59. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

by Wesley Blackburn

Jesus has this frustrating habit in the gospels (the four books of the Bible that deal with the life and teaching of Jesus) of answering questions in a way we don't expect. Funny enough, that's how the story of the Good Samaritan started.

A religious expert wants to try and test Jesus, only to discover that Jesus is quite smart himself (imagine that). When the religious leader told Jesus that he believed the key to following God was simply to love God and love your neighbor, Jesus told him that he was quite right. This was a surefire formula for following God. But this still troubled the religious leader, for he probably knew deep down inside that he wasn't treating every man around him with what would qualify as "love." So he asked another question: "Who is my neighbor?" He was no doubt hoping that Jesus would say his neighbor was simply a man who looked, thought, and talked like him. But this guy would be sorely disappointed.

Jesus launches into the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story's pretty easy to understand, so I'll let you read it yourself. But what's most telling and interesting about this story is that the hero is a Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by the Jews, essentially because they were the byproduct of the Babylonian exile. Some Jews still took their culture and unique identity very seriously, and would only intermarry and associate with other Jews in the Babylonian captivity. But others were not quite so serious, and ended up intermarrying with some of the Babylonians. Samaritans were the by-product of these unions; half-breed Jews that held pretty normal Jewish beliefs, just without 100% Jewish blood.

Samaritans were hated by Jews. In fact, it wasn't uncommon for Jews to actually walk around the region of Samaria, even if walking through it would make their journey incredibly shorter. Jews just wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Samaritans. So essentially, when Jesus tells a story that makes a Samaritan the hero, he is saying, "Listen. Your neighbor is anyone and everyone around you. No exceptions." Again, a tough teaching, but as we've learned, if you don't find following Jesus hard, then you're probably not following Jesus, just your own little version of Him.