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| The Good Samaritan |
| While Jesus was teaching one day, a man in the crowd tried to test him to see if he would give a wrong answer. He asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, who knew the man was a lawyer, told him to follow the law, which says to love God and love your neighbor. In order to justify himself, the lawyer asked who his neighbor was. Jesus responded with this parable. One day a Jewish man, who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, was brutally attacked. A group of robbers beat him, stripped him of all his clothes and money, and left him for dead on the roadside. After awhile a priest came along, and later a Levite (a Temple assistant). When each of these men saw the victim, he quickly passed by on the other side of the road and did nothing at all to help him. Next came a man from Samaria, a district north of Jerusalem. When the Samaritan saw the Jewish man lying on the roadside, he went right up to him and treated his wounds. He then took the injured man to an inn to recover and paid the innkeeper with his own money. Which of these three, Jesus asked the lawyer, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? When the lawyer answered "The one who showed him mercy," Jesus said, "Go and do likewise" (Lk 10:37). Lesson: To the Jews of Jesus' time there were no such thing as a "good Samaritan." Jews and Samaritans hated each other for religious and political reasons. The fact that it was a Samaritan who helped the Jew shows we all are neighbors. |