The Good Samaritan

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of our Lord’s best known short stories. A story that is larger than life, so much so that Jesus himself is called the Good Samaritan. Every Christian needs to be a good Samaritan. He—the good Samaritan—teaches us how to be Christians, good Christians. A stranger teaches us how to be a good neighbour! This parable from Luke’s gospel is truly a treasure, from which we can draw many life lessons for us.

The lawyer’s question “Who is my neighbour?” doesn’t make sense for Jesus. But how to be a neighbour, that’s the real question. Jesus reframes the question thus: “Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands’ hands?” We can define only the subject of love, not the object.

The priest and the Levite (=an assistant in the Temple) were not bad people, but they thought they were good people because they were obedient to the Law. They were not supposed touch a corpse. If someone is half dead, s/he would realistically seem a corpse. Thus these two characters of the priest and the Levite were possibly afraid to approach the injured man because they thought he was already dead and consequently would have to ritually defile themselves. They were law-abiding people, but failed to extend their help to the one who was almost dead. They were concerned about themselves not getting defiled, or just being “pure” in a legal sense. Was he dead or alive? They were not concerned about the person lying there. Were they selfish or self-righteous? Perhaps self-righteousness is much more treacherous than selfishness.

Jesus compares the above failure of the ministers of God to the unselfishness of the hated Samartian, who is able to see the unlimited nature of the duty of love. The Samaritan man’s love and compassion is the starting point, which leads him to do what is necessary and appropriate for the injured person. Jesus’ concern therefore is not moral or legal, but mystical. We cannot approach reality with readymade solutions and answers (of laws), but accept reality as it is and encounter God in it. Only there we can be a true neighbour to anyone and everyone.

Have we faced any situation where we could obey the law but be disobedient to God? Have we blindly applied rules without having any consideration or compassion towards some people? In the name of religion and God, have we done hateful things instead of putting love as the centre of our lives? The challenge of today’s parable is real and practical. It is not about debating and understanding the meaning of law or eternal life but about “doing,” which has its source in compassion itself.

If we value our discussion and reflection of the above parable, then it has to be proved simply by listening to Jesus telling the lawyer and us, “Go and do likewise.” It should inspire us to take up Christ’s challenge of “doing” and “acting” as the Good Samaritan did and thus proved a worthy neighbour.