25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Today’s gospel is one of the most famous stories in the entire Bible. A lawyer (a term used for a religious leader, a specialist of the Jewish law) tests Jesus by asking what he should do to gain eternal life. As usual, Jesus responds with a question, asking the lawyer about his own interpretation of the law. The lawyer gives an excellent answer: love God and love your neighbor with which Jesus can only agree. Indeed, in today’s first reading from Deuteronomy we are told to love God completely while in Leviticus we find the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself.” But then the lawyer asks Jesus who qualifies as his neighbor since the word normally translated as “neighbor” means simply one who is near. So the lawyer assumes that those we must love are limited to only a select few people that we are particularly close to.
Jesus, however, has a very different idea. He tells of a man who is beaten and robbed and, indeed, left for dead. Three men come along who could help him. The first two are religious leaders but fail to give any assistance. Their failure builds suspense for the third person and probably the audience expected Jesus to have an ordinary Jew come along. This would make the story a simple mockery of the clergy. But Jesus always loves to upset our expectations and so he makes the third man one of the loathed Samaritans. The historical hatred between Jews and Samaritans makes the choice completely unexpected and probably very disturbing to his listeners. The story, thus, speaks against any feeling of national or ethnic or religious superiority. To the Samaritan, the origin of the victim makes no difference, and his compassion reveals itself not in speech but in a series of very concrete actions.
At the end of this passage, Jesus tells the lawyer “Go and do likewise.” We have no idea if he did, but we do know that Jesus calls us to behave like the Good Samaritan. We must discard all notions that anyone, for whatever reason, is superior to others. We are all neighbors in this world, and Jesus calls on us to love and care for each other without any distinction based on purely human criteria. All humans are God’s children.
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