Deep down in the innermost recesses of every human spirit loneliness is felt, until the truth is known that God cares. Man has lost God, and he is bound to feel alone until God is met with again. He is to be met with in the person of the One who portrayed Himself as the Good Samaritan. “A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.” The underlying truth here is that God is ever seeking man, and He is seeking him in order to help, for it is as true that God has lost man as it is that man has lost God. Man without God! It is an anomaly, since God made man and gave him all his powers, moral as well as physical. Try as he will, man cannot go on without his Maker, any more than he can go on without his fellow-man. The utterance of Martha to the Lord Jesus, “Dost thou not care,” expresses this truth. However much we may try to disguise it, a feeling of loneliness and neglect will steal over us some time or other, and it is just this feeling of loneliness and neglect that is the fruitful source of all care. Life is too great for us alone, its strain too severe, its demands more than we can meet, and the final issue too wonderful and far reaching for any of us to handle unaided.
The Care of the Good Samaritan
It is just this which helps us to see how marvelously the teaching of Christ fits into the existing state of things. The parable of the good Samaritan presents to us precisely a picture of absolute loneliness and neglect and introduces to our notice the One who relieved both. Who could be more lonely and uncared for than the man who fell among thieves? They stripped him; they wounded him; they left him. Especially must he have felt his loneliness when others came near and, having looked on him, passed by on the other side. Yet, who could be less alone or better cared for afterwards? Taken to the inn and left in the charge of the host, nothing was lacking. “Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.” If only we would believe that this represents God and that He is perfectly willing to pay as much attention to everyone who will allow Him, could we have any care?
No doubt we are ready to say, “It seems too good to be true. Is there One so great, so mighty, willing to take care of me?” There is only one answer: He is willing and He is able. Then perhaps the question will become intensely personal: Will He do it for me? I have no claim upon such kindness. Neither had the man by the roadside any claim upon the Samaritan, except that necessity always has a claim upon love. And this is the whole point. God is now acting from Himself, according to the dictates of His own love. It is grace, and the parable is intended to show us what we could not demand and did not deserve — His love. God is demonstrating the fact that He can love us in spite of our imperfection. The action of the Good Samaritan was all of grace. This is how God would deal with us. How slow we are to understand it!
Martha’s Care
Martha did not understand it, and consequently she was careful and troubled about many things. Within her own little sphere she thought she had to look after everything, as though there was no one at the head of affairs and no one to look after men and women. She was doing her best, but she was not at rest. She represents not a few, who, while desiring to please God and to serve Him, have not learned how great a pleasure it is for Him to serve them and that His service must precede theirs. The difference between Martha and Mary — the one cumbered, the other at rest at the feet of Jesus — was mainly the difference between the man by the roadside and the man in the inn. The man by the roadside might well have said to the priest and the Levite, “Do you not care that I am left alone?” The man in the inn could not have said so to the Samaritan. We could not imagine such a thing. We can imagine him sitting at the feet of his benefactor, looking up into his face, and perhaps wondering in his mind, Is there anything I can do for him when I become strong enough? Christ does not ask us for one bit of service until we know from personal experience how He has served us. It is a striking fact that although the wounded man had received so much kindness and was to receive more, he is not asked by his benefactor to do one single thing in return.
The Threefold Lesson
Have we learned the threefold lesson of this parable? Have we made the acquaintance of One who can remove our guilt, give us strength and relieve our care? In the words of the parable, “He bound up his wounds”; “he set him on his own beast”; “he brought him to an inn.” If so, shall we not have less care? God would not have us bear our cares any more than He would have us bear our sins. “Casting all your care upon Him,” He says, “for He careth for you.” Does not this one verse of Scripture meet the twofold need, that of being lonely and uncared for, expressed in Martha’s appeal, “Dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?” “Casting all your care upon Him” — this meets the loneliness — ”for He careth for you” — this meets the care. We have Him, whoever else may go, and He cares.
“Never alone and always cared for” describes the happy condition of the man in the inn while he waited to see the face of his friend. It may be and ought to be the experience of those who wait to see His face.
R. Elliott (adapted)