The Good Samaritan

 

“A Jewish man was travelling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

The parable highlights some of our blind spots. Like the priest and the temple assistant in the story, we may be more concerned about looking pious than loving our neighbour. The reason why both the religious guys did not want to help the victim even though he comes from the same religion is that he may have already been dead. Under Jewish tradition, touching a dead man would be to defile oneself which would require ritual cleansing. That’s too much bother. To them the form was more important than the substance of their religion. Good neighbourliness counts for nothing.

More than that, both of them quickly crossed over to the other side of the road to make sure they are not contaminated by any odour from the man presumed to be dead that the wind may blow in their direction and defile them.

It took a Samaritan, a man from another religion and from a despised race to show compassion for the victim. He went to extraordinary lengths and expense to render help to the victim.

Notice Jesus ended the story without telling us whether the victim became a Christian. Or an apostate.