The Good Samaritan

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.  Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[c] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

The word Samaritan is so intimately tied to this story that today we forget that Samaritans despised and were despised by the Judeans and Galileans that Jesus was speaking to.

Jesus always chose his words carefully. It’s hard to imagine that his choice to make the her of the story a Samaritan wasn’t very explicit and deliberate.

So why would Jesus do that?

"Love your neighbour as yourself."

Yes, Jesus was casting a hated enemy as a neighbour—someone to love and be loved by.

And what was the answer to his question?

"The one who showed him mercy."

Why did the lawyer answer that way? Why couldn't he simply say, "The Samaritan"?

It is hard not to see in his response an unwillingness to acknowledge that the hero could be a Samaritan. Given the long history of hostility between Jews and Samaritans, his words seem to reveal a prejudice he could not quite let go of.

Yes, Jesus was telling a parable about the importance of mercy, but...

Was he not also demonstrating the basic humanity that binds each of us, one to another?

Was he not also reminding us that we are all, to borrow from Martin Luther King Jr, God’s children, black men and white, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic?

“The one who showed him mercy”.

Yes, but … that wasn’t the whole message.

And I can imagine the disappointment in Jesus voice when he replied “Yes, now go and do the same.” Not because the lawyer understood the importance of showing mercy, but because the lawyer refused to expand his definition of neighbour.