The Good Samaritan: Who Is My Neighbor?
· #parables #luke
✝ Passage: Luke 10:25-37
The lawyer’s question is not innocent. Luke tells us upfront that he asked it “desiring to justify himself” (10:29) — he wants Jesus to draw a line, so he can stand on the correct side of it. “Who is my neighbor?” is really asking, who am I allowed to not love? Jesus answers with a story that erases the line instead of drawing it.
Read it in the terminal:
bible luke 10
Three men who pass by
A priest and a Levite both see the beaten man and cross to the other side of the road. The text doesn’t tell us why — maybe ritual purity concerns, maybe fear of an ambush, maybe simple hurry. Whatever the reason, the story doesn’t excuse it. Then comes the Samaritan, a man from a group Jesus’s Jewish audience despised, and he is the one who stops.
Compassion with a bill attached
Jesus doesn’t leave the Samaritan’s mercy abstract. He bandages the wounds, puts the man on his own animal, pays the innkeeper, and promises to cover whatever else it costs. Compassion here is not a feeling; it’s a series of inconvenient, costly decisions made by someone with no obligation to make them.
The question gets flipped
At the end, Jesus doesn’t answer “who is my neighbor?” at all. He asks instead: “Which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?” (10:36). The lawyer wanted a category to define; Jesus hands him a mirror and a command.
“Go and do likewise.” — Luke 10:37
Questions for study
- What “categories” do you use, even unconsciously, to decide who deserves your help?
- Why do you think the priest and Levite passed by? Does the story invite you to judge them, or to recognize yourself in them?
- The Samaritan’s help cost him time, money, and risk. What would costly compassion look like for you this week?
- Why does Jesus reframe the question from “who is my neighbor” to “who acted like a neighbor”?