Wednesday; November 30

In yesterday’s thought, we took a look at Jesus’ parable that has often been called “The Good Samaritan”. The basic premise of the story comes from Jesus’ answer to the lawyer who asked Him, “Who is my neighbor?”. The answer that comes from the story is anyone who needs our help is our neighbor. While this is the primary teaching from the parable, I noticed something else interesting this week. This lesson would have been easily taught if the helper was a Jew and the victim was a Samaritan, but does Jesus’ choice of the Samaritan as the hero of the story teach us something more? You see, the Jews looked down on the Samaritans and often treated them with disdain. (The Apostle John explained, “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” in John 4:9). It would have been a powerful story if a Jew would have helped a Samaritan … but the reverse is also intriguing. By using the Samaritan to demonstrate kindness, does Jesus teach us about our willingness to help everyone – even those who are mean to us? The Samaritan overcome the temptation to retaliate against prejudice and bias to help the victim.

Again, I don’t want to overlook that simplicity of the story, but I do find Jesus’ placement of the Samaritan in the story intriguing. Loving our neighbors means helping anyone who has a need – whether they look like us or not. Loving our neighbors means overcoming prejudice, bias, distrust, disrespect, abuse …. or anything else that gets in our way.

Who needs our help? Are we willing to be there for them?

Think About It!

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