The Good Samaritan
Christian Love
Whenever
someone asked Jesus which of God's commandments was the most important, Jesus
said these two are the most important of all: "Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" and "Love your neighbour just as
much as you love yourself."
"Love" can mean many different things,
but the "Christian love" that Jesus talked about means treating
others with kindness and respect and helping them when they need it. It is the
kind of love we do instead of the kind of love we feel.
Parable of the Good Samaritan
A
parable is a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson by comparing
it to something from everyday life. Jesus loved to tell a good story to make a
point, and The Good Samaritan is one of His
most famous parables of all.
"Love your neighbour as yourself" was
part of the Old Testament Law (Leviticus 19:18) that was sacred to Jesus'
kinfolk, the Jews. But, many people thought a "neighbour" meant only
their fellow Jews. One day a lawyer asked Jesus, "And just who is my neighbour?"
Jesus told the Parable of The Good Samaritan to answer his question
in a way we can never forget:
A Jewish man was taking a trip alone and was attacked by robbers. They beat him, robbed him of everything he had, and left him nearly dead beside the road. After a while, a Jewish priest came along and saw the poor man lying beside the road. As a religious man, you would expect him to stop and do what he could to help. But, instead, he kept going and pretended he did not see. Later, a Levite came along. Levites were assistants to the priests, so you would expect him to stop and help, too. But, he did just like the priest and kept on going.
Finally,
a Samaritan man came by. Even though they both lived in the land of Palestine
and shared a similar religion, the Jews and the Samaritans definitely did not
think of each other as "neighbours." In fact, they hated each other.
The Samaritans came from a different race of people than the Jews. They had
considered each other enemies for hundreds of years and refused to even talk to
each other!
You would expect the Samaritan man to be the one
who just passed by without helping. Instead, this Samaritan man took pity on
the injured Jewish man. He bandaged his wounds. He put him on his own donkey
and took him to an inn where he could be safe and recover. Since the injured
man had been robbed of everything he had, the Samaritan man even paid his bill
at the inn and paid the innkeeper to take good care of him!
After telling this story, Jesus turned to the
lawyer who had asked, "And who is my neighbour?" and said to
him, "Now which of
the three men that passed by was a neighbour to the injured man?" The lawyer was forced to admit
that it was the Samaritan who treated the injured man as a neighbour, not his
fellow Jews who did nothing to help. Jesus then said, "Yes, now go and do the
same!"
Lesson
If a
Samaritan could be a neighbour to a Jew, and Jesus told us to "go and do the same," then all of
God's people must be our neighbours and we must love them just as the Samaritan
man did! Yet, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Hindus,
Buddhists, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, the poor,
the homeless, the unattractive, gays, lesbians, the handicapped, the mentally
ill, and countless other groups are still sometimes the victims of ridicule,
hatred and discrimination. Jesus must be looking down with sadness that, after
2000 years, we have still not learned to love our neighbours!
To learn more: Matthew
5:43-48, Matthew 22:34-39, Mark
12:28-31, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8-9, 2:14-17.
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