Unvarnished Jesus: A Lenten JourneyMuestra

Tuesday, March 19

Luke 10:25–37

Jesus Gives the Parable of the Good Samaritan

Yesterday we saw how James and John wanted Jesus to nuke a Samaritan village. Today we see how Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of one of His most famous parables. Jesus gives this parable in response to a question from a Torah scholar trying to wiggle out of loving his neighbor by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus could have constructed His parable so that a kindly Jew showed mercy to a Samaritan. But Jesus is more subversive than that. Jesus is essentially asking us, “What are you going to do if the people you hate are more merciful than you?” Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that the line that separates good and evil does not run between nationalities, ethnicities, religions, or political parties, but right through the heart of every person. Solzhenitsyn had mastered the lesson given to us in the parable of the Good Samaritan.