In this passage, Jesus tells a lawyer a parable about a ‘good Samaritan’ to illustrate what it means to be a good neighbor. This is the fourth and final Sunday in our sermon series on the Good Samaritan. This week, we’ll be focusing on the character of the Samaritan himself. In the parable, the Samaritan stops to help a beaten and robbed man unlike a priest and Levite who pass by on the other side of the road. Jesus tells us that the Samaritan helps the man in need because the Samaritan is filled with compassion, which apparently, the other passersby were not.

Samaritans in this time were considered enemies of Israel. The Samaritans considered themselves “children of Israel”, but not Jews. The believed and worshiped in a similar way to Israel, but differed in where worship of God should be centered. Beyond theological differences, Jews and Samaritans disliked each other for cultural reasons and out of ethnic prejudice. Before the Romans conquered the region, both groups had launched violent and devastating military campaigns against each other. The main thing that kept them from fighting during Jesus’ day was the Roman occupation tamping down on all disturbance to their rule. All this is to say that Jews and Samaritans really didn’t like each other at this time. Notice that, at the end of our passage, the lawyer can’t even bring himself to say “the Samaritan” in response to Jesus’ question of who showed mercy in this story. The lawyer can only answer, “the one who showed him kindness.” 

So what does the Samaritan in this parable mean for us? Three things come to mind. First is that we should not be so prejudiced that we can’t imagine someone from a group we don’t like doing acts of kindness. We can ask ourselves, what kind of person would we have a hard time saying was helpful in a story like this, even if it were obviously true? Then we should work on that prejudice!

Second, Jesus calls us to be like the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells the lawyer to “go, and do likewise.” We should have the same motivation as the Samaritan, since he was moved with compassion for the beaten man. And we should be attentive to details, like how the Samaritan cleans the wounds of the victim. We should be willing to go above and beyond in service to others when it really counts like the Samaritan does.

Finally, we should notice how the Samaritan is like Jesus and how Jesus is a good Samaritan to us. Like the Samaritan, Jesus is moved with compassion for us and our struggles. We are “half dead” in sin as Jesus finds us, but Jesus cleans us up and takes care of us, paying for our difficulties. And like the Samaritan, Jesus promises to come again to finish taking care of our troubles. 

That’s a lot to digest from this one, short parable! I am always amazed by how Jesus can teach us so much with so few words. May we have compassion like the Samaritan, knowing that Jesus will always be with us as our Good Samaritan!