks this further question, Father's house. In his public teaching, aa "Me.star, tell me, who do you teach should e. rule, he would refre.in from touching these be included in the term ' neigh hour '? " or their hollow, pretentious Ii ves. Once, Ver. 30.-AndJesns answering so.id. For and once only, in this one parable did he reply the Me.star told him e.nd the listening dwell-but even here with no severe denun- by-standers the parable-story we know so ciations, as in the cue of scribes and well e.e the "good Bame.rite.n "-t;he pa- Pharisees - on the shortcomings of the rable, which has been" the consolation or the priestly caste. The bitter woe was fa.t wanderer and the sufferer, of the outcast coming on these degenero.te children of and the heretic, in every age e.nd country" Ae.ron. In less than half II century, that (Stanley). The story was one of those house, the glory and the joy of Israel, would parables especiidly loved by Luke (e.nd be utterly destroyed, not to be raised again. Paul), in which instruction is conveyed, not No woe the.t the Christ could pronounce by types, but by ei:ample. It- was very could he as crushing- in its pitiless con- probe.bly II simple recital of a fact which demnation. The very reason for the existence hud happened, e.nd at some period in the of priest and Leviu as priest and Leuita Lord's life had come under his own observa- would exist no longer. The selfish life of tion. The local scenery, the che.racters of the doomed order, in which holiness seemed the story, would all lead to the supposition effectually to h11ve been divorced from that the parable was spoken in or near charity, is portrayed in the lifelike picture Jeruse.lem. A oerte.in me.n went down from of the parable of the good Samaritan. J'eruse.lem to Jerioho, 11nd fell among thieves, Ver. 32.-And likewise II Levite, when he whioh stripped him of his raiment, and was at the plaoe, oame and looked on him, wounded him, and dep11rted, leaving him and passed by on the other side. They both, half dead. We e.re not told who the traveller priest e.nd Levite, shrank from the trouble we.a, Jew or Gentile: not e. word about his and expense of meddling with the poor rank, descent, or religion: simply that he was victim of the robbers: perhaps e. cowardly a man, a human being. It seems, however, fear of being identified with the robbers was from the whole tone of the story, most mixed with these feelings. The whole of probable that the wounded travellt'r was their conduct was inhuman, but not Uil• e. Jew. The wny he was travelling was the natural; alas! how faithfully is it copied by road leading down from Jerusalem to Jericho, multitudes of men and Wl>men professing e. distance of twenty-ene miles-not the only Christianity now I The Levite's conduct way, hut the most direot. It WEIS e. rugged, w11s better 11nd worse than his official su- rocky pass, well adapted for the purposes perior's-better, in that he did feel II little of thieves and desperndoes, and was known, pity, and stopped to look, no doubi oompas- owing to the many da.rk deeds of which it sioue.tely, on the sufferer: and worse, bece.use hlld been the scene, as "The We.y of Blood." he eelfiohly strangled the noble impulse in The Lord's words tell the story. The its birth, and passed on to his own place trnveller, likely enough a Jew pedlar, had without so much as throwing a doth over fallen e.mong thieves, who had robbed him, the poor maimed body to sheltL'? it from the e.nd then had left their victim-dying or scorohiug sun, or the cold night dew. dead, what ~rnd they ?-lying in the pass. Ver. 33.-Dut a oerte.in Samaritan, as he Ver. 31.-There oame down a oertain journeyed, oams where he was: and when priest that way: and when he saw him, he he saw him, he had compassion on him. Now, pa.ssed by on the other side. Iloth the priest for the sake of strong contra.t, Jesus paint~ and Levite were frequent travellers aloug on his co.uvas the figure of one who, us 11, this road uetweeu the capitul e.nd Jericho. Samaritan, was us far remornd o.s possihle Jericho was especially a oity of priests, nnd from being e. neighbour to the sufferer (who, when the allotted service or residence time most probably, was a Jew) iu the seu,;e in e.t the temple was over, these would return which the alljtere JewIBh lawy"r wouldoi  276 TilE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. (en. x. 1--42.