Have you heard Augustine’s take on the parable of the Good Samaritan? It might leave you a little confused.
In Augustine’s rendering, there is a man (Adam) traveling a road. Having been stripped (of immortality) and beaten (or persuaded to sin) by robbers (the devil), he is ignored by a priest (the Law) and a Levite (the Prophets) before being attended to by a Samaritan (Jesus Christ). The Samaritan takes him to the inn (or the Church) where two denarii (the promises of this life and the life to come) are paid to the innkeeper (the Apostle Paul), to take care of the man.1
It’s an intriguing example of allegorical interpretation. Yet for those committed to biblical exposition, this kind of interpretation is deeply problematic.2 Expositional preaching should be constrained by the author’s intent—and neither Jesus in his telling nor Luke in his recording could have meant much of what Augustine suggests.3
But on the other hand, in our age of right commitments to Christ-centered preaching and a right understanding that all the Scriptures do point to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s easy to be sympathetic to Augustine’s goal.4 The gospel should be preached! And indeed, the human mind
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