Parable of the Good Samaritan
This window portrays the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37). Parables were stories told by Jesus to illustrate and teach important spiritual and moral truths. Before this parable Jesus had been antagonized by an “expert” in the Jewish law. This expert felt that since he knew all the right answers to Jesus’ questions He would certainly receive eternal life. Jesus went on to tell the parable of the “Good Samaritan” to illustrate that right answers are meaningless unless a changed heart is demonstrated through a changed way of life.
The Jewish expert in the law correctly answered that a very important part of obedience to God’s law is to love your neighbor, but this man did not understand what that really meant. In the parable of the “Good Samaritan” Jesus told of a Jewish traveler who was robbed and beaten half to death, and left for dead on the side of the road to Jericho. As the parable goes, a Jewish priest and then a Jewish Levite passed by the beaten man. Instead of helping, they both moved to the other side of the road and passed by giving no aid of any kind to the beaten man. Lastly, a Samaritan came upon the man and did all that he could to bandage the man’s wounds. The merciful Samaritan put the man on his own donkey, took the stranger to an inn and paid the inn keeper to care for the wounded man until he could return and check on him. The story is so surprising because the helpful stranger is a Samaritan. The Samaritans were the bitter enemies of the Jewish people during that period. So the parable presents an “enemy” giving aid where fellow countrymen would not. The parable ends with Jesus asking the crowd which person most obeyed the law of God to “love thy neighbor.” Whereupon the audience is compelled to answer that the Samaritan was the better neighbor because he acted upon the law of God with genuine action.
The parable of the “Good Samaritan” has become an iconic symbol of what it means to act out the love of God toward others through personally sacrificial deeds. This window stands as a constant reminder that the Kingdom of God is not established through words only, but in deed.