Jesus" parables are a great way to make a point to a crowd. They generally make the lesson more personable and help relate the point more closely to their own life. Neil Lightfoot states when he says: "The parables of Jesus will always remain the very center and heart of the teachings of Christ. They summarize what Jesus taught and lived. They tell us what the good life is, what the real values of life are. They speak to man, and bind principles upon him, in terms he can understand." What he is telling us is they are plain practical lessons for all ages, even are they depict a religion that is designed for all. .
The parables that appear in Luke make very good points that would be lost if the gentile physician did not record them. We can gain so much from the following stories that would be lost otherwise.
The parable of the Good Samaritan appears in Luke 10:25-37. The parable involves a lawyer asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus catches the lawyer in his own game by asking him his knowledge of the law, the lawyer again tries to corner him by asking for a definition of neighbor. Jesus then tells the story of a man who falls into thieves and is ignored by a priest and a Levite. He finally receives aid from a Samaritan who takes him to an inn and finances his recovery (The Holy Bible).
The first two travelers knew of God's love for man. The priest and the Levite had dealings with God and his teachings on a day to day basis. Despite this exposure to God's love they had not learned how to live their lives as God wanted them to. The significance of the third traveler who finally helped the man in need was the fact that the Samaritan race was scorned by other races because they were comprised of Israelites that had married with foreigners. These feelings of animosity had reached a peak when the Samaritans offered help to the Jews in building a temple on Mt.