This passage is often called “The Parable of the Good Samaritan” and I have little doubt that you are familiar with the story. An expert in the Law asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, knowing this was a test, asked the man what the Law has to say about this, after all, the man was an expert. The expert gave his answer:
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. (v. 27)
Jesus, in His response, confirmed that this was the correct answer and told the man that if he acts accordingly, he will live, but the man had an axe to grind and asked who his neighbor was, and that is when Jesus told this famous parable. There was a man who was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was attacked, stripped of his clothes, beaten unconscious and left to die. A priest and later a Levite hurried by and did nothing to help the man, and then a Samaritan came by and saw to the man’s urgent need. He even booked the man into an Inn and covered all his expenses, an unusual thing to do considering the fact that Jews, like the crime victim, and Samaritans hated each other with a passion.
Two important members of the Jewish Establishment couldn’t be bothered, but a detestable Samaritan couldn’t do enough to help; go figure! Jesus asked:
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (vv. 36-37)
In the parable, the Samaritan man overcame historical hatred and bigotry, no to mention considerable expense, to show mercy to the stricken man, and as a result, we can say that in a sense, the stricken was sort of… redeemed.
I’m sure that we all would agree that we should love God and love our neighbor, even though our neighbor may not always be all that lovable. Yet this love of our neighbor is one of the two greatest Commandments; how can we say that we really love God if we don’t also love our neighbor? To love our neighbor is to have compassion for them, just as Jesus had compassion for us, and yes, sometimes that even means that we must be inconvenienced to show our compassion.
I heard this story put slightly differently once, and it made this whole concept come alive for me, so I’ll finish with this:
Jack was having a bad morning from the time he first awakened and realized that his alarm had not gone off. Yet, in spite of that, he knew that if he really rushed, he could just make it to work on time. He ran out of the door, down the stairs and into the street, but he’d missed his bus and had to keep on running. He knew a shortcut, and darted down a dark alley. As he ran, he saw a dark figure on the pavement ahead, it was a man who had clearly been beaten up and was in a very bad way. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t have time to stop, so he leaped over the man and kept running. He finally made it to work, just in the nick of time, and sat down in his chair. Being a good person, he paused to say a prayer that God would send someone to help that poor man in the alleyway, and that’s when it happened. He heard an unmistakable little voice saying, “Jack! I sent YOU!
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It has impressed me that the man asked, “Who is my neighbor?” indicating he thought his neighbor was someone else. Yet, Jesus pointed out that the man himself was to be the neighbor to that someone. Not who am I to consider to be my neighbor, but to whom am I to be a neighbor.