Parables of Grace: Embrace God’s Love for YouSample

The Good Samaritan: Grace to the Neighbor and the Wounded

When you hear the phrase “Good Samaritan,” what do you think of? Perhaps you think of someone who does random acts of kindness or helps those in need. This phrase would have been considered an oxymoron by the Jews living in Jesus’ time. Jews despised the Samaritans and considered them racially and ritually “unclean.” Samaritans originated from intermarriage between Jews and Assyrians and were also seen as having a compromised faith.

First-century Judaism ordered relationships and responsibilities according to a series of concentric circles. As theology professor Michelle Lee-Barnewall explains, “If the Jew were at the center, the expanding circles would include first immediate relatives, then kinsmen, and then all other Jews. Foundational to the circles was determining who was worthy of aid based on self-interest and ethnic belonging. Lines were drawn so that those inside received help while those outside did not.”

The parable begins with the expert of the law asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. He already knows what the law says about loving the Lord and loving your neighbor. But he wants to test Jesus, so he goes on to ask him, “Who is my neighbor?”. Perhaps, the lawyer has seen how Jesus has been blurring boundaries by associating with “sinners” and Gentiles.

In this parable, Jesus tells how the man traveling along this road was wounded by a seemingly random act of violence. But He does not provide details about the victim’s ethnicity, class, religion, or anything else that listeners would use to determine whether he was “deserving” of help. Both the priest and the Levite pass by the wounded man lying on the side of the road.

Touching a dead person would have made the priest ceremonially unclean, preventing him from performing his temple duties (Leviticus 21:1, 11). The priest may not have wanted to risk becoming defiled, even though it was unclear whether the man was still alive. Rules for Levites were more lenient, but they may have also wished to avoid becoming unclean. However, it is interesting to note that both the priest and Levite were headed away from Jerusalem (Luke 10:30) and thus had finished the temple duties that would have required ritual cleanliness.

In his speech, "I’ve been to the Mountain Top," Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The first question that the [priest and] Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”

In Luke 10:33, Jesus says that when a Samaritan came where the wounded man was, he saw him and took pity on him. Allowing ourselves to see other people in their humanity and to feel compassion for them is a precursor for action. This same Greek word for compassion (splagchnizomai) is used in the parable of the prodigal son, where the father, seeing his son a long way off, “was filled with compassion for him” (Luke 15:20). It is also the same word that describes how Jesus had compassion for the crowds when He saw them “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

At the end of the parable, Jesus does not focus on the object of neighborly love (who is my neighbor) but rather turns the lawyer’s question upside down by asking him which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers.

Jesus has turned the issue from boundaries of required neighborliness to the essential nature of neighborliness. This parable underscores that there are no limits on the definition of neighbor; rather, we must demonstrate neighborly love through concrete actions of mercy and love.

Prayer: Inhale slowly and pray, “Lord, open my eyes.” Then exhale slowly and pray, “To see others with love and compassion.” Repeat this breath prayer several times, allowing it to become a meditation that you can return to.