The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Reading from Luke 10:30–37, taken from the KJV.

30And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

31And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

34And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.


On first glance, this one's very simple: Samaritan shows mercy, priest and Levite don't. The one who showed mercy was a neighbour unto him, now go do likewise.
Of course we all know that the Samaritans where the enemies of the Jews, or at least I hope we do. What perhaps some of us don't know would be the circumstances.

Remember the Jewish purity laws? Making contact with a man who'd been beaten up and was lying bleeding on the road would cause one to become unclean, and amongst other things unable to enter the temple, or at least not the inner areas. This would be a problem for the priest, as you can imagine. On this basis, the priest could have been seen as justified.

As for the levite, again cleanliness would no doubt have been an issue. Remember these guys where in charge of construction and maintenance in the temple, as well as guarding it. He could have had something important to do!

The hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans should not be underplayed here, however. The essential point is still that "loving thy neighbour" does most certainly not apply to a specific group. Christ was talking about a universal love, for all the peoples in the world.