An expert in the Torah stood up while Jesus was teaching. Some English Bibles call him a lawyer, but he was not a courtroom attorney in the modern sense. He studied and interpreted the law of Moses, the sacred teaching at the heart of Jewish life. He addressed Jesus as “Teacher” and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus answered with questions of his own. What was written in the law, and how did the expert read it? The man replied by joining two commands: love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus told him that he had answered correctly. He was to live by what he had said.
The expert then asked, “And who is my neighbor?” He wanted to establish whom the command required him to love. Jesus did not give him a list of people who counted. Instead, he told a story.
A man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Jerusalem stood high in the hills, while Jericho lay far below in the Jordan Valley. Before the traveler reached the city, robbers attacked him. They took his clothing, beat him, and left him beside the road barely alive. The man had no name, occupation, religion, or social rank in the story. Anyone approaching him could see only a person who might die without help.
A priest happened to come along the same road. Priests served in the worship of Israel’s God, especially at the temple in Jerusalem. The priest saw the wounded man, crossed to the other side, and continued on his way.
Next came a Levite, a member of the group traditionally assigned to assist with Israel’s worship. He came to the place and saw the man as well. He too passed by on the other side. Jesus gave no reason for either man’s decision. The story does not say that fear, haste, or a ritual rule forced them to leave. It shows that both men saw someone in desperate need and kept going.
Then a Samaritan came down the road. Samaritans were a community closely related to the people of Israel. They worshiped the God of Israel and received the Torah as Scripture, but their worship centered on Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans had a long history of religious disagreement and periods of open hostility. A Jewish listener could not simply assume that the Samaritan would become the merciful person in the story.
The Samaritan saw the wounded man and was moved with compassion. He went to him, treated his wounds with oil and wine, and bandaged them. Then he placed the injured man on his own animal and brought him to an inn.
The Samaritan cared for the man there through the night. The next day he gave the innkeeper two denarii and asked him to continue the care. He promised to repay any additional expense when he returned. His help did not end when the immediate danger had passed; he accepted responsibility for what the injured man would still need after he left.
When the story was finished, Jesus changed the direction of the expert’s question. The man had asked which people qualified as his neighbors. Jesus asked which of the three travelers had become a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers.
The expert answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”