This story of the Good Samaritan is one of the central teaching stories of Jesus. We saw the two
men, a priest and a Levite, walk by a man in trouble. And then the Samaritan comes along and
helps the man. This story is significant in several respects. First and foremost is Jesus redefining
what it means to be a neighbor. We heard:
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the
robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
The idea of loving one’s neighbor predates the time of Jesus. It is in the book of Leviticus, and it
carries over in word and spirit through many other passages. But originally, it meant one’s actual
neighbor, meaning those nearby, those who were generally also worshippers of the God of Israel.
That limited understanding of the word “neighbor” still comes up in modern conversations, but
Jesus was crucially responsible for expanding it to include anyone we come across in this life…
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