Dr Paul Allen

Clint Archer The Ascent of Adummim is a road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Does that route sound familiar? View from the Ascent of Adummim (Good Samaritan) Luke 10:30  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.” Anyone hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan from the lips of Jesus would be familiar with this infamous route. It included a stretch of desolation in the Judean wilderness known as the Ascent of Adummim. The 15-mile journey, at a steady pace without breaks, would take 7 hours, but likely longer due to the typical blazing temperatures and gruelling elevation gain of 3,400 ft. What made it so treacherous in those days was the innumerable hiding places robbers could lay their ambush. The setting of the story of the Good Samaritan brings a sense of perilous desperation when we hear of a man who “fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and...

The good Samaritan is perhaps the most misunderstood parable in the Bible . Dozens of ministries have been started with a desire to emulate the good Samaritan. Hundreds of theologians have tried to pull out hidden truths from this parable and have come up with completely different ideas. Some teach that Jesus desires to expose the Jericho road and that we would live in a day and age where good Samaritans are no longer needed.  Others expose the need to tear down walls between enemies, and others–probably the typical evangelical Christian –see in the good Samaritan a call to love other people and to be involved in social justice. But is that what Jesus is saying in this parable? In short, the point of the good Samaritan is not to go out and try to love someone like the good Samaritan did.  The point of this story is to point out the fact that you cannot save yourself. You simply can’t love perfectly like Jesus can. Jesus is doing personal evange...